NuttyNick

It belongs to Stuart Beeney (assuming we are talking about the same vehicle!). He belongs to one of the Vietnam re-enactment groups, the Rolling Thunder one I think. A great guy. His truck is in fantastic condition and he tows one of the ammunition trailers as well, also in great condition. He sure knows how to look after them. I guess if you look on the Rolling Thunder website you may be able to see some more pics of it. At shows he has a maniquin "driving" it. Hope this helps. Nick

Clive, The event sounds great. I'll have a word with a couple of mates to see if they are interested in coming along to help share the fuel costs and will let you know. Nick

Alex, There's a Reo (well, that type of vehoicle) thats parked at Horsebridge on the outskirts of Hailsham during the season months. Is that the one you have seen? If so I know the guy who owns that. Nick

..... where as a Dodge is!

Cheers Joris. She runs great at the moment. Done about 1500 relative trouble free miles since completion. Looking forward to next season now. First run out will be IMPS Frostbite Run.

Go on biscuits_brown, you know you really do want a dodge. Joris will agree I'm sure. :-D :-D If you want a post war you could always go for an M37 Dodge! A bit more expensive but still well below you're 10k.

Has to be a Dodge WC. Its still relatively cheep to run and is practical. By buying one WC you will have some spare cash to buy a Ben Hur trailer, put some fuel in it and have a decent stock of spares. Can still be used as a sleeper as well. GMC would be next choice but not quite so practical. Halftrack would be cool :-D but then you are looking at big running costs, transporation etc, and then you get all the hangers on who want to be your "friend" cos you've got some armour! Jeeps - common but fun. Over priced though.

Mark - you can call me anything you like, just as you did at Lingfield Steam Fair last year! :-)

Jack ......... you've just made the assumption that I'm a bloke!!!!!! :lol:

I'd love to send a pic of vehicles covered in snow but mine are lucky enough to live in a nice warm shed! :-D I'll have to go out and buy some of that fake spray on stuff.

Thanks for the words of support guys. I was a bit "stiched" when I bought this one. Its amazing how filler can make a vehicle look OK! :nut: Matt-best of luck with your WC51, sounds like you're going to need it! :-o One thing I did find out about this one was that it was originally a WC51 but at some point (I guess it was the Norwegians) added the winch. The final few photos of my dodge. The rear woodwork is original and is fairly warped (as can be seen) so we decided it best to leave it all in-situ as I'm sure it wouldn't have gone back together quite as well if we took it apart! http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/Cleanedrearbody1April06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/Cleanedrearbody2April06.jpg[/img] The underside of the cab was repaired, primed, painted and treated with waxoyl prior to putting back on the chassis. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/UndersideofcabpaintedApril06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/InstallingcabApril06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/InstalledcabApril06.jpg[/img] Over the end of May Bank Holiday we finished re-wiring and installed the engine, having it all running on the Monday morning. The end really was in sight now, although its amazing how long it takes to finish off replacing the final panels, prop shafts, etc. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/PuttingengineonchassisMay06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/FinishedengineMay06.jpg[/img] We had her driving for the first time mid June and spent quite a while getting the clutch adjusted properly and tweeking the brakes which were also overhauled. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/FirstdriveJune06.jpg[/img] A mate of mine who's got his own coachworks company, sprayed a final coat of olive drab and baked it in the oven. This is how she looked upon her return from the spray shop. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/AftersprayingJuly06.jpg[/img] All she needed now was to be stenciled up, data plates replaced and the final few bits an pieces added. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/CabwithdataplatesJuly06.jpg[/img] We finally finished her the week before Beltring and more importantly she was ready for the wedding. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/Dodge3.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/InDodge3.jpg[/img] Whilst I appreciate that many people have restored Dodge's in the past and it was not exactly the most challenging of restoration projects I am extremely pleased the way it went, (with it being my first serious exploration into restoration) and I am now well and truely hooked on restoration! I'm now ready to take on the 6x6 dodge and Jimmy! I'll keep you posted on how they go! I hope you have found some of the pics of interest. :-D :banana: :thankyou: :wave:

Joris - Dodge's certainly do rule!!!! Here's a few more pics. We placed the rear body on some stands so that we could clean and prepare the underside in relative safety. It was a bit tight getting it all in the shed! http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/BodyonstandsMarch06.jpg[/img] After rubbing down the rear body we found that one of the previous owners had been rather heavy handed with filler! There were a number of areas (the usual rust spots on dodges) that had rotted through and were subsequently filled in with filler. We sent the body off to a local friendy steel fabricator to cut out the rot and replace the panels. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/BodyofftoCliffMarch06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/BodyonlorryofftoCliffMarch06.jpg[/img] The same fabricator also repaired the cab floor. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/CabbackfromCliffMarch06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/ChassisreadyforsprayingMarch06.jpg[/img] With the repairs carried out on the rear body and the underside treated and painted we lifted it back onto the completed chassis. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/ReplacingrearDodgebodyApril06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/RearbodyonchassisApril06.jpg[/img] It was now mid April when we had got to this stage and we could see the end in sight! Bearing in mind that I had never done anything like this before I was pleased with the way it was going. However, Beltring was getting ever closer!

