B-OneMender's Realm

12 August 2001

Windshield and Tailgate plans for the GI Joe 5-Star Jeep 

Probably the most common of the broken or missing pieces to the 5-star jeep are the Windshield and Tailgate. I am neither a draftsman or professional modeler, but I hope this helps some of you in need of these components to make your jeep whole. 

Click on photos for full size

This is a scan of my original plan, with some text to clarify the measurements. I used .080 Evergreen styrene from a hobby shop. That was the thickest I could find. You could probably use a bit thicker, if you can find it. To cut out the windows, I marked the corners and drilled holes (a little less than 1/4 inch). Then I scored the lines and "snapped" out the window blanks. Be careful, I got some warping in the windshield due to bending the plastic back and forth to snap it out. Dressed up the frames with a file followed by sandpaper. I then used clear .030 for the glass. You could add another layer of styrene to sandwich the "glass" and add thickness, but I didn't. Thanks to Opie in the Sandbox (Mr. FiveStar) for these measurements.

The cut window frame

This is a scan of the hinge design as I originally planned it. This plan shows 5/16 inch square stock. You can see the 1/4 inch hole that was drilled just through the inboard side to accept 1/4 inch tube for the hinge. Joining the two cut pieces of stock is the trick. I didn't use the square stock in the final set-up, but the important thing on the scan is the angle, 94 degrees. "Contact Line" shows where this measurement is necessary, the surface that the windshield is glued.

I tried several different materials and eventually decided to go with tubing, following the example given on the Formative Jeep.

I tried 1/4" aluminum tube, but couldn't get the proper bends without crushing or breaking the tube. I was told by a visitor to this site that he used 1/4" steel brake line. I tried that too, but it just looked too big. Next I tried 1/8 " and 3/16" aluminum, but still had the breaking problem.    Just out of the blue, I thought of filling the inside of the tube to prevent the crimp. I ended up using 1/8" aluminum tube with coat hanger wire inside. It fit great and strengthened the tube enough to work.  I felt the smaller material would look better. After I bent the proper dimensions per my drawing, I added 2 sections of varying sizes of styrene tube to the end that goes in the jeep up to achieve the 1/4" diameter for the hole in the jeep. I slid a washer on the outer end to prevent the hinge from going too far into the jeep and then epoxy-ed it all together. 

To attach the hinges to the windshield, I used 1/8" cable clamps, mounted with 6-32 X 3/8" bolts and nuts. To insure the window didn't "slide out" of the mounts, I wrapped some plastic tape around the hinge tube to tighten the fit. I picked this over gluing the windshield to the hinges, so that the window would be removable with out too much chance of damaging anything. 
Here's are some pics  of the assembled hinge:

These are the square stock hinge assemblies. This is before I switched to aluminum tubes. 


The Tailgate 

For the tailgate, I used the .080 sheet again. The hinge pins are 3/16 inch tube that I fit inside 1/4 inch tubing that was mounted on the jeep in place of the missing hinge mounts. The drawing shows detail for a beveled hinge pin, but I couldn't find solid rod. The hollow tubing works good, though. It also shows a "stiffener/frame" that I didn't use. I thought it might add some character as well as provide a spacer to move the hinge pins out from the tailgate as well as add some meat to the tailgate. I found out that it wasn't necessary to the operation of the gate, so I left it off. 

This blurry picture is the tailgate assembly. I finished it with heavy gauge wire and small sized Evergreen shapes for the stops.

And the final product.  I painted the whole jeep Testors Afrika Mustard.

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