1943 Willys Jeep

[Bertotti]

The

It really means nothing - nothing really means anything - but I have trouble calling it slang for many penises.

blizzard the 16 hour day yesterday to Rochester and back to SD and 0400 today has my head mushy and then I read this. More mushy! Hahhaha hope your weather is better up there than mine over here! But I doubt it!

 

[19MGB76]

Not too bad here. Shoveled 3 inches an hour ago. Supposed to top out around 18".
Roads were nasty here last night. 2 inches of hard snow and a 30mph wind from the west iced up all the rural roads. My 12 minute drive to rehearsal took 30 minutes in my Jeep.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Called in at my Dad's house on the way back from this weekends gigs - He's been busy! The front wings are back on, the new bonnet (hood for our American viewers ) has been test fitted, the spare wheel mount has been fitted to the new bonnet and the wheel has been test fitted. The support stays from the front bumper to the front wings have been made and test fitted and the ammunition box has been fitted to the drivers side wing.


The drivers side machine gun mount has been test fit:



And the 2 front Fuel tanks are fitted - If you look at the tank on the right, you can see the hatch that we've cut in the top (Currently secured with wing nuts). The inside of the tank has been lined with wood and it will be serving as a tool box for those long road trips where something inevitably brakes) :

 

[Redliner]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. I like the fuel tank storage idea.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

It should work out well! If you look at the above photo, there are 2 storage areas in each rear corner. Unfortunately, we're going to lose access to these as there was 2 large auxiliary fuel tanks fitted on top - This hidden compartment should help us gain some of that back

 

[cielski]

The

blizzard the 16 hour day yesterday to Rochester and back to SD and 0400 today has my head mushy and then I read this. More mushy! Hahhaha hope your weather is better up there than mine over here! But I doubt it!

Not too bad here. Shoveled 3 inches an hour ago. Supposed to top out around 18".
Roads were nasty here last night. 2 inches of hard snow and a 30mph wind from the west iced up all the rural roads. My 12 minute drive to rehearsal took 30 minutes in my Jeep.

California got most of our snow this year. We've only had one decent snowfall so far. Of course, thsi is Indiana, in March, so anything could happen, weather-wise.

Called in at my Dad's house on the way back from this weekends gigs - He's been busy! The front wings are back on, the new bonnet (hood for our American viewers ) has been test fitted, the spare wheel mount has been fitted to the new bonnet and the wheel has been test fitted. The support stays from the front bumper to the front wings have been made and test fitted and the ammunition box has been fitted to the drivers side wing.
View attachment 203353

The drivers side machine gun mount has been test fit:

View attachment 203354

And the 2 front Fuel tanks are fitted - If you look at the tank on the right, you can see the hatch that we've cut in the top (Currently secured with wing nuts). The inside of the tank has been lined with wood and it will be serving as a tool box for those long road trips where something inevitably brakes) :

View attachment 203355

I never was too comfortable sitting on a gas tank. The VC would put a piece of inner tube around a hand grenade, then pull the pin, and drop it into an unattended jeep's tank. It could've been out in the middle of nowhere, or in a ammo dump, have a general sitting in it, or in a crowded area with a lot of people around. Booby traps---AKA IEDs---aren't fun.

Not the surprise that anyone wants.

Your restoration is coming along nicely.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

I never was too comfortable sitting on a gas tank. The VC would put a piece of inner tube around a hand grenade, then pull the pin, and drop it into an unattended jeep's tank. It could've been out in the middle of nowhere, or in a ammo dump, have a general sitting in it, or in a crowded area with a lot of people around. Booby traps---AKA IEDs---aren't fun.

Really can't be a pleasant experience - The additional tank under the passenger seat was an additional mod done by the SAS. They just cut a hole through the floor and fitted the extra tank but this modification was discontinued after a couple of jeeps exploded when the unprotected fuel tank was hit in combat. Very, very dangerous stuff.

 

[cielski]

Really can't be a pleasant experience - The additional tank under the passenger seat was an additional mod done by the SAS. They just cut a hole through the floor and fitted the extra tank but this modification was discontinued after a couple of jeeps exploded when the unprotected fuel tank was hit in combat. Very, very dangerous stuff.

Think about the "bomb" you're sitting on when riding a motorcycle, or in an old pickup truck with the tank behind the seat. I've heard that the explosive force of a gallon of gas (petrol to those of you across the pond) is equal to 5 sticks of dynamite. Ford had a car that'd explode when rear ended. Seems that every car that goes over a cliff in a movie is required to burst into flame as well.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Busy few weeks away gigging at the weekends and I've spent the last few days starting to record an album with an American friend of mine (more on that later). Tonight, we test fit the rear armor plate!

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Some more progress today - The rear gun mount was fitted by Dad and Iain this morning before I arrived. We also fitted the front gun mount and armour plate. Once the gun mounts were fitted, it was time to test fit the guns. Unfortunately, the struts between the twin machine guns that were supplied with the guns were too wide to fit in the gun mounts. After some measuring, cutting and grinding, we managed to get them to fit as they should. Photos below:

 

[BrianW]

Looking good! And dangerous ;-)

Have fun!

 

[cielski]

How much weight have you added?
Just extra passengers would slow a Jeep down a lot.
May not be fast, but it is dangerous!

 

[Rob_Brindley]

How much weight have you added?
Just extra passengers would slow a Jeep down a lot.
May not be fast, but it is dangerous!

The 2 rear pieces of armour plate are about 35kg each - plus the guns and the mounts, I suspect we're somewhere in the region of 175kg at the minute. There's still the front armour plate, aero screens, armoured grill and rear fuel tanks to add so I think we'll be around 250kg total at the end... You're right - Speed will definitely not be our strongest feature.

