Canadian M151A2 Restoration

[Scott Bentley]

So, after a week or two of poking around i've finally put this thing an a position to go to work on it. Remarkably, it only really took 2 days at a very relaxed pace to get it from "streetable" into the position you see here. Nice thing is I can move it around and flip it over fairly easily solo.



The pics don't really do any justice. I'm still shocked at the lack of rust on this nearly 40 year old Jeep. Aside from a 6" x 2" area in the hat channel under the drivers side floor, there is no appreciable rust on this little fella. The Ziebart obviously did a great job protecting it. Everything you see is very light surface rust. Sadly the bulk of my work is focused on fixing the back corners where some bozo used the lifting rings to recover it (with impunity) and bent the corners out, and a split in rear corner seam from what looks like some damage from jack knifing a trailer. The rest is really cosmetic, like straightening the lip along the lower edge of the body and cleaning up where the "Re-mil" repair took place.

Now comes the problem. At this point in my career, postings seem to be measured more in months rather than years. Talking with another friend in exactly the same boat, its scary trying to undertake a detailed project knowing that DND is not going to move your hulk of a Jeep and its 50 boxes of components. I think at last look in the Treasury Board Guidelines on move expenses, "hobby" materials are limited to 500lbs. As it was, I had to U-Hual this thing down in complete form and beg the Movers to to take my M416 Trailer as it technically was over the limits for size. So, don't mistake me as whining that my job is getting in the way of my hobby, but more of a case of having to balance time and economics. I've some other threads on restorations, and noticed that it wasn't uncommon for people to take in excess of 5 years to restore a "relatively simple" MB/GPW with a Repop Tub to boot. That being said, I would imagine if I was retired, i'd be looking at this in a different light.

So, back on topic. I've tried nearly every paint removal technique known to man. Heat gun is nice, but very very time consuming. I've chose to use it in areas where i'd imagine I may find markings. I also gave chemical paint stripper a go, and although it is a bit quicker, the fumes are not kosher while doing it in an attached garage. This really only leaves me with power sanding/brushing or sandblasting. Having really had a hard look at the underside of this thing. Wire wheeling the bottom of this is going to take a heck of a long time, with some areas not even accessable, and create a hell of alot of lead dust in my pristine garage.

After batting this around for nearly a year now, I think i'm going to have no choice but to send this out for sand blasting and primer. From re-reading advice and looking at other resto's, seems the best thing to do would be to do as many of the body repairs as I can now, then send it out for blasting an epoxy primer with the hopes that some new trouble spots don't pop up.

Anyone want to take stab at what the sand blasting and priming costs would be for this before I pick up the phone and a box of kleenex?

Scotty

[jim fraser (RIP)]

the guy i use charges around 375.00 for the blast and primer.it does a good job.he is mobile also but i think you are a just a little to far from arnprior.lol.regards jim.

[mike mckinley]

not sure if there is anyone up your way who does this, but there is macdonald applicators and jamac in saint john.btw...welcome to new brunswick, where our claim to fame is that you can walk to the top of a mountain, and still find a mosquito infested swamp!!! mike

[Scott Bentley]

Well, turns out I have a few options...

I may actually be able to do the blasting myself in a booth at work that they use for stripping and painting heavy equipment parts. But, there is also a shop that will do chemical/acid dipping for a really good price as well. Been doing a lot of reading though on the dip, sounds like it may be a bad idea with all the overlapping sheet metal on this thing.

I'm going to see how this pans out.

If your ever up this way Mike, shoot me a PM and drop by.

Scotty

[Scott Bentley]

Well, lots has happened since I started this thread.

So fast forward a few months.

After I stripped the Tub, I rolled it forward and went to work on the underside. The metal underneath was pretty good and still had the healthy remains of alot of Ziebart. I cleaned it all up with a wire wheel and hit it with flexible non-ashphalt undercoating:



I didn't exactly kill myself trying to hide the cut. It is what it is.... remilitarized. My concern here was getting the integrity of the Body back.

[Scott Bentley]

So, after going to all that work on the underside, an opportunity came up for some low budget Sand Blasting and Priming.

After giving it some long thoughts, I figured that rather than attacking the underside again, i'd just have outer Body and Interior/Floors etc Sand Blasted. Besides, this allowed me to leave the suspension installed which made it rolling on and off of trailers much easier. Luckily, there were no huge surprises as far as holes appearing.



Back home again, and collecting the remaining sand in it for my portable blaster.

[Scott Bentley]

So, after getting it home from Sand Blasting, I went to work tidying up the body, fixing some dents etc. I have come to the conclusion that no matter what I do, this Jeep is going to have some "character" left over. I tried to concentrate on the offensive larger repairs and left the odd ding and small dent that would have otherwise been covered over with body filler. My goal here was severely limit the use of any fills on the body and I ended up only having to smooth over where the "Cut" was. Aside from that, I used the Mig Welder and reversed a bunch of holes that were either left over from approved mods like Fender Mounted Mirrors (yuck) or other "Field Mods".

After this was all complete, I rolled it back in for another quick Sand Blast over the weld repair areas, and then it went in for Primer.

Now its starting to look much better. All of this banging away feels like it is paying off:



Tomorrow the Base Coat of paint goes on......