I have recently purchased, for better or not, a '42-'43 GPW with a
Willys engine and a repro tub purchased from an outfit in Calif.
manufactured in the Phillippines.
An older fellow with no experience put it together and I have had to
tear it appart. I don't know how many holes came drilled, but I
suspect only the dashboard and the frame mounts.
I have had to reposition the windshield and now it looks good. I have
had to remount the top bows and mounts. I suspect the builder just
wasn't observent enough. The second biggest problem I have had is on
the repro body the floor re-enforcement channels were just filled with
foam and when the builder overtightend the bolts he squashed the rails
badly. I have taken the body off and am in the process of pulling
them out. I am planning on welding pieces of pipe into them so that
the rails will not collapse.
This leads me to my greatest problem. The steering wheel position!!!
I'll bet you've heard this before!
I hope after straightening out the body rails I will influence the
steering position enough, but I'm not sure and I won't be surprised if
I have to trim the top off the dash to lift the steering mount.
I have only one GPW ('42) in the area to compare with. An old
rustbucket which has never been apart. It has no body mount pads, the
one I have has pads, and it needs them. If anyone cares to do some
measureing which would help me to determine acceptable tolerences:
> bottom of dash to floor 13"
> bottom of dash to top of dash 8 1/4"
> (measured to right of steering relief)
> floor to top of dash 21 1/4"
> front of cowl to dash roughly 13 1/4
I also need to know what size the body mounting bolts are supposed to
be. The fellow who put it together used a 7/16" bolt on 10 spots.
You can see pictures of the jeep at
http://www.HWY56.COM/bobsbuicks/mbls6x8.jpg
http://www.hwy56.com/background/jeep.jpg
Thank you,
Bob
British WWWII http://www.hwy56.com/warlinks
Jack Cull, a British 8th Army soldier in N. Africa, Italy, and Yugoslavia
http://www.hwy56.com/jackcull/
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