Gordon_M

You need to watch the price bracket.

Importing a vehicle will cost £2500, so it isn't worth buying something that is near scrap, but on the other hand it you spend £7500 then the dockside total here will be £10000 and you will be paying loads of cash for customs clearance and VAT.

Make no mistake, you will be paying, no way to avoid it, legally or otherwise. You should only buy a vehicle with a "TITLE" ( equivalent of our V5 or V55 ) as without that it won't get out of the US. Forget about crating, you just need a slot in a consolidated container shipment, that's cheapest.

You can save some money by getting missing bits fixed or replaced before shipment, otherwise you will be importing spares and paying tax every time.

A good shipping agent, like Kingstown Shipping, can do local uplift in the US, shipping, local delivery here - you just buy something with a title and pay the money.

If you buy something as scrap or parts you will not get a C&E 386 form showing duty paid on import, and you will never be able to road register it.

Found the answer after I posted here , on command-car.com where 56 is listed as closed cab 1/2 ton . Doesn't explain the civvy cab or the fact that the cab has never yet been OD (it's red under the yellow). I've emailed the chap I bought it from for contact with the person he bought it from. Thanks for your help. I already sent my build card to Sylvia .

Never seen 56 listed, but if Sylvia has it on the Build Card list. Must be an earlier closed cab variant, maybe the full waterfall dash version. I'd guess if your truck had been 1941 production the code would be different

Don't have 56 as a code on the list;

http://ww2dodge.com/content/body-tag

However 66 is an open cab pickup with transverse rear seats, so your complete code might have been 4066-xxxx, and the smaller the xxxx number the earlier in the build sequence. Actual model year production start was September.

I wouldn't guarantee that 56 didn't exist as a code, it will be out there somewhere, however all the common military body codes are accounted for, and 66 was one of the most common. ( Most of the special purpose trucks on ordinary chassis would have had 4062 which would be just a cab and chassis supplier separately to a specialist body supplier )

You should go to the WW2 Dodge Forum and look for the Build Card thread, and send them a copy too as there are approaching 100 similar cards on file.

http://forum.ww2dodge.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7441

The pictures aren't showing on the G503 thread.

Glad you got it though, right time, right place. How many other people in the world could put it to the use it was made for ...

I dont think the DVLA would be very impressed with a motorbike club verifying the age of half track!!

 

It's got an engine and two wheels, has to be a motorbike guv ....:angel:

The fan is balanced, and designed to give just one gap between blades large enough to get a greasy hand through :laugh:

I've never thought about that before but you are absolutely right.

There are water pump variations, particularly length, but I'm sure Rex would give you the correct one automatically. From hazy memory the truck one was shorter than the DUKW one, but you could use the truck one on the DUKW with a spacer adapter - no idea how you got access though.

While you have the pump off back flush the radiator and the block.

Nice, a light repair truck I think, and most of the needed bits are there if it has something under the hood.

I'm not sure that hood number is right, far too many characters, but the correct number may be in there somewhere.

Some of these things sell for huge amounts of money and some go very reasonable

How about yours is a replacement chassis, supplied loose?

I'll just mention mine, from (extremely) hazy memory, was something like NS-G-7173-10596, so you can see the 10095 part doesn't look out of place.

Think of the title as being the US equivalent of the V5, or V55, or whatever we are calling it this week - basically a document with name, address, description, chassis number, buyer and or seller. Only thing to beware of is that US Customs will not normally let a vehicle without a title, or with an incorrect title, out of the US. They can make exceptions for something that leaves as, say a bare chassis or mixed parts, but not many. Another exception would be a special purpose vehicle that would not be licensed for ordinary road use, but don't count on that.

Depending on the location, there are 'titling companies' that will raise a title for it in your name for a fee, usually several hundred US Dollars but no huge deal procedurally. The thing to avoid is buying something and moving it dockside where it can't be put in a container because of this, runs up storage charges by the day and if unresolved can get junked.

So, is the seller willing to deal with a titling company to get a title raised, or are they willing to sell you the item and let it remain on their property till someone else can do it before uplift? Another port of call is a good vehicle shipping company ( call Kingstown Shipping in Hull, ask for Alan, Mark, or Steve, and tell them Gordon sent you ... ) They MAY be able to assist in getting a title raised, directly or indirectly.

Last time I had this problem I had two Dodges I couldn't ship, both in scrap order, and I had to pay a company in Kentucky or the like through a third party to get this done - worked though.

You need a friendly seller and a good shipping company - first question would be what is incorrect on the current title document....

I can't see anything else other than coolant in the oil and compression areas.

As mentioned previously I think there is a water jacket crack somewhere that has opened up enough to cause this, and I'd suggest the distributor tube as a first port of call. I' wouldn't remove the head too often as that would be more likely to cause problems than fix them.

Get one of those coolant pressurising systems and put a few PSI in the cooling system and see what happens. Last time I worked on one with the distributor out even a few PSI was enough to jet water into the distributor tube. Don't know if there is any milage in the idea of just dumping additional cans of block sealant in there while it is running and wormed up to see if that cures it.

Most likely you will have to pull the distributor and the sump and sleeve the distributor with a bit of 1/2" copper tube covered in gasket goo.

