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August 20th
Going to Croft, I lost a tail light bulb. Unlike the Hotchkiss Jeep where the housing takes standard bulbs, the GPW has wartime sealed units where the bulb is part of the housing. The bulbs are fitted and soldered in place from inside the housing before the front and lens are crimped on. I decided to replace the bulbs with LED's but wanted to use the original housing. The first step was to open up the fingers holding the front cover and lens in place. The broken bulb was unsoldered next. |
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| While I was pulling one to bits, I decided I might as well do the pair. Both of them were covered in surface rust inside the housings, so the first job was to get in there with a rotary wire brush and get all the rust off. The new LED was soft soldered into the housing next, and the bare metal was then painted silver inside to give it some degree of protection. The front cover of the lamp housings were also covered in surface rust and took some time to clean up and paint. | |
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| To further weather proof the inside of the housing, the glass lens was glued into the front cover with waterproof PVA glue. Once dry, the cork gasket was fitted between the two parts of the housing and the metal tabs bent back to hold it in place. | |
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| So the brake and tail lights are now LED's, but the little used marker lights are still traditional bulbs. | |
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