MB42/GPW43 Frankenweenie

[17thAirborne]

Hello Ray,

Glad you are continuing to provide your input on this project. Thanks for clearing the logo part up. I was thinking the prop and wings went away in 47, but looks like they kept that for a few years! Mike has quite a few options on which era to paint. Ony of them would look great. I took hold out hope that he will find some more markings.

[70th Division]

Hello Ray,

Glad you are continuing to provide your input on this project. Thanks for clearing the logo part up. I was thinking the prop and wings went away in 47, but looks like they kept that for a few years! Mike has quite a few options on which era to paint. Ony of them would look great. I took hold out hope that he will find some more markings.

Hello Oz,

Mike has a great project and his talent at restoring things is unsurpassed !
This is an excellent restoration post that will help many future G503 members when they start their quests.

The discovery of that USAAF insignia to me is an awesome discovery, and the fact that these jeep was all original and stayed on with the USAF is really interesting.
The jeep went through the Allison Rebuild facility, and went back out to the US Army Air Force.
With these markings on a slat grill jeep, there is plenty of wartime history that needs to be found .
The unit markings should be on there, or the bumperettes if they are still with the jeep.
I have also found unit markings up along the top edge of the rear panel, straight up from that logo location.

Thee can also be names on the side of the jeep, as well as additional markings along either side of the side, the windshield, front bumper, etc.
The dash should have markings on it as well with TP, speed limit, etc.

We have to be jeep archeologists to carefully uncover clues about where the jeep served !
Sometimes we find rebuild tags on the axle housing, transmission,engine, dash, etc.

If Mike can uncover any letters or numbers around that propeller logo, he will have found the golden nugget !!
Then imagine driving the jeep back to that base someday, and just feel the history, even extra special if you find a WW2 Veteran that was there, to ride along on the journey !

I am looking forward to Mike finding that clue, and where this jeep was stationed during WW2 !

This is better that Al Capone's Vault tv show !!

Best Regards,
Ray

[ww2DAD]

Ozzie and Ray,

Thanks for the insight and encouragements. I am taking my time with the paint removal. Unfortunately there were no bumperettes with this jeep but there is still plenty of paint on the rest of the body to look at. Haven't even gone near the windshield and hood. Who knows what else is under there.

I've turned my attention to removing the rusted out areas. Started today with the passenger side front hat channel. Both front hat channels will require some removal. Since I have a metal bending brake I will most likely make the needed pieces. I know I could buy new hat channel pieces but remember I'm cheap (just kidding) and that would be no fun anyway (besides I didn't look forward to having to find all the spot weld points and drilling/chiseling them out). I will use heavier metal backing inside the hat channel replacement pieces instead of wood. Since I had to cut out most of the location where the body to frame bolt passes, using a slightly thicker piece of metal in this area (instead of a tube because I don't know the exact bolt hole location (rusted away) - I can guesstimate) will help when I drill these thru from the bottom when the body is sitting on the frame. After I finish cutting out all these areas and the new pieces have been welded in, I will sandblast the front, bottom, and inside to prep it for paint. The outside blue painted areas will be sanded instead to see what other markings I might find. But that is in the future.

Fortunately the center and rear hat channels are solid. The only other problem area is the upper gas tank well along the left drivers side with the two fuel tank strap brackets. At least one vender does have this replacement hat channel with the brackets. The well has solid sides but a bad bottom. I'll just remove that and weld a new piece in.

As before, I will keep you guys posted as to progress and what I find. I will try to preserve as much of the original markings as I can without the thing looking goofy but nice.

Regards,
Mike

[70th Division]

Ozzie and Ray,

Thanks for the insight and encouragements. I am taking my time with the paint removal. Unfortunately there were no bumperettes with this jeep but there is still plenty of paint on the rest of the body to look at. Haven't even gone near the windshield and hood. Who knows what else is under there.

