New Jeep book
 

New Jeep book out

Attachment 120887

new Jeep book
 

The book's author, Sean Dunnage, is a member of the MLU Forum.

Brian

Review
 

Been reading this book. Overall it is a very good introduction into the WW2 Jeep restoration hobby. There are many colour pics that reveal excellent detail and the descriptions are good. The chapters and sub-chapters are well organized and are easy to follow.

The author isn't concerned with presenting a factory finish rebuild, rather, he has shown us how to do a economy or Motor Pool rebuild. With limited time and a straining budget, he has taken short cuts, but these time saving methods ,do not detract, in a large way, from the overall finished project. For example, he used a new Juan MB chassis and after some deliberation, he fitted a new Juan tub. He describes the usual problems with the bad fitting Juan tub and his own method of 'making it all fit'

One standout error I noticed in the Brakes chapter, there is a pic showing the brake linings fitted the wrong way around. The correct setup is: the longer lining goes towards the front of the vehicle. WW2 Jeep brakes are marginal at the best of times and everything needs to be set up correctly.

A new frame AND a new body? Sounds like a "data plate rebuild" now so common in the WW2 aircraft community :rolleyes

Indeed, see Sean's book plug here: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=32153

Thanks
 

Mike I appreciate the review. If you could post it on Amazon that would great! Every review helps.
As for the brakes that's one photo that slipped by me. I looked at other photos and see that I switched the backing plates in later assembly pictures. Must have noticed it at some point. I also mistakenly called the coil a solenoid at one point. These things will be corrected in the 2nd edition. Thanks to you and any others that point out the mistakes. Much appreciated.

Underwhelmed ...
 

On the strength of Mike Kelly's review, I purchased a copy of Sean's book. It is, just as Sean states, his personal journey to a completed jeep, and good on him for putting it all together in a generally readable tome, which is sometimes enhanced by his use of colloquial expressions and personal views. But be advised: this is not a step-by-step guide for the novice builder. For example, Sean chose not to rebuild the engine, transmission or transfer case, but to have the work done by others (and therefore not provide the step-by-step detail of same), and to buy in major parts such as the entire bodywork and chassis. Even the bolts used throughout were not the original bolts salvaged, cleaned, thread-chased and where appropriate, re-used, but he chose to replace all the bolts with modern bolts and sell the original bolts to others.

I think the only major lesson I took away from reading the book was to avoid the MD Juan body and chassis (frame) parts if at all possible, as these clearly don't fit without a considerable amount of labour and modification. In fact, the largest part of the book seems to be detailing all the rectifications and modifications necessary to make the MD Juan parts fit, and would be quite useful to anyone contemplating using MD Juan parts.

My usual methodology in reading a book such as this is just read and enjoy - it is what it is. However, in this case, I soon began marking the errors I was encountering with orange tabs. These fall into a couple of categories: factual errors including mis-identification of parts which would possibly prove quite puzzling to a novice or would-be jeep builder, and editing errors such as incorrect spelling and grammatical errors. You can see from the image below that I've 'tagged' many places throughout the book - in my opinion, far too many. One aspect that I found a little aggravating was the use of 'Jeep' throughout, rather than 'jeep', the spelling with a capital 'J' being a registered trade-mark of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles NV, manufacturers of the current-day Jeep range.

Would I recommend this book to a friend, especially someone wanting to get into restoration of a jeep? Probably not.

Mike

Mistakes were made
 

First I like the honest review. Much appreciated.

I made mistakes in the volume for sure that I will freely admit. In some cases the labelling of a part incorrectly is generally my brain thinking of something else while typing. I do have thought process issues but that's no excuse. But I did try to recruit a few of knowledgeable "Jeep People" to go over the book before I sent it to the publisher not one wanted to be involved since I am basically a nobody in the restoration world (won't reveal who said that) or they just didn't have the time so I was left with what I have. Again this is on me and I should have tried other avenues of editing.

I'll say here what I have told others. If there is something that needs to be corrected let me know. I already have a number of misspelled words/wrong descriptions etc. so any that have been missed should be added for the second printing.

Thanks and happy jeepin'
Sean Dunnage

more
 

We have to go back to the beginning, when each of us a were looking to rebuild a jeep from a bunch of assorted jeep bits, not knowing what went where and even how to do up a bolt. As novice restorers, we didn't know one end of a Jeep from the other. Sean's book is aimed at the newcomer , but still, I picked up many tips and useful ideas from the book.

Is the book worth the money? For a novice WW2 jeep person, absolutely it is. I dearly wish I had a book like this when I first bought a MB Jeep. instead, I jumped into the deep without any basic knowledge and bumbled along making mistakes as I went.

I can name a few highly regarded Jeep owners , who have fitted Juan repro bodies .

P.S. Yes there a few errors but overall, there is a good of useful information in the book.

Thanks Mike
 

Very much appreciate the support.