 

[cielski]

Top speed on a basic WWII Jeep with just the driver was 40 MPH. Not bad for a 40 hp. 4 cyl. Go Devil engine. They estimated that you'd lose 5 mph for every passenger added (100 Kg. each). Of course, you're going for a replica of a Desert Rats Jeep so that's a whole different animal. I didn't realize that they had that much armor plating or were that heavily armed.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Top speed on a basic WWII Jeep with just the driver was 40 MPH. Not bad for a 40 hp. 4 cyl. Go Devil engine. They estimated that you'd lose 5 mph for every passenger added (100 Kg. each). Of course, you're going for a replica of a Desert Rats Jeep so that's a whole different animal. I didn't realize that they had that much armor plating or were that heavily armed.

The desert jeeps were heavily armed, but the armour plate wasn't fitted to them - this was reserved for the European theatre.

We're hoping to have it at a show on Sunday next week - Eek! Lots to do. Tonight, I've started to create a font to make the stencils. Previously, my Dad has always used layers and layers of masking tape on a chopping board. He then used metal or wooden stencils to draw the letters on the masking tape before cutting them out with a modelling knife. Now it's my time to help with technology... I have access to a vinyl printer at work so I have scanned the stencils that we're planning to use and have set about creating a font. Once I've finished drawing the letters and created the font, we'll be able to type whatever numbers / letters we like and cut it out of masking vinyl - saving hours of work!

The plan is to get the body painted this weekend and then do the stencils on Friday / Saturday next week in time for the show. Hopefully the weather is on our side - Fingers crossed!

 

[cielski]

The desert jeeps were heavily armed, but the armour plate wasn't fitted to them - this was reserved for the European theatre.

We're hoping to have it at a show on Sunday next week - Eek! Lots to do. Tonight, I've started to create a font to make the stencils. Previously, my Dad has always used layers and layers of masking tape on a chopping board. He then used metal or wooden stencils to draw the letters on the masking tape before cutting them out with a modelling knife. Now it's my time to help with technology... I have access to a vinyl printer at work so I have scanned the stencils that we're planning to use and have set about creating a font. Once I've finished drawing the letters and created the font, we'll be able to type whatever numbers / letters we like and cut it out of masking vinyl - saving hours of work!

The plan is to get the body painted this weekend and then do the stencils on Friday / Saturday next week in time for the show. Hopefully the weather is on our side - Fingers crossed!

View attachment 205133

Many European theater Jeeps had a 5 foot tall piece of 1 " angle iron fitted to the front bumper to catch thin wire strung across the roads meant to decapitate the occupants.
I do like your attention to detail!

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Many European theater Jeeps had a 5 foot tall piece of 1 " angle iron fitted to the front bumper to catch thin wire strung across the roads meant to decapitate the occupants.
I do like your attention to detail!

Some of the enginuity shown during the war was truly staggering. It's amazing what simple and practical ideas they had to modify existing vehicles / objects to suit a new problem. Look at the floating tanks for the Normandy invasion or the chain flailing mine sweeping tanks, the bouncing bomb etc...

In other news, we should have the front armour plate and armoured screens arriving today. If everything is ok, we'll get them fitted this weekend before paint.

It looks like we wont receive the rear fuel tanks or armoured grille in time for next weeks show, but we can add those in easily at any point after. Will post photos as we go.

 

[cielski]

Some of the enginuity shown during the war was truly staggering. It's amazing what simple and practical ideas they had to modify existing vehicles / objects to suit a new problem. Look at the floating tanks for the Normandy invasion or the chain flailing mine sweeping tanks, the bouncing bomb etc...

In other news, we should have the front armour plate and armoured screens arriving today. If everything is ok, we'll get them fitted this weekend before paint.

It looks like we wont receive the rear fuel tanks or armoured grille in time for next weeks show, but we can add those in easily at any point after. Will post photos as we go.

Some of the most ingenious creations were made in the field, not just back behind the lines. The wire cutter I mentioned was one, the hedgerow cutters fitted to the front of tanks were made in the field, and the simple idea of taping two magazines together to allow a very quick reload. Lots of mods were made to aircraft by mechanics in the field as well. Most, if not all, of the mods you're doing were made by guys in the field and not at HQ.

 

[Redliner]

That looks great, can't wait to see how it looks when done. Been to the WW2 weekends that are held at the Reading Airport outside of Reading, PA a couple of times. Don't think have ever seen one with that much firepower attached to it.

 

[Rob_Brindley]

Some of the most ingenious creations were made in the field, not just back behind the lines. The wire cutter I mentioned was one, the hedgerow cutters fitted to the front of tanks were made in the field, and the simple idea of taping two magazines together to allow a very quick reload. Lots of mods were made to aircraft by mechanics in the field as well. Most, if not all, of the mods you're doing were made by guys in the field and not at HQ.

Absolutely! The original desert SAS Jeeps were mostly built with scavenged parts and whatever else they could find. I'm sure the first .50 cal mounted to a jeep came from a crashed Boston aircraft.

That looks great, can't wait to see how it looks when done. Been to the WW2 weekends that are held at the Reading Airport outside of Reading, PA a couple of times. Don't think have ever seen one with that much firepower attached to it.

I always wanted to go to that show! I know a guy out in Pennsylvania who owns a P-51 and he used fly at that show regularly. I think he took his Spitfire out there a few times, too.



The armour plate for the front arrived this morning. Will post a few pics over the weekend as we work.