Restoration Willys MB 404335

[352B2]

Hello from France everybody !
I bought here a Willys MB S/N 404335, DOD 1-8-1945. It does not seem to have been in the French Army, no plates of a french restoration.
If you are OK, I would like to share with you the complete rebuilding of it, and I suppose you are going to be a great help to me.
Rebuild a WW2 Jeep will take time, with the help of my husband and a son, as we can work on it only during the weekends, and not ALL the weekends !!! As well, getting genuine parts is money, "time is money" they say, so I decided to put it as close as possible to its original condition, knowing the money will slow it or prevent from buying very rare and expensive parts.

Here it is when I bought it :





You can admire the splendid horn and the way the fan is attached :



The dashboard :



The wiring :



The engine seems to be genuine :



Of course all your comments and advices are welcome !
Now, the Jeep has been put into pieces. There are some works to do on it !
Marie-Christine

[Schultzd]

Wow, look at that wiring! Should be interesting.

Dan

[bazza46]

Nice jeep.There's a bit of wiring to fix up, but repro harnesses are available. Maybe you can swap the hood for an MB one to someone with a CJ.
That fan, though, is intriguing. I can see why they have made that extension. If the fan was attached directly to the pulley, it would be way to the rear of the shroud and miles from the radiator core itself. But I can't see how that is possible, unless the radiator is somehow mounted too far forward,or the engine is too far back (both of which seem highly unlikely). I'd like to see pictures of the engine and radiator mount areas.

[horrocks]

It looks to be a fantastic unrestored original, with no obvious rust issues. Preserve rather than restore?

More photos, please!

[352B2]

To answer bazza46 , the position of the fan is very close to the grid :



Maybe the cooling was not good and it helps ???
In another Jeep we have (M201) the fan is more back, so I suppose the radiator and engine are in their good position, just the position of the fan has been changed...

Anyway, when we are going to restore, the radiator will be replaced, they say it is not the good model... especially the tap !!!





horrocks, you'll see that there are lots of problems on that vehicle. As I would like a secured vehicle to drive long distances, we thought it was a good solution to check everything. Of course, we'll keep all the good parts, and try to replace the bad ones, with genuine if possible, or good repops.

The G503 knowledge is fantastic and will be a great help !
Marie-Christine

[352B2]

Nomenclature, Caution and Shipping plates were covered with painting.



With an old screwdriver, I pressed and fragments went off little by little :





The seats :



they are badly attached to the body...





We have been taking off that part, covering the side of the windshield (both sides) :



What is it ???

Marie-Christine

[Forceman67]

Is that a cj hood? I'm not up on the MB's all that much but I'm pretty sure the 1/4 tons did not have the company name embossed on the hood during the war. That is a beautiful jeep though, wish mine would have been that nice to start! Good luck!

[352B2]

Thank you very much for your post ! Yes, I know that when restoring this Jeep I'll find good and bad surprises !
You are right, the hood was a CJ one, but I could exchange it to the proper part ( I hope !), with the holes to attach the grease gun :



Sorry, I have no better picture of it at the moment.

Can anybody tell me what the part we took off the windshield was for ?
Marie-Christine

[352B2]

We began the « strip-tease » of the vehicle :
The rear parts :



The seats :



The wiring :



The wings and radiator guard :



The fuel tank :



This vehicle has been celebrating something, it’s full of confettis under the tank... but when and what… nobody will know !!!



Now we can lift :





Two parts in the garden :



To be continued…
Marie-Christine

[352B2]

Bad surprise : now we can see some frame problems :









Do you think the electrical connector is genuine ? If not, what should it be ?

And the frame plate :



Shouldn’t it be riveted ?
Marie-Christine

[jeepfinger]

Hi Marie,

Do you think the electrical connector is genuine ? If not, what should it be ?

Definitely not original, the MB has depending on year has 3 for early or 2 for late junction blocks, see link. The blocks are located, 6 post block on the bulkhead just about where all you wires are now, there is a 2 post block on the drivers inner wing and the other 2 post block, depending on year is on the bulkhead just behind the air filter. No electrical connections on the frame at all.
https://www.vintagejeeps.com/pc-501-75- ... 39599.aspx
https://www.vintagejeeps.com/pc-502-75- ... a1490.aspx

Shouldn’t it be riveted ?

Correct, it should be attached with these.
http://rdrnl.home.xs4all.nl/4UWPAttaching.html

Hope this has helped you Please keep us all posted on your work.
Regards,
Dave

[352B2]

Hi Dave,
Thank you very much for those links, of course they are very helpful and I’ll save them carefully for the time we are going to rebuild !!!

The fact is that the frame plate is not riveted, this is why I have a doubt either it is the genuine frame plate or not, despite there is the same frame number on the nomenclature plate… Now, as I’m not a specialist, we are going to see if the other parts are coherent with a January 8th 1945 Jeep…

Yes, I’ll go on posting, but it takes time to choose the pictures, resize and upload them, and translate into English !!! And maybe work a little bit on the vehicle from time to time…

Marie-Christine

[horrocks]

Although I commented on this thread when you first posted, it has only just occured to me that your Jeep was manufactured the day after my recent acquisition 'Calsat' and is only 285 Jeeps away! I also bought it in France. I would be interested to know what you have of the history of this vehicle.

Here is my thread..

viewtopic.php?f=96&t=205277

[352B2]

Wow !!! Horrocks, I'm just one day younger than you !!!
Yours seems in better condition than mine... are you going to restore it ?
mine : 404335, DOD January 8th 1945
yours : 404620, DOD January 9th 1945
It's amazing to see that in 1 day there are about 300 Jeeps built...
At the moment, I don't know anything about the story, except the previous owner was in the Alps...

Going on, we have removed the engine off the frame :



the « Silent Blocs »



Here are the engine markings

On the top





And on the side



We took the oil filter off (can you tell something about it ?) :





To find the serial number :



Can you help telling me when it was built ? Is it coherent with the vehicle ?

Marie-Christine

[jeepfinger]

Bonjour Marie,

Can you help telling me when it was built ? Is it coherent with the vehicle ?

I will try, but being a GPW guy , I don't know too much about MB's. Toby may be more help as his MB is only 285 of yours. A few things, your jeep has got the late pedals, steel and square, it has rear frame reinforcements, the triangle piece of metal welded to the rear crossmember, Also the late style hand brake, your tub is what is called a Composite body, it will have a number on the toe board gusset, that is the thing that has 3 holes that is near the steering colum. See this topic.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=207755

There are some G 503 members that do the number thing, Rene and Jim Killbourne should be able to help. Willys engines where used in other things so engine numbers don't match frame number. Yours seems a lit low for a 45.

Yes, I’ll go on posting, but it takes time to choose the pictures, resize and upload them, and translate into English !!! And maybe work a little bit on the vehicle from time to time…

Marie, you are doing a great job as my French is Merde
Regards,
Dave