Restoration of my 1942 Ford GPW Jeep

[zepher11]

Then I moved on to the seats, fuel tank etc…, the next weekend and blasted those, primed and painted:

 

 

 

 

One can see that the pivot tube is now straight on the rear seat and that the bolts have been removed and all of the holes closed:

 

 

With some of those mundane tasks completed, I moved on to some goofing off stuff. After looking for a deal on a set of 1941 California license plates for over a year, I scored both the plates and the 1942 tags. In California, one can register their vehicle with original plates if one can document that they are of the year of that vehicle. 1942 GPW equals a 1941 plate with a yellow 1942 metal tag. One plate won’t work. One needs both plates to be able to pull off the registration. Anyway, they are original and are not repainted and have a beautiful patina just like I wanted:

 

 

 

Then, just this morning, I picked up my tub. I had just about reached the level of my expertise in straightening the tub. If one likes that wrinkled foil look, this would have been the tub for you. I wrestled with the idea of which way to go. Leave it as is, or make it look really good. Well, a friend recommended a guy that does body work on the side. I was hoping to do everything myself, but I became weak and took it to this fella.

 

When I went to pick it up this morning, I was very happy with his work. He shrunk a lot of the metal that was really messed up and made the sides smooth as glass. There are still a few war wounds here at there, but overall I think it was a good idea. Here are some photos:

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, this was not one of Bonnie and Clyde’s rides. All of these holes are stock:

 

[zepher11]

More:

 

 

 

Anyway, he just did the sides and the cowl for me. I still have a few areas to mop up, but it is getting close to the point where I can prime and then paint the whole tub!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Zeph

 

 

[RustyCanteen]

WOW! To say 'looking good' would be an understatment!

 

I was amazed by the progress, and when I scrolled down to the photos of your tub; that is amazing work!!

 

RC

[American Graffiti]

Bee-u-tiful!

So good, I'll be sad when it's finally finished, you're doing a great job of recording it all though, thank you,

AG

[zepher11]

WOW! To say 'looking good' would be an understatment!

 

I was amazed by the progress, and when I scrolled down to the photos of your tub; that is amazing work!!

 

RC

Thanks RC.

 

Bee-u-tiful!

So good, I'll be sad when it's finally finished, you're doing a great job of recording it all though, thank you,

AG

Thanks AG. It will still be awhile, so don't worry there is plenty of time left.

 

I did get out and sandblast, prime and paint the bottom of the tub today. I figured I would get that wrapped up and then get on the interor. Now that the bottom is painted, it will be easier to place it on something to paint the balance of the tub. Lots of nooks and crannies to get primer and paint into:

 

 

 

[cutiger83]

Zeph,

I am speechless! This is really looking nice! I love to see the rusty, sand blasted, prepped, primed, and painted pictures. It really give a great perspective on the amount of work put into each piece.

I LOVE the updates. Thank you so much for posting these...Kat

[zepher11]

Thanks everyone for the kind compliments! Can't wait to blast the balance of the tub and get it into OD. That will be a milestone for sure...

 

Zeph

[Sjef]

I love the licence plates, Zeph!

With these kind of details you will really steal the show!!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Sjef, a loyal fan of your posts.

[zepher11]

I love the licence plates, Zeph!

With these kind of details you will really steal the show!!

 

 

Cheers,

 

Sjef, a loyal fan of your posts.

Thank you, Sjef! Happy to get those plates in the condition that they are in.

 

Zeph

[zepher11]

Had the day off today, so I was able to get in a little project time. I was originally going to clean up my inner and outer windshield frame, but I have come to the conclusion that both the originals are toast. Luckily, I found a replacement outer frame that was beat up a bit. I was going to work over my original outer frame, but it likely has a lot more work as it has a zillion holes in it and has those steel rods welded to it where the support had busted in the past.

The inner frame was pretty rotted after I took it apart. Plus the channel for the outer weather stripping is nonexistent in a lot of areas and it is really weak overall, so I will need to get a replacement.

Next I was just about to begin working over my original outer frame, but as I was looking at the other frame, I figured that it may be a candidate for repair after all. I figured I couldn’t make it any worse.

So it began. I was lucky and found some tubing that was the same size:

My main concern was that the hinge channel would cause me all kinds of trouble because it was bent and smashed, but I thought I’d go for it and started cutting the welds holding the hinge to the frame:

It was a little tricky cutting the tube out of there without damaging the hinge channel:

Got it outta there!

