restoration the restoration begins on the 969A

[supertrack]

All is new ! good job

[42 chevy]

Updated progress report. The right front spring bushings have been removed, an easier job than I thought it was going to be. Bodie Cummins (BC products, a producer of Diamond T rubber products) made up some new bushings for me. The pictures show the new bushings and a comparision to an orginal one that was removed.

The front fender supports have been fitted and a nice detail touch, the "SERVICE" tag was fitted to the right front glad hand. :-)

New rubber air lines have been installed. I now will be moving over to left side of the truck.

[42 chevy]

The rest of the pictures

 

 

John Gott

[42 chevy]

I just noticed that I have not posted since April...Well here is a update; We are enduring one of the hottest (some days up to 105 F) summers on record on the east coast of the US, so I have not been "playing" outside on the truck. So to take a respite from the heat, I have been test fitting some items to the engine block which is inside my shop. Items attended to have been fitting an NOS tach drive and distributor. Fitting an NOS fuel pump with an updated diaphram, and installing a NOS viscosimeter sending unit.

I then moved onto the clutch. The clutch was functioninig fine, however, since I had the engine out, it made sense to do an inspection, a far better work enviroment then trying to change it out on the truck. What I found was the adjusting shims were down to 5 per station, you start with 8. Getting the clutch out was easy along with removing the flywheel. Over 1/3 rd of the friction disc was saturated with oil and grease. I removed the bell housing, installed a new rear oil seal, reoiled the wick that lubricated the pilot bearing, cleaned everything up and sent the clutch out to get rebuilt, all 83 lbs of it.

I was fortunate that I had an NOS rebuild kit for the clutch along with an orginal friction disc material. A decision was made by the rebuilder, Phoenix Friction, to use a modern material for the friction disc.

Since the temps let up a little, I finished installing the left front spring bushings while I awaited the return of the clutch.

 

Pictures attached showing the left front bushings, engine detail work, cleaned up flywheel and rebuilt clutch components

 

John Gott

[42 chevy]

It has been awhile since I have posted, and we have lots of pictures to share over the next several posts.

Today my son (Andrew) and I went down the ER Harvey metal working in Easton Maryland and started painting all the body pieces that have been recently repaired and media blasted.

The panels that are there are the lower engine side panels (they repaired the crushed louvers), hood pieces (2), cowl (several pieces of rusted metal were removed), battery box. New cross braces that support the battery box and gas tank were fabricated. A dent was removed from the front bumper. This repair involved alot of heat and a BIG press. Dents were removed from tailgate and last but not least was the wrecker bed itself.

The bed was media blasted over and under, which was a 5 hour ordeal. Several repairs were made to remove rusted metal. The rear of the bed was straighted. 2 cuts were made by the tail light cut outs and the panel was pulled rearward and then rewelded. A new toolbox door was fabricated. I had primreed teh bed 2 wweeks ago and today I applied a bed liner coating. I used the RAPTOR brand which comes in a kit where you get 4 bottles of liner and one can of hardner. You just add the hardner, shake, attach the supplied shutlz nozzle and you are ready to spray. The most time consumong part of this jiob was masking off the bed. I researched several brands and I liked this one best. Alot of thought went into whether I paint the bed OD or apply bedliner. I decided on the liner, since once the spare tire, and wrecker equipment are in theh bed, you will be hard pressed to see the floor of the bed. I also lined the toolboxes with the liner.

 

pictures attached

[42 chevy]

I forgot to mention in the previous post that the correct "D" rings were fabricated and attached for the tow hooks on the rear of the bed. The front fendes were repaired and media blasted along with the running boards.

Another project that was undertaken was to repair the wrecker control rods. A scan be seen from the pictures, several "field" repairs were made in the past and I wanted to return the controls to their orginal appearance and function. 2 pieces of round stock wer acquired along with a n NOS control lever. The lever was sent off to cast so that I could have afew spares, Upon its return, some machine work was required. First , the roud stock was placed on an endmill machine and the grooves were machined for the keyways, next the new cast pieces were placed into a press that had a 3/16" broach afixed and the internal slots for the keyways were made. Upon return home from teh machist, test fitment was made.

[42 chevy]

OOPS, I snuck an engine picture in their a liitle to ealry. The first picture should have been in the last post as it is a "before" shot of the wrecker controls. The next several pictures are of the engine reinstall and test fitment of fuel, air and cooling lines. I finally got to install the decals I had made

[42 chevy]

I am finishing up the detail work on the rear of the frame in anticipation of the bed being reinstalled. The chassis wiring harness (NOS) has been fitted, air line routing figured out, touch up painying etc. I have decided to replace the cloth loom that covers the airlines. This will entail using a dremel tool to cut of the compression fitting on one end on the airline(s), and remove the nut so that the new loom can slid over the line. I could have cheated, and just slit the new loom and used wire ties to hold it on, but since I have put so much effort into this project, I figured I would do it correctly. Pictures to follow shortly. I sourced the loom from a company called Restoration Specialites in Pennsylvania, they also supplied the new clips and rubber gromments that keep the wire harness from chaffing as it passes through the frame.

