4 hours ago, General Apathy said:

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Hi Peiter,

 

reproduction rear panels are available from dealers who sell wartime Jeep spares,  I don't need the gas-can bracket you bought as this panel is the easier one that didn't use the gas-can holder. however if you had found an original ' F ' marked bumperette I am in need pop one of those.

 

The number I stencilled on this panel was the engine hood number on the first Jeep I bought, and it appears on this June 1943 Ford manual.

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 08 May  2O26.

 

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This almost made me fall from my chair... and not because of the orientation of the bumperette 🤭

 

 

7 hours ago, earlymb said:

 

 

This almost made me fall from my chair... and not because of the orientation of the bumperette 🤭

 

 

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Hi earlymb,

 

yes reading your comment and re-reading my text I almost fell out of my chair at the two spelling mistakes that predictive text had introduced into the text.  Knowing this happens I read and re-read my text several times before I make my posts, after posting I read the post again and multiple times I have had to re-open the text and edit it AGAIN !!!!!!

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 09 May  2O26.

 

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13 hours ago, manayunkman said:

Thanks Ken for the help. I love that word bumperette, is that what it’s called in French?

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Hi Peiter,

 

In the February 1944 TM9-803 manual the rear ' bumperette ' is referred to as a rear bumper when fixing the Jeep down to a railway flat car, the word bumperette Is possibly a plural of the word bumper as there are two of them on the rear of a Jeep.  It has become the standard word for describing one of the small  bumpers on the rear of a Jeep, rather than rear-bumper. 

It is actually used on American motor vehicles of the 40's, 50's, 60's etc as shown in this short video describing ' bumperettes ' 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 09 May  2O26.

 

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we added the wheels to the wagon . . . . . . . .

 

After a weeks break while I had friends visiting from the UK we got back down to work on the wooden Jeep again today.  We added the axles and the wheels and also tested how our chopped down garden chairs looked sat in the Jeep, overall we were very pleased with the appearance.  Next jobs are fitting the steering wheel and column, the gear stick, low ratio sticks, and the pedals and a few other details. 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 09 May  2O26.

 

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You should be dead chuffed at how that's looking Ken. 

So will it be screen down when finished ?

Kevin

15 hours ago, General Apathy said:

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Hi earlymb,

 

yes reading your comment and re-reading my text I almost fell out of my chair at the two spelling mistakes that predictive text had introduced into the text.  Knowing this happens I read and re-read my text several times before I make my posts, after posting I read the post again and multiple times I have had to re-open the text and edit it AGAIN !!!!!!

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 09 May  2O26.

 

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Not what I was referring to, but now that you mention it... 🤭

 

 

Hi Ken, I attended a new Militaria fair local to me at Detling today (Kent wartime airfield). Lots of interesting kit on display for sale. I was tempted with a lovely WW2 USMC 2nd Division grouping, but just came away with a coupe of Leclerc postcards... the Jeeps sold them to me! No other Jeep parts unfortunately.

A great social where I met up with may like-minded friends! (That was the best part!!)

Cheers Graham

 

 

1 hour ago, MCDUFF said:

Hi Ken, I attended a new Militaria fair local to me at Detling today (Kent wartime airfield). Lots of interesting kit on display for sale. I was tempted with a lovely WW2 USMC 2nd Division grouping, but just came away with a coupe of Leclerc postcards... the Jeeps sold them to me! No other Jeep parts unfortunately.

A great social where I met up with may like-minded friends! (That was the best part!!)

Cheers Graham

 

 

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Hi Graham,

 

thanks for the details of the new show, yes the postcards are interesting, sadly the grouping costs more, takes more space and care and attention and protection from moths etc.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 10 May  2O26.

 

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I went through a bit of a phase hunting out Jeep related postcards and anything else that I could find. 

First picture was on a 1943 menu card

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Hi Kevin, 

 

nice Jeeping images, however I feel quite sad and nostalgic seeing this image, and we sadly will never know the background story to the image and the numerous signatures added to the image.

 

Purely peeing in the wind with this association,  notice the nick-name ' Rikki ' added towards the bottom, quite an unusual nick-name in the English language I believe,  and that name and  the drawing of the Jeep makes me think of the early post war London Jeep dealers Metamet and there was a ' Mr Rikki '  or maybe ( Mr Ricky ) connected with that company 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 10 May  2O26.

 

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It was just a single piece of paper with the sketch on it and the signatures, unfortunately no other information. According to my file it was back in 2015.

If the signatures can be correctly read then maybe it would be possible to find out more. I took a close up scan at the time of the signatures.

Quick search on the internet not helped by the fact that the snow tracked version of the Jeep was known as a Penguin Jeep apparently. 

On 5/9/2026 at 12:58 AM, General Apathy said:

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Hi earlymb,

 

yes reading your comment and re-reading my text I almost fell out of my chair at the two spelling mistakes that predictive text had introduced into the text.  Knowing this happens I read and re-read my text several times before I make my posts, after posting I read the post again and multiple times I have had to re-open the text and edit it AGAIN !!!!!!

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 09 May  2O26.

 

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I thought I was the only one who did that.

22 hours ago, Escht said:

I went through a bit of a phase hunting out Jeep related postcards and anything else that I could find. 

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hi Kevin,

 

here's a Jeep carton for candy & chocolates I saw in a museum today,  Blum's of San Francisco .

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 11 May  2O26.

