My 1942 GPW Project

[MrFreeze5]

Ok, most purists will hate this project, but I love this little rig and hope to have it registered and legal on the road by summertime. For those of you who like the restomod style, then you may dig this The backstory as I understand it is that it did its military duty, and ended up at Camp Hale in Leadville Colorado with the 10th Mountain Division. It was sold at a military auction and was bought by a family to use on their ranch up in the Rocky mtns. It bounced around on the ranch for years until the guy I got it from bought it about 12 years ago or so. He did most of the major work on it, and did a pretty good job, at least with the chassis. It was stripped to the frame, the frame was checked, cleaned and sealed. Saginaw steering installed, new bumpers. The engine is a rebuilt unit from a MB, not sure exactly what year. New T90 transmission, rebuilt F-script dana 18 transfer case, rebuilt driveline, rebuilt axle, 11" drum brake upgrade, rebuilt knuckles, rancho 2" lift springs. The chassis is freaking SOLID! It has a fiberglass body, original grille, original hood, original dash. Custom body mounts that amount to about a 3" body lift, CJ-7 tilt steering column, 12v Painless Wiring. It came with a box of parts for it including Autometer gauges and misc pieces/parts. I have owned it for about a year, and finally got around to doing some work on it in the last few weeks. It came with the original windshield frame, and a new Repro M38 frame and a roll cage to match. I didnt like it, so i ordered a new original repro frame and sold the cage. I got a screaming deal on the truck. Only paid $1000 for it in great running shape. The guy was desperate to sell it and had it on Craigslist for weeks. He had just sent his daughter off to college and got her a new car, and his wife wanted her garage back. Hiss loss, my gain. It came with over $5000 in receipts and invoices.

Since I got it, I have added an Optima battery, new windshield frame with glass and rubber, new exhaust(still in progress). I have a box full of new parts like hood latches, choke cable, odds and ends. And today I just got around to ordering a new Bestop Tigertop. I plan on spending next weekend getting the windshield and top installed so I can make sure everything fits right. Ive got build threads on a few of my favorite 4x4 forums, but thought I should share here too. Everyone does military restorations. i dont want to go that route. I plan on painting this guy white all over with black accents. I do however plan to repaint the USA hood numbers in black. Should be AWESOME!

One interesting bit I found with this guy is the Data plate. My GPW is #84147. DoD Dec 8, 1942. From what Ive seen during my research Dec 2, 1942 is when the "Maintaining Vehicle" section was changed from Quartermaster Corps to Ordnance Corps. Mine says Quatermaster Corp. Its barely legible, but its there. Thought that was kinda neat. Anyway, here are some of my pics. Tell me what you think!

[MrFreeze5]

Another neat tidbit I got with the truck:









I started installing the new exhaust kit. I got the new downpipe on no problem. I need to get some new hardware for the manifold connection, but thats just a trip to the hardware store. I cant for the life of me figure out where any of the exhaust hanger brackets go. I really need a pic of the completed exhaust system on a GPW or MB. I think the fact that I have a fiberglass tub could be causing some issues as well. I need to paint the muffler, since Im not going for a military resto. But the paint on it sucks big time and is flaking badly, so I think I may spring to have it blasted and then Ill repaint it with some VHT paint. But the bracket for it doesnt fit so well either. It doesnt quite match the shape properly and may become troublesome. Ive gotta figure out where the downpipe hangers go first before I worry about the muffler. Ive got a picture of that side installed.





And i installed my new K&N air filter. I didnt want to bother with the old oil bath filter, and was missing the crossover pipe, so this seemed the best way to go. I like it

[MrFreeze5]

I have encountered the problem that my left fender does not line up close enough to the hood for my comfort. The hood catches have a lot of pull to them and I am afraid it will crack the fiberglass. i will have to make backing plates for sure. The passenger side of the hood bends down a little and fits close enough to that fender. But the left fender I have to figure out some way to raise it up about 1/2"





I still need to trim up the inner fenders. The fiberglass comes down too far and out and rubs the tires. But I think the tires will rub regardless.

[MrFreeze5]

My post from 3 weeks ago on some other forums:

Ah, adventures with Tiny the Wonder Jeep. Went out to simply start it and move it to clear out some space to find that my key no longer worked. Why? Who knows, but I had some free time.

Step one, figure out what kind of steering column was in the thing. It has a tilt steering setup installed with the saginaw box conversion. Turns out its a 84+ CJ7 tilt column. Great, so 3 trips to the autoparts store, and 2 new tools, a mysterious popped fuse, and a loose battery cable later and Ive finally got Tiny up and running again.

Then I pulled it out front, pulled the misfit M38 windshield off, and hosed off the crap that had accumulated over the fall/winter. After a few minutes of that, my neighbor came over with his kid to look at it. After a while I was convinced a trip around the block wasnt a terrible idea. I took it for a quick lap around the block, rode up a fair hill, and it did it all impressively. Its the most Ive driven it in the year Ive owned it. It wandered a little, and the gears stick a bit. I only got it up to second gear, but its more than peppy enough to cruise around the neighborhood in. I dont intend on driving this thing up the mountain to wheel. If I had found just a frame and body or something, yes, I would have done a V8 crawler, but I got too god of a deal and it was in too good of original shape to bastardize. And I really dig the old iron!

After that we proceeded to drink beer and whiskey. It was a good day.


From 2 weeks ago:

Yay! New parts!! My new windshield came!! Frame arrived today, glass yesterday, weatherstripping in the basement. I couldnt wait, I had to throw it on to see how it looked. Its a tad crooked right now, but it would stand on its own there for pics I dont have time to work on it this weekend really since I have so much to do(including clean up the yard!!), but I have a 3 day weekend next week that will be spent exclusively with the Jeeps if I have my say.







From today:

darn. Didnt have any time on my 3 day weekend to have Jeep time. Im very dissapointed. BUT! I did manage to make a nice $1000 on selling spare parts in storage today. So I went ahead and ordered a new Bestop Tigertop. 4WP had it on sale, plus I had a promo code, so the price was pretty reasonable. I should be able to pick it up this week. I cant imagine it will take long. Bestop's facility is 30 minutes away from 4WP's warehouse here in town, so I imagine I should be able to pick it up sooner rather than later I think I will wait until the top arrives to install the windshield, just to make sure everything is right and fits properly. So no work done, but definite progress made! And once I get the top on, I can have my cage made!! Things are moving along!


And now you're all caught up!!!