I've turned my attention to removing the rusted out areas. Started today with the passenger side front hat channel. Both front hat channels will require some removal. Since I have a metal bending brake I will most likely make the needed pieces. I know I could buy new hat channel pieces but remember I'm cheap (just kidding) and that would be no fun anyway (besides I didn't look forward to having to find all the spot weld points and drilling/chiseling them out). I will use heavier metal backing inside the hat channel replacement pieces instead of wood. Since I had to cut out most of the location where the body to frame bolt passes, using a slightly thicker piece of metal in this area (instead of a tube because I don't know the exact bolt hole location (rusted away) - I can guesstimate) will help when I drill these thru from the bottom when the body is sitting on the frame. After I finish cutting out all these areas and the new pieces have been welded in, I will sandblast the front, bottom, and inside to prep it for paint. The outside blue painted areas will be sanded instead to see what other markings I might find. But that is in the future.

Fortunately the center and rear hat channels are solid. The only other problem area is the upper gas tank well along the left drivers side with the two fuel tank strap brackets. At least one vender does have this replacement hat channel with the brackets. The well has solid sides but a bad bottom. I'll just remove that and weld a new piece in.

As before, I will keep you guys posted as to progress and what I find. I will try to preserve as much of the original markings as I can without the thing looking goofy but nice.

Regards,
Mike

Hello Mike,


Looks like a small repair to those channels, very nice shape !

A idea I used when repairing section of my hat channels was if you look at the cut out hole you now have in the floor,from above, I used a dremel like rotary tool, and carefully cut the patch hole a little wider, half the distance, of the width of the edge of the existing hat channel that is spot welded to the floor, to create a narrow shelf to drop the new floor patch onto.
That way when you weld the patch in, you have a solid piece of metal to attach it to, with a little gap between the edge of your patch and the existing floor edges.
Sometimes I will make little notches in the patch panel to get a good blob of weld blending the patch to the hat channel edge, along the welded seam.

When done, just grind back smooth, and touch up with a dab of metallic filler and all is well !


Keep us posted !

Best Regards,
Ray

[ww2DAD]

Ray,

Thanks for the advice. I need to go to your site and look at how you did things. I like the idea of cutting the area back to make a lip to weld on. I will do that tomorrow. Between my Dremel and larger metal cutting grinder it goes fast. It will work perfect for the area of the floor/hat channel.

I spent the day cutting out the bad pieces in the bottom of the fuel tank well. I now have good metal to work with. I may try your idea there also since there is a 1 inch lip holding the bottom metal to the sides. It should work perfectly.

I found the base paint under the yellow prop and circle. It is OD green which leads me to believe that after it went thru reconditioning at Allison, they painted the body OD green (late war) and the yellow prop and circle were added over that before or after reissue. No letters or numbers yet. Supposedly the jeep came from Williams Army Air Field and ended up at the Phoenix airport (info from last owner). I still have to make the trip up the road to T or C NM to talk to the out of business museum where he bought it. Will keep you posted.

Thanks again,
Mike

[ww2DAD]

Did some more carving today and have finished cutting out most of the rusted areas. Have one more small area along the driver's side panel to do tomorrow. I did decide to cut out the remaining section of the fuel tank well bottom so there wasn't to many angles to weld in when I add the new piece. I also took out the rusted thru left side panel hat channel that has the two tank strap attachment points. At first I thought of working around it but it was too rusty to save. I have a new section coming in and it includes the strap attachment points. This week I will most likely sand blast all these areas down to good metal and begin welding new pieces in. After that, bottom, front and inside of the tub blasting. Weather getting cooler finally around here to make blasting tolerable. Curious but does anyone know what kind of wood they used in the channels? Smells like cedar when cut.

Mike

[70th Division]

Did some more carving today and have finished cutting out most of the rusted areas. Have one more small area along the driver's side panel to do tomorrow. I did decide to cut out the remaining section of the fuel tank well bottom so there wasn't to many angles to weld in when I add the new piece. I also took out the rusted thru left side panel hat channel that has the two tank strap attachment points. At first I thought of working around it but it was too rusty to save. I have a new section coming in and it includes the strap attachment points. This week I will most likely sand blast all these areas down to good metal and begin welding new pieces in. After that, bottom, front and inside of the tub blasting. Weather getting cooler finally around here to make blasting tolerable. Curious but does anyone know what kind of wood they used in the channels? Smells like cedar when cut.

