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Builds — Edmund Angelus Automotive

• CATEGORIES: Builds, CJ-3A, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

dscn3831FEATURED IN FEBRUARY 2009

Matt’s provided us with a couple of projects completed by Edmund Angelus Automotive.  If you are near Roanoke, Virginia and are looking for someone to handle your rebuilds, you might consider them as they have rebuilt a couple of beauties.  Thanks for sharing Matt!  You can contact Matt at 540-354-4321.

Matt writes:  “Welcome to Edmund Angelus Automotive. Located at the foot of Bent Mountain in Roanoke Virginia. I do restorations and all kinds of custom work,heck I will paint a refridgerator if pays my rate of $38.00hr. The yellow jeep is a restoration w/a body kit installed. The Green CJ-3a is the second for the same customer, it also is a off-frame restoration with the original and complete make over with nearly 900hrs, the christmas jeep as it is called by the customers two little twin boys. These are taking an average of 18 to 20 weeks to do. I am currently doing B.J.#102, It is ’46 Willys Boyer Fire Jeep w/out the fire equipment. It found its way to me in literaly pieces and in lots of boxes. Now in week 19 I am acctually able to get in it fire it up and take it around the patch.”

Here’s a variety of pics related to these builds:

dscn3207

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The Jeep Guy Resotrations from Scranton Pa

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

For a while I’ve run across Craigslist Ads for “The Jeep Guy Restorations” out of Scranton, Pa.  Well, before I had a chance to contact him to learn more, the owner Bob Foster contacted me.  He shares his history and provided some pictures.  You can learn more about his restoration ship on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jeep-Guy-Restorations/273113772733381?sk=info  Thanks for sharing your story.  If you want to contact Bob, call him at 570 347-8998.

Bob wrote, “I inherited the business from my dad. He started the business in 1957. At first, we only did general repair work, but in 1963, my dad added bodywork and painting to our services. I helped him at a young age. Soon, I learned the fabrication of metal panels from my grandfather, who was a blacksmith that worked on the Erie locomotive shops here in Scranton, the anthracite capitol of the world. As a blacksmith, my grandfather even made his own tools. He passed down to me his knowledge of metalworking.

I started to help with the bodywork in earnest around 1969, eventually taking over the painting and bodywork. Most of the work was rust repair and full paints. Also, over time, I started to modify vehicles by cutting and shortening truck frames, adding dump bodies, making wreckers, and adding winches. I bought my first 4-wheel drive Ford in 1974 for $4,800 brand new. I still have it—I turned it into a wrecker. At my dad’s garage, we worked on Jeeps over the years, but not in large volumes. Not too many people in Scranton owned them in the 60s or 70s. To add to that, my dad did not like Jeeps: he had the impression that they did not hold up well.

In 1979, we bought a gas station, and my brother Ronnie joined us in running it. However, I had to oversee it and run the other shop, too. We later sold the station and bought 1 acre of commercial land, where I built a 40x30x16 garage for truck repairs. I still run out of the garage today. I added state inspections to the garage’s services in 1990. For most of the 90s and 2000s; truck repairs, vehicle inspections, bodywork, restorations, and modifications took up the bulk of my time.

However, in 2006, my wife and I were looking at projects that the boys at our church would enjoy, so I got the idea to find an old Jeep and work with them on it, getting it to run. So I advertised on Craiglist for an MB or CJ2A, and a young guy named Michael called in response. He lived about 20 miles away from Scranton, so we took our trailer and the boys along and bought one of his 40s civilian Jeeps. Michael is a WW2 reenacter, so he had his other Jeep painted OD green. It gave me the idea to do the same with ours.

Over time, WW2 and Korean War veterans that were my customers would come to the shop and tell stories about the Jeeps they drove in the War. As they grew older, I started to lose them as customers. However, because of their stories, I found a passion in restoring the Jeeps to remember the GIs that drove them. So after that, I bought two more Jeeps—they are like potato chips. This is the story of how I discovered my passion for army MBs and civilian Jeeps. They are a tribute to the men who drove them and worked on them.

As we were working on the Jeeps, getting them in running condition, people learned about my project. A worker at a local auto supply shop, an army veteran, told customers that had Jeep problems, “Go to that Jeep Guy over there. He’ll be able to help.” And the name stuck. For 40 years, I’ve worked on all types of vehicles, but now I’m looking to focus on Jeeps, both the old and the new.”

Here’s a project:

Here is another finished project:

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MB restoration from Fowler Automotive

• CATEGORIES: Builds • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

1945_mb_fowlerautomotiveFowler Automotive appears to perform high quality restorations of mostly older vehicles.  As a side project the owner(?) did an MB restoration.  I don’t know anything about Fowler Automotive, other than I believe they are in the bay area (based on the telephone numbers).

Here’s a snippet from the webpage:

“A few years ago my son and I traded into a bunch of WWII jeeps and partial chassis. We kept the best three. He needed a summer project so I turned him loose with his buddys to build one jeep from all the available parts. That went pretty well and he ended up with this ’45 Ford GPW which we have taken on many trips over the last five years.”

Click here to see the entire story

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