All American Rat's Jeep

This poor beast is a hybred.  We found it sitting on the side of the road with a "For Sale" sign on it.  Rat said "Hunny, we can use it up north to run the trails with".  Well, that lasted for as long as it took to take it up north.  On the way up there one of the wheels decided to self destruct and as he was climbing around under it he discovered that although titled as a Willys it was actually a Ford.  Well guys, you know how that goes - it has to be restored!!  This is the first of the military projects we tried.  Thank goodness for the Supply Line Magazine, we found almost everything we needed to do the restoration in there.  (The Supply Line is a bimonthly publication provided for free to members of the MVPA)

After attempting to weld patches on the rust, Rat broke down and bought a new tub from Peter Debella.  The tub dropped right onto the frame with very little adjusting,  but for some reason the French reproductions need to have new holes drilled for most of the fittings and brackets.  Not a big deal, just a p.i.t.a. (that's pain in the a** to the uninformed)

Financial embarassment contributed to some of the home-made detailing on the Jeep at this point, ie: the windshield frame and the seats.  Got to admit though, those seats were alot more comfortable than the original ones he has now.  Rat made his out of foam rubber and naughahyde, the 'real' ones are canvas and horsehair, not much padding there - LOL.  These pictures are with the old patched body.  I thought he did a really good job on it, but you know how you guys are....He knew the patches were there so it had to be replaced.  And people like Jim Gilmore didn't help any either, LOL (sorry Jim, you notice too much!).  As soon as I find a scanner to use I'll post the latest pictures of the 'finished' (are they ever really finished?) vehicle.

Even with his careful attention to detail, some of the welds just couldn't be made totally invisible (as you can see around the wheel well).  And, even though you can't tell from these pictures, the tailgate was welded shut with a piece of 1/4 inch plate (not our doing, it came that way).

Here you can see why Rat wanted to replace the tub.  I don't know how we kept from falling thru the floor sometimes.  That awful red fire extingusher has been since replaced with an original brass one, unfortunatly the white boot on the shifter is the only color that the replacements come in (can anyone explain that one to me??)

Well, that's all for now.  Come back often, I'll be posting more pictures soon.

Music too loud? Right click and adjust the volumn. The song playing is 'Rum and Coca-cola' , the Andrews Sisters made it popular back in 1942