Regular poster on The Fedora Chronicles Forum, Vintage Aficionados, Proud Patriot and American Doug "Drafttek" Fortier shares with us his Jeep and a brief story about his restoration project.
 I
found this Jeep in 1988. It was built in May of 1943 and from what I was told by
the seller, it never saw service and was bought surplus after the war. It lived
its entire civilian life on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, with the same owner.In 1988 it was donated to a local museum. They decided to sell it as it didn't quite fit in with the Duesenbergs, Auburns, and Packards in the collection. I happened to see it in the paper and they accepted my offer. Everything about the Jeep was solid. No rust or rot and a good running engine and drivetrain. I shined it up and drove it for twelve years, going on several Jeep Jamborees and volunteering to drive elderly Vets in parades. Roughly five years ago I decided it was time for a rebuild. I stripped it down to the frame. - Everything was repainted, rebuilt, or replaced. Being a bit of a hotrodder I couldn't help adding a few mods.
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 First was a twelve
volt electrical system with a Pertronics ignition system. I found a Kaiser
Supersonic head on Ebay, which bumps up the compression ratio for more
horsepower. Also on Ebay, I found a Burns dual carb intake from the early
fifties, and installed two Solex single barrel carbs.Amazingly, a company called Clifford Performance makes a header for the old Willys L-Head engine which I also installed. I hope to get about sixty-five horsepower out of it now. All these modifications are hidden under the skin so it still looks stock on the outside. I also have plans of adding a dummy fifty caliber machine gun, but modified to be a fifty caliber squirt gun! |
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If you would like to see more of Doug's Jeep or see other thing's about
his life that are important to him, be sure to
