Cushman 53

First few parts back from sand blaster's in zinc, then primed in Bonda Rust Primer which I highly recommend, goes on really well and if brushed leaves no brush marks at all.

We are lucky that we have a sand blaster next door, so we are preparing a few items at a time for them. They will zinc them for us too and we will prime them when we get them back.

The chassis has been hit over the years so we need to straighten this out. It is still a rolling chassis at the moment, we will drop the axles soon. 

Possibly original paint on steering box?

Last weekend! Trying to free rusty bolts in fuel tank hanger's......some more stubborn than others!

Next jobs will be to take off axles, springs, and steering box so we have a completely bare chassis. We only want to restore this once so intend on doing it right! We will sand blast the chassis first and rebuild up from that. We do have an original engine for this but intend on putting the diesel Bedford engine back....mainly for economy!

Engine out!

August 2019

May 2019. We are lucky that we have access to a forklift, without this would be impossible to remove the heavy items, the radiator alone is really a two man lift! The cab is in two parts, we struggled and lifted the rear off....stupid move!

Forget the Winter!....now March 2019.

Jet washing!

Thanks Pete.

More pics.

It became obvious that the cab area had some issues with tin worm, the biggest part of this restoration to tackle we think. This truck is mostly all there, just missing engine cover and a few small parts. In a year we have nearly stripped the truck to a bare chassis, we only have limited time to work on this as we both work and we live eighty miles away from each other, so we have to work out times when we are both free, so at the moment it is just a few hours every couple of weeks in the summer months, we are working outside too. A big problem is dealing with 75 year old rusty nuts and bolts and trying to free them, most have never been apart. Will add more pictures soon.

In 2018 my brother and I purchased something bigger than we have previously restored! We bought the 1943 Federal as running, but decided to do a complete restoration. The original engine had been replaced at some time in it's life with a Bedford diesel engine. These pictures are how we purchased it. Hope you enjoy this thread.