Wonderful project. But alarm bells went off in my head when I saw the picture of the helper, wearing gloves, holding a part to be drilled while the author held the drill centimeters away from the helper's gloved hands. I hope that was just for illustration purposes. pic: https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/Scre...
I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#32Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can build a Citroën 2CV from scratch with entirely new parts - almost - because someone somewhere makes what you need. About the only mechanical component you can't buy is the gearbox "bucket", presumably because nobody ever breaks those. You can actually get various gearbox upgrades for them which is worth it if you daily one, because the mainshaft nut can slacken off and get you jammed in gear.
> get you jammed in gear Terrifying prospect. What are your options in that situation? Would turning off the ignition have any effect?
Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Howdy! This is Matt from The Autopian. I talked to David about this and we'll have it for you soon. We've been doing the math and it's kinda hilarious. Obviously, we were proving a point with this video but it's not... the most efficient way to do this.
Another big point of curiosity for me is registration--it clearly doesn't have a CA number plate, but there was a big red "3" on a laminated card in the spare.. what is that? How do you go about titling and registering a brand new body + frame?
For military equipment you usually need the original frame (or part of it with stamps) because it has serial numbers stamped on it for the DMV to go by when registering.
Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#35Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another big point of curiosity for me is registration--it clearly doesn't have a CA number plate, but there was a big red "3" on a laminated card in the spare.. what is that? How do you go about titling and registering a brand new body + frame?
Typically in the US you get a donor firewall from a registerable vehicle that has the VIN plate. This is pretty common for things like civilian jeeps, chevrolet C10 pickups and a few other American cars/trucks that have complete bodies you can buy in the aftermarket. For military equipment you usually need the original frame (or part of it with stamps) because it has serial numbers stamped on it for the DMV to go by…
Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
My late great uncle was in the RAF during WW2 and was at the liberation of Belson. I remember him saying that the RAF buried Spitfire engines, so it's definitely a real practice.
The terms of the lend lease agreement meant that Britain only had to pay for the equipment it kept after the war. So in some cases they were pushing aircraft of the deck of carriers into the sea so they didn’t have to pay for them.
Re: I Built the Only 2026 WWII Jeep
#38The important point is "from as much ebay parts as possible" because I suspect there are still "jeep in a crate" boxes where all you have to do is remove the Cosmolene (this is undoubtedly not all you have to do btw)
On a slightly newer time scale there are always firearm collectors searching for something impossible to acquire now, but which might have been acquired at some point in the past and squirreled away in its factory original box in the cosmoline. Like somebody who might have purchased an imported Egyptian Maadi AKM (locally made AK47 variant) in 1982, then never unpacked it for whatever reason. People collect these thi…