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]
Hey another good idea how about Autopian members get a discount on orders during the building process?
Oh, if you can do it, you will make many a Jeep mans dream come true and be the guide so many can follow behind. I’ve always dreamed of building a modern WW2 Jeep. Please lead the way!
I bet this Jeep hes working on is also going to overheat because he sucks. It will overheat like his old Cherokee with triple fans and the Wrangler he “designed”
I have no doubt it can be done, but cool to see someone try. Compared to some of the past Easter Jeeps I think the scope of this project is larger, but the work itself should be easier assuming you can remain organized. Also, is Ebay willing to let you publish a BOM for anyone else that would like to try their hand at building a new Jeep? Mostly I am curious to see how expensive it will be.
I am all in for this one and am extremely excited to see how this turns out! One of my hobbies is restoring and building vintage RC cars, and I source my parts from Ebay, Yahoo Japan, Facebook groups etc. I actually have enough “new” vintage parts to build an entire Kyosho Optima Mid Special from scratch, and this is one of my planned projects over the next year!
You are doing the “pro level” version of this! You will fly through the actual assembly given your experience on working with the most decrepit and rusted vehicles, and you won’t have any DISSASEMBLY to do!
The challenge will be the sourcing of parts and making sure you have every nut and bolt to put this together!
Don’t forget, these vehicles were designed to be serviced in the field, and were broken down and crated for shipping.
https://www.core77.com/posts/63223/How-WWII-Jeeps-Were-Crated-for-Shipping
Track down every WWII era Willys field service manual that you can, since you are basically going to be doing field service.
Also here is a link of Willys being torn down and rebuilt in 4 minutes.
I’m sure you have a plan, if I were undertaking this I would get the BOM and source every component first, then start working in stages, assembling it as if if were in the field in that video, step by step.
You can do this! Go David! You deserve to drive a freshly built new Jeep!
This will be David’s easiest project yet, as it’ll be the only one where every bolt turns the first try, without 3 cans of PB Blaster and a bottle of propane.
Good to know I’m not the only one who read this and thought this sounded lightyears easier than Project Postal or Project Cactus…..or for that matter, cleaning and moving out of his MI house and leaving it in a state that didn’t require demolition….
Excited for this series! I have a 48 CJ2a I have been refreshing, and they are fun to work on! You should expect many / most of the parts to fit “not quite right” and require some work. Like it or not, the crusty original parts usually fit better.