Gordon_M

Has to be decontaminator or fire extinguisher mount. I've never seen those brackets before. I wonder if there is something else bolted over the location where the fire extinguisher mount would go?

The WC54 advice isn't complicated. It's a 6 v Dodge 3/4 ton, so mechanical completeness isn't an issue. There are few mechanical parts which are specific to the ambulance - things like the rear prop shaft and springs / shocks, so you want them to be there. Missing engine, gearbox, transfer, most front end metal isn't a problem. From memory the hood / bonnet just fits Carryall and Ambulance, so that needs to be there. The body was coachbuilt by Wayne Works ( no sniggering please ... ) and it is a very nice body, but with only two reservations; 1. If it is a pile of rust - forget it. Hugely complex to rebuild big sections of it. 2. Missing parts - many of the ambulance bits like the rear step were taken off those used as radio trucks in Norway, and EVERYBODY is looking for them. $$$ / £££ That's about it, Basically you need a good complete chassis and rear axle, plus a body that isn't rusty, and all the ambulance trivia like rear step and stretcher brackets. If you have that it is a winner even if the engine, gearbox and front axle are missing ....

WC hard cab, soft cab, what ? The basic plates show maximum speed, radiator draining, gear shift pattern - that sort of thing.

Actually it would, but it would be quite poor, and you would need a ton of it. Most of the historic screen rust you see on these Dodge screens is caused by condensation running down the inside of the glass and filling the rubber strip / metal gap on the bottom edge inside. OK, here we go, Dodge hard cab windscreen to cab surround joint lecture. There are three factors that will affect the sealing of your Dodge hard cab screen to the body surround. 1. Location. If your screen and seal are fitted correctly, then the outer edge of the seal will sit right on a pressed rib in the face of the screen surround. If it is sitting anywhere other than correctly, particularly if it is too high, the water will get between the seal and the body. The cure for almost everything here is to adjust the hinges and use spacer plates as necessary to get the line up exactly right. 2. Sealing rubber to screen seal. This rubber seal needs to be well attached and can be retained ( to the screen) by some of the black panel sealant referred to above. Position the seal, glue it in place, close the screen but not fully clamped down, leave to set. You can use some of the black panel sealant to seal the joint between the rubber and the screen metal, but just a smear wiped off with a suitable finger. 3. Condition of the rubber seal itself. You want the one piece continuous seal that is formed to the right shape, not the loose strip. Be aware that even if you fit a NOS seal and leave it in the garage for a year or two it will start to shrink and split - they are not very durable. Something like a Dodge Carryall can be made absolutely weather tight if required. Apart from the windscreen seal, you need to fit the panel / Carryall roof correctly, put drain channels in the rear window boxes, extend the drain hoses down below the double panel joint (the factory left them short which lets water into the double panel where you can't get at it) and seal the rear windows (black panel sealant again) plus paint and seal the insides of the doors (except for suitable drain holes....) Gordon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No commercial interest here, just suggesting a product - moderators feel free to remove if worried... Bodyline product codes; BDPBWWSB - black Wet on Wet Seam Sealer. BDPBSCBS - grey Semi-Structural Car Body Sealer. here, on the Sealers and Adhesives PDF file; http://www.brownbrothers.com/ The grey stuff is also ideal if you have a side window that just clamps into a bottom channel using the spring / give that was in the channel when new, and your spring has sprung in the intervening 60 years. Just glue it in with this stuff. It won't move, but you can still carefully dig it out if you have to.

That's impressive work, and I can see that the angle on the original top edge would have needed replaced anyway, but why replace the side plate? Given that it is the original armour and otherwise well attached why just not weld all the holes up, heating and straightening distorted bits as you went? Owner decision, some critical mechanical function? Gordon

All the 39-47 pattern hard cab screens used the same flat glass, and you should be able to get 1/4" or 6mm laminate cut for it at about £20 per sheet. Get as good an edge as you can, and it is worth sealing the laminate edges with varnish before putting it in the frame to prevent water creeping up the laminate boundary when it is in the screen. The screen frames tend to be weak, especially at the bottom edge inside. Just strip the screen and MIG up any holes, then cut back the glass slots with an angle grinder. You are liable to have trouble getting the frame sections apart. Don't be afraid to smash the glass out and roast the joists with a gas torch - even then you may have to drill the heads off some of the screws. Do not use the flat rubber strip, per the manual, ( it tends to push the sides of the weakened screen frame apart ) and do not use windscreen sealant. Get yourself down to your local dealer like Brown Brothers and get a tube of Bodyline black, semi-structural, panel sealant. Easy to use, sets hard, but not super rigid, can be removed and cleaned up if required. This is also the stuff for mounting back windows and side window panes in the runners and channels.

back to sleep

Here you go Hanno, we really must get you away from these Canadian trucks and on to US stuff... This thing came as 16 and 20 ton units, but yours looks like a 16 ton, and possibly with a different dolly up front. Single rear axle = 16 ton unit. Double rear axle = 20 ton model CPT 20 by the same two manufacturers plus Rogers too. Happy New Year Gordon

I'm sitting here thinking that whatever you paid for the raw material and the workshop machines you have certainly saved it back on this project alone. If I needed something like this and I could find the drawings I would just pay someone to make it, but this coupling wouldn't be a £5 bill, now would it? I traded on my amphibious GPA just because I didn't have this sort of workshop capacity - but more of a sheet metal working emphasis. Gone to a good home though.

