Pete Ashby

It looks an absolute credit to you, well done for sticking at it through all those hundreds of hours of cutting, welding and grinding. I've always thought that the best restorers display a certain amount of bloody minded determination not to be beaten by the project, it becomes a personal battle. Major objective achieved........Driver advance !. out. Pete

An epic amount of work to get to this stage Congratulations !! Pete

Thanks Alex, the camping stove option is a good one and in terms of harmonious relationships the best choice but there is a certain thrill in living dangerously.

We don't have one any more Richard but when we did I've used that as well for small parts works like a charm.

Thank you they are water slide transfers that came in from the US, when applying them I use a setting solution that the kit modelers use to make sure the transfer beds down without air bubbles or wrinkles. Needless to say a good sound surface is required for the transfer to adhere to.

Last but not least the bit that starts everything going Auto-Lite built for Chrysler Corp pre-engage 6V starter probably identical to the 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton US models. Before Here the end plate and nose have been removed, the case rotary wire brushed and a note added on the photo to self for reference to aid reassembly. I still use a note book and pencil but it's so much faster with the camera and simple graphic package nowadays. the commutator has been lightly sanded and the mica uncut the phosphor bronze bushes checked for ware and each end of the motor shaft measured, Bendix checked and lightly oiled and the drive teeth checked. There was no ware at all so after checking the field coils for shorts everything was laid out ready for painting and reassembly The brushes were in very good condition so they were refitted with the end plate, the starter contacts were cleaned and checked for surface contact and then the whole thing looked like this That's all for now Pete

Now this next piece comes with some marital advice attached so be warned. Carburetor what could possibly go wrong? The unit is a Ball & Ball Carter model ETT-1 produced for Chrysler Canada Before Here it is with the float chamber opened up Float removed and a view of the pump and compensating jet fittings both of which were seized in their respective bores so some careful work required to remove them both and not damage anything in the process Here's a page from the manual showing the full set up Now this next bit that carries the warning only do this next bit if you are A, Single B, Have a partner/wife/girlfriend/significant other or any other variation, well who am I to judge??? (delete as appropriate) that has lived with military vehicle restoration for at least 35 years I offer this advice as a public disclaimer in support of any legal action where I may be named in cases for divorce or separation settlements resulting from doing the following: Here's all the bits disassembled with (and this bit is important) all brass and copper fittings removed sitting on the stove in a mixture of white vinegar and a snifter of Lemon juice gently simmering very gently for about 30 minutes.......don't say I didn't warn you. Once it cools down rinse everything off with plenty of cold water and blow through all passageways this method cleans all the gum and tarnish off, a quick buff up of the outside and it looks like new. Here all the bits are laid ready for reassembly the new kit came in from the US And here's the finished job with a bit of paint on the throttle body all ship shape in the sun last bit to follow Pete

Thank you, your right there doing the out of the ordinary stuff certainly isn't a way to run a business unless you are into the exotic stuff. Knocking out a jeep every three months or so can be if your tooled up to do it but it gets boring, been there done it and the T shirt went into the rag box nearly 30 years ago now.

This next one is all about oily bits. First up is the Oil filler tube with integral cap and air filter Before During clean up After The next item is the oil filter housing. Dodge Chrysler Canada seemed to have employed three different types during the production run for these trucks this is the one that was on the engine when the truck came to me it is the first type, it's a sealed canister the whole thing has to be replaced during an oil change. Not a very clever idea on active service and almost impossible to find now. I believe some British trucks notably Bedfords used a similar system. I have kept the unit as a curio but have replaced it with a later canister with replacement element type. The second type was a canister with a replaceable element the lid had a T bar on the securing nut and looked like this if anyone has one for sale in good condition I may be interested. the last type is the very recognizable canister and flat nut with replaceable element and this is the one I have currently obtained and intend to use. .Before After I have yet to determine what type and how many of decals should be on the unit I'm fairly certain it's a Purlator design but slightly different from the standard Junior Military fitted to jeeps and WC 3/4 tons so if anyone could supply photos of them and a source I'd love to hear from you. more to follow Pete

