"Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW modifications, sugestions, and ideas, official MWO's and unofficial WWII field mods NO EBAY or COMMERCIAL SALES.
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hell-fire
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by hell-fire » Fri Aug 30, 2019 1:10 pm

Looks great, I have been following this since your first post, Looking forward to lots more. Keep up the good work.
John
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1942 Willys MB-BRT 135673 D.O.D. 4-16-42 Now 97% finished
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Sun Sep 01, 2019 3:25 am

Kudos to John!
Thanks for following me. I have plenty more to come!
ciao
M

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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:06 am

En route towards Livorno. What a day! Just me and one of my soldiers. Took off at 1630, , got a rental van but not what I had booked, went to Genova, tried anyway and found out that, for a few inches, we cannot fit the frame and the body in the van, made a decision: body will go, frame will wait, drove back to Livorno, arrived at 0100. Unloaded the body in the garage without a scratch (yes, just the two of us!!!).
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I wanted to place the body upright on my "skateboard" but the low ceiling prevented us from rotating the body on one of the corners... Left the body sideways at 0350..!

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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Wed Sep 18, 2019 11:44 am

The parts starts to pile in on the table in Livorno.
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Mon Oct 28, 2019 12:53 pm

So, here we are. With the help of the local flower shop owner, I have managed to transport the frame 110 miles to Livorno. He did not want anything, just loaded and delivered it to my door... The nicest guy around. He got on top on the list of my wife's XMas cookies. Now that everything is in one place, things will get serious.
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I need to make room around the frame or I will never be able to move around the jeep!
ciao
m

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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:04 pm

In the meantime, I defined a few more things: The plastic steering wheel was modified to accept a quick release device, which I made, but ... there is more to the steering wheel, the fixture to attach it to the steering gear with a chain. I guess this was done to prevent accidental loss upon delivery with a glider... Anyway, this is what I came up with:
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Thu Oct 31, 2019 11:51 pm

In the meantime I started to install the wiring harness and fitting the body with all the bits that cluttered the garage.
One of the first actions was to cut the firewall cardboard/fiber pad to the correct shape for an earlish GPW.
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Next I replaced all the incorrect hardware that is (often) supplied with repro parts. It took some time to collect ALL the proper shapes and sizes but, at the end of the day, I know that striving to get the proper look even for the smaller detail will pay off.
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I am test fitting and checking if I have all the proper hardware. Useless to say that, no matter how hard I try, I am always missing at least one flatwasher, or a nut, or a groover to complete a job!
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:08 am

The few missing parts that I still need are coming in. I ordered a couple of Messieur Desmet's excellent gas tanks (one for this and one for GPW50442 that is patiently waiting to be restored in storage). The small neck gas tank fits properly, bears a proper F marking and looks the part all over.
The installation of the gas tank comes at a pretty early stage of the rebuilding process. It defines the arrival point of the fuel line and provides an excellent opportunity to loose small tools and hardware that falls into the crannies and openings around it...
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"Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:10 am

Padding installed
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:23 am

I am spending about 4h each day around the jeep. Things are slow mostly because I only have a few hand tools and the space is really crumped. There are a lot of small jobs that could be carried out much faster if I had an elf helper...
Almost every night, in keeping with a thousand year old tradition, I have my dinner on the jeep...
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On the Bayeux tapestry, there is a depiction of the warriors of William the Conqueror having dinner on their shields... how fitting!!!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c8/26/05 ... 7330b9.jpg

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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:35 am

In the process of de-cluttering the work space, I worked a little on the seats. David supplied a basic set of seat cushions and pads at a very price. I used his products before and I am happy on how they look and how they age and wear.
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The rear seat I am using is a British made spare part. I painted it in LBG like the rest of the British made accessories and fittings added at the time of the conversion.

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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:38 am

I do not know if I have already posted this. LBG accessories.
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:45 am

Small jobs, one at the time,...
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by 1943Willysgpw » Fri Nov 01, 2019 4:29 am

Marcello, have you seen this one? viewtopic.php?f=136&t=310720 Jim is a great guy and I cannot speak for him but, I think he would answer any question you may still have. I just saw your build thread because of a new post or I would have said something sooner. Awesome build by the way. Keep up the excellent work.
"None of us are as smart as all of us"

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1942 GTB 136166 DoD 9-18-42
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Re: "Do it yourself" a WWII British Airborne Jeep...

Post by seacon » Fri Nov 01, 2019 7:15 am

Yup! I've seen that jeep!
Thanks for looking!
m


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