Thanks. I was working more on the heater today. I'm building and air duct for the louvres in the hood so the heater will have fresh air. This one is going to take some time. Still waiting for the top canvas to be made and shipped.

 

wow small world ive been to the volo auto museum multiple times im in Antioch

 

We are in the Chico area

 

Had to take some time out from working on HUM WEE to put another carb on the truck. We are going to need it to take HUM WEE for a ride to get a radiator fitted up on the 15. The old Quadrajet leaked all the gas into the intake and always instantly flooded it so bad it would make the plugs wet on the first crank. I got tire of pulling the plugs all the time when I wanted to use it. One of the advantages of having a son with lots of toys is he has some spare parts of his own. This came off his old 351 he had in his Ranchero.



Well, back to HUM WEE. I am still perfecting the heater on a rig that was never designed for one. After getting the heater in place, we need a clean air source. The fire wall is the dash on these things, so you cannot hide anything under the dash. So I decided to use the louvres on the back of the hood as a source since it is supposed to be a source of high air pressure anyway. My first attempt to make a bend in something too long for the brake was a limited success.(that is where you have no failures) It didn't come out straight enough doing it by hand, so I had to go to plan B I tacked in a piece of angle to the hood brace and then screwed in a flat piece.



Next I started making fill in pieces that will also be structural.



Here is one installed



There is quite a bit more work to be done on this before it is finished, but it is a good start anyway.

 

Spent a little more quality time with HUM WEE Jr tonight. I cut a hole in the air duct pan and pop riveted it to the tacked in angle aluminum and buffed it up so the paint would stick to it.



I gave it a shot of paint with our genuine military replica rattle can paint. Then it was time to work on a seal. I got some bulk rubber trunk seal from a company that makes replica door seals etc. Only cost about $16 with shipping. I chose one that had a hollow spot in it so I could get some fasteners like these.



I tell you we have the most wonderful fastener store here in town. It is run by a couple of crazy ladies, well crazy in a good way. It is always worth the good laugh you get there while getting stuff most people have never heard of. All the car restoration guys go there for cool stuff.

Got a good start on the seal here, hiding the fasteners of course





All finished up and ready to shut the hood. I peeked in the air scoop and found that the seal is about a half inch tall with the hood shut, just right

 

We loaded up the Mighty Mite to go to get a radiator fitted up for it and take a side trip to Surplus City to look for cool stuff



On the way in, we saw this Mighty Mite. The owner is having them finish the restoration on it. I offered to sell a few parts for this.



Underneath all this cool stuff is a Weasel powered by a Ford flathead V8







M151 a contemporary of the Mighty Mite.





Here is a rare 1941 ****** GPW with the flat iron grill. I could make one of those in my shop easily.







Emily playing in one of the last Mighty Mites made



A rare 2WD Jeepster "sports car"











Just one of the piles of Dana axles



Emily wanted to take this M37 home

 

Spent some quality time with HUM WEE today. Nice and cool after an unseasonal Junuary rain. Good day for hot work. I cut the cross supports out the PO had welded in for the old winch. It was really a lot of overkill here.



However, getting rid of the welds was a PITA. I finally had ot resort to using my die grinder in those tight places.



I welded in a 1/8" steel plate to support the radiator and make a new bumper/winch receiver brace.



I set the new radiator in just for giggles to see how it was going to work out.



It is going to be just about right. I am going to work some more on it tomorrow and see if I can't get it bolted in.

 

Took some time off from my XJ today and worked on HUM WEE. We are planning on possibly taking it with us on vacation to the Frodyce Creek area in another month, so it was time to put a radiator in.



Set it on some rectangular tubing spacers and got the general layout done.

Got it spaced right and then added a piece of aluminum flat bar across the bottom incorporated in the lower mount to support the fans.



Then made some top mounts that use some of the original studs for mounting an AC core on an XJ.



Popped the front clip on, what is left of it anyway and added a top brace for it.



