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Dodge D15T


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Hi Gordon,

It has indeed been awhile! I hop all is well with you.

Yes it's the one I bought unseen for Scotland after seeing it advertised on milweb. It was is a nice truck, but I decide to let it go before it deteriorated further due to lack of undercover storage.

When I sold it it went to Oxford, then direct to Pete afaik.

Pete, are the original hand written factory numbers still on the engine side of the firewall in blue grease pencil?.

Matt

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Hello Matt good to hear from you after all this time yea kept the truck in the dry at the back of the barn all this time waiting it's  turn.

 I'll have to make a date with you in the summer and I'll come up to Bandit country and collect it if that's OK?

Best regards Pete 

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4 minutes ago, M.Rimmer said:

Pete, are the original hand written factory numbers still on the engine side of the firewall in blue grease pencil?.

Matt

There is a line checkers mark on the engine compartment bulkhead in blue pencil is that the one you are referring too? 

Pete

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32 minutes ago, M.Rimmer said:

Hi Gordon,

It has indeed been a while! I hope all is well with you.

Yes it's the one I bought unseen for Scotland after seeing it advertised on milweb. It was is a nice truck, but I decide to let it go before it deteriorated further due to lack of undercover storage. When I sold it it went to Oxford, then direct to Pete afaik.

Matt

I hope all is well with you too Matt.  It's amazing how these things go in circles. 8-)

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On 4/10/2018 at 3:25 PM, Alex van de Wetering said:

Pete,

Attached are two pics of another D15 GS with round roof hatch in Alkmaar, Holland, 8 may 1945

source:https://www.regionaalarchiefalkmaar.nl

This could be another D15 in Canadian service, but you just can't be sure without seeing the AoS. The census number starts with "Z", not "CZ", but than again we have seen numurous pictures of Canadian vehicle census numbers lacking the "C".

Alex

Thanks for posting Alex,

it appears a very dark colour on the truck I wounder if it could be Service Brown perhaps ??

Pete

 

 

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Bit more progress on the strip down.   The Canadian Dodge range was built with removable cab roofs presumably to reduce shipping volume the joint is covered by a strip of steel fixed with pan head machine screws at the back of the cab and is socketed into the rear doors pillars and front scuttle secured with bolts into cage nuts.

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Before the truck came into my ownership at some point in its wanderings around the UK it unfortunately sustained some minor damage in the form of a dent to the mates side cab roof.  The decision to remove the top of the cab at the manufactured joint was made to enable the dent to be worked on using a sand bag and pullers and also to make blast cleaning of the whole cab easier.

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Pete

 

Edited by Pete Ashby
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The Canadian  water tank is a different  shape as can be seen in the attached photographs the filters and hand pumps are the same this ford was bought and used by the present owners father to be used for crop spraying  the top photo is how l found it and the lower one as it left from me

cmplo.jpg

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A bit more negative progress on the disassembly phase.  So far everything has come apart with just the addition of a little WD40 and the application of an industrial hot air gun if further persuasion is needed.   I now tend to use the gun first before I reach for the gas torch as it does a lot less damage and it seems to work and it saves dragging the gas out and hunting for the spark gun which should be hanging on the trolley but never is !! 

Here the wings have been removed

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The front nose cone complete with radiator is craned off

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Note the 4 blade fan I need to check the parts book tonight to see if a 6 blade was an option 

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Radiator and nose cone removed 

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Radiator removed from the frame

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Nose cone in the process of being disassembled fortunately there is virtually no serious corrosion of these parts which is a stroke of luck as fabricating the grill pressings and some of the compound curves in the nose cone would be very difficult 

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Pete

Edited by Pete Ashby
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Four blade would be right for that Pete, you shouldn't need a six blade unless the radiator is partially blocked.

 

Be careful taking the 'chrome' trim off the radiator shell.  It is fitted with a bunch of non-standard threads and coach bolt type fasteners.  Difficult to get it off and on again.  It will probably be mild steel painted but it did vary with the years.

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4 minutes ago, Gordon_M said:

Four blade would be right for that Pete, you shouldn't need a six blade unless the radiator is partially blocked.

 

Be careful taking the 'chrome' trim off the radiator shell.  It is fitted with a bunch of non-standard threads and coach bolt type fasteners.  Difficult to get it off and on again.  It will probably be mild steel painted but it did vary with the years.

Thanks Gordon yes just looked it up 4 blade is standard fit for these models, I'm just in the process of removing the trim it's painted steel but some of the tiny coach bolts and nuts are proving tiresome so I'm cutting them off carefully from the inside using a Dremel and a mini cutting disk that way I don't risk mangling the front of the trim pressing........ all dreadfully Commercial I'm thinking.

I currently have a bit of a mystery surrounding the replacement engine that's currently in the truck, it's not a short block US version as I was lead to believe, it's a long block (25 3/8") but for the life of me I can't find an engine number and code on the front left pad it appears to be blank or possibly it's been ground off for some reason that's beyond me. 

I wonder if it's an industrial unit perhaps? I know Dodge made so many versions of both long and short block SV engines for all sorts of applications right up to the early 1960's  but without the stamped engine codes they are not easy to pin down I'll have to wait until I disassemble it and measure the bore and stroke that may help perhaps to identify what it is........ Any thoughts Gordon?? I don't suppose the casting numbers are any use??

Pete

Pete

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18 minutes ago, Gordon_M said:

Four blade would be right for that Pete, you shouldn't need a six blade unless the radiator is partially blocked.

