Honoring a veteran - '42 GPW

David Egerton gets down to nuts and bolts with an army classic.

At first glance it may have looked like a navy jeep, but it wasn't. It was the work of a U.S. Air Force mechanic who turned the old Ford Jeep into his personal beach Jeep. Though the body and the frame matched, the old army jeep sported a CJ hood, grill, civilian tires and had its back end cut out. 

"It was totally civilianized," said David Egerton of Westchester County, New York. We ran into him at the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's World War II Weekend in Reading, Pennsylvania. "I had to take it right down to the frame," David noted.

Significant parts of the body had to be welded or cut out - David's desire was to restore the jeep to as close to vintage as possible. The bottom of the body was coated in tar for protection and that had to be scrapped off. He thinks that could have been a military means of weather proofing. 

"The story I got was that this was on a military base out in California," David said. He purchased the jeep from a guy who brought it back east. 

Under the hood was a Willys slat-grill engine that didn't run very well. "There was something wrong with it so I wanted to get rid of that. So I ended up finding a Ford block," said David. He overhauled the new engine and sleeved the cylinders to bring them back down to zero and hardened the valves for the use of regular unleaded gasoline without any additive.

The GPW's sandblasted frame in a photo from David's
personal album. (Click to enlarge)

The GPW's frame-up restoration averaged approximately three years. "I had some help," David told us, "I had a buddy that's a mechanic. He worked on school buses for like 25 years; so he knew vehicles inside and out." Over weekends David, who has learned quite a lot about his Jeep, would work on the truck with help from some friends. "Another guy was from France," explained David. "He was a very detailed-oriented person, he did all the research: going to the websites, finding out the particular parts [I] needed." David worked with a chart that showed all of the f-script bolts on the jeep. "I made sure that every bolt on this that is supposed to be f-script is f-script." David is adamant that everything on his GPW is true to the period and the Ford-made vehicles.

David's pristine engine compartment.

David explained some of the history of the GPW's production. Ford Motor Co. lost the original bidding to produce the Jeep for the United States government to Willys. Later though, the government contracted Ford to reproduce the Willys designed Jeeps. "The government turned around and said, 'you're gunna make the Willys Jeep,'" David said. "Everything about it is the design of Willys. The engine block is the same engine block." He also noted that GPW is derived from three pieces of information. First, "G" stands for Government Vehicle. "P" is a designation of the length of the wheel-base and "W" symbolizes the Willys design.

The GPW also sports accurate stencils.

In the three-year restoration the '42 GPW saw a nearly complete transformation. The gas tank, located directly under the driver's seat-cushin, needed some work and David cut out the bottom and used POR 15 to coat the tank to prevent rust from getting in the gas. "It's been very clean ever since," he said. David also stripped down his axles and replaced several gears as well as the seals. He used a POR 15 putty to mend a crack in his steering wheel that when sanded down looks original. To complete his rebuild David found a guy in England that makes a canvas product that actually fades like the originals and topped off the GPW's rebuild (literally). 

David noted that the military painted fittings that needed oil or
grease red for easy maintenance. 

Also a key part of finishing the '42 were the stencils. David used Rick Larsen of militarystencils.com who, he says, will not just sell you stencils but will first ask which theater you were in, what year and other details before suggesting specific fonts and other elements, like a U.S. star. He certainly spared no detail in period accuracies. The GPW features not only the correct bridge plate, but also an inspection tag on the radiator and an inspection stamp on the carburetor in addition to small Ford stickers on the windshield. But the GPW's intricate detail doesn't stop there. Every fitting on the Jeep that would require oil has been painted red just as the military would have done. The idea being that any soldier could be easily told to oil or grease any part of the Jeep that was marked red.

David poses with his Jeep at the 2014 Mid-Atlantic
Air Museum's World War II Weekend.

Other than simply enjoying what he's done; what has cultivated David's profound appreciation of his GPW? Although he belongs to the 2nd Rangers reenacting troop, the '42 has been painstakingly refurbished to recreate a Jeep from the 2nd Armored Divison, 702nd Tank Destroyers, Company B - the division David's father, George Egerton, served in during the second World War.

From marking fittings that need grease to an entire frame-up restoration, David's 1942 GPW Jeep his been refurbished to a surprisingly period-correct condition. It is an impressive memorial to a veteran.


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