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This pile of rust is my 1942 MB jeep as I got it in 1992. I had wanted an MB for as long as I can remember, don't know where I saw one first, but I suppose it must have been in the old black and white war films. The only vehicle worth having was a jeep, MB or GPW.
I grew up and passed my driving test. The hunt was on for a jeep. I don't know how common old jeeps are in the USA but I would think that it's much like series one Landrovers are over here in Scotland, it's quite common to find one rotting away. Jeeps are harder to find here. If you have the cash you can go to a dealer and buy one, although it will probably be either "restored" with thick paint and filler or be a Hotchkiss jeep dressed up as an MB. To find one lying somewhere, waiting to be restored ain't easy. Several years of searching barns and farmyards produced lots of Austin Champs, Landrovers, Gipsys and stuff but no jeeps. Finally a chance comment at a scrap yard led me to this one sitting in a garden in Stevenston. I handed over a couple of hundred quid and took it home #:o) All my friends laughed hystericaly, "you paid money for that? you must be mad!" These comments just made me more stubborn......
The original chassis could be repaired, but the cost of the materials was going to be more than the cost of a rot free accident damaged chassis which had come from France. This is the chassis after I'd straightened it and made new front leg sections. This chassis is a December 44 MB and has been through the French Maltournee rebuild program, MALT 32734 is stamped into a plate welded inside the chassis above the rear axle.
The original body was badly rusted so I bought another tub which looked much better. After removing all the filler, all that was left was some of the dash, a wee bit of floor and acres of patches on top of patches. I decided that the only thing to do was to make most of the tub, I had looked at some repro tubs and I was unimpressed, they were roughly right but many of the wee details were wrong or missing.
I photographed and measured all the MB's that I could. The problem was that they had all been restored and either had repro tubs or guess work in all the usual rust spots. I found that my original tub was the best source of measurements, almost rusted to nothing, but correct.
A typically chaotic mixture of rust, tools and half empty coffee mugs with an inch of grit in the bottom......
To make the rear side panels I burnt out the shape twice from 1/2" steel plate, drilled the holes for the brackets and handles through the plate and ground to size. This meant that making the flanges without distorting the sides was fairly easy. Just put the sheet between the bits of plate, drill the holes, bolt it all together and carefully dress the flanges round.
For the curves on the tool boxes I bent some square section steel and ground it flat, same idea, clamp the sheet between the two curves and form the corner. The thing that would really have been usefull was a proper sheet metal folder or press brake, I didn't have either so I made do with two lengths of 2" angle iron, two vices mounted in line on the bench and lots of wee hardwood blocks to dress the sheet over with.
I have tried to make all the panels in the same manner as the originals, with as many correct details as possible. Folded up from one piece, not several bits welded together. Quite tricky getting the front sides and steps right without "cheating". I couldn't find the correct captive nuts for the wing attachment etc. so I made two sets of simple press tools to fold them up and crimp them into their holes. This kind of thing is very time consuming , but it looks "right" and it makes me happy #:o)
This is the tub almost finished, the only original bits left are some of the dash, most of the hump for the gearbox and some of the brackets. The rest is home made. All this has taken far longer than I would have believed at the start. Hope I didn't make too many glaring mistakes #:o)
I bought a pile of GPA remains some time ago which combined with the mechanical parts from my MB gave me most of the major parts for the running gear. I had to buy another cylinder block and all the usual gears, bearings and seals. Amazing how fast the Visa bill goes up. It's also amazing how badly made most of the repro parts I've bought have been. I'm sure that there are good quality reproduction bits out there, but I haven't seen many. Almost every repro bit I've got has either been returned for a refund or has needed major surgery to make it do it's job. Some bit's like the tool box locks were so bad that I find it hard to believe that anyone would have the cheek to try and sell them. Reproduction should mean exactly that, not cheap and nasty parts that don't fit.
This is how it looked at the end of 1998.
Go to my jeep index page for more jeep stuff
Email me at chaz@goatpark.f9.co.uk