 

Be careful taking the 'chrome' trim off the radiator shell.  It is fitted with a bunch of non-standard threads and coach bolt type fasteners.  Difficult to get it off and on again.  It will probably be mild steel painted but it did vary with the years.

The trim is painted steel iirc. The earlier D-15's still had chrome trim and the Dodge emblem, but these were omitted by the time this truck was built.

As Gordon says the four blade fan is correct, and quite likely to be the original since it appeared that when the engine was changed all ancillaries were simply swapped over to the replacement.

That dent in the cab roof occurred in my ownership I'm afraid. A storm brought a branch down which landed across the truck.

Really pleased to see it receiving the attention it deserves!.

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Sorry Pete our replies crossed.

The replacement engine is, as you say a long block. I'm told it was removed from a 1950's Clarkston tractor which came from USAF disposal at RAF Molesworth. Being from a Clarktor it will be a Chrysler industrial unit. The carb, manifold, born, air cleaner and oil filter are all from the original engine though.

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1 minute ago, M.Rimmer said:

Sorry Pete our replies crossed.

The replacement engine is, as you say a long block. I'm told it was removed from a 1950's Clarkston tractor which came from USAF disposal at RAF Molesworth. Being from a Clarktor it will be a Chrysler industrial unit. The carb, manifold, born, air cleaner and oil filter are all from the original engine though.

Excellent well done Matt thanks,

that was the information I was missing I should be able to find out the model and cu inch now in case I need to source parts from the states if it's an industrial unit it will probably have Sodium filled valves another plus point, it may be a larger cu inch than the original engine which would be a bonus if that's the case 

Pete

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With engine numbers you get what you get Pete.  As a further wrinkle it is relatively common to find a military or civilian truck engine rebuilt as an Industrial engine, or vice versa.  I have a T116 stamped one ton engine in the garage which has a Chrysler Industrial plate on the side.

If it is a period long block engine, expect it to be the standard 236.6 cu in ( The Canadians were much less prone to mucking about with engine capacities than their US cousins ). The casting number could be interpreted but don't have that info.  Look on the side of the block under the distributor for a date.  Early engines had month/day/year, later engines just had month/day, but worth a check.

It is impossible to get direct replacements for those trim bolts.  You can get 1/8" stainless coach bolts but the head is more domed.  On plain painted steel trim you probably want plain carbon steel coach bolts, 1/8" I think, but you may want to reduce the 'dome' a bit.

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13 hours ago, Gordon_M said:

It is impossible to get direct replacements for those trim bolts.  You can get 1/8" stainless coach bolts but the head is more domed.  On plain painted steel trim you probably want plain carbon steel coach bolts, 1/8" I think, but you may want to reduce the 'dome' a bit.

Good call Gordon particularly as I've only managed to save a couple of the original ones. However you got me thinking and a poke about in the ''box of stuff under the bench that might be useful one day'' turned up some very ancient tiny Whitworth coach bolts the head size and shape is almost identical to the originals but the shank is a bit large but I think they'll do the job I'll just have to cut a bit more thread into the shanks and trim them to length.   

Pete

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This is for all of you out there with a rubber fetish Nige if your lurking this is just for you :wave:

This is one of a pair of tires on the back of the truck and may well be original factory fit for the vehicle the date is right and the amount of ware could be right for the recorded mileage.   Points to note:

they are Goodyears made for British wheels

Made in Canadan

synthetic (that's what the red dot means

Couple of photos fill your boots chaps :cool2:

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Pete

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A bit more progress on the cab, the door glass runners and winder handles and mechanism have been removed and the glass has been successfully taken out from both doors a good clean with glass cleaner and they will be as good as new the winder mechanisms are also in very good condition and will need virtually no work doing to them except for a drop of oil on the operating arms and cams.

Next job was to remove the doors so the top and bottom hinge pins were driven out using a suitable sized drift with some prior heating of the hinge assembly by the trusty hot air gun the weight of the door was taken with a strop attached to the crane.

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Pete

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  • 1 month later...

The strip down continues with the removal of the removal of the door way valances and side steps from both sides of the cab, it is interesting to note how much lighter the construction of brackets and fixings etc are reflecting the Dodge's pre-war commercial design compared with the contemporary CMP range of purpose designed trucks from Ford and Chevrolet.

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The cab floor is made up of a two piece ply wood insert around the transmission and hand brake and then a two piece pressed steel toe board that forms the foot well

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Here the floor plates have been removed and the battery tray is visible on the left

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This is the other side and shows the PTO for the power pump, sadly the connecting prop shaft and pump have long gone I suspect when the truck was converted to a civilian recovery vehicle

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A feature of cab construction that became apparent during strip down was that  the front scuttle, the rear seat base and rear cab sheet are two separate units held together by a double row of slotted machine screws through fish plates under the floor secured with captive nuts.  I had assumed that it was all one unit welded together as the joint and heads of the screws were hidden under layers of paint and dirt. This feature will make the handling and the repair of the cab a lot easier

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The screws all came out intact using an impact driver WD40 and the hot air gun previously mentioned

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Pete

.

 

 

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Edited by Pete Ashby
Not sure what's happened here this is the last photo from the previuos post and I can't seem to remove it
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Interesting cab construction, if a lot of work to pull down and put back after all these years.  The US version of the cab is one welded assembly, which means it maintains a lot of structural strength and you can hack out and replace bits with wondering if it will still fit.

I learned long ago never to try and remove the hinge pins while the doors are still on the truck.  Far better to remove the door by unbolting both hinges, then tackle the hinge pins on a bench if you really have to.

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