Frame repair

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW Technical questions and discussions, regarding anything related to the WWII jeep.
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fireguyfire
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Frame repair

Post by fireguyfire » Fri Aug 10, 2018 7:21 pm

As with most old ww2 jeeps, my 43 GPW frame has some cracks and rusted sections, especially just in front of the rear bumper, so I will be making and welding in lots of patch pieces.
What gauge steel are you guys usually using to repair frames?


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fireguyfire
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Re: Frame repair

Post by fireguyfire » Sat Aug 11, 2018 4:06 am

Anyone? I'm also debating because I have to replace the front rail horns and make some patches for the rear of the frame wether it would be better to just separate the frame into pieces and sandblast, repair and red oxide them before reassembly, or work on the frame as a unit.
I disassembled my 42 MB I restored, and it worked out pretty good but of course it then leads you down the road of what type of fake rivets to use to reassemble the frame, etc.
Opinions on whether to take it to pieces, or leave it together?

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Boyso
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Re: Frame repair

Post by Boyso » Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:34 am

Hi fireguyfire,

I'm not an expert, but on my frame, I chose to split it apart completely, down to almost the last rivet as I could see small cracks in the inner frame of my GPW.

Since your MB has less boxed in sections, it may be easier for you. I bought the long sections of front frame horns, but only used about a foot of it. The rest of it was used to patch the rear frame/A-Frame.

I think the frame thickness is 12ga, but I can go and measure after lunch to be sure. :)

Again, I'm no expert, but here's the link to mine, just so you can see the amount of work (and how slow I work) :P
viewtopic.php?f=96&t=215269&start=60#p1546421

And even though it frustrated some users on the Facebook group, I chose not to use the fake-rivets sold on ebay/some jeep supplier. Call me paranoid, but I prefer to buy fasteners with a known grade/hardness and button-head bolts give me the opportunity to unbolt some sections down the road if I ever need to. I can also achieve much higher clamping force with bolts than fake rivets.

I didn't have the tools, nor a helper, to do hot rivets.
44 GPW 231738 10/23/1944
MVPA #36162

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ghiltgen
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Re: Frame repair

Post by ghiltgen » Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:41 pm

Whether or not to disassemble the entire frame, ….I think it depends. If there is rot between a crossmember and rail, then yes. If there isn't, then I would leave it together and maintain the factory spacing. I media blasted the frame first to see where the decayed areas were, and repaired only what was needed. As far as the hot rivets, I spent a lot of time and expense trying to reproduce the tool in the Hinnihalftrack video riveting device. I too used button head bolts with all metal locking nuts then filled in the head with weld.
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1943 MB SN 226406
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GPW 127386
1948 CJ2A
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