Zeph's '42 Ford GPW - (Restoration Started)

[zepher11]

Thanks for all of the comments on the sand blasting. I got on the stick and found a guy that does mobile sand blasting and has sand blasted WWII Jeep frames and tubs in the past. He actually lives fairly close to me and said if I bring it to him and wait, he will do it for $100! Now that is more to my liking! I hope to grind off all the rivets that I need to one night this week and get it to him on Saturday if it doesn't rain. Very happy...

[fotot8ker]

Zeph,

Great photos of the Jeep tub rotisserie and of your restoration! Looks like what I went through when I took my Ford GPW appart! But how did you attach the rotisserie to the back of the tub? Can you take a photo of it? Also, how much steel did you have to add height wise to the rotisserie? Looks like a great rotisserie to make! I have two engine stands already, but not sure of the dimensions to add onto it for a rotisserie. Any help would be cool!

Hi Bryan,

Thanks for the kind compliments! I won't be home to take some better pictures of the rotisserie and show you how the tub is mounted until Wednesday evening. I should be able to post 'em that evening.

Regards,

Zeph,

Your welcome for the kind compliments! Thanks for replying to my post and letting me know about your situation. I will be on the lookout Wed. evening when you get the photos up!

[thidisbogus]

Zeph,

You mentioned on my thread you discovered your block is a CJ . How and when did you discover it? That just bites. I don't blame you for just keeping it while it is running good. Just paint it gray for now, and when the funds allow for it source a correct motor. Since yours is a motorpool restoration, you could source one of those nice generator engines Brent Mullins has for sale for 900 dollars. As far as I know, they are correct WW2 L Head engines, they just used them as generators instead of the Jeep. They are Willys, but a motorpool restoration allows for a WIllys in a GPW. You may not know it, but mine is a Willys engine (thankfully WW2 vintage). I am just painting it gray so it is correct in appearance. It does have a WIllys head, which I may change out to the Ford at a later date so it is not so obvious.

BTW, great work on that rotissere for your body. Wish I had the know how to build something like that. I opted for the wooden stand, which is nice but lacks the flexibility you will have.

[zepher11]

Zeph,

You mentioned on my thread you discovered your block is a CJ . How and when did you discover it? That just bites.

Rodney,

Well, when I saw my GPW for sale I didn't even really know what a GPW was! I have been collecting WWII items, but I had never considered a military vehicle. I concentrated on uniforms, etc... I knew what a WWII Jeep was in general but never study the intimate details before. Anyway, after I saw the GPW for sale I did a ton of research for a couple of days and eventually worked the deal with gentleman Bubba.

I thought he had told me that it was a WWII engine when I purchased it, but at the time I didn't know about matching numbers, or how to verify. I only knew that I was hooked and wanted to get my hand on it before anyone else. I still think I got a great price. He did throw in a '44 MB as well as two engine blocks...one that is a MB block from WWII. At least I am pretty sure that it is a vintage MB block form WWII. It does have a serial number on the side vs. where the CJ's have it in the front of the block.

As I poured over my new purchase and begin to research all about WWII Jeeps, I realized that it was a CJ block. The starter, generator and cylinder are GPW, however. I also have another GPW cylinder head and two Willys, but not too sure of dates at the moment.

I will paint this engine grey for now. If I find a replacement GPW engine by the time I am done with this project and funds are handy, I will opt for a GPW. I will get one eventually. The engine I have now will give me time to complete research on all of the components needed to convert back to total originality. Which will be my goal.

Regards,

[zepher11]

Zeph,

Your welcome for the kind compliments! Thanks for replying to my post and letting me know about your situation. I will be on the lookout Wed. evening when you get the photos up!

Bryan,

Here are some pictures of the rotisserie that I hope gives you some ideas.

