1943 GPW 108175
Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:12 am
Hi All,
I'm technically supposed to be working right now, but things in the office are slow and Jeeps are on my mind! Figured I would give this a shot and post a few pics of my '43 GPW restoration. At this point, I'm about 95% done. She's mostly wired up, running, and pretty much all together. Still have to get the blackout lights, front and rear, wired up, and also need to quadruple check the wiring of my main push/pull switch, as I'm not sure everything is in the right place Besides those things, it's just a matter of going through PA's DOT to transfer an old VA GPW title I have and I should hopefully have her on the road this winter! (though truly enjoying it this spring when the weather warms up ).
Just a disclaimer, I'm not a mechanic and this is my first project of this level. Most guys on the GEE are good about recognizing this, but others can be awfully critical, without being constructive! I do appreciate opinions, though, so don't hesitate to throw them my way, as long as they will help me learn more about these old jeeps! I've tried to do the best I could at keeping things as original as possible. The frame, body, fenders, hood, windshield, and combat rims are all original, as well as a fair amount of additional items I salvaged or scrounged online. The electrical system is 12v, with a generator, so I tried to keep it looking 6v without spending the money to convert it back . I also bought a T-84 to replace the T-90 that was in it and had it rebuilt. The engine is an early CJ block with a GPW head, so cleaned up and painted gray make it look original.
Honestly, I couldn't have don't 1/4 of this work without having the resources on this site. Talk about useful!!!
Here's what I started with:
Unfortunately, the original body was way too far gone for me to restore. That said, I was fortunate enough to find a guy in southern PA who was willing to take it off my hands.
After I sandblasted the frame it was on to fixing Bubba’s front bumper. This GPW was used for plowing snow at some point, so the front horns were pretty mangled and a thick piece of C channel was pathetically welded in place of the original bumper. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to cut the mangled pieces off just before the front cross member and weld new horns (thanks to Ron) in place.
I do still have the original springs, which I plan to restore at some point and put back on later down the road, but for the sake of moving along in the restoration, I opted to put replacement springs on for the time being.
I replaced all four wheel cylinders and brake shoes and also rebuilt the steering box.
Transmission and transfer case were rebuilt by Daryl Bensinger (of DL Bensinger). Fortunately, I keep the GPW at my parent’s house outside of Lancaster, PA, which is only about 10 miles from Daryl’s shop. For anyone else in this part of the country, definitely take advantage of Daryl's knowledge. He's a great resource and great guy to work with.
Freshly restored original combats with new Firestones.
Chassis ready for the body!
Body installed! This was last January, 2015.
Fender brackets were shot, so I replaced those and patched the rusted metal around them.
Once nice weather came back around last spring, I knew it was time to jump into body work. Not having the luxury of my own house/garage, I’m stuck respecting the space allocated to my project…a single garage bay. That said, I thought it was best to install the body on the chassis first so I would have the flexibility to wheel the chassis outside and back inside on my own. I purchased an original “restored” body from a contact in GA. Unfortunately, when I got the body home I began to notice a bunch of Bondo related cracks. I spent much of my weekends late summer/early fall grinding all of the filler out of the body, only to realize there was a TON of really straight and solid metal underneath. There was even a lot of original OD still showing! What are people thinking when the “restore” these types of things?! I can definitely say I got lucky, though!
Once bodywork was completed, it was on to paint. Unfortunately, again, I did not have access to a compressor large enough to use air when painting, so I was forced to resort to spray cans. Besides spending more on paint than I originally wanted, the overall result was much better than I thought it would be.
Finally, this past Thanksgiving and Christmas I had much more time to work on really completing all the little components in an attempt to finalize the resto. I was able to get the seats in (repros – I have two original front seats in really rough condition which I also plan to tackle later down the road) and the top bow mounted, as well as the half door snaps, handles, bumperettes, etc.
Then on to wiring...just make sure before you hook the battery up and pull the switch for the first time you don't have a short!
I was lucky and only melted two wires which were both easy to fix...after replacing them, it was great to see the lights work and to finally push the starter switch to get it running!
Overall this has been a 2.5+ year project, with plenty of headaches along the way. I’m completely excited for this spring and summer, though. It’s an amazing feeling to bring history back to life! Again, I couldn’t have done it without the G as a resource, so thanks to all of you!