Jack - I'm a member of both IMPS and MVT but first and foremost I'm IMPS. I have been going to the Surrey Area IMPS meetings for a couple of years now and we get between 30 and 40 people turn up each month. Sometimes this increases to over 50. I was a bit aprehensive the first time I went along to the meeting but I was introduced to everyone at the start of the meeting and was made very welcome. We have had a number of new members join since and they keep coming along month after month. I'm not sure whether its because IMPS is more of a "local" club, predominantly being based in the south east, but the club is very close knit. We have a number of area meetings within the south east, sometimes with 2 or 3 area meetings being within about 30 miles of each other. As such, there are a number of members who attend 2 or more area meetings as well as the main club night meeting in Dartford (where the politics tends to take place leaveing the local area meetings to be relaxed and informal). Obviously I can't speak for the MVT meetings as I have never been to one but as far as IMPS meetings are concerned we have a great laugh and I have made some fantastic friends.

Here are afew photos of the restoration of my Dodge. The works was mainly carried out by a mate and myself with the occasional help by a few other friends who turned up at the wrong time! The engine, gearbox and transfer case were rebuilt by other people as we didn't have time to do these ourselves. We started work at the beginning of January 2006 and we had to get it ready for the end of July 2006 as she was going to be used as a wedding vehicle for my friends. Total hours working on the dodge was about 750. This is how she looked near the start of the works. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/StartJan06.jpg[/img] We started by removing the engine which was then sent off to be rebuilt. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/EngineReadyJan06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/CleaningengineJan06.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/ChassisbeforerubbingFeb06JPG.jpg[/img] http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/FloorpanJan06.jpg[/img] Following removal of the engine we encountered a fair bit of rot in the cab floor. This was removed with relative ease only to find that it was in a worse state than we first thought! Underside of cab. http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/CabaftercleaningMarch06.jpg[/img] Then it was off with the back body! http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/NuttyNick06/Greenmachines/BackremovalFeb06.jpg[/img] Ww could now set to with rubbing down the body, chassis and cab. More photos to follow soon!

OK, I'll give it a go. Thanks

I'm going to add a few photos onto the restoration blog but I don't seem to be able to add the large pictures. I can attached them using the "browser" option which attaches a thumbnail size photo after the text but I can't add them within my text like a number of other people can do. :-( Am I being being stupid and missing a simple step or is there more to it? Any help gratefully recieved. Cheers :-)

Jack - I have no idea about it. The bloke I got it off said that it might have come form Germany but wasn't sure. The Jimmy wheels may be a red herring and as I said before the hitch is a bit unusual, possibly NATO (although I'm not an expert on hitches!!). I rekon it is eastern european, If it turns out to be post war I might do a bit of modification and make it look like a wartime one, put a better hitch on etc. Thanks for the help guys.

Thats why I got it! It's a big old lump to drag around but it's different. I can only just lift the hitch and drag it on the flat on my own!

Jack, Yes it has a central "shoot" to place the wood with ovens either side. The wood is placed through the central opening at the rear. The two doors at the front are ovens only.

I'm not sure if this is in the right topic section but at least its has American Jimmy wheels! :-) I've had this field kitchen for a while but have not been too successful in fully identifying it :-(. I've seen a few wartime photos with something simillar but can't be sure its the same thing. Apart from the Jimmy wheels it also has wartime dated lights, however, the real stumbling point is the towing hitch. It looks to me as if its a NATO type hitch. I would have expected it to be similar to a Ben Hur hitch if it was wartime? Can anyone help identify it for me? The slightest bit of info would be a great help. Cheers Nick :lol: [attachment deleted by admin]

Thanks for asking. Mine might end up being post war as well, I'm not too sure as yet. Will hopefully get some decent photos this weekend and post them next week. Cheers.

Thanks Joris :thankyou: . It worked this time. I will start adding more photos soon! :banana:

Fv601 - Yes, this one has the six wheels. Myself and a friend completely stripped down and rebuildt my 4x4 WC52 in seven months earlier this year so we have a bit of experience with these vehicles. Incidently, he also has a 6x6 Dodge and has just got a 57mm A/T gun to tow behind it. Once mine is up and running (which may be some time) we'll have them both operating as a unit for the 57mm. ...... and I love PW stuff as well - hoping to have a Chieftan ARV :-P on the farm soon, although it won't be mine. A mate will be storing it there if he gets round to buying one. Joris - Any information is greatfully recieved. :-) The trailer is fairly complete, just need to get a sand blaster on it. Then maybe I can do outside catering for weddings etc!!! Steve - I'll probably stick with the hard cab for now as it is part of the vehicle. Hopefully one day I'll get an open cab cargo bodied Jimmy (once I've saved up a few more pennies. :roll: Thanks for the support guys. :-D

Also meant to say that i've been trying through the web browser option. :?

I've been going through the "your album" link, to "add item" and then following the instructions via the browser system. Its obviously not working! :banghead: Is there a better way of doing it? I'm not too good with these darn computers! Cheers