M38a1 CDN2 - Winter Project

[Wayne Hingley]

I know the mounting plate in the centre of the crossmember is for a MG pedestal, so I guess the frame brackets are for the side braces. I'm m just wondering why they are not symmetrical? Perhaps the left side is designed for the extra weight of the ammunition...?

[Wayne Hingley]

I made some progress today on my wiring harness. I went over the entire main section of the wiring harness and repaired some connectors and damaged wires/insulation. Overall it was in quite good condition. Most of the attention was needed in the sections leading to the tail lights. Of course that area gets a lot of water and mud off the rear wheels. After making the repairs, I re-taped the entire harness. I still have a box of short sections of wires to go through in the same manner. It feels good to get that bit out of the way.

[Wayne Hingley]

This jeep went through a rebuild (life extension), in I believe 1981. During that process there were many prefabricated body panels and other reinforcing components added to this vehicle. I was under the impression that these panels might have been added to cover up rusted out sections of the body, but after removing several of them I see that the body sections under the panels are actually in quite good condition. These panels were all riveted and glued in place. The body was sandblasted before the panels were installed, and the glue kept everything sealed so well that the sandblasted sections have not even rusted since 1981! Below are some photos of the panels and the body sections. Obviously I have more body work to complete in the coming weeks.

I even found a small spot of original semi-gloss OD paint hidden under a pannel in the back corner.

[Wayne Hingley]

Some more photos of the side and rear corner panels:

[Wayne Hingley]

There was a replacement floor brace section that was riveted on over the original (which had some rust issues). I exposed the original floor brace, cut out the rusted section along with the floor section that was also rusted, and prepared it for a new floor patch and floor brace (I can reuse the replacement that the CF installed). Im waiting until after sandblasting to replace the floor and brace.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Looking very good! I'll bet the CF never took the body off to do those rear corner patches.

[Wayne Hingley]

Originally Posted by maple_leaf_eh

Looking very good! I'll bet the CF never took the body off to do those rear corner patches.

Thanks Terry. They actually did have the body off, and they did quite a lot of work to the floor braces etc. Its obvious that they were doing things in a production environment though... lots of goo-type filler, rivets and some rough edges. But thats stuff that I will play with, and get it nice and neat!