restoration Gmc cckw 353

[stevemil]

Hi me and my brother have just agreed to buy a GMC CCKW from a local gentleman we hope to fetch it next weekend. I have pasted a link to a video we took of it in its current resting place she needs a lot of work but we are willing to restore her to her former glory. More video of recovery to follow we are told she runs so are hoping to go down and get her going next saturday and recover her on sunday

 

 

Steve.

Edited May 8, 2010 by stevemil

[fayjo56]

Wow, best wishes, will watch with interest. Can't be many ww2 vehicles left out there to find?

[stevemil]

thanks we've had a play last night and tonight and have managed to get her running and moving under her own steam even the winch is working heres a rather bad video of her first start up

 

 

 

P.S we are looking for a better cab and body ours are very rough, we're not expecting a minter but something better than we have would be nice, any help would be much appreciated

 

thanks again Steve

Edited May 13, 2010 by stevemil

[N.O.S.]

Well I'm gobsmacked! Didn't think you'd have much luck by the look of it. I'm still trying to decide if it is a petrol or diesel.......can't tell from either vid!!! My money's on a P6.

[stevemil]

Hi, not as suprised as we were when she fired up :-) she's still got the original petrol engine fitted. We are complete novices when it comes to CCKW's so we had to work out what all the controls did, after we worked out how to start her it was just a case of cleaning the points and contacts on the rotor arm and cap to get a spark, the lift pump didnt work so we filled the float chamber through the plug on top and away she went. we took the pump home and serviced it last night and it pumped like a good un once refitted. we replaced a couple of hoses this evening and it even seems to hold water.

Hopefully all the stuff from behind it will be moved tommorow so we can back it out of it's resting place, the video is very poor but we plan to video it properly tommorow evening.

 

Cