M38 rear pass. quarter question

brimac · Post by **brimac** » Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:38 pm

Starting to work on my long delayed project again. Looking at the rear quarter with the amount of rust perforation large and small I'm thinking a repo part. Anyone have recent experience with a import panel as far as fit goes ?

donthedickens · Post by **donthedickens** » Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:49 pm

http://www.cj3apage.com/index/My_1950/body_work.htm

Here is a link to some body work on the CJ3A Page of the same panel.
I can't speak for any of the import panels.

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Thu Aug 25, 2016 8:15 pm

Classic Enterprises makes that L shaped hat channel that goes in that
rust hole.

I've seen worse.

rgmutchler · Post by **rgmutchler** » Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:32 pm

I can tell you that every MD Juan part that I bought I returned. This was mostly lower cowls. I then started buying Midwest Military's repo parts and those provided by Classic Enterprises. Both sources made products that fit with very minimal effort. If you go to the parts and review forum I made some posts there comparing the lower cowls, lower cowl supports etc between MD Juan and Midwest Mil. and Classic Enterprises. I think that if you were rebuilding a repo MD Juan body their parts might fit pretty well but they are not made to provide good fitment on an original body. There is another source that sometimes has NOS body parts. Willysjeepparts.net. They are located in Donaldsonville, La and they bought out several truck loads of parts when Kaiser- Willys went into receivership back in the sixty's. He also has upwards of 50 M38's and M38A1's that he has bought from the gov.t auctions through the years that he sells as projects.

As to the damage I can see on your right quarter. I had similar rust damage to mine. I cut out the bad metal and bought some of the proper gauge metal, cut it to fit and put a curve in it and welded it in. I then replaced the inner fender parts with repo stuff from Classic Enterprises. I think you would find the repair much easier and cheaper then replacing the whole quarter. Just removing the numerous spot welds are a pain to do. Additionally while Classic Ent. probably makes a well fitting quarter, based on their other products, they don't make one with the tool indents. You would have to reconstruct them as I did with the lower cowl.

The links to the reviews of MD Juan , Midwest Mil. and Classic are below.

http://willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules.php? ... highlight=

http://willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules.php? ... highlight=
Good luck.

aforests · Post by **aforests** » Fri Aug 26, 2016 8:15 am

That is fixable without any repro panels. Like the other guys said, just get some correct gauge metal and if you or someone else knows how to weld, it can be done.
Here is some of my handy work...

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Fri Aug 26, 2016 11:28 am

Hey Aaron,
Can you drop by my place for a couple of days?

leecarr · Post by **leecarr** » Fri Aug 26, 2016 4:10 pm

I agree, it's probably less work to repair that spot than to replace the entire panel. It also depends on what you're comfortable doing and what kind of tools you have access to. I'm
Only about 30 minutes away from you in Rochester MA. Good luck.

4x4M38 · Post by **4x4M38** » Sun Aug 28, 2016 3:19 pm

Ok,
So first of all, safety apparently doesn't enter this guy's mind. I mean, shop work in flip flops, and getting a jolt from the MIG holding the parts with his bare hand?

Anyways, interesting bit of metalworking repairing a rusted out rear quarter on a CJ. Wholly applicable to your project, albeit the driver side. It shows what you can do with a minimum of tools, a piece of PVC pipe, and MIG.

But please wear shoes and gloves!

https://youtu.be/uUg5cHJcDi8

Take care,