Patrick Tipton

We received about 14 inches of snow over the weekend. Time to play with the M29! Weasels are a lot of fun to play with in the snow and much more responsive. Facebook ReelRFS.mov

Mark - I replaced one entire side....welded on the top corner of the hull. The other side received a new floor....and because the T24 had no flares, I had no choice but to hide a 10 foot seam. I consider it good practice😂 Looking forward to seeing your progress!

Nice. Are you going to weld the top edge along that top 90 degree corner or do you have another plan? I worried about that a lot when I replaced my T24 side....then I was super careful cutting and then derusting the inside of the top edge where I was going to weld. Loads of careful prep. It ended up being much easier to weld than I expected. I believe I MIG tack welded it basically every inch and then went back over the entire side with the TIG doing about an inch at a time, then jumping forward....etc. I left very little to no gap and used plenty of filler and ran the TIG a little hotter than normal to ensure that I was creating plenty of weld to grind "square" and make that edge look factory and straight. Once finished, I think you would be hard pressed to see that the side was welded. Enjoy!

Post some pictures. The pits in the babbit bearing surface are likely OEM. You can plastigauge the rod bearings and see if they are still in tolerance. Otherwise, the new shell style connecting rods/bearings will work fine with your pistons. My T24 engine had babbit connecting rods and one of them spun - the reason we needed to rebuild the engine. I am about to film the rebuilding of the engine too.....will be on ShopTime™. Cheers.

Larry....I believe the original radio was a BC-1136AW (image below)....which really is unobtanium! Installed in the T15 and the T24. I am no radio expert, but I thought they moved to the SCR-610 like the jeep? I have a M29/29C radio install manual - will check what radios it covers. Cheers!

Here is another version in standard measurements. This drawing was made a little early in my restoration process and we didn't update the CAD other than on a physical sheet (which probably was eaten in my shop). I see several errors, mainly in the gas tank area. Alexander's drawing is missing the hat channel that sits right on on the "bow curve" under the gas tank. You can see it in mine. Mine is missing the "gas tank strap bulkhead" that goes at the rear edge of the gas tank (and to which the gas tank straps are mounted (see Alexander's drawing) - the hat channel sitting in the middle of my drawing is fiction. Between Alexander's drawing and mine...you should get really close. Also, my drawing is a T24/early M29....main difference being the extra hat channels added to the M29C in the passenger compartment closest to the bulkhead.

Great work Mark. I have seen that movie! Onward and careful with that grinder!

Love this!

Cheers All! A little belated Merry Christmas! Happy New Year and here's to a 2024 full of lots of progress on your project(s)! Patrick

Looks good Mark. That is exactly how I ended up replacing the entire side of my T24. It just got to be faster to replace than repair.

You guys are cooking! Merry Christmas to you and the family too! I am looking forward to a 2024 full of Weasel activity on the forum and on our channel. Cheers Don and everyone else!

Congrats. These Champion 6 motors run so sweet!

Looking good Mark. Weasels are relatively small vehicles, but there is lots of stuff to repair. One little step at a time.

Negative. The early T24s had a mechanical fuel pump with an attached filter with a glass bowl. They are a little strange a little hard to find. There are a couple of variations of fuel tank setups with metal tanks with no internal fuel pump, metal tanks with internal fuel pump, self-sealing rubber tanks etc. Study the ORD 9 fuel section. Practically, all systems can be make to function or even a combination of them - really depends on whether you care about making them original or not. The later style mechanical fuel pumps are not hard to find and work well. Cheers!

Nice price!

Looking great Mark!

Great idea John. There is a lot of lost "art" in getting these machines to operate correctly. Hopefully we can figure this piece out and get it documented so the process is easier for the next guy. My LAR tracks on the unrestored M29 are running pretty well. I would say the bogies are perpendicular under load (basic empty weight of Weasel without passengers/cargo). I will put it on my list to remove one of them and measure the thickness of the shims. Regards, Patrick

Well done Mark! Thank you for sharing your journey. You do nice work my friend. @OZM29C I found a bunch of different thickness shims on mine....and some with almost none. Given manufacturing tolerances, I would think they should all be shimmed roughly the same to perpendicular....probably unloaded, but maybe not (need to check the manual and see if it has any info). I am going to be diving into this myself very shortly on the T24.

The nice thing about the build thread being here....it will live on. Facebook buries stuff and it becomes very hard to access.

3 7/8"....center to center. Let's see that build thread baby!

Mark - will get you an actual measurement today. That being said... If you have the top two holes of the track tensioner brackets....they are parallel to one another so just mark the centerline of the front bracket and mark the centerline of the rear bracket. Fine thread captive nuts on the back and make them beefy because once you close everything up with the hat channels on the inside, getting back in there is a major fiasco so you have do surgery from the outside. Cheers, Patrick

Love it John! You are a craftsman my friend.

I love jeeps too! This is the 1943 Willys MB we are finishing. A little over a year from start to finish, but I had help.

Greetings Jim....as evidenced by the pictures posted by @Pips_Blaauw, I think it is pretty close to a straight coaxial run. How far are you off?

Hope everyone is enjoying their Weasels. I have been a little on hiatus with a jeep restoration, but am just about finished with it and will be back working on my T24 and this very early M29. The engine (salvage that I did a little valve work on) on the M29 is knocking so I need to pull it. I have another takeout engine that may be in decent condition other than one stuck valve, so I am hoping to do a little field work on the takeout and install it. This Weasel will receive a proper restoration at some point, but for right now, I am just enjoying it. Cheers