This project was a complete restoration that I did on a 1943 Ford GPW WWII army jeep. This particular GPW was originally used by the US Army Corps of Engineers in Los Alamos, New Mexico during WWII on the Manhattan Project. This chassis was delivered to the government on June 9th 1943.
The military vehicle designation for the WWII jeep is technically “G503”. The G503 is the original ancestor of the modern-day Jeep. The design started its history in 1940 under development by American Bantam Car Company. For mass production reasons, the final production version of the G503 was produced by both Willys-Overland and the Ford Motor Company during the war. There were slight variations between the Willys and Ford chassis, but the vehicles are for the most part identical. Willys retained the rights to the design after the war, so most people know these vehicles as “Willys jeeps”, but there were several companies involved in the wartime development and production.
I took every part down to clean metal and repainted with period correct paints. One of the most fun parts of the project was researching all the historical details. When I got the vehicle, it was in relatively good shape, but it was 70 years old and needed complete restoration. I repaired all structure and body damage using original materials. No body filler was used. I rebuilt or replaced every system component and returned the electrical system to its original 6 volts. The project took almost a year and a half of diligent work, but overall it was very satisfying to make every part as clean as new and historically correct. I owned and drove the GPW for a year after I completed the restoration and later sold it to a collector in Texas.
Michael Fuchs Personal Projects 