1952 Willys M38: Day 7

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Day 7

Removed Front Fenders, Welded up broken sheetmetal tabs and unused holes, added new nuts to fenders, welded up front tub supports, removed all body mounts, took apart steering box. Ready to remove the tub off frame on day 8

4 comments:

Mihcael JamesJuly 26, 2010 at 8:22 AM
Who's the old guy ?

Am curious: Will you repaint it or keep the original ?

And...how do you deal with the rust ?
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Patrick HJuly 26, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Old Guy is my helper, The paint color will be the original era paint color that came from the Willy's factory in 1952. It's a Semi Gloss OD Green Number 23070. Also I'm keeping the original primer color as well. It was a Red Oxide 111 Primer. The rust isn't to bad, Most of it is cut out and new pieces of sheet metal are welded in its place. There are a few spots of rust that won't be cut out. By hand painting a rust stopper Primer in the area should keep it from traveling.........
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Mihcael JamesAugust 23, 2010 at 4:44 PM
Hello nephew,

The "History" is colorful and informative. Especially the myth dispelling parts.

When you are done may I suggest dinner on me as a celebration with your lovely wife and a couple of others...

On the hood, table cloth, candles and all, parked in front of the Swiss. We'll get dinner to go or convince Hank to have the staff serve us "on the hood" !!!

Let me know.....
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Mihcael JamesAugust 25, 2010 at 7:05 AM
Thinking about this project and the detail with which you are restoring to original parts etc.

Do you strive for 'original' out of purist devotion or does it substantially increase Jeeps value ?

And....what will it be worth once its restored vs. what you paid for it????? !!!!
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HISTORY OF THE JEEP

On September 23, 1940 in response to an Army Invitation For Bids, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, Pa. delivered a prototype vehicle to Camp Holabird for testing. The test vehicle was immediately recognized by the Army as one of the most important and innovative vehicles in the history of modern land warfare. Delivered and tested as Bantam Reconnaissance Car #1001, it was soon thereafter that it's testers dubbed it the "jeep".

Though the design and development of the first prototype jeep was primarily the work of Bantam Car Co., both Willys and Ford later supplied prototypes to the Army also. The Army tested all three designs and combined features of each design into one standardized jeep design. The initial contract for these standardized jeeps, model MB, was awarded to Willys in October, 1941. With the attack on Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter and America's entry into WWII, the Army felt that a second producer of jeeps would be needed. Ford Motor Company was contracted to build standardized jeeps based on the Willys MB design. Ford's designation for their standardized jeeps was model GPW.

A common misconception is that the letters "GPW" stood for General Purpose - Willys, but this is incorrect. The letters "GPW" are from Ford's own vehicle model codes where "G" indicated Government contract, "P" was Ford's code for an 80" wheelbase Reconnaissance Car 4X4, and "W" meant Willys design motor.

Another common misconception is that the name "jeep" was derived from a slurring of the letters "GP", but the word "jeep" was in common usage as early as 1938 - two years before the first jeep appeared. Exactly how the little 4x4 Reconnaissance Car ended up with the name "jeep" has never really been determined.

Willys and Ford went on to produce approximately 650,000 standardized jeeps between November 1941 and August 1945. Ford stopped producing jeeps with the end of WWII, but Willys adoped the jeep name and developed many successful civilian versions of the trusty wartime jeep.

Its simple, robust design gave the WWII jeep a legendary reliability in the field. The jeep served well beyond it's intended purpose acting as not only a Reconnaissance Car, but as weapons platform, ambulance, troop transport, equipment hauler, tractor, railroad locomotive (when fitted with special wheels) and more. The flat hood served equally well as a dinner table, operating table, map table or altar in the field. It was beloved by the troops and remains one of the most recognizable vehicles in the world.

Sources:
T. Norton, R. Bernier, & W. Spears, "Two Intrepid MB/GPW Restorers Go in Search of the Oldest Surviving Jeep." Army Motors 100, (2002): 8-18

Lawrence Nabholtz. The Military Jeep. Atlanta, Texas: B&M Printing, 1996

Ray Cowdery. All-American Wonder, Vol 1,2. Minnesota: USM Publishing, 1996

J. Gilmore, MB GPW Technical Knowledge Base (2002). Available at http://www.g503.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4 (11 January 2003)