Gordon_M

Used to have similar porosity problems on a variety of castings we made for the Post Office. We sent them all to Glasgow where a company called CASTINGITE soaked them in some sort of sealant which penetrated and sealed any pores. That was years back, may well not be in business any more, but did the job in those days. Alas, no more; http://ukdata.com/company/00495285/CASTINGITE-(SCOTLAND)-LIMITED

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.

Between then and Christmas, for sure, given the way that trucks were moving out of there. Gordon ( still no sign of my Build Cards )

Standard DUKW with the 12 foot radio pod dropped in. This would fit the DUKW or the CCKW. I vaguely remember you had to pull the cargo division panel out to free up the front pod doorway access, but since the load was limited to the pod, radio equipment, and so on the reduction in structural strength wouldn't have been noticed. These pods effectively replaced the radio truck version of the GMC ( maybe the Chev K-51 too ) as you could just drop them in a standard truck and you were ready to go.

Hmm, well he's the expert I suppose. I wouldn't let him go any higher than 20 psig, though ... Useful to have a handle on the cost per inch these days. The block that was stitched for me had a crack over two feet long when he dye penetrant tested it ......

Don't have any idea as to the make, but I know where I could get it identified if it is American. The ATHS, American Truck Historical Society, run a daily US truck identity quiz and I'm sure Jeff L. there could run that past the very knowledgable members. Let me know if you want me to copy and forward to him. Gordon

I've been putting it off for a while now, but I suspect this service may quietly be withdrawn some time so I finally ordered my five. I've also asked if I can have a deal on a special batch of sixteen that I don't own for research purposes, but they normally need proof of ownership before they will let you have the data. We'll see. Anyone with a WW2 US Dodge should have this card ( Canadian Dodge build records were dumped apparently ) and there are a couple of threads on the WW2 Dodge Forum about interpretation of it and lists of cards and details. G

Happy to help. I've seen shots of the interior in use and it was incredibly cramped. It would be 'cool' to have the signals truck and trailer, but I think the plain panel van would be more usable.

Interesting - how long did it take as I've had my five cards on order for about a month now? Worth comparing the Build Card date with the Date of Delivery - but I suspect from your text you don't have it. The Build Card is always dated before the Date of Delivery, but I assume the amount varies. Early in the war the inspection would have been Quartermaster Corps inspectors in batches, later on it would have been Ordnance inspectors on the line, so by February 44 if would be pretty much the same day

Good progress. Special request here, if it can be done without any on costs, of course. Please get the metal stitching people to photograph the visible cracks, and then the same things when developed with dye penetrant. I'm sure there will be a noticeable difference that is worth the work to illustrate. I had a GMC 270 with a visible 6" crack in the water jacket, but when penetrant tested it ran right back down the block to the bell housing. Stitching saved it and that engine is still running well, last I heard, but I often wishes I'd photographed before / during / after to show the differences. I'm sure those castings will save but will probably take a little more work than is immediately visible, and such images will show you why the bill was justified. Apparently you can do this process yourself but I think money spent on a specialist would be worthwhile on this sort of stuff.

K-51 Signals Truck. They built a bunch of plain panels, then a contractor converted the majority of them to K-51 configuration which involved hacking holes and adding side boxes - also did away with spare wheel mount ( sometime just gas axed it off - didn't even unbolt it ) Came with K-52 Ben Hur generator trailer, which had an underslung spare 7.50 x 20 wheel and tyre as spare for the whole combination. They converted so many that the plain panel van is actually rarer than the conversion. You are not seeing the depth of the side pod there because of the angle, and of course you can't see the rear duals and wide rear fenders. The truck nearer the camera is a CCKW with some sort of special purpose body too, I'd guess - more Signal Corps ? Gordon

I'm thinking M37 then. It isn't a WW2 Dodge one, military or civilian, that I recognise. WC's were Carter or Zenith, and the only light truck option was Stromberg on the one ton 4 x 2 trucks.

I was thinking Clarcat I'm sure, as mine was a Clarktor Six H. Anyway - nice item. If it is complete, grab it, if not, probably not worth it. Like all traction stuff it'll be a lot heavier than it looks, so although size wouldn't be an import factor, weight might be. Not much chance of finding big parts if missing though.

It's the smaller Clarks unit. There is an online Yahoo Group for them. Quite desirable as long as it isn't big bucks.

You were closer than you knew with the original question too. Although based on the CMP Chevrolet they did need a bit more grunt to move them, so they were fitted with the same GMC 270 as the basic CCKW and DUKW power plant. I assume they used the Clarks 5 speed transmission too, although they may have stuck with the ( considerably lighter ) four speed found in the Chevrolet.

Ouch, I think you are going to have to dye penetrant check both of those castings in their entirety, The crack fixing will be tedious and not cheap, so you would really want to find everything before you start. In particular I recall the Metallock tech that fixed my block telling me that most casting cracks run on a lot further than the visible ends, which is why they d/p'd all of them before starting work.

I like reading Discworld novels too, but my avatar is my Sno-Cat, a 1953 type 443. The original GIF file is animated, but won't run as an avatar image here;

A clue here is that it has an ORDNANCE stock code on it, confirming that Uncle Sam was at least one of the users. That code format suggests WW2 to me., but that's all I have.

Crying out for a stitch / Metallock repair, for sure. Might be worth getting the whole casting penetrant checked, as these things run quite a distance and you only want to do it once. I think the largest repair of this type I've seen was a set of cast railway buffers by a train which had impacted them - totally destroyed but had to be pieced back together - not sure why as you would have thought they could just have replaced them.

Hello again David, good to see you here. Gordon

Back to the Iron Fireman again; Unbolted the cab cross tubes and used an old socket as an impact hammer to pull them Cab off, remaining plywood will probably go in the bin, much easier to do the necessary repair riveting with this amount of access. Main centre section and drivers position, showing winch under seat. Drive section closeup, seat, over winch, over cross tube for walking beams, note that the drive spur gears from the Cletrac diff are in front of this pivot point, but the angular offset is very little. Gordon

I've got bids in on those too, as I realised that my T-36 needs one hand-operated wiper as well, and I'm going to assume the Weasel one is correct ( the electric wiper was the Weasel one )

Not only that, but as far as I remember only three things were less than perfect too; 1. You made do with the radiator tanks. 2. Axle shaft ends pushed out the Dennis hubcap sign. 3. Some swine ran off with your anvil ....... That has to be a pretty good rate, I reckon you should all stand as MPs but you'd probably do too good a job. :cool2:

Always happy to see people working on carriers, as it saves me from getting one, but the number one source for carrier info is still the carrier forum on Maple Leaf Up; http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6 I do keep an eye out here and on MLU as now and then something comes up on either where the other forum can contribute to the answer.

Hmm, well surely the back two would be 3 & 4, then? Only obvious answer is that the rear two have stuck valves - you don't say how long is has been since it was running correctly - weeks, months - a year? If it has been running Ok relatively recently I'd guess that your timing is well out, on the wrong side of TDC, for example.