My 1st WW2 MV --GPW bought in 1978

[MikePeters]

I just found these pictures and thought I'd share them with you. I lived (and worked) in Vail Co for 2 years and met "GRIZZLY ADDAMS" himself (looked like one of the ZZ-Top guys with Overalls)! Grizzly was selling a 1944 GPW.
I was young , didn't really know what was involved and thought I could just bolt it together and drive it away ....boy did I GET an education
It was worth it though so , I'm not complaining.
Grizzly bought it in 1946 at a Gov Auction ..it came from Camp Hale in Leadville and was an orig 10th Mountain Jeep.
First thing I did (with a LOT of help) was clean off and sort all the spare parts.
Here's what it looked like --

 

[MikePeters]

I decided to sand blast everything BUT ..the day I picked to rent the equipment we were hit with a major Snow Storm ..I worked anyway ..really had no choice.
The storm paused long enough for me to re-blast and then prime everything (and get it in the Garage)

 

[MikePeters]

I still own it ..still love it. Maybe someday I'll cherry it out and do the final body work.
I'm convinced that the only reason my Jeep lasted all these years is because Colorado didn't Salt the Roads .

 

[maddawg308]

Pretty neat! Thanks for sharing those pics with us! There weren't many MV people in the hobby back in the 1970s....

 

[MikePeters]

You're right , there were very few of us ..back then I joined MVCC , still have the first volume & a stack of their Army Motors magazine (someplace)

 

[papabear]

Nice looking jeep - good job! I have two 43 GPWs and wouldn't take the world for them - and they don't look as good as yours - yet.
Every time I start on one, someone offers me something else bigger and I put them aside again.
I tell ya - this OD fever is a real bugger bear!

 

[kcimb]

In 1970 most of us were interested in coloring books. Some of us werent born yet.

You've been at this a while!

 

[jollyjeepers]

I'll chime in here and feeling very old at that now.

My first mv was my '43 GPW. It looked better than your pics in the beginning, but now after two restorations and lots of trailriding doesn't look as good as your end pic.

My dad bought the jeep in 1968 (I was 5) when it was painted red with a hard top. It had white pinstripes and had been converted to 12v.

It was a second vehicle and winter vehicle for several years. We lived by Erie Airways and my father was a flight instructor there. He had the brakes done by an aircraft mechanic there and those are the same brakes on the jeep today. I don't know what they did, but they've never been touched in all these years!

In the early 70's we moved to Somerset, PA in SW PA and we began going on family 4WD outings every Sunday long before offroading was popular. We were the only ones out there. No cell phones. We had two incidents that could have been very bad. One was that we broke a brake line and had to crimp it off and fill the master cyl with Coke to get home. The second was a bad time with the radiator. The damaged cores were pinched off and we filled it with iced tea from our thermos to get home. That same sad looking radiator is still in my jeep to this day!

In 1976 when the MVCC was coming on line and the "other" club in CA was on the way out we purchased our first military truck and joined the club. We then took the top off the jeep, sandblasted it, converted it to 6v, bought a Beachwood canvas, an M100 trailer and painted everything O.D. That was the first restoration. We drove that jeep from SW PA to the Chicago national meet in '79.

I got into the hobby with both feet and worked every show in PA, went to all the shows and rallys (pre-Aberdeen), worked on the newsletter, and Army Motors and was pretty well known as the only girl in the hobby as a teenager. When I moved away to OK in '81 I started a chapter there and then shortly thereafter the MVCC fell apart due to more politics and I refuse to be involved with any other club.

O.K. so I'm a little long-winded. Just wanted you to know that some of us spent our youth in the early movements of the 70's to lay the groundwork for you guys for the hobby.

Thanks for sharing your photo and for listening to my rambling.

Beth Powell
Roanoke, Va