It takes three engine stands and one stand needs to be the major donor. As you can see in this picture, the upright from the donor stand is cut into two pieces and added in at the bottom of each of the other two stands of the rotisserie. It seemed to work out that one can get about a 20" section out of the donor stand. This is then cut in half which leaves two 10" sections that are added to the two end stands. One can see the 10" section added in the upright here:



One can also see that the none caster wheels are cut off and the section with the two caster wheels at the front of the engine stand is cut in half and added at the ends as seen above. The welds should be visable. The added width of the caster wheel section really helps with overall support of the tub. Plus they are great wheels for moving the rotisserie around my little garage!

Here is a shot of the front connection to the tub. Pretty standard. I used two 2x4's so that the tub would rotate without hitting the rotisserie:



Here is the rear connector. I countersunk the bolts on the side of the redwood I used that faces the rear panel of the tub so that it would mount flush. I then through bolted the redwood board to the rear of the tub using a couple of existing holes:





The center section that connects the two end piecies of the rotisserie is made from left over parts and pieces of the donor stand and a piece of angle iron left over from one of the other engine stands:



Hopefully, you can see how it is put together and that it all makes sense! I'm not the greatest welder or fabricator, but it was a fun project and seems to work well.

Regards,

[zepher11]

Attended our local Veteran's day parade today. Weather was nice and cool for a change and really gets one in the mood for fall. Also, seeing all the vehicles kinda gets me motivated to get on my project. Had an appointment to get my frame sandblasted today, but with the pending rain and sprinkles, I had to put that on hold...

Well, I guess it was a good thing. I woulda missed the parade. Kelly, who I am dedicating my GPW project, was there and caught a ride in another GPW. I hope to be giving him a ride in the parade next year in my 91st Bomb Group dedicated GPW. It will be a tall order, but it is a worthy goal. Here are a couple of photos from today.

Kelly in all his glory:



Line of vintage MV's:



Regards,

[zepher11]

I am hoping someone can help me indentify my front leaf springs. Here are a couple of photos. Do they look like original Ford GPW? They seem to be in pretty good shape, so most likely they are replacements. The rear leafs don't match at all and look completely different than the front. At least the front match. The rear springs allow the left side to sit down about and inch an a half lower than the right side. Plus they look completely different. Replacements will be required there.

Here are the fronts.:





Any comments regarding identification are appreciated. Also, any comments regarding the best place to get replacements for the rear leafs will be appreciated as well.

Thanks!

[thidisbogus]

Zeph,

Those leaf springs look like original GPW. You can tell from the clips, being that they have bolts. The MB are pressed clips. Which side is the photo from? Do you have your Torque Reaction Spring on the drivers side?

For replacement springs I would buy the new Crown replacments from Ron. They look good, fit good and are the only brand new replacments that are manufactured. They are also made in Canada, not India or China. The only downside about them is that they do not have brackets with the bolts, instead have the pressed clips like the MB and I think may have a different number of leafs than original so the Jeep Police will definitely be able to pick them out and scold you .

The only other option you have is to have your 70 year old springs re-arched which is a toss-up if they will work and if they do work for how long. That is not a cheap process and takes a lot of time and effort for an iffy outcome.

I chose to go new and if the jeep police complain I will just deal with it. It is a motorpool restoration and if everything else is correct motorpool with the exception of those springs, which are not available correctly reproduced anyway, then I am ok with it.

[zepher11]

Hi Rodney,

Both photos of the front springs are from the rear. My GPW was built before the torque reaction spring was standard issue on Jeeps.

My rear springs are missmatched. I think one may be original, since it resembles the front. I think I will go with the ones for the rear from Ron. If I really get the authentic bug later I can always look for some originals.

Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it!

Regards,

[majmacs]

Fronts are replacements..likely M38 or an early civilian type.
The tapered edges indicate an earlier design ( modern replacements are rectangular and I understand from a separate post that the tapered edges was a design that died out in the fifties)
GPW springs are not only tapered on the edges, but are cut at 45 degrees at each end forming a bit of a point.
Spring clips are not GPW either, but representative of partial M38 and partial civialian clips.