Basically that is why I still have the alloy carb, and maybe even the aircleaner somewhere. It has a much less satisfactory joint with the aircleaner than the cast one with the four bolt flange.

I had both for the DUKW, and different air cleaners too. The iron carb had a four bolt top flange and matching air cleaner mount, wheras the alloy carb had a round top and matching clamp type aircleaner mount - both were original equipment. I think I still have the alloy carb somewhere in the parts store if anyone needs it, but no idea of the value. I have a banjo type pillow block too, which was in a box of reconditioned units. Way too heavy to post unless anyone is desperate.

Hmm, might not be ordinary brass - wouldn't take the stress. Bronze, gunmetal (basically bronze with 2% tin if I remember correctly) or ordinary steel would be better bets.

Steeper section fo the learning curve then? Will you get a new pattern or just re-work the existing one? I can just see that if you re-work the exisiting pattern something else will fall in your lap that needs the original configuration ...

Ranges are expensive. Huge amounts spent on security, equally huge liabilities if people should wander in (with or without spanners ...) and get hurt. Environmental concerns, but basically cutting costs. I thnk the amount spent on live-fire ranges in the future is going to be a lot less than in the past, and that's before you get round to selling off thousands of acres of valuable land to rake in millions of £££.

You know, if the foundry have already cast it, you could pretty much bandsaw off the outlet, turn it the required number of degrees, and braze it on again. That is assuming that the pattern isn't right and the original had a bend in the hose? Can't you find even one original to check before you do something drastic - up here in Scotland that translates as "even more money" :stop: Erm - expedient repair in the field?

Well an army truck should at least look interesting. This is one of a series of shots taken around these events which pop up on E-Pay from time to time. Well before the Louisiana war games that featured VC and VF trucks plus early GMC 6 x 6's. ------------------------------------------------------------------ California 'exercises' in the late 1930's. A White / Corbitt, probably a 7 1/2 ton 6 x 6 model Indiana 20x6 from about 1936, tows an anti-aircraft gun and crew. This design would be a run-on from the Quartermaster Corps Standard Fleet I think. The AA gun does nothing for me, and the two crew sitting on it while they tow it with the barrel up don't look impressed either. I'd love to have the truck, though. production quantities would have been so small that parts would be impossible, it would be easier to find bits for something made in WW2, or even WW1, in larger quantities.

I always relate these hubs to the old chain drive bogies. I'm sure the Pacific M26 Dragon had reduction hubs on the front and chain drives on the back, which sort of makes sense if you think about it as it is pretty much the same layout but with gear faces instead of sprocket faces and chain. Wonder if anyone knows if the reduction ratio on a Pacific front axle is the same as the sprocket ratio on the back? - anyone? Mack NO series front axles, Volkswagen camper vans, Kubel rear ends, loads of these things about.

The Canadian truck came as F15, which was two wheel drive, and F15A, which was four wheel drive. Standard CMP (Canadian Military Pattern ) trucks which were made by two main manufacturers, Ford and Chevrolet, and three different cab styles, 11, 12, and 13 cabs. Dodge did prototypes, at least of a two wheel drive 13 cab CMP, but no quantity production as they were producing thousands of 15cwt and 3 ton conventional cab trucks..

Here's a shot of a similar machine at AF Ross's yard in Girvan some time back. great little machine, but I already have my Sno-Cat

I don't know what brand Steve sold me, but don't think it was Omaha. I'm reasonably sure they were branded as Firestone, but might have been licensed ones...

Steve Rivers at Dallas Autos near Reading has sold me all of mine......

No, because the only reason for all this insane painting of wheelnuts is to differentiate those nuts and studs that hold the wheel together, from those that hold the wheel on the vehicle. I can't think of any cars of the period that have wheels that can be dissassembled, so the point wouldn't arise. I believe that parade vehicles pre-and post war indulged in painted nuts to give the men something to do, rather than becuase they really needed them. During WW2 the focus was on getting the vehicles serviceable and keeping them that way. Painting was approximate and often inconsistent. Something like a WW2 US Dodge would have neat USA numbers (factory applied) but crude dash makings for tire pressure and max. speed, and crude bumper codes (no sniggering at the back there ... :nono:) Might or might not have one or more shipping stencils depending on whether it was shipped as a vehicle or part of a single / twin unit pack.

That should take it off, but long messy job unless you can pull the tank and sit it in a puddle of spirit.

Your truck looks like it has all the original early features, like the symettrical 'wire-in' grilles (as opposed to the later 'wire-on' versions) and it probably has the captive nuts to hold the DODGE sign to the radiator top shell and not just two drilled holes as seen on so many others. Your truck should also NOT have the following on it; no holes for jerry can carriers on running boards no mountings for Universal Rifle Carrier no third terminal for left hand front headlight wiring block - the third wire should feed straight to the add-on blackout light. Gordon

Well that's all the rail crane stuff I have, how about a road / rail trailer then? This is one I bought in Virginia and restored to tow behind my road / rail Dodge panel van conversion. Before; After;