Establishing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing for mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) requires the construction of a search algorithm for transmitting queries and search results as well as the development of a transfer protocol for downloading files matching a query. In this paper, we present a specialpurpose system for searching and file transfer tailored to both the characteristics of MANET and the requirements of peer-topeer file sharing. Our approach is based on an application layer overlay network. As innovative feature, overlay routes are set up on demand by the search algorithm, closely matching network topology and transparently aggregating redundant transfer paths on a per-file basis. The transfer protocol guarantees low transmission overhead and a high fraction of successful downloads by utilizing overlay routes. In a detailed ns-2 simulation study, we show that both the search algorithm and the transfer protocol outperform off-the-shelf approaches based on a P2P file sharing system for the wireline Internet, TCP and a MANET routing protocol.