Patrick

[zepher11]

Fronts are replacements..likely M38 or an early civilian type.
The tapered edges indicate an earlier design ( modern replacements are rectangular and I understand from a separate post that the tapered edges was a design that died out in the fifties)
GPW springs are not only tapered on the edges, but are cut at 45 degrees at each end forming a bit of a point.
Spring clips are not GPW either, but representative of partial M38 and partial civialian clips.

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your insight. I did run accross a picture in Jeepdraw that had the good view of the 45 degree taper as you mention. They have a unique look to them.

I actually pulled my front leafs off the axle housing today and they don't look too bad. I most likely will use them. I would imagine finding a good set of 70 year old GPW front leaf springs would be difficult. The rear springs will need to be replaced, so I hafta figure out what to do there.

Thanks again!

[zepher11]

To date I have ground, drilled, hammered, cussed and punched out 28 frame rivets. I can't really say I enjoyed it a great deal...well, maybe the first two or three...

I was considering sectioning in a piece for the rotted pintle brace, but decided to go ahead and remove it. I figured that it would be good to get in behind it and have it sandblasted. This will allow me to get some red oxide on it before installing a full replacement. Here one can see a little rust that fell out after I removed the frame rivets:



I also found that the frame had rotted through where it was sandwiched between the pintle brace and the axle bumper, so it was a good thing that I removed the whole brace. Other than that the frame still looks really good. I'll go over it closely one more time after I get it sandblasted.

Here is an initial test fitting of the replacement pintle brace. It only came with one hole on each side for rivets. Which is good because those two holes don't match up to the frame holes anyway, so I will end up drilling all 12 holes to install it. Same goes for the rear cross member. All of the rivet holes will need to be lined up and drilled there. Plus one can see I will need to make some adjustments to get the pintle brace and cross member aligned for the pintle hook to mount flush. I corrected the bends in the replacement brace and it is getting there. I will wait until I get the frame in primer to go any further here:





I find it fascinating that there are F stamps on virtually every part. I noticed the shock mounts had F stamps and I found one on the frame gun mount:



Pretty cool. Hopefully, I can hook up with the sandblaster this weekend. The weather was great today. I'm hoping it will hold...

Thanks for looking!

[thidisbogus]

"Fronts are replacements..likely M38 or an early civilian type.
The tapered edges indicate an earlier design ( modern replacements are rectangular and I understand from a separate post that the tapered edges was a design that died out in the fifties)
GPW springs are not only tapered on the edges, but are cut at 45 degrees at each end forming a bit of a point.
Spring clips are not GPW either, but representative of partial M38 and partial civialian clips."---I stand corrected. Sorry about that Zeph.

[zepher11]

---I stand corrected. Sorry about that Zeph.

No problem, Rodney. It's a learning experience for us all! I was really hoping to have original leafs, but with the age of our projects one is bound to run accross certain parts that will be hard to replace back to original...

Regards,

[zepher11]

I saw an axle holder the other day in a magazine that attaches to an engine stand. I was out of engine stands, so I placed an item wanted ad on Craigslist for a another stand. I said I would pay $25. Within four hours a guy calls and has one that is still in the box never opened! Plus he was about 20 miles closer to me than HF. Not bad for $25!

Anyway I got the axle holder installed on the engine stand today and hulked up the front housing. This arrangement seems to work out well, and it moves around very easily. It also allows me to sit on my butt while I take it apart and examine all the parts.

Hoisting it up onto the stand:



Ahh...all in place ready to be worked on later:



I have never even seen a housing like this, so it will be a real learning experience for me. The rear housing looks fairly basic to work on.

I'm pretty sure that both of my housings are Willys. They must have been replaced from the original Ford axles. The front housing is dated 2-22-45 and the rear housing is dated 3-2 or 3-22-44. I was initiall worried that they may not be WWII era, and I was really bummed that they were not GPW. Oh well, at least I have verified they are WWII vintage axles. That works for me.

Thanks for looking...