OK so now a bit more technical stuff here The distributor this is a vacuum advance unit made by Auto-Lite for Chrysler Corporation Canada Before During strip down Centrifugal balance weight springs in good condition and with a drop of oil on the pivots everything looked good to go There is no ware on the tongue of the drive shaft and no movement in the shaft bushes so all good. Everything now cleaned, oiled, new points, rotor and condenser fitted painted and reassembled, the vacuum chamber was also tested to make sure the diaphragm wasn't perished and a new low tension wire made up and fitted. The outer sleeve for this is the original one and is made of woven wire mesh (similar to the one on a jeep fender and fulfills the same function of suppression) Right there's a mug of tea in the offing and a chocolate biscuit or two so more to follow after that. Pete

With work on the sheet metal work progressing well I turned my attention to the big lumps of iron sitting in the corner of the workshop slowly seeping oil onto the floor and providing commodious if somewhat dirty accommodation for spiders and the odd mouse......after removing the accumulated junk that had found a useful resting place there as well the Dodge's engine and gear box appeared. Both units will be fully stripped inspected and parts replaced if out of spec. Doing mechanical work on these big units is relatively quick ( but potentially very expensive). The thing that takes the time is cleaning, checking and repairing all the ancillary kit that hangs off the big lumps. So now I always start with these ancillary items first and in this case it was the engine that I started with. So here's a few before and afters with a bit of commentary as required. First up air filter Before After One or two dings in the lid unfortunately that were not possible to remove as the filter housing is spot welded to the lid and this prevents access, but I can live with them. Next up the Fan no big deal here just a week or so in the molasses bath a rinse and a quick wiz with the wire brush on the grinder jobs a good'n. Before After More to follow Pete

Time for a bit of a catch up on this project. It's been a long cold wet winter here in the west so the decision between spending time in front of the wood burner or spending time in an unheated workshop has been a finely balanced one. However some progress has been made on days when the thermometer rose above freezing so with out further ado (for this read lame wet willy excuses) here is the other half of the rear cab sheet repair that I had started in my last set of photos. The method is exactly the same as the first half of the rear sheet that was covered previously. The only difference here is that the red spray can ran out so I found an old tin of white primer and used that instead to keep the flash rust at bay until media blasting is carried out. One unintentional advantage about using white is that it is much easier to see the pin hole misses in the butt welds and saves the effort of marking them up with chalk............ why didn't I think of that earlier?? Here is the underside of the cab floor with the replacement angle in place and the bottom sheet replacement strip folded round it and crimped over. This is the completed job the new lower edge is to the left of the photo Just the hole in the cab floor that was hacked out around the tank change tap to be welded up then this will be job and knock for the repair work on rear section of the cab . Pete

PM sent Pete

Good job, When your in the middle of it all and the pile of rusted cut offs is large than whats left it can be a bit overwhelming but full marks to you for persevering, the result is worth all the effort.

The three replies you've got pretty well sum it up. In the UK unless you are working in a well insulated and heated workshop metal prep and painting of any sort is best left until the dew point and ambient temperature rises in the spring. Pete

Just caught up with this thread, excellent result Sam a lovely restoration congratulations to you . Pete

Agreed mag clamps are very useful, I use them in some situations to hold sheet and larger sections for fillet or butt welding but I notice they can make the arc unstable when working close to them so I try to only use them when tacking. In this instance I used the screws as the angle is dead square while the floor section has some slight distortion, both the angle and floor pressing are 16 gauge so it needs some force to draw the two together. Pete

Well after a bit of a think and a couple of snifters and a lay down I decided the only way to sort out the corrosion where the rear skin meets the floor pressing was to once again bash on with the slitting disc. I have decided to cut a strip out of the back skin and removed 120 degree lip in the floor pressing. The rear skin is folded around the 120 degree lip and spot welded in place and that was the cause of the extensive corrosion due to water and muck becoming trapped in the fold. Rear skin and lip removed f The next challenge was replicate the lip in the floor pressing and fabricate and attach a replacement strip to the rear skin. The tricky bit here is the radius of the lip as it turns round to the door post. I decided not to try to replicate the 120 degree lip in the floor pressing but to use some 90 degree iron suitably modified in dimensions and plug welded to the floor. Enter the last of my stock of metal bed frames the radius is exactly right, in fact it seems to be an industry standard for producing curves in this gauge steel as I've used it in a number of other applications. Here is the bed frame trimmed down to size and welded in place the silver paint is weld through primer Outside view Inside view Using clamps to hold the angle tight on the floor pressing was a problem as there is no way to get them in position while it was welded so I used self drilling steel roofing screws. Living where I do we always have a bucket of these around to fix errant bits of tin back down in the teeth of a westerly. The advantage of using these over standard self tappers is that is they will take higher torque without stripping, a useful feature when working on thicker steel. Once welded the screws were backed out and the small holes welded closed. I'm replacing the whole bottom section but you may notice I'm only doing one half at a time. The rear cab skin is stressed and given shape by being drawn down and folded round the floor section in the factory using a jig then spot welded. The upshot of this is if I cut the whole bottom section off in one go the skin would lose tension and 'paint can' and heat produced during welding would just make the problem worse so doing one half at a time hopefully will help to prevent this..................... time will tell. Pete