Mike

Looking good Mike !
Nice clean cuts, making for good clean repairs !

I am not sure what wood was used, I would think oak due to long lasting qualities, but cedar may be used as well,
it would be interesting to discover the wood type or even if multiple types were used ?

When replacing that channel on the side wall with the brackets, I clamped it tight to the media blasted wall, after putting some tape along where my spot welds would be, nice bare metal is needed for the spot welder to function, and primed and painted the areas that channel will cover.
If you have a portable spot welder, they work great with inch tongs !
If you decide to get one, be sure to get 12 inch tongs as that is what is needed to reach down to the well clamped on channel, to get the spot welds done.

If you plug weld it onto the wall, I sometimes cut notches, little V's, into the edge of the channel that I can weld up while attaching the channel to the wall.
The I clean those weld up and blend them it with a rotary tool grinder.
You can get EZ fit Dremel cutting discs, and a few mandrels, that are great on ebay , they were $1 each for 50, but are now $69.95
But still the cheapest in the known world !
I just ordered another 50, as I use them all the time to make small cuts, and to grind down welds to blend them in !
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274795381039?h ... R-6S4OXUYg
I will have to get some more mandrels as well.

Keep us posted !

Best Regards,
Ray

[ww2DAD]

Ray,

Thanks for the advice. I do have a spot welder also. Bought it for another project I had. Had a vet run business in Indiana make me some 12 inch and 14 inch tongs (he said he's made some 30 inch tongs for a guy rebuilding a VW). Was building an experimental semi auto that required sheet metal spot welding for the receiver. Worked great. I can send you his name if needed. He also has all kinds of tongs and buttons for spot welders or can make whatever is needed. Uses CNC machine to build them.

Want to thank you for a suggestion I found in one of your posts on your resto site (the 1945 jeep). You had mentioned you had used a heat gun and a scraper to remove some paint. I have a 1500 degree thermo heat gun lying around for paint removal and was skeptical if it would work. WOW. It went faster than trying to sand. Did it slow on the back panel but did not find any additional markings yet. They may be in the peeled off paint. Star and prop and wings easier to see now.

Also spent the day doing the last cuts. All the nasty rusted out sections are gone. After blasting I will use POR 15 to neutralize the metal before priming and painting. I've used it on areas in my old 66 Mustang and it has worked great.

Thanks again for all the tips. Spot welding should be easy because I have cleaned most of the spot welded areas off. After blasting it should be a cinch.

Regards,
Mike

[ww2DAD]

Left side striped of most of the blue paint. No other markings found here. The layers of paint vary from side to side making me think some striping before repaint was done. OD on left side is thinner in areas and yellow is here and there (mostly in divots and screw/bolt hole areas) instead of completely covering the side. Tomorrow will be the right side and I will see what I find here.

Mike

[ww2DAD]

Right side scraped today. Didn't find anything new or interesting. Skipped a center section that had been in an accident and covered with light coat of blue. this should sand off easily. Work on the cowl area and dashboard starting tomorrow. Once I have most of the thicker paint scraped off inside and out I will start sand blasting.
Mike

[jim_lee]

I will start sand blasting.

I was going to ask if you were going to sand blast it. At first I'd wondered why you didn't just start with blasting away. Then I realized you were uncovering all sorts of stuff under the paint layers. Mine was mostly just layers of Bondo and holes.

-jim lee

[70th Division]

Hello Mike,

Looking good, it would be nice to find additional marking !

Is there a round circle uncovered here ?

Maybe another propeller logo ?

Also is there a lower right point from a star there ?
There would have been a star there once.



Best Regards,
Ray

[17thAirborne]

Hey Mike. Here is a great image of the USAF and Prop and Wings

[17thAirborne]

Another truck with USAF stencil

[ww2DAD]

Jim,
I am going to blast the inside and bottom. Outside had toooo many tantalizing details to sand blast. I keep finding other things. Going to post what I found today in another post. Thanks for the interest.
Mike