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Gordon_M

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Posts posted by Gordon_M

  1. Since you can buy just about any part of a Weapon Carrier, and lots of good repro stuff is available from the like of Midwest Military, there are no showstoppers when looking for one to buy.

     

    In general, though, completeness. You don't really want a cab and chassis, so if it doesn't have the correct intact body, move on. It is nice, though not essential, to have the correct engine code - T202, T207, T211, T215, T214, or T223.

     

    Canvas and tyres can be expensive, so if you were choosing between two otherwise similar trucks the one with the best canvas and tyres would save you some money.

     

    Personally I would always buy a winch truck, rather than a plain front, but I'm sure others here would have exactly the opposite opinion.

     

    Final thought - when looking for a Weapon Carrier, you might run across a good deal on another Dodge - Command Car, Carryall, Ambulance, Maintenance or Telephone truck - give them due consideration. A Command Car or Carryall will always sell for more money than a Weapon Carrier, but again if you buy either of those completeness is even more important as parts - original or reproduction - are rarer and more expensive.

  2. Yes the radio mount kit will be pretty much identical, half to three-quarter. You can tell that is a WC53 by the shape of the rear inner wings / fenders, and the two cutout plates in the wooden floor that cover where the chassis kicks up. ( the body sat higher on the half ton chassis, and was dropped 3 or 4 inches on the WC 53 )

     

    There are a pile of tricks to putting that floor in - I learned them all the hard way, same with the ordinary panel roof ( WC 42 roof is metal )

     

    If you are looking for Carryall and van info, have a leaf through this page;

     

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

     

    G

  3. Well I think any contemporary British radio would be 'right' then.

     

    I'm reworking a pair of back doors for my WD21 panel at the minute, and it's no fun getting the fit right. I remember picking up one WC42 from Crieff and taking it back to Denny, on it's way to Willie Lindsay in New Cumnock, and then to Manchester in bits. Apart from the cut body the only real problem with it was the sump was off - probably big ends.

     

    The other one came from where - somewhere in the Scottish borders? I remember the rear diff had been wrecked. This was pre-internet and we didn't know how rare the Crieff one was.

  4. The '34 looks like it might be a Dodge KH series 1.5 ton 4 x 2.

     

    I just happen to know someone in Texas who has a very good KH military dump truck project for sale, but only to the right person as so many people are rodding these things.

     

    Gordon

  5. I've seen that van before, it's looking better now, for sure. I can't remember if parts of either of the Scottish ones ended up in that one though.

     

    Radios ? As far as I know they came with radio tables and battery cages, plus the ventilator fan, but since they were made specifically for us they would probably have been outfitted with whatever the standard range of British radios was in 1942-ish. There were probably different configurations, low and high power, different frequencies, etc.

     

    I've seen some shots of the inside of the Chevrolet 1.5 ton panel radio and it was incredibly cramped. I'd guess the WC42 wasn't much better. I'm sure one or two of them were left in the US as well as I heard of a couple there and I'm sure they would never have been sent back there from the UK.

     

    Doesn't one of the manuals have a shot of the interior showing tables and battery cages at least? Sure I've seen that somewhere.

  6. Who said & name the series........"I got my beady eye on you" ?

     

    I would have said Fulton MacKay to Ronnie Barker in Porridge myself :angel: but then I suppose there is no "Fletcher' on the end.

  7. another......

     

    You get points for identification, tried this on the ATHS page

     

    My guess is that it is a Pacific M26 with a Fruehauf M15 trailer, Whites M2 halftrack, which at nine ton is near the ten ton weight limit of the Bay City 18T-50 crane

  8. Yes, new tanks are probably the answer.

     

    I did wonder about the aluminium 'welding' process someone here pointed me at to joint up the sheet metal on the Snow Tractor roof.

     

    http://durafix.co.uk/

     

    This is some sort of low temperature alloy which will fuse with the aluminium and might be just the ticket. I vaguely remember that the tanks were severely pitted, but in relatively small areas?

     

    Of course the difficulty there might be getting your original repair epoxy out cleanly.

  9. That's good news, I never did fancy cranking over something by hand, even at low compression.

     

    There can't be that much still to do on the Dennis, surely? I remember the radiator tanks were still a little suspect.

     

    Gordon

  10. I had a really good starting system for my 6v GMC stuff.

     

    If it had been sitting for any length of time, I'd open the bonnet and squirt about 1 cubic inch of petrol from a squeezy bottle onto the centre of the air cleaner, where the butterfly nut is.

     

    That would drain down and any of my GMC stuff would generally fire up first kick with about half choke, as the petrol in the bottle had fired it off far enough to get the fuel up and the carb full before it ran out.

     

    My DUKW had the extra panel on the side of the dash with the knockout plug that was designed to accommodate the hand primer ( same one that was fitted to all Weasels ) That was a simple brass pump that sucked in from the fuel line inlet and squirted out through nozzles into each main brach of the inlet manifold.

     

    If your battery, carb, fuel line, and electrics are good, terminals clean and tight, then a 6v system will generally fire up. The one notable exception is where it has been repeatedly jumped with 12v.

  11. The cups, roller needles, and joint crosses all have wear surfaces - yours are probably just well worn. If it is really bad just change the joint, if not a heavy duty grease ( water pump fibrous grease maybe ? ) or strip and replace the roller needles might do it.

  12. As long as it's a shade of Olive Drab it's down to personal preference. Contrary to what the rivet counters would have you believe it was impossible when Uncle Sam had over 140 different firms supplying paint to control the shade. Manufacturer's different batch shades can vary even today with modern computer control and colour was also affected with whatever was used and the quantity to thin it prior to spraying, in the field usually petrol and as long it was a shade of olive drab nobody cared, there was a war on.:yawn:

     

    I think it even more complicated than that. As I understand it during full production some vehicles were assembled from components that arrived as the factory pre-painted from different manufacturers in different parts of the US, so you might find fenders, hoods, and so on that did not exactly match the body panels. That's on top of the common items you would expect to be subtly different, like jerry can carriers, rifle brackets, headlights and taillights, etc.

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