Sitting in my driveway is a car-sized box from the Philippines containing a brand new World War II Jeep body. In the back of my Chevy pickup is a brand new frame, also from the Philippines. The next big package to arrive will be a brand new Go-Devil engine. Yes, I mean “brand new” — these parts, and darn near any part of a World War II Jeep — are still in production, a fact that led me to a crazy idea that I casually mentioned to my friends at eBay: “What if I tried building an entire World War II Jeep… from scratch.” The idea faded away, and I continued focusing on my work here at The Autopian… until I got an email from eBay.
This all began last summer, when eBay invited me to drive some off-road vehicles in Colorado. I fell in love with a Lexus GX, and began missing my Jeep XJ; it was a great trip. After getting to know the eBay team, I was later invited to Las Vegas, where I got to see my very first Formula One race. It was during this race, in the swanky viewing lounge where journalists got to eat endless food while watching the action, that I chatted with eBay about just how much stuff I buy from their site.
Seriously, let me go to eBay right now and just pull down my latest orders. Here is some diff oil and a badge+adhesive for my BMW i3:
Here’s a charging cable for my i3, plus suspension parts and a timing cover for a Nissan NV200 taxi:
Here’s an oil pan for that NV200 taxi, plus another charger for my i3, and there’s a special hub puller tool for my 1954 Willys CJ-3B:
Here’s an exhaust for the aforementioned taxi, plus some parts for a Jeep YJ whose gas smell I was desperately trying to mend before the Jeep starred at my wedding ceremony:
I could keep going, but then it would become too apparent that I clearly have a problem.
Anyway, after showing eBay just how much car-stuff I buy on their site, I mentioned, semi-jokingly: “I bet I could build an entire World War II Jeep from scratch using parts from eBay; boy that’d be fun.” I then showed the team the Willys Overland MB body listed on their site. We all agreed it’s extremely cool:
After watching the exciting Formula One race, I drove my Rivian R1S loaner car back home to LA,and continued writing stories and managing the website you’re now reading. To my surprise, a few weeks later, eBay got in touch with me. Remember that comment I’d made about building a World War II Jeep from scratch? Well, eBay wanted to know if I was interested in actually doing it, and if I was, they were going to support it.
“YEEEHAWWWWW!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, calling Jason and Matt right away to tell them the news.
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You see, ever since starting The Autopian, wrenching has had to take a back seat as I built up the website, hired writers, edited, set editorial standards, helped grow membership, help grow our social media following, tried writing whenever I could, managed who went to which media events, handled various crises, and on and on. Running a company, even a small one, is a lot. Between that and the birth of my baby boy, I’ve simply had no time to work on cars.
But now things are different. With eBay’s support, working on cars is now a significant part of my job. I now have a great excuse to delegate tasks while I build an entire World War II Jeep from scratch.
Wow that makes me a bit anxious writing that. Building a brand new WWII Jeep from the ground up is going to be, without question, the hardest wrenching task I’ve ever taken on, and believe me, I’ve done some challenging projects in my day. Just look at these:
The last two videos above were of my Moab Easter Jeep Safari projects, which I used to do annually, but haven’t since… 2019. Now, after such a long absence, I’m bringing it back in the ultimate way.
But I have to be honest: I’m anxious and nervous and excited and full of all sorts of other feelings. I have until April 1 to pull off the most challenging build of my life, and not in a shop, not with a giant team of technicians, and not with a huge amount of time.
During the peak of production, World War II Jeeps came out of the Willys Overland factory every couple of minutes. But those vehicles were built using specialized tools, their engines came in fully assembled, and there was a huge team of workers. This is going to be me and my hand tools in my driveway, and I’ve got to build it all. From scratch. All while keeping an eye on the website for which I am the editor-in-chief.
I’ll be describing my full plan in a subsequent article, because pulling this off is going to require extreme planning. This is a massive, massive undertaking. And as nervous and anxious as I am, I’m also extremely excited and grateful that eBay is supporting something so beautifully ridiculous. Here at The Autopian it’s super important that the brands we do business with are ones we believe in, and I know that, were it not for eBay, many of us enthusiasts would have a really, really hard time finishing our car projects. As you saw in my screenshots above, I use eBay all the time, not just because the really hard-to-find-stuff is there, but also because I can get white-hot deals on things like suspension bits (like from the Detroit Axle brand I mentioned before); it helps that, if I buy a part that’s covered by eBay’s “Guaranteed Fit” program, it either fits my car or I can send it back for free.
This is about the most perfect wrenching situation I could possibly imagine; I get to spend months working on the iconic Jeep that started it all, I’m being supported by a brand that does a lot for car enthusiasts like you and me, and above all: I get to give many of you, dear readers, the greasy, oily, wrenchy content that brought many of you here in the first place.
Expect updates on this build… pretty much constantly between now and April.
[Ed note: David mentioned the idea of building a brand new WWII Jeep to the team at eBay, and they loved the idea so much they said, “How can we help?” Their support and David’s Jeep-obsession are the fuel behind this crazy build. – MH]
I’m trying to come up with the proper drug-relapse analogy here for David, but I’m struggling. It’s like an addict getting into a clinical study and being like, “but this time it is for science!”