One with full French army spec just come onto Milweb this morning Pete

Back in the early 1960's there were several of the Aluminium type on the Thames nearly Hurley, they had been converted into small cabin cruisers with outboards on the back Pete

Up date on the rear of the cab and floor in the last post I'd started to mark up the areas that would need attention and the same design issues of butt closed non sealed seams that caused issues on the front scuttle were evident on the rear section as well, it's a miracle that any of these closed cabs have survived frankly. This feature was the cause of the problem around the top of the rear panel, the cab roof can be removed for shipping purposes and the joint between the rear panel and the cab roof is closed with nothing more sophisticated than a metal strip that's what can be seen here And no surprise that after 77 years water has got between the joint and done it's worst so it looks like this So it was out with the slitting disc once again and replace the whole top section of the cab sheet this was seam welded in place working on short sections at a time from opposite ends and using a copper heat sink to prevent distortion in the panel here's the finished job. The roof section bolts through the outer closing strip through the lower cab panel and also into a second inner strip which has now been added here. The two mating faces on the back panel were sprayed with weld through Zinc rich primer before plug welding together, the original was spot welded, here it is in place. Effort will now move on to sorting out the problems where the back panel meets the floor pan this may need more than tea to aid the thought process.........did I say somewhere it wasn't going to be as tricky as the scuttle...... where's the Gin. Pete

After the usual Equinox rain and gales down here yesterday was a bit calmer so I could get the workshop doors open and move stuff around ready for phase two of the cab repair Completed front scuttle parked out of the way on the back of the Retriever And so it starts all over again on the rear floor and back panel, first job was to crane it off the tank at the back of the workshop and get it on a pallet where it can be worked on Quick look round and asses what needs doing Out with the chalk to mark up what needs replacing. The whole top section of the cab and the inner band that forms the joint between cab back and the roof will need replacing, an area in the floor where the tank change valve sits (that has been attacked with a cold chisel) I suspect to gain access to change a faulty valve at some point in the trucks life and some short sections at the base of the back panel. Although the repairs cover a comparatively large area there are no complicated pressings and profiles that took the time with the front scuttle. Onward and upwards bash on with the slitting disc Pete

At last work on the scuttle is finished, it's been a bit of a long haul and at times a bit like completing a jigsaw using a grinder and a welder but it's done now and ready for media blasting when the rear cab section and roof have been seen to but all that's for another day so a few photos to close this chapter. This bit was a bit tricky due to the tight curves and internal lip But with a bit of bish and bosh it came good Here the same area had to be repaired on the other side as well a result of being hidden under the inner wing And the repair in place Here another section of the windscreen recess had to be repaired this time on the left hand side thankfully only a short section this time Job done with a bit of careful grinding using a dia grinder to keep the profile of the pressing Last but not least a few extra holes in the dash added during the trucks civilian life needed attention Suitable sized washers are welded into the holes and ground back flush, that's what's going on here. And finally the last bit of the jigsaw in place Hurrah !! Pete

Having called a halt to outside activities due to the somewhat unseasonable weather and needing a change from cutting out rust in the D15 cab I turned my attention to making some space in the store. So dragged the various bits and pieces that make up the Retriever spare wheel carrier and frame into the shed that I laughingly call the spray shop for the standard treatment. I couldn't remember when I'd added the construction of this piece of kit to the blog, looking back I was surprised to see it's been sitting around for nearly four years so it was high time to get it fully top coated and fitted to the truck. A few photos of the frame and carrier installed, there's a bit of minor adjustment required and I have to make the frame rail spacers to replace the wood packing but other than that the jobs complete and working. so to recap this is how it started four years ago And this is how it looks today Classic example that no matter how much space you have it's never quite enough Pete

You will need very deep pockets for that vehicle Pete