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Please someone, exactly what is an underbody repair kit? Does it provide
> patches for rusted-through portions of metal underbody? If it does, then
I
> am very interested. If not I'd sure like to know what it is.
> Anyone?"
The underbody repair kit was actually called a "Service Life Extender Kit".
Because 151's have a unitized body and no box rail frames, they are very
rust prone. It was determined that sliding into place some channel iron
over top of the rusted frame journals and welding them into place, this
would extend the service life of the 151 Jeep. This was far easier (not to
mention cheaper) than
replacing the 151 body tub. What the military wanted was service life and
not a restored collectors' item. I'm not totally sure how many pieces of
iron came in a kit but it was around 10-12 pieces and enough to do all of
the "frame" supports. You could use any or all of the kit depending on the
amount of damage that you needed to repair. I'm sure that the "correct"
procedure to install them was rarely followed such as grinding out the rusty
areas before installing the pieces or undercoating the finished areas after
welding but it still would get the rusty jeep down the road a few more miles
without falling apart. They were slightly larger than the frame journals so
they would slide tightly over the affected parts and be welded over on top
of the rusty pieces. It was not a long term fix as the affected areas would
eventually fill up with water and dirt and start (depending on the quality
of the repair also) the same process over again but would extend the safe
service life of the jeep for at least a couple of years and more depending
on where its' locale was. It is interesting to note that all of the later
AMG M-151A2's were Z-BARTED at the factory in the frame journals and floor
pans to prevent this recurring problem. Your 151 Jeep nut, Julian Burke
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 04 2000 - 21:57:29 PDT