We're 'Tweaking' the site after the upgrade. Sorry for the disruption

On 7/21/2026 at 4:32 PM, General Apathy said:

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Hi earlymb,

I have to say that that looks great, sometimes these self-made items don't turn out well but that looks almost original and factory quality, I don't think most people looking under your hood will give that a second look, as it look like what should be sat there.

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 21 July  2O26.

 

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Hi Ken,

thanks, that is exactly the effect I'm going for. It's not an exact replica of a certain battery, but just a facsimile of a generic 1940's style battery.

On 7/21/2026 at 5:10 PM, General Apathy said:

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More Jeep pieces re-found today.

Today I thought I would take a look in a storage shed that I don't regularly use and decided some of the pieces I found should be taken out and relocated elsewhere and better looked after. So I donned an NBC suit to go in there as I was unsure if there would be either wasps or hornets nests seeing as my garden was swamped by Asian hornets flying around last year. Thankfully no nests so I had a good look around and through storage boxes. I pulled a number of pieces out for further investigation, these unopened new old stock headlamp units were nice to find again. These are earlier sealed beam units with an actual bulb sealed inside them, whereas the later and post-war headlamps just had filaments sealed inside, not bulbs.

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 21 July  2O26.

 

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Nice examples, I have French post-war lamps and units, they are not sealed beams but separate bulbs in a reflector. Happily the connector on my repro wiring set fits just fine, although I would like to change these (and the rear lights) for NOS sealed beams so I'll have to start looking for them. I didn't know that the later units don't have bulbs so that's good to know.

On 7/22/2026 at 11:10 AM, Johan Willaert said:

Nice job, David!!

Hi Johan,

thanks! It did turn out better than expected, especially the lead parts.

On 7/22/2026 at 9:04 PM, General Apathy said:

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Hi Johan and other Jeep Freaks.

something else I pulled out the shed yesterday, an early Ford sump with the factory riveted drain hole, which often ended up leaking during use and field soldered to stop the leak, part of the Ford script ' F ' is visible over on the right hand side but mostly obliterated with the messy soldering, probably done in place under the Jeep without dismounting. Note the dark green paint overspray used by British army vehicles with spots of the lighter green used on British engine parts.

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 22 July  2O26.

 

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Ah yes, the infamous early riveted sump. I wonder why they thought this was a good idea, and it was soon changed to use an internally threaded drain plug.

Luckily I have one as well, and when I poured some old oil in it and left it alone for a few weeks it didn't leak so I hope it'll stay that way. It has the same field repair, although mine seems to have been brazed rather than soldered.

Did some interior decorating while the forum was down.
Bought a bookcase to hold part of my WW2 and photography-related books

9 hours ago, Salvage Sailor said:

We're 'Tweaking' the site after the upgrade. Sorry for the disruption

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Hi Salvage,

Thank you for taking the time to comment, I am pleased that someone has taken note and hopefully ' Tweaking ' and not ' Twerking ' as some dancers appear to do !!!

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, 24 July  2O26.

 

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