Nice new floor.

Piece by piece it’s taking shape. The rusty old floor is in the skip and this lovely new one is now in place, Matt went to great lengths to point out that it would be far better to get the whole tub sand blasted and weld to bare metal, but I wanted to retain the patina of old paint underneath the new paint I shall apply next Spring. Therefore, it was out with the grinder to clean up the metal for welding. With the new floor now in, the body is not far off being complete and the next task is to get the chassis and all it’s components up to scratch before refitting the body.

Measure twice, cut once.

The Matt Savage team have now started work and removed the old, rusty, floor section. I went back to Jeeparts and lashed out a fortune on a whole Land Rover full of bits. The biggest bit was a new floor panel. This should fit in perfectly once the chaps have hacked out the original 1943 spot welds and tidied up the edge of the floor.

They found a few little wasp nests around the vehicle. These are genuine Californian wasps and one or two were sort of flying about and about 3/4 of an inch long. Hope this sort spell of warm weather we're having doesn't wake them all up! ahhhhh

Collecting the Jeep

I have always had an unhealthy fascination with 4x4 vehicles. I bought my first Land Rover aged 19, a 1948 model, which I still have today, in good running order. A 1970 Carawagon followed 10 years ago which, in extensively modified form, I have travelled North Africa in. Now it is time to get the granddaddy of them all. A war time Jeep. Mousing around on ebay and millweb I soon realised they were pretty expensive and that unrestored examples were rare. Particular war time ones. Despite manufacturing half a million, most seem to have either been blown up, or destroyed by nature over the last 60 years. As a last resort I tried some old Landy contacts, AMD Four Wheel Drive, here in Leicestershire. They had one that suited my needs perfectly at a reasonable £3500. It didn't run and had been imported from sunny California. A deal was struck and I collected it from the barn of the 'A' in AMD' who expressed a strong desire for his photo not to appear on any web site. So that's him looking like George Clooney! I then trailered the Jeep up to Matt's place in Matlock, where we gave it a good look over and planned a restoration. Follow it on this blog over the coming months and if you happen to have a set of original wheels I would be VERY happy to hear from you. Likewise any other hints and tips. many thanks. Toby