The firewall harness arrived from Vintage Wiring of Maine this week. I had sent them an orginal one to use as a pattern.

.

[42 chevy]

I had new engine mounts molded by BC Products in Kansas. Bodie is a very helpful man. I sent him my old mounts and he moulded new ones. The last picture is of the radiator reinstalled.

[42 chevy]

2 more pics of the new mounts and I finally located the picture of the fubar wrecker control link that has been replaced (refernce 2 threads ago)

 

Johnny G

[42 chevy]

In my haste this evening, I forgot to mention that I only repainted my aircleaner 3 times until I was finally happy with the result. Call me nutty, but some of my detail efforts will go unnoticed since they will be covered up once the sheetmetal is reinstalled, but I will know it was done right.

 

John Gott

[AndyFowler]

Lovely job mate !

[protruck]

Great job. keep up the good work.

 

 

 

Clive

[Canuk 109]

Hi. Your doing a great job there John,`Just started restoration on my 969a BIG job on your own, talk about a labour of love. Em

[Scammell4199]

That engine is looking sweeeeet. Hope it runs as good as it looks.

 

Richard

[42 chevy]

That engine is looking sweeeeet. Hope it runs as good as it looks.

 

Richard

 

The HERCULES RXC purrs like a kitten

 

John G

[abn deuce]

Like you said if your going to do your going to do it right ! Lots of thought ,effort , blood and sweat going into such a huge undertaking ... not to mention lots of Money !

 

Well done its sure to last for ages now , a much better outcome then if it had been left to any other fate.

[supertrack]

Lot of job is made by here ! :wow:

Good job

[42 chevy]

As previously mentioned, the bed has gotten repaired and painted (almost done), so I have to finish the detail work on the rear of the chassis before the bed is reinstalled. The main chassis harness has been installed. New oak wood was sourced and milled to original specifications. I painted the oak in a primer coat followed by a topcoat of "porch floor coating", a paint made to withstand the weather and lots of abuse. The sheen is shiny, but it will be sandwiched between the chassis and the bed and out of sight. The orginal wood was rotted, but was used as a pattern.. I plan on finishing up changing ou the wire loom and plan on refitting the bed after the new year.

 

 

John Gott

[Antony]

Excellent job John, quite inspiring for me, I have three 969's of which I have enough good parts to rebuild two vehicles, plus a 968 cargo......... then the Federal 94x43...........thats after I have finished the Dodge WC62..........hmmm.........I wish I were a bit younger.

[42 chevy]

rebuilt in 1960 at an Army Depot in Japan. (see tag in the picture) and the transmission is NOS. I have attached pics as we uncrated it.

 

Merry Christams everyone. I ran out of dayight to take a picture of teh tranny installed, I wil lpost tommorrow

 

John Gott

[kw573]

Hello John,

Thanks for the many posts and pictures. Your attention to detail is truly impressive! I continue to be impressed with the condition of the truck you started with. There just are not the trucks in that condition, unrestored, here in Oz. It's lack of rust, dents etc, and it's completeness is rare here.

Also, the variety of NOS parts you seem to be able to acquire continues to surprise me. Once again, that stuff is so very very thin on the ground where I live. Hence the need for me to repair/make/adapt so much more on my 969. I'd love to get hold of your 'left-overs' when you are finished! Yes, I could easily fill a pallet to ship to Australia.

Your front bumper must have been a mess, as I cold-pressed several dents out of mine with well under 30 tons. I'd hate to have to get a serious twist out of one!

Anyway, good work, you are helping me keep on track with my restoration.

 

Have a warm day. Sam.

[42 chevy]

Today, my friend arrived with his tractor trailer and we took the truck to his shop to reinstall the bed, all in all, a very productive day.

 

 

First 2 pics are of the truck on its way to Eric's shop and the last 2 are of teh bed installed.

 

John Gott

[supertrack]

Antony said " excellent job "

I can't said more !

[42 chevy]

The latest "rubber" (actually polyurethane) showed up today from Bodie Cummings (BC Products Company located in Wakarusa, Kansas, USA. ph.785-862-1162) Bodie used my headlight bases as a pattern to fabricate new base pads and I sent my clutch and brake pedals to him to have new "covers" installed. These pedal pads are the same on all model lines of WWII Diamond T trucks, however, the headlight bases are specific to the 967,968,969 and 970, sorry Adrian, yours are differant on the 980/981.

 

Tech tep for those who are replacing there clutches, if you are installing a new friction disc, make sure you use 8 shims at the six points provided. Each shim is .016" thick but it makes the plate move 7/64 of an inch by the lever action of the pressure plate. The rebuilder who did mine only installed 7 shims and we could not figure out why the clutch would not disengage. So out with he tranny again, and after some discussion, and reading the tech manual again, we counted the shims, found the error and installed 9 shims, ( I am lucky I kept my old shims, note to self, do not throw anything away) Now I have an operable clutch.:banana:

 

John Gott