Here it is with the hood shut. I still have some tweeking to do but will begin the front grill next, as soon as we decide what it is going to be.

 

Phew look at the pile of danas, cant wait to see both Hum wee and hum wee Jr. finished completely esp, with paint

 

Worked on it a little more to day, but not pics.

 

Im speechless... this build is amazing!

 

Thanks man, more to come

 

My son came around again and we spent some more quality time with HUM WEE.

We decided it was time to get this rig on the road soon. So we prepared to put the windshield back on. But before we could do that, we needed to take care of the defrost he will need in the winter. After ***** marines don't need a defroster right? So we needed to get the hot air up to the windshield. These things have a CJ5 windshield frame and base, so theoretically it shouldn't be too hard, however the M422 dash is not flush with the edge of the cowl like a CJ5 is. The windshield is sitting over space. So to duct the air we will go through the dash and into a rectangular duct I made out of aluminum and through a hole, offset instead of the center like the CJ.







We made a matching hole in the bottom of the windshield base and splashed a little paint on it and bolted it back on.



Also, we decided to finish off the cooling system. I let the plumber do a little plumbing on the old Volvo engine and we adapted a radiator hose to the wee little motor and radiator.



We also plumbed in the heater and added a remote valve to control the heat temp. Old school, but it works.





I am now in the process of adding a fuse block and some rewiring so we can have cooling fans. However, we decided to see how badly we needed them, so we filled her up and went for a spin. We got it a little warm sitting still before starting out to see if we could cool it down easily. We kept it at a steady 20 mph and found that it cooled down quickly without any fans. Just about right I would say.

 

Got busy on Hum WEE Jr. again today. I have been wanting to get the top out of my spare bedroom, smells like new canvas in there. So we decided this was the day to put the windshield back on and try out the top. All I can say is that If it is a passing squall, just get a little wet. It takes the whole platoon to put this on. But we got the officer version on, the typical bikini top with a rear curtain.



Only took us about an hour with resizing some hardware I made by guessing at it. Then we thought we would try some side curtains and door skins. We don't have all the hardware for it yet, but I will work on that.



Really makes it look short doesn't it. But it has more rear cargo room than a CJ5 or YJ or TJ. But it still does have some cute with the top. One of the nice things about this top though is that once you get it on the windshield and over the hoops, it is easy to tighten up. The straps make it easy. Feed them through the rear bar and hoops and just pull down on them. We found that it was still kind of loose and we were a little concerned, but believe it or not, the canvas started shrinking out in the sun and tightened up.



It will still get tighter I think. We will store the curtains and door skins inside until we are ready to complete the hardware.

HUM WEE has no fuses, you just burn up the wiring if you get a short. So we started updating the wiring. I built a box that holds some wiring, a plug and wires for a flat towing pigtail and mounted a Painless 6 circuit waterproof fuse box and a Painless waterproof relay for the cooling fans. Once we got the fans wired up and made sure they were working, we drove it to town to show off.

 

It was another productive day for HUM WEE Jr. Paul and Emily got into the act yesterday with dismounting the 31" swampers so we could put them on some wheels to fit the Mighty Mite.





We had to do some suspension work on the front. The PO over sprung it to make it sit level with that 300# winch on it. It was not designed to be that way. The front is supposed to sit a little lower than the back. It is after all rated to haul 500# in the back at speed through the bumps. We put the springs back to stock and found that the cast iron Volvo is about the same weight as the air cooled aluminum V4 that was in it. So we took the four extra leaves out of the front springs and put the swampers on.





As you can see it is a wee bit taller than my XJ with an 8" lift. However it has a much lower center of gravity. We took it for a suspension test through the country club district. They have 15 mph speed bumps that will work a suspension. I can take them at 30 mph in the XJ with all the suspension work I have done on that. Here is a video of HUM WEE taking one at about 35 mph.



And one of it going through multiple chuck holes by the house. Notice the wheels go up and down and the Mite does not.



Almost ready for some wheeling with it next weekend.