Isn’t there a video where a team of people assemble a jeep in like 5 minutes or something crazy like that? I think with the right group of autopian members that could be closer 3 minutes.
That’s a stunt that has been around for years. Service members drive up a in a Jeep. Get out. Break it down. Move it 10 feet ahead while reassembling, and fire up and go. Speaks to how the Jeep was designed for military use. Go anywhere. Instantly repairable. Hell, they could even flat pack them Ikea style.
More impressively, was at a hot rod event years ago where a crew ‘built’ a front engine dragster in the hotel parking lot while we partied.
Ebay motors saved my butt a few months ago. My ABS module went out on my BMW 1150gs. I could have just deleted it, but I found a screaming deal on an untested unit. $110 and a few hours later the blinky ABS light was gone and I could hear the sweet sound of plungers working.
Sounds like a great project! I put a fiberglass tub on my rusted out 73 CJ-5 back in the day. The toughest part was no holes or cutouts were provided anywhere. It was literally a tub, could have filled it with water. Thank goodness I kept the old body around as a guide but even then it was a PITA .
Looks like yours comes with all the cutouts, which is nice. Biggest challenge will be sourcing all the little parts like throttle linkages, etc…
Good luck!
so it’ll be a rust free jeep? those words don’t seem like they should go together…
How are you going to register it?
Montana?
In Michigan it doesn’t seem bad just need to keep all of your receipts and documents. Im sure its not as straight forward as it seems but its possible to do.
Instruction for Titling an Assembled Vehicle BFS-72
yeah but he’s in LA
Ah, I’ve been out of the loop for a while I thought he was still in Michigan
That’s pretty cool that you can build a new flat fender Jeep in 2025.
I’m so excited. So cool, finally another wrenching adventure
AFT
I can’t quite remember how I first found Jalopnik, maybe Facebook, but it was the FC rescue that got me hooked, and reading great stories from DT, JT and Mercedes.
Thank you for all your hard work on the Autopian, and great to have eBay onboard. I much prefer buying ‘normal’ stuff on eBay over Amazon in the UK, not just car parts.
So you’re building parts car?
My guess was right! I had a feeling this was going to be a project in the future. This is so awesome…good luck!
Hell yeah, Tracy is back!!!
I know you are the man to take this on, but having a talk with Rick Pewe will I believe boost your confidence. Flat fenders are his kill zone and he’ll get a kick out of the project too! Awesome!
<pedantic comment incoming>
You’re the editor of this site with a legion of auto scribes looking to you for guidance yet wrote your own story headline quite awkwardly as:
Also, quoting the great Buddhist oracle Yoda “Do or do not. There is no try”.
Pedantry aside, I’m looking fwd to this. Anyone who’d catch Trench Foot working on a rat-infested FC Jeep rust heap should find this easier than falling off the world’s smallest log.
<even MORE pedantry incoming>
Now that you’ve fixed the headline, my years as a copy editor had me chewing on my pencil with “I’m going to try to” instead of “I’ll try to”.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Very cool, glad to see you back into wrenching! I look forward to following along with many stories of the process.
Personally I would have held off on the delivery of the body, both to reduce the possibility of damage but also to keep it out of the way until the chassis is completed.
The eBay body kit is 500 bucks less today (Sunday) – David has already depressed the market.
David, I love this. Can’t wait to follow along. I’ve always had the idea to do the same in the back of my mind, but with a 3B or an early bronco. I thank you in advance for either the encouragement or the warning that your project will bring.
Auction it off on eBay for charity when done. You’ll get good feels and one fewer vehicle in your fleet.
This will be “the hardest wrenching task I’ve ever taken on” he says about a project that involves no notable amount of rust repair or rodent eviction.
Well, at least not until we get to year 6 of project procrastination hell and find out the tarp that the half-built jeep was stored under has been leaking for the past 3 years, a fact which hasn’t deterred the local rat population from taking up residence and converting it into the 1/10th-scale equivalent of a transit-friendly 5-over-1 affordable living complex.
But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
PS: I like the little member flag in the comments.
PPS: Now, if you could fix the confounding order comments are displayed, I will up my membership one level. Even without subjecting Adrian to another round of misery.
I like the ‘newest comments first’ way this site does it. That way people are incentivized to comment as they’ll actually see them instead of immediately being buried on page four.
My problem is that I what I post might be redundant to something already posted, often more wittily than what I had in mind. Had I already read through all the older comments, I would see that someone beat me to it and not add to the clutter.
David. You’re incorrigible!
But… good luck!
Look at this as starting your son on his wrenching career, though this might be a little too early. Anyway, good luck with this project!
When you’re finished, maybe you could built me a Rivian R2 from scratch. Of course, you’ll have to 3D print & CAD everything and steal plans from Rivian. But, should be a good exercise.
Having recently assembled several pergolas around the house(over driveway and back patio) probably made of the same metal as the body panels! It should hopefully go together fairly ok, good luck!