 

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Nice carton, never seen one before. Glad I've gone past my Jeep phase otherwise I'd be finding reasons to justify why I needed it here . 

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Well the Jeep gets closer and closer to being finished. 

 

we had another half day on the Jeep today, and fitted the steering column and wheel, the dash-pocket lid, foot pedals gear and transfer box sticks, also dash lights above the clocks, the inside floor was painted to ensure that all areas of white wood were covered and less visible when the final pieces of knitting are added.  There's still attention needed to tightening up the knitting and preventing loose sections hanging down, but this will be taken care of by the ladies that knitted the panels.  

 

Our next job is the hoop bars.  Kevin I think you asked if the windshield would be up or down, I suggested today that it's down and covered with a windscreen cover, that would cut down on the time constructing a good representation of the actual screen, it also exposes the steering column and seats to being seen more easily. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 11 May  2O26.

 

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Off to see the Greatest Yarn exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral later today.

DUKW vs NISSAN: 1-0

Last weekend a friend test drove his as new WW2 DUKW after a 15 year(!!) restoration and sadly was hit by a woman in a van...
Appears the lady driver had been drinking and cut the corner and crashed head on into the amphibious vehicle....

Only the van driver was slightly wounded and although no real substantial damage was done to the DUKW, it remains so sad this happened after such a long and meticulous job... Some dents in the bow, still not an easy to repair....
The owner has actually rebuilt the entire hull from scratch as the original one was completely rotted after decades of swimming in salt water...

I wonder what the lady thought when the bow crushed her windshield...

 

 

7 hours ago, Johan Willaert said:

DUKW vs NISSAN: 1-0

Last weekend a friend test drove his as new WW2 DUKW after a 15 year(!!) restoration and sadly was hit by a woman in a van...
Appears the lady driver had been drinking and cut the corner and crashed head on into the amphibious vehicle....

Only the van driver was slightly wounded and although no real substantial damage was done to the DUKW, it remains so sad this happened after such a long and meticulous job... Some dents in the bow, still not an easy to repair....
The owner has actually rebuilt the entire hull from scratch as the original one was completely rotted after decades of swimming in salt water...

I wonder what the lady thought when the bow crushed her windshield...

 

 

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Hello Johan, 

 

thank you for the report you made of the DUKW accident,  sadly I do feel that DUKW's have the most frequent accidents amongst WWII vehicle collectors, they are so large, cumbersome and slow, also it's not a vehicle that modern drivers are expecting to see on the road these days.  I drive full time now with headlights on night and day as well, they were painted O.D to hide them from people and that's what they are still doing hiding from people especially along shaded tree lined roads, lets be careful out there. 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 12 May  2O26.

 

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Here is my contribution to jeeps on things. Here is a license plate from the state of Delaware I saw the other day. It’s not military related, but it’s a jeep nonetheless. No idea what or why, but it’s a nice design. 
mikie

29 minutes ago, mikie said:

Here is my contribution to jeeps on things. Here is a license plate from the state of Delaware I saw the other day. It’s not military related, but it’s a jeep nonetheless. No idea what or why, but it’s a nice design. 
mikie

Evidently it's a permit for driving on the beach for fishing. Apparently they only allow a limited number of permits per year to prevent to many vehicles on the beach. 

6 hours ago, mikie said:

Here is my contribution to jeeps on things. Here is a license plate from the state of Delaware I saw the other day. It’s not military related, but it’s a jeep nonetheless. No idea what or why, but it’s a nice design. 

mikie

 

 

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Hi mikie,

 

thanks for the image of the plate, apologies I edited your photo and removed the bird dropping on the hood above the grille.   Interesting that they should use an image of a wartime Jeep representing vehicles on the beach.   Some years ago I reported on a can of paint I bought here in France, to illustrate what the paint could be used on they showed small images for wood, metal, brickwork, vehicle's,  as an image for vehicles they used the image of a wartime Jeep, I found it interesting that seventy years after WWIi the image of a Jeep was being used. 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 13 May  2O26.

 

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Yesterday's Then & Now images.

 

I passed through the village of Sainteny which is on the road from Carentan to Periers.  I noticed that they had erected a few frames featuring images of the village so I pulled over and made comparisons.  Sainteny was attacked by 4th and 83rd US Divisions and the village was heavily defended by German SS Divisions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 13 May  2O26.

 

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Hi Johan.

 

while we are briefly talking about GMC DUKW's Emmanuel has had this design painted on his DUKW. 

There is an amphibious day on lakes near Periers on the 4th of June, I believe Emmanuel is taking his DUKW, Schwimmwagen and his amphi-car. 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 13 May  2O26.

 

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On 5/12/2026 at 8:29 AM, Escht said:

Off to see the Greatest Yarn exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral later today.

Hi Ken

I met with Kev this week at Lichfield Cathedral. The Longest Yarn exhibition was amazing! The Cathedral was very busy with lots of interest. The subjects were of course more Britain at war related compared to the Normandy scenarios you have, but represented a massive spectrum of subjects! My favourites were the Mulberry Harbour, and of course the VJ celebration 'kiss'! The skill and workmanship is incredible!

Both Kev and I discussed your Jeep project, and are in awe of what you all have achieved!

I purchased a framed Women's Land Army character for my daughter. Very reasonably priced, yet glad to support this wonderful cause!

It was fun to catch up with a like minded friend and to share the experience together (and reminisce of all things Jeep, militaria, friends and history related!!).

Cheers, Graham.