question Dodge WC tools .

[snowtracdave]

Having had the Dodge for a few weeks now , had a bit of a play , started looking at it without the rose tinted specs , broken down once and started making a list of what I want to change etc . I'd like to assemble a tool kit for it - ie the tools which are listed in the manual as being carried on the vehicle - starting handle , wheelbrace , oil can , jack etc etc etc . Any suggestions as to where I might source some of these bits please and average prices ? I've seen the wheelbrace on ebay at the moment - starting price £29.99 + delivery - is that about right or over the top ?

 

Also as the WC was just freshly painted when I bought it it has no stencilling and I'd appreciate advice as to which lettering is appropriate to apply and which not to .......

 

More questions will follow I'm sure.....:-D

[GoranWC51]

Hi Dave,

 

Firstly: Congratulations to buying a great vehicle! The Dodge is nimble enough to be an almost daily driver and large enough to bring a host of friends along for a ride.

 

Tools:

 

I would suggest combing the auction sites, Epay et al, for the tools. The starting handle is a very nice piece of kit to have-and handy when you've left the ignition and/or lights on for too long (hmmm, how could I know that....?) No problem with the handle, just crank it and viola-you're off.

 

The jack is becoming increasingly hard to find. I think prices for a good working one is 1.000 € or thereabouts.

 

Markings:

 

Hm, this is always a hard one. Do you have any relatives, father, granddad, uncle, that fought in WW2? Find out what units they were in and mark it as a vehicle of one of these units. It might be a litle difficult if you're looking at British or Commonwealth countries as few 3/4 ton Dodges were used by them, though.

 

Or be original and find a unit that nobody else has marked their vehicle as coming from, I chose the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in Italy under General Clark, cirka late 1944 to wars end in 1945. I also chose to mark my WC51 (late model) as an ambulance of the BEF, which is even more unusual.

 

The B/W picture with three BEF soldiers in the front seat (how did they fit in there three abreast?) is a WW2 picture that I used the markings from for my own Dodge. The picture was probably taken outside of Livorno on the west coast of Italy, where the medical detachment of BEF was billeted, sometime around October 1944.

 

I got my BEF stencils from Axholme designs in the UK. I was in a real hurry just before going to Normandy in late May and the produced and sent the stencils to me in record time. The stencils were super easy to apply and the markings came out beautifully. Highly recommended!

 

Please, please refrain from marking it as one of the "Aiijjbourne" ones out of "Band of Brothers". I've never seen so many 101'st and 82nd "Aiijjbourne" Jeep's, Dodge's, GMC's, M3 halftracks, M8 Greyhounds, etc. etc. in one place in my whole life as was the case in Normandy this year. Sigh.... The not so well WW2 history educated of the young generation must think that WW2 was won by Major Winters and his gallant group of soldiers.....

 

I might a few odds and ends for Dodge for sale. Contact me off forum with your wish list and I'll see what I can come up with.

 

goran_noren (at) yahoo (dot) com

 

Why not post a few pictures of your pride and joy?

 

Good luck,

 

Goran Noren

Sweden

[snowtracdave]

Thanks for those suggestions Goran . Much as I enjoyed band of Brothers the 101st would be the last markings I would use for the very reasons you cite .

After two fairly near misses last weekend with drivers who either didn't see my white turn signals or just don't know what they mean I bought some small aftermarket lamps which I fitted yesterday . Didn't want to particularly and I know some purists will say I shouldn't but I have tried to fit them as discretely as possible and I'd rather have them than be standing on the brakes with a small car about to disappear under the front again !

[Joris]

She sure is a beauty!!! And as for the purists, f*ck them! Safety first and most of the time these jokers don't even own a vehicle.

[Willyslancs]

another set of old side lights converted to indicaters look ok too

[GoranWC51]

Nice looking WC54, for sure. Ex Norway, just like my WC51. The Norwegian ambulances seem to be in very good order. A Norwegian guy I met said that the ambulances were used very sparingly compared to the other Dodge's, WC51/52, WC62/63. The ambulances I saw at the 4 different Nato auctions I went to in the late 80's/ early 90's, were all in very good shape with very little rust and general wear.

 

I know what you mean about motorists not seeing you. I removed the Norwegian position lights from the front wings when I repainted my Dodge in May. I bought 4 blinkers (NOS) for a 1980's Suzuki motorcycle that I will install later this year. The blinkers will be placed as discreetly as possible, with fast-connectors for the electric wires so that they can be removed for shows and such.