I'm technically supposed to be working right now, but things in the office are slow and Jeeps are on my mind! Figured I would give this a shot and post a few pics of my '43 GPW restoration. At this point, I'm about 95% done. She's mostly wired up, running, and pretty much all together. Still have to get the blackout lights, front and rear, wired up, and also need to quadruple check the wiring of my main push/pull switch, as I'm not sure everything is in the right place Besides those things, it's just a matter of going through PA's DOT to transfer an old VA GPW title I have and I should hopefully have her on the road this winter! (though truly enjoying it this spring when the weather warms up ).
Just a disclaimer, I'm not a mechanic and this is my first project of this level. Most guys on the GEE are good about recognizing this, but others can be awfully critical, without being constructive! I do appreciate opinions, though, so don't hesitate to throw them my way, as long as they will help me learn more about these old jeeps! I've tried to do the best I could at keeping things as original as possible. The frame, body, fenders, hood, windshield, and combat rims are all original, as well as a fair amount of additional items I salvaged or scrounged online. The electrical system is 12v, with a generator, so I tried to keep it looking 6v without spending the money to convert it back . I also bought a T-84 to replace the T-90 that was in it and had it rebuilt. The engine is an early CJ block with a GPW head, so cleaned up and painted gray make it look original.
Honestly, I couldn't have don't 1/4 of this work without having the resources on this site. Talk about useful!!!
Here's what I started with:
Unfortunately, the original body was way too far gone for me to restore. That said, I was fortunate enough to find a guy in southern PA who was willing to take it off my hands.
After I sandblasted the frame it was on to fixing Bubba’s front bumper. This GPW was used for plowing snow at some point, so the front horns were pretty mangled and a thick piece of C channel was pathetically welded in place of the original bumper. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to cut the mangled pieces off just before the front cross member and weld new horns (thanks to Ron) in place.
I do still have the original springs, which I plan to restore at some point and put back on later down the road, but for the sake of moving along in the restoration, I opted to put replacement springs on for the time being.
I replaced all four wheel cylinders and brake shoes and also rebuilt the steering box.
Transmission and transfer case were rebuilt by Daryl Bensinger (of DL Bensinger). Fortunately, I keep the GPW at my parent’s house outside of Lancaster, PA, which is only about 10 miles from Daryl’s shop. For anyone else in this part of the country, definitely take advantage of Daryl's knowledge. He's a great resource and great guy to work with.
Freshly restored original combats with new Firestones.
Chassis ready for the body!
Body installed! This was last January, 2015.
Fender brackets were shot, so I replaced those and patched the rusted metal around them.
Once nice weather came back around last spring, I knew it was time to jump into body work. Not having the luxury of my own house/garage, I’m stuck respecting the space allocated to my project…a single garage bay. That said, I thought it was best to install the body on the chassis first so I would have the flexibility to wheel the chassis outside and back inside on my own. I purchased an original “restored” body from a contact in GA. Unfortunately, when I got the body home I began to notice a bunch of Bondo related cracks. I spent much of my weekends late summer/early fall grinding all of the filler out of the body, only to realize there was a TON of really straight and solid metal underneath. There was even a lot of original OD still showing! What are people thinking when the “restore” these types of things?! I can definitely say I got lucky, though!
Once bodywork was completed, it was on to paint. Unfortunately, again, I did not have access to a compressor large enough to use air when painting, so I was forced to resort to spray cans. Besides spending more on paint than I originally wanted, the overall result was much better than I thought it would be.
Finally, this past Thanksgiving and Christmas I had much more time to work on really completing all the little components in an attempt to finalize the resto. I was able to get the seats in (repros – I have two original front seats in really rough condition which I also plan to tackle later down the road) and the top bow mounted, as well as the half door snaps, handles, bumperettes, etc.
Then on to wiring...just make sure before you hook the battery up and pull the switch for the first time you don't have a short!
I was lucky and only melted two wires which were both easy to fix...after replacing them, it was great to see the lights work and to finally push the starter switch to get it running!
Overall this has been a 2.5+ year project, with plenty of headaches along the way. I’m completely excited for this spring and summer, though. It’s an amazing feeling to bring history back to life! Again, I couldn’t have done it without the G as a resource, so thanks to all of you!