I don't know the system, but I think pulling them and leaving them on top of your central heating boiler till about Easter might do it. Long slow dry-out.

Interesting, but not surprising, to see that the overturned tractor unit was a 6x6. Any idea why it should have fallen over in the first place? Good point re the hole. Why didn't the Cat just fill it in?

 

John.

Couldn't really fill that in. It looks to me like that is tundra - type stuff, frozen solid in the winter to quite a depth, but basically mud with a solid crust. When you go though that crust you are into saturated mud and all the filling in the world won't really help. Standard practice is to build it up by layering on top of it with branches and so on.

In that position you'd really need to spread all the weights out over a huge flotation area before you could achieve much. Or since it's in Russia you could wait five days till it was winter and then chisel it out of the frozen surface.

Oooh, pile of difference between the civilian and military half ton chassis Nick, got both here and a couple of variations.

The military VC frame was prone to cracking - I have a 'before' and 'after' in the garage. My VC1 chassis has cracks all over it and if it wasn't rare you'd just bin it. The VC 3 chassis has had just as many cracks, but Uncle Sam has welded it up again within an inch of its life. One of the front spring hangers looks like it has been ripped right off and then solidly re-mounted on a piece of plate. Really solid though, much more so than factory.

My 'civilian' half ton frame is from a WC36, the militarised civilian half ton Carryall, and it is much lighter again - basically just single thickness metal. Springs, hangers, all lighter, and useless civilian tube shocks too, plus the spring hangers are jeep type open 'C' ones, in fact jeep bushes will interchange.

Just weld it up, it'll be fine, but take the weight off the springs and check that none of the spring hangers are loose on the frame while you are there - if so, weld them up like Uncle Sam.

I have a late 1940 one ton chassis here that I am adding some military stuff to. VC front axle, transfer case plate, double plate hangers at the front, knee-action shocks ( not found on civilian Dodges under 1.5 ton ). Military VC springs at the front and 3/4 ton WC springs at the rear. You can mix and match a lot of this stuff, within limits, as all the bits on that chassis will be original Dodge equipment from late 1940 to mid '42. Uprating the springs and shocks will help, but since it is a civilian single-thickness chassis I'll have to watch the overall weights.

Steve Rivers at Dallas Autos. If Steve hasn't got them, no-one has

Certainly Degsy, but not only are full-rubber tracks sourced in Holland, but there have been some original-type belts made there too.

I'm sure the Liberty tracks are very expensive, but;

Weasel - tracks = ornament

That was partly the reason that I replaced my Weasel with a Tucker, which has all-steel tracks I can weld up when they get worn.

Gordon

I remember seeing some images on M29C.org. I'm sure they were Dutch or Belgian.

The reason I mention old tracks is that when I had my four, in the 1980s and 90s, I ran across big piles of broken tracks in the UK and in Norway that could have been bought for very little cash.

I remember thinking at the time there was a business opportunity there in just buying and dry storing broken track, waiting for new bands to become available.

At the minute I think Liberty tracks are the thing, but don't discard the originals as I say.

Weasels ? I remember them.

In no particular order;

The only 6 volt item I remember on a Weasel was the blackout headlight, through a dropper resistor

Wiring - all mine lasted well

Fuel - I noticed that modern fuel does for the late rubber 'bullet-resistant' fuel tanks. If you have a steel tank you'll be OK

Tracks - Liberty tracks should be fine, but keep your old tracks as people are making new bands too New tracks are expensive but it is difficult to over state the amount of work in rebuilding old tracks.

Standard T202 series VC 1 Command Car from Easter to August 1940, I have the chassis and axles for one in the garage.

Pretty much as it came off the line, but missing the brush guard. Still has the factory pattern tyres on it, and with the serial number painted out.

I'd guess these wouldn't be sold off till 1945, but would be sold off first as they were non-standard by that time. The number scrawled on the scuttle and nose was probably the auction lot number.

http://www.gwim2.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vc200401.htm

http://www.gwim2.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vclist.htm

Huge rebuild effort for Korea - I heard stories of dealers touring the UK at that time buying back US heavy equipment that had been sold off just a few years before.

I'd guess that the rebuild effort overshot and resulted in a pile of material that could then be donated to friendly countries as defence aid too.

for that money I'd want the Universal Rifle Bracket on the right way up, at least.

Spent £30,000, bills for £11,000 ? hmmmmm :yawn:

Tracks pointing in opposite directions then?

Well done on the move

That looks - useful ....

What do they do with these things anyway when they are done ? Do they get sold off through the usual channels ?

I'm definitely not liking the steering wheel, but the rest of it looks just fine. Always struck me as a little silly to have something like a radio body and have a soft cab on it, but I'm sure the economies of scale production made up for it, even if the driver got cold.

What sort of body are you planning for it, or will you get it up and running as a chassis cab and wait for a body to turn up?

You'll slot right in here with nary a ripple .....:-D

More into US stuff of the same general description myself.

Tad different on the DUKW reasoning though, as that was primarily to keep water splash off the ignition ( makes more sense when you consider the bonnet air scoop on the early DUKW )

Any DUKW part that was considered sufficiently waterproof, like the regulator box, was left unshielded.