67burwood

I don’t think British forces kept hold of American vehicles for long after the war, I used to own a WC51 that had been auctioned off and road registered in 1947, I would think it’s most likely that your WC57 spent time with either the French or Norwegian military before being sold on or it spent its life on a farm as a work horse and never road registered or stuck in a barn covered in dust until 1973!!

Progress is slow....

Having pretty much returned to full time work the rebuild has slowed considerably, I’ve managed to clean and paint some of the fittings that were removed before the welding started, the manual holder was in the worst condition with the bottom rotted out.

forgot to take a picture before repairs started, the bottom was non existent but the rest was salvageable.

Due to the 4d engine now fitted the oil filter brackets are redundant but I am thinking of fitting a filter housing and pipes just to make it look original, I haven’t measured the diameter yet but a Jeep Filter housing might fit unless anyone has more knowledge and can point me in the right direction. 
 

The rest of the fittings cleaned and painted. 

34 minutes ago, Pete Ashby said:

I use War Paint G3 15% sheen on several projects and thin with a universal cellulose thinner for spraying at not more than 20% by volume straight from the can I usually work at around 10 to 15% at around 25 to 35 psi at the gun.  Don't be concerned about the cure time it can take up to 3 months for single pack synthetic enamels to cure fully which ever thinner you use.

 You have to be careful not to thin to much as the heavy pigments can separate but providing it's stirred well before adding to the gun it works fine, I find by using cellulose the paint coat flashes off faster than using the normal Xylene based thinners.  A word of caution here is this has to be compatible with what ever undercoat system you are using if in doubt try a small area first and leave it 24hrs to see what happens. 

Couple of points you may consider,  when ever I get a new 5l batch of paint stir it well then split it down into new 5x 1l cans (cheap off ebay) that way you don't keep putting air back into the main stock and limit the risk of knocking the whole lot on the floor.

The other point is I have two sizes of top feed gun a stock standard one for large areas and a small 250ml one for small parts and tight corners it saves on wasted paint if you are only doing small parts

Pete

Thank you for the pointers, it’s all a learning curve and much appreciated. 

 

7 minutes ago, woa2 said:

Just a minor detail, For some reason, you have to use a Civilian type pick axe on a British Ford as an Army style one won't fit. Found this out when I restored my WOT2. 

The great thing about this forum is the wealth of information available from other members, I would have never thought about the difference styles of pick axes, thank you. 
 

Seamus

Morning Pete

The ratio was probably only about 10% as I stopped pouring, the reaction was that paint started to swirl as if it was about to bubble, I’ve been told the cellulose thinners is high solvent and that this may have something to do with it, it did mix in and the paint looks  fine but as I said before I’ve had paint pickle due to high solvent which made a proper mess and I didn’t want to take the chance. 
 

I might use this paint on smaller items and see what happens. 
 

Seamus 

Thanks Rob

One last question, does anyone know what letter/number should be on the plate for my wot6?

Golden yellow it is.

Thank you Wally and Richard 

Just looked at the link and it confirms what I thought, mid 43 but the owner states 41, I wasn’t sure if there could be any other reason, ie.. sat around before being stamped and used?

Just window shopping 🤥

Probably a stupid question but is there a particular yellow for bridge plates ?

Many thanks 

Seamus

Evening everyone 

I am sure this question has been asked before but can anyone shed some light on dating a cckw 353 I’ve seen one for sale and the owner states it’s a 1941 because it has a wooden steering wheel with cast centre and the rear body has a steel belly, however the chassis number is 228626 A1 which I believe is mid 43.

Many thanks

Seamus 

Did the regulator come with the gun or separate?

That’s how the mix up happened, I was using cellulose thinners to clean the gun and then picked it up by mistake, I take it the now contaminated paint should be disposed of?

Gravity fed guns are more modern and all the info I’ve read say they are better, I’ve ordered a sealey one, it’s not expensive but it has good reviews. 

It’s Green....

finely managed to finish the paint, two coats done on Saturday while it was upside down just to make sure everything was painted, couple of days to dry before turning over and going over any misses. 
 

From this 

To this

Turning it over was easier said than done, child labour came in handy at point.

Ended up getting the paint from War Paints, it’s a satin finish synthetic but I am not sure if it was the right choice, I went for satin just to give it a bit more durability but it appears to mark just as easy as matt, it also has a curing time of up to 3-4 weeks which I didn’t know before purchase and for some unknown reason the paint is still tacky on some areas of seem sealer, any ideas ?

I have a question about paint and thinners, I accidentally mixed some cellulose thinners with the paint but luckily spotted it before I used it, the paint seemed to react with the thinners and after having a bad experience with a high solvent thinners pickling paint a few years ago on another project I didn’t want to take the chance, does anyone know if its ok to use ?

Also is there any advice for setting up a spray gun, I have an old school siphon feed Gun but it was a nightmare to set up, liquid feed adjustment made no difference, fan adjustment was either bullseye or full fan, air pressure turned down, air pressure turned up, absolute pain in the backside!!

New gravity feed gun has been ordered..

Just buying my euro millionaires ticket now. 🤪

13 minutes ago, Rootes75 said:

I have an early post-war ERF lorry sat outside our shed. Nothing left of the cab (ali skins over ash frame etc) but there is enough left of it for me to see the importance of saving such a rare lorry and at least preserving it for the next generation.

Absolutely, there all labours of love, someone’s got to save them and most of the people that do are on this forum 

Well.....

it was realistically to far gone to do anything with, it had sat in a field for so long that both rear combat rims had rotted so badly there was only 3/4 of them left and there quite a solid wheel rim unlike Jeep ones but as it had its original logbook from 1947 I couldn’t bear to think it would be scrapped. I stripped it, repaired the chassis, rebuild the suspension and brakes, done untold hours of welding to the cab, painted, the cab and chassis, replace the wheels and tyres and then just run out of money, unfortunately I had to sell it as it had become such a money pit, a chap from up north bought it and finished the restoration. 

Give me a minute so I can make up some excuses 😂

1944 Dodge WC51 , demobbed in 1947, purchased by a farmer who had a bespoke coach built cab Fitted, the workmanship was superb but too rotten to save, even came with its original buff logbook. 

It was, bargain at £10.50 😁

This is my find of the month....and it’s only the 1st 😬

An original 1943 drivers hand book for the wot6 

And!! It came with a mug!!

This is one of those forgotten vehicles

I bought this in 2014, the chap I bought it from was the one who actually saved it, from what I remember he was a neighbouring farmer to the original owner who had let it fall to pieces, from what I was told the original owner purchased this dodge along with 2 others and a couple of jimmys many years ago, he dismantled the other 2 dodges and the jimmys, cut up the chassis’s for scrap and was going to keep the rest as spares, he didn’t store anything inside and all the spares were left to rot, the chap I bought it from said he had asked the farmer for years to sell him the dodge and what was left of the spares but he wasn’t interested, eventually after a good few years it was rescued, unfortunately most of the spares were so rotten from sitting in a field most was just scrap.

I think most people start out with good intentions, they have a fantasy idea in their head that they are going to restore a classic vehicle and save it from being scrapped but after buying the vehicle and taking it to pieces the shine wears off and reality sets in, it can become very overwhelming when someone realises the huge amount of work that can be required, most commonly  “ Land Rover unfinished project  “ luckily quite a few of these usually get sold on but lots don’t and end up rotted out and only good for a few spares.

Absolutely outstanding work 👍