Had some dents I had to take out:

Had to heat it up a bit to get it to conform:

It was looking bleak as the channel was pretty messed up and the upper tube was really out of alignment. One can see the issue with the hinge channel that I was up against. Thankfully, I had my original to make some measurements:

 

 

[zepher11]

I goofed around with the channel for quite a while and I used my porta-power and a lot of heat and some hammering to get it aligned. I then cut and fitted the new tube section and checked for fit and feel:

 

 

Started welding it in and kept adjusting the frame to get it as square as possible:

 

 

Using the old inner frame, I slid it back into the outer frame hinge channel. I had to make a lot of little corrections, but finally was able to slide it in without having to mallet it in:

 

 

 

I then ground down the welds on the upper tube:

 

 

Next I noticed the hold down bracket holes were farther apart than the originals, so I had to weld close the holes and redrill new ones to get a proper fit:

 

 

All good now:

 

 

Next I noticed that the hold down bracket holes on the new frame didn’t have the upper hole for the screw in the center of the bracket. Plus the holes for the two bolts to hold the brackets were messed up and not in alignment on the replacement frame:

 

 

One cans see how the bracket sits too far away for the center screw to work as there is a gap:

 

 

Therefore, I welded up the holes and had to redrill the two bolt holes and make a new hole for the upper bracket screw:

 

[zepher11]

Just a little grinding left and all done:

 

 

Lots of work, but it was really satisfying to get this project completed. I will likely have a few small adjustments to make when I receive a replacement inner window frame. Those reproduction parts never seem to fit right! Once everything looks like it is good to go, I will sandblast, prime and paint.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Zeph

[RustyCanteen]

You do excellent work, truly an inspiration.

 

RC

[Johan Willaert]

Zeph,

 

I suspect your windshield with the extra bracket and the rifle holder supports is French... See your post on the G for more details...

[cutiger83]

Zeph,

 

Thank you so much for the updates! I just LOVE to see your work. You make it sound so easy but I am sure it was a lot of work.

 

...Kat

[zepher11]

Thanks RC and Kat for the feedback. Also, Johan is correct. With his help I confirmed that the outer winshield is of French origin and made by Willys Overland France (WOF). How it migrated to my backyard is beyond me.

 

Zeph

[zepher11]

I tinned some of the body panels yesterday. It went pretty well and I think I have hit the correct spots. The original tinning on the hood as well as some other areas were still present after sandblasting. Here’s the hood before:

 

 

Here’s after:

 

 

Grill:

 

 

I had to redrill the two holes in the driver’s fender. I’m not positive if they are required here, but I thought I would go ahead and add them just in case:

 

 

I also noticed what looked like tinning on the passenger side fender, so I tinned here as well:

 

 

The passenger side fender was pretty rugged, so I used some heat to shrink the metal to flatten it out. I then used a hammer and dolly on a lot of areas of each fender. The hood was also oil canned on one side, so I fixed that as well:

 

 

 

[zepher11]

Today I wanted to paint. Supposedly we are to have a spritz of rain tonight…that would be nice, but I doubt it. Anyway, I hustled and finished up the so called body work on the hood, grill and fenders. Plus I had to clean all of the tinning flux from the panels. It made a bit of a mess on the clean metal.

 

In any event, I really needed to get these primed and painted. Other than being a little heavy handed causing some runs on the grill…it went okay. The grill has a lot of nooks and crevices causing me issues. Boy the bugs really liked the primer, and I had five or six get stuck in there. The bugs use to freak me out, but I have perfected a way to get them out and smooth before the final coat. They didn’t seem to like the OD as much as they liked the primer for some reason.

 

Happy to have these panels completed. Still need to get the rest of the body primed and painted. Maybe next weekend if the weather is nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zeph

[RustyCanteen]

There is nothing like fresh OD paint! Looks great!

 

Are you going to go for the blue drab numbers or white field numbers?

 

RC

[cutiger83]

Zeph,

 

Great work! I look forward to your updates.

 

I love looking at the items in the background too! You have an amazing yard full of goodies!

 

...Kat

[zepher11]

There is nothing like fresh OD paint! Looks great!

 

Are you going to go for the blue drab numbers or white field numbers?

 

RC

 

I believe I will be going with the blue drab. I think it is a little more unusual than the field white...at least around here.

 

 

Zeph,

 

Great work! I look forward to your updates.

 

I love looking at the items in the background too! You have an amazing yard full of goodies!

 

...Kat

 

Thanks. There is a bit of "rusty" gold lying around here and there that's for sure.

[Johan Willaert]

 

I believe I will be going with the blue drab. I think it is a little more unusual than the field white...at least around here.

 

You could do both... Factory blue and then on top and lightly larger the ame number in white...

 

When the white were applied in a unit motorpool, they didn't erase the blue drab number...

[zepher11]

 

You could do both... Factory blue and then on top and lightly larger the ame number in white...

 

When the white were applied in a unit motorpool, they didn't erase the blue drab number...

 

That's a great idea, Johan. I was looking at my fenders and hood a little while ago and with all of the dents and so forth. When I think of a Jeep with blue drab numbers I think of a factory fresh GPW with nice straight body panels. With the white field numbers over the blue drab, it would indicate that this GPW has been around the block and would have a some dents. Overall, it would probably be more appropriate.

 

Do you have any good photo examples or links to a webstie with photo examples of the white over the blue drab? In black and white photos it may be difficult to decern the blue drab.

 

Thanks for the idea!

 

Zeph

[zepher11]

Okay, I answered my own question. Here is a good photo of white registration numbers over the blue drab. I'm really liking it and I think it looks really good unusual:

 

[cutiger83]

Here is a good photo of white registration numbers over the blue drab. I'm really liking it and I think it looks really good unusual:

 

 

Zeph,

 

I like the look too!

 

I have never heard that jeeps came from the factory with blue numbers then changed to white in the field. That is very interesting.

 

...Kat