Here are pics of my single original doorway safety strap, now bleached white by 75 years of exposure. The clip is the late-war stamped C-style and the buckle is a tri-bar with rounded corners. Notice that there’s a keeper sewn onto the tri-bar.
In the past it has been difficult to find correct clips and well-made, correct straps. For example, here are straps from a jeep dealer’s ebay site and they are definitely not what I’m looking for. The strap is some crappy synthetic, the clip is wrong for all time periods during WW2, the color is poor and the end of the strap does not have a C-clip like the original.
What I’m going with is the newer strap set from Joe’s Motor Pool. I got the full set pictured below from Ron Fitzptrick and they look quite good. The JMP clips and keepers are incorrect for late-war jeeps. Otherwise, they generally look the part. I have my one original clip and I found another from a fellow G503 forum member.
Here’s my installation. Not perfect for a late-war GPW but the best I can do at this stage until someone begins making straps with the late-war features. My only complaint about the JMP product is that the black powder coating on the hardware scrapes off too easily. In the last photo this can be seen on the C-clip, which has only been passed through the tri-bar a single time.
Here’s the installation of my voltage regulator. It’s the jeep’s original VRY4203G regulator with a February 1945 date. I haven’t touched the internals. My crinkle paint turned out a bit wonky but that’s OK. So were the originals. The data plate is a replica from Robert at dataplates4u. All of the hardware is original and the ground strap is NOS Ford. I have a lead seal and capacitor to add to the VR after I’m sure that the jeep’s charging system is running well. Right now I’m getting 6.4 V on the battery in non-operation and 7.2 V when the engine is at about 1500 rpm. That’s right on spec.
This week I finally installed the fenders and aprons. As I’ve previously documented, both fenders were damaged in several of the many wrecks this poor GPW survived. I haven’t been really happy with my body work on them, but at this point I’ve decided to just move forward. Installation was a challenge at times. Other than the grill, every bit that bolts together was extensively reworked: tub, steps, frame and fenders. The driver’s side fought me the hardest as it has an extra bolt into the top of the frame. The fuel line on late-war jeeps also runs behind the fender and caused some challenges.
Both sides get welting. My fenders had original welting and I’ve replicated the length to match the original. It runs the full length of both the tub and step join. I also added welting to the apron-to-frame tabs.
Here’s the driver’s side. All hardware, including plain, lock and star washers, is original.
Here’s the passenger side.
Here’s the bolt list for the fenders, just for the sake of accuracy, listed per fender. Both left and right fenders take the same bolts, except for the single Fender Apron to Top of Frame bolt on the left side. Most of my bolts are original and are cad-plated.
Fender Brace to Side of Frame – 2 pc 3/8 x 24 NF, 1 3/8 inch long + 2 plain washers + 2 lock washers. These thread into captive nuts welded inside the frame and the bolts should be F-marked.
Fender to Cowl (Tub) – 3 pc 5/16 x 18 NC, 3/4 inch long + 3 plain washers, 3 lock washers, 3 external tooth washers. These thread into captive nuts on the cowl. The SNL states that these bolts are F-marked on earlier GPWs, but my original jeep has all bolts equal and unmarked. There should be welting at this location.
Fender to Step (Tub) – 1 pc 5/16 x 18 NC, 3/4 inch long + 1 hex nut + 1 plain washer, 1 lock washer, 1 external tooth washer. This nut and bolt joins the fender to step, with the nuts inside (under) the step. Like the bolts just above, my late-war GPW has unmarked bolts here. There should be welting at this location.
Fender Apron to Frame – 2 pc 3/8 x 24 NF, 3/4 inch long + 2 plain washers + 2 lock washers + 2 internal/external star washers. These thread into captive nuts welded inside the frame and the bolts should be F-marked, although mine are not. No welting is indicated in the SNL, although I used welting here.
Grill to Fender – 3 pc 5/16 x 18 NC, 5/8 inch long + 3 plain washers and 3 lock washer. These thread into captive nuts welded inside the grill. My late-war GPW has unmarked bolts here. It also has 2 external tooth star washers on the bottom two bolts, but none right up under the fender. The SNL does not call for welting at this location.
Fender Apron to Top of Frame on the driver’s side – 1 pc 5/16 x 24 NF, 3/4 inch long + 1 plain washer + 1 lock washer. No welting at this location is called for, although I used it here.
A while back I wrote about my current problem with jeep lean. It’s caused by connecting the torque reaction spring (TRS) to the short shackles, as seen below. This pulls the new, highly-arced front left spring downwards, causing the front left of the jeep to sit about an inch lower than the front right. Frustrating.
What I decided to do is to make longer torque reaction spring shackles to bridge the gap between the spring pivot bracket and the TRS eye. A normal TRS shackle measures 2 inches eye to eye, but my gap is 4 inches.
Proper TRS shackles are cast and measure 0.610 inches thick at the top, 0.250 in the center, and 0.360 at the bottom. They’re drilled to 0.748 at the top to accept a 0.750 bushing and to 0.563 at the bottom to accept the 9/16 lower bolt.
I used 3/16 (0.187) rolled steel sheet, doubled up and roughed out to the correct shape, then beveled the edges and welded to make the main body. I then added a 1/4 (0.250) disk to add thickness for the top pivot. Using my drill press I drilled 11/16 inch holes in the upper, then used my Dremel to ream out this diameter to 0.748. I then pressed in the bushings and reamed them to to size. The bottom holes were then drilled to 9/16. The holes are 3.75 inches center to center and this will give a small amount of load on the TRS.
Here’s the installation. First came the fitment of the upper bolt. I needed to thin my homemade shackles so that I could get the cotter pin hole in the bolt fully exposed.
Next came the lower bolt, then the keeper.
Overall, I’m happy with the result and it feels like a decent solution. No jeep lean. My homemade shackles are a bit rough and could use some smoothing, but likely only the jeep police will notice. The final result still needs some paint touch up.
Back in April of 2020, after months of poor experiences with Jim’s Antique Auto Battery, I decided to replace the Optima 6V AGM battery in my Willard case. Here’s a link to my prior posts:
I purchased a new Optima from Amazon. With free shipping it came to $188. The obvious first task is the remove the old Optima from the Willard case. I started the repair by removing the cast metal placed on top of each of the Optima’s terminals. These casts prevent the Optima’s terminals from passing down through the plastic cover.
This took a few hours of careful grinding with a dremel, but eventually the soft cast metal came off, exposing the original terminals and allowing the battery to come out. I marked the terminal ends for future reference. I caused some damage to the plastic near the terminals, but this will be covered by washers and the cable clamps.
Next I cut the top of the case open, thinking I could remove the battery from the top. This was a mistake. It would have been better to simply cut the bottom as shown here, but I had no template for the internal construction of the battery. The cuts were made with a naked hacksaw blade and can be made just inside of the vertical box walls. The walls will then guide the blade.
After removing the bottom panel and the dead battery, I super-glued the new battery into the bottom and refit it to the case, gluing with gap filling super glue. I still had to refit the top of the case, so I used gap-filling super glue and then modeling putty.
I cleaned up the top with flat paint for the cells and outer case.
After a bit more sanding and cleanup, I then used gloss paint for the tar-top filler between the cells. We’ll have to see how this holds up when getting hot near the engine and radiator. For now, though, I like how this turned out. The terminals are a bit short, but there’s still a positive connection to the cable clamps. One small addition was the thin two large washers and paint them flat black. These will cover the terminals-to-case holes.
Here’s the final installation. Yep, the terminals are a bit short, but I’m happy with the results.
Restoration of 1945 Ford GPW 270351 