 

As always,

 

Goran

[FridgeFreezer]

I know nuffink about nuffink - but if you want discrete lighting then LED's can be fitted into all sorts of places taking very little space and using very tiny wires. You can truck them inside existing lights or hide them behind grilles, in panel gaps, behind glass, all sorts really.

 

Either individual LED's or "proper" automotive / emergency vehicle lighting units.

[N.O.S.]

Lettering up the old girl -

 

You are in the middle of USAAF country - at the possible risk of being as unoriginal as 101st, you could always pick a local bomber or fighter base and go that route? You'd be in good company

[N.O.S.]

Bump - any decision on choice of markings yet, Dave?

[snowtracdave]

Not as yet .....going to follow your suggestion and look into the local airfields and see what I come up with when I've got a little bit more time and hopefully get something sorted before next years shows come around .

 

Plenty to choose from - Birch , Wormingford , Earls Colne to name but three .

[N.O.S.]

Yeah, I think that would be a nice thing to do. The ambulances are always much admired at airfield open days.

[Tony B]

How about thuis then? A couple of WC54, used by an SLU. The closed vans were used as the information , originally from Enigma intercepts was of course super secret.

[snowtracdave]

Time for a bit of an update on this and a couple of new questions .

 

Finally made some time to sit and do some research for this............ok , I'm actually ignoring a load of other things I'm supposed to get done .

 

In my pathetic ignorance , a while ago I decided to use Birch airfield as inspiration , mostly because it is ten minutes or so from where I live and I have been familiar with it for more years than I care to remember . Although when I looked into it properly , not as familiar as I imagined and I found that Birch was already surplus to requirements by the time construction was completed and was barely used as an operational base thereafter . I abandoned that idea and started looking elsewhere .

 

And then I had it............been working right opposite to it virtually every day since August last year , watched the gliders flying over us.........looked at the war memorial as we've driven past it..........

 

Wormingford - USAAF station 159 and home to first the 362nd Fighter Group 'Mogin's Maulers' from November 1943 to April 1944 then the 66th Fighter Wing , 55th fighter group and from September 1944 the 3rd Scouting Force . There is even a photograph on the Wormingford website of some vehicles in front of the control tower with a WC54 in the background (unfortunately not clear enough to see markings but that's asking too much ! ) .

 

So now I've decided I will mark the Dodge up as serving with the 362nd and any advice what to put on and what not to put on would be most appreciated .

[Tony B]

Katy is marked in the 390th BGH, admittidly this was a bomber group but .

[Gordon_M]

Just throwing another log on the fire here.

 

It is my understanding that is you took a Dodge and stuck it on the road EXACTLY as it left the factory it would be legal, and that includes the blackout light system which lets you switch off the service brake light, no indicators, etc, etc.

 

However ... if you modify your vehicle from the original configuration by fitting extra / different lights, and you get involved in a minor traffic ding with some jobsworth, you leave yourself open to the accusation that the modified or additional lights are neither in compliance with the original spec nor modern standards ( do modern motorcycle indicators have smaller lenses with smaller surface areas than those required by a modern car, for example? I suspect they do )

 

You can always go to court and plead that you did the best you could and provided extra equipment to inform other road users, but you might want to have a think about what you fit and how you fit it.

 

I have always modified my Dodges and jeeps to have two service stop lamps, with the tops of the rear lights turned into indicators (original clear lenses plus yellow bulbs) and extra small blackout lights on the front with yellow bulbs for front indicators - visible from front and side with 21w bulbs. I think the fact that I'm using 1939-45 lights gives me a pretty good defence if I ever need it, but you can argue it either way.

 

I even modified the little aluminium can Lucas flaster unit from 12v to 6v to get the right flash speed (no sniggering up the back there) as it legally has to be between 60 and 120 cycles per minute.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Gordon_M

[Tony B]

I had similar discussions with my MOT test station some while back. If the vehicle is 'as constructed' ie in the case of a Dodge a pair of candles each end and no seat belts fine. Dosen't even need trafficators, or wipers, because the windscreen 'OPENS'. If any additions are fitted, they must work! Most old vehicles seem to be what is left out The classic for Landy's is the rear reflectors. Pre '70 have the reflector built into the rear light glass. This is aceptable if the vehicle is before that. After they must have seperate reflectors. Some place were failing because there were no seperate reflectors.