Rebuild Page 2

The rebuild continues. The following photos were received on 1/3/04; Bob is not wasting any time in this project to get it finished.

As these photos show attention to detail is everything in this restoration. I mentioned the use of new bolts in one of Bob's previous projects, here you can see the under bonnet detail being picked out in their own paint jobs. Starter motor, magneto and exhaust manifold have all received the paint treatment, while the coil and distributor have been cleaned. New oil lines have been attached (for those not in the know, those are the shiny steel braided tubes seen sticking up at the front of the engine).

Update received 9/3/04. The body has now been moved into the workshop. This is it mid way prepared for painting.

And here it is ready for the first lick of paint. When it is finished, this Jeep is going to have a finish as smooth as a baby's bottom! The picture on the left shows the Ford script that makes this Jeep special.

13/3/04 Now here's a rarity. It's me, dressed in blue, on the wrong side of the camera, actually rubbing down the bodywork. It didn't last long though, but it did help speed up the preparation prior to the coat of red oxide being applied. Geoff is the bodywork expert who sorted out most of the blemishes in the body, and persuaded Bob to red oxide the body to make it more resistant to rusting. Normal matt top coat is porous so either red oxide primer is needed, or paint a gloss coat on top of the primer, followed by the matt paint. The gloss stops water getting to the metal.

While we were working on the body, Bob was putting all the bits back on the engine like the oil filter and new radiator hoses. The oil filter was missing when the Jeep was sent over from the States. The previous owner had simply blocked off the pipes that feed into the filter. Who knows what damage this could have done to the oil seals. The radiator was put in place after receiving two coats of paint. The first was black until Bob was told the early Ford radiators were painted the same colour as the body, hence the second and final coat as you see it. The body received its green top coat and was bolted back on the chassis. The bolts used to hold the parts together, as far as possible, are scripted bolts, in other words the Ford F is stamped into the head of each bolt.