Wusty Welic ... wonderful!

[m606paz]

Congrats!

British army jeep configuration??

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Mike,
That will keep you occupied for a little while!

[Mike Cecil]

Assessing just what I've got myself into. Placed Wusty onto a drop-sheet in the workshop to catch all the crud (tech term for grease, oils, penetrating oils, rust, dirt, rats nests - you get the drift) and started from the front. Some parts are beyond redemption, such as the grill and left fender, but most can be refurbished with a bit of TLC. The engine has a post-war CJ2 block so I'll be on the hunt for a GPW block to replace it. So if anyone has one out in their discard pile, let me know, please.

The vast majority of nuts and bolts come undone with ease. These are mostly genuine 'F' bolts - a further indication that not much has been tampered with other than the engine change. Body will need major surgery, as the rust has eaten much of the floor, but the inside of the gearbox looks pristine. More later ...

Mike

[Mike Cecil]

Reduced To Components ... now I have a much better idea of what I can recover versus what I will need to replace.

The biggest bit I'd like to replace is the engine block, as it has a post-war CJ replacement block with an engine number prefix '4LR'. Anyone in MLU-land got a spare GPW 'short' engine they would like to sell?

Many nuts and bolts came apart with relative ease, which is a good thing as these are mostly original F embossed. Other items took considerable work using heat plus wax or WD40 to get apart. A few needed more drastic and destructive effort. Overall, more plusses than minuses.

(Sorry about the images being sideways: I tried rotating them before upload, but they still came out on the side.)

Mike

[Howard]

Great stuff, Mike!

[Mike Cecil]

The original chassis was badly rusted, so I've decided to use the second chassis supplied as part of the deal. This one, of a similar manufacturing time period, was repairable, but needed lots of work, particularly to the front and rear sections. I had to rebuild the front dumb irons, removing the previous repairs and fabricating replacement sections. Same with the drivers side rear spring support, which had to have a short section of the chassis rail replaced. Likewise the rear spring supports needed the old repairs removed, and new sections fabricated and welded in, along with a new cross member and pintle attaching plate. The brake & clutch pedal shaft support bracket and bearing were also replaced. In contrast to working on the Ford GP, all the items needed for the GPW are readily available. So the chassis is now ready to be sand blasted once the weather improves.



Mike

[Mike Cecil]

I've been busy with little things - stripping, sandblasting, painting, wrapping and storing ready to assemble later as I need them for the build phase.

The engine strip down was tedious as the internals were rusted and fought me all the way. The valves in contact with the valve seats were well rusted together, and the valve guides have taken quite a bit of pressure before that ominous 'crack' that indicates the first little bit of movement. Two of the exhaust guides refuse to budge, so I'm having a drift made so I can use the 20 ton press.

The surprise was the state of the bores - no lip at all, not a hint, so the engine had not done much work since being built. Bearings were all standard, too, but the builder had not done too good a clean before assembly, and some are scored.

It appears the engine had ceased to turn over, and was abandoned in that state. The cause turned out to be a jammed tappet - half had broken away, and upon rotation, had dropped the tappet against the cam lobe. The image below shows the broken tappet on the right and the score across the cam lobe. Fortunately, it seems the engine was not running at the time, as there is no other damage evident. Hopefully, it won't need a new camshaft. So with some care, the engine should rebuild nicely.

Mike