Restoration 2

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The last page was really just about the tub which has been the biggest single job in this rebuild. This page is about some of the wee stuff.

The repair of the damaged chassis was fairly straight forward. I pulled it square with a "Porta Power". The impact was right in the centre of the front bumper and had damaged both legs and the tube crossmember. The legs had been replaced badly at some time in the past, from the tube forward, so I made new sections using the rusted chassis as a template for the shape. The tube was bent and dented, so I pulled it straight and then cut the front off it, dressed it all to shape and welded it back together, looks OK now. All the measurements are within 1/8" of the rusted chassis and the TM . The front bumper is a repro part with the ends altered to the correct profile.

The steering box was a disaster as the photo shows. I have 5 boxes and used all 5 to get enough bit's for one good box. I've got two types of box. The Willys/Ross ones with a rib cast into the housing and a square plug for lubrication. The Ford type has no rib and has a nipple instead of the plug. The boxes with nipples were OK, the plugged boxes were all full of rust. The boxes are all supposed to have the square plug although I have heard others mention boxes with nipples, so perhaps Ford boxes all had nipples, or perhaps it's just a GPA thing??

The gearbox had got water in it at some time over the years so the gears and bearings were rusted and useless. I used "selected components" from the GPA pile and new bearings and seals to rebuild it. There were a few things that needed tweaking to ensure it lives for more than a few miles. The front bearing was not held in place correctly by the front casting, it could "float" forward a couple of millimeters, untill the bearing snap ring touched the inside of the casing. A steel shim sorted that out. The pin to locate the thrust washer for the laygear was too short so a piece of 1/8" drill shank replaced it. It works OK, although the syncro action is a bit slow and you will crunch the gears if you're in too much of a hurry....

I guess I get carried away sometimes. I had a nice but U/S GPW coil that I didn't want to throw out, so I bought a new 6 volt coil and rebuilt the Ford coil with the new innards and a old style narrow Lucas bakelite tower with the "Lucas" wording polished off. The coil was just full of tar rather than oil filled. It is now oil filled.Unfortunately I couldn't find a brown tower so the black Lucas one will just have to do for the meantime.

The radiator was all bashed, the steel bits had gone the same was as the body and the core was falling to bits. I ordered a new repro rad. which was fine, well made etc. But it didn't look right, it had a modern core and the top tank pressing wasn't right. So I took my rad. to my "tame" radiator shop and had him dismantle it. I dressed out all the brass bits and made a new fan shroud and frame. Took the pile of bit's back to the rad. shop for reassembly. This is it ready for a very light grit blast and paint. It cost more than the new rad. but it's correct and won't annoy me every time I see it.

Go to my jeep index page for more jeep stuff

Email me at chaz@goatpark.f9.co.uk