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Showing posts from 2012

Envy my Green!

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Been toiling away on the body - bog, sang, bog, sand, bog, sand and so on. Lots of thanks to both Don and Dave for their labour. Once that was done I laid another coat of the pink etch on before a coat of high build primer to pick up sanding marks and things.  After that another sand then green everywhere!  If you look closely at the body you can still pick up imperfections here and there but overall I'm happy with it.  The old girl has certainly had more attention than the real M-38's back in the day would have had.

I've been busy!

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Once again no posts in a while.  That doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything though.  The chassis has been finished and painted: I finished stripping the body tub, etch primed the whole thing and painted the underside and fire wall in olive drab: I stripped all the old paint, primer and underseal with wire brushes, strip discs and sanding discs as sandblasting concerned me in regards to panel distortion and to potential cost. Anyone reading this please just take it to a blaster and deal with what you get. There are so many parts you can't get to without a blaster. This has to have been the most time consuming and least enjoyable part of the build.  In saying that I am happy with how it's come out. Because the body was going to take a while to do, I took it home to deal to it. Today was exciting as it went back to Dons to be sat back on the body and from here on out it shouldn't have to come off again! The M38 foreg

Who would have thought stripping would be boring?

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Took the body tub home to strip over Labour weekend.  Boring and filthy job - I came up looking like I'd been in a coal mine each day!  I'm really pleased with how it's coming up, strip the bed liner and first coats of paint with the heat gun then attack it with an abrasive strip disc back to bare steel.  Tight areas and corners can be slow going with sand paper.  The whole inside of the tub is pretty much done to the top of the firewall.  The outside is all done so just the underside to go.  Hope to knock it out this week.

Kind of a big deal

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I had a local engineer spline up and flange some axles against samples out of Dons '42 that is full floating already.  After a couple of teething issues (and the standard bit of assistance from Don) they're in and the whole drive train is now sealed.  In fact there's nothing really stopping us from going for a cruise in it apart from bleeding up the brakes. I hope to take the body tub home from the workshop to strip and prime it in the next couple of weeks.  The only other big job I can think of apart from panel and paint is the roll cage.  That'll be done before it goes green as I'm sure there will be some scratching involved while we sort that. Sort of coming around on to the home straight.  Exciting stuff!

Looking more like a jeep every week

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Mounted the radiator to the grille by welding some extra strips onto the sides of the radiator shroud.  Filled the gearbox and transfer case and Don did a basic wire up and she fired and ran.  The accelerator pump wasn't working so Don pulled that and cleared a blockage and away it went.  Only negative was I missed a bolt when bolting the transfer to the box so spewed gear oil over the floor! Me discovering and fixing the gear oil leak. Looks more jeepy every day! Below are before and after pics of Dons Willys Pickup - polar opposites!

Still moving forward

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Still been plugging away at it - just not posting as I go.  Brake pipes and hoses have been plumbed, just need to pipe in a hydraulic brake light switch and the brake system is complete.  The throttle linkage is all done (thanks Don!) I have fitted a 12 volt GM style alternator with a minor mod to the adjuster bracket to fit  and also installed a gear reduction starter from a Toyota Land Cruiser that is recommended on a lot of US Jeep sites - all it need to fit was the bolt holes slotting a little.  The fuel pump to carb pipe is in but I still need to route the tank(s) to pump lines. I also finally tracked down a solution to my steering bell crank woes.  I am using a bell crank bracket off an M38A1 that was riveted to the square style cross member the same as what is in my chassis.  I have the round cross member and bracket too but that can go on the back burner as this is a much easier and still very tidy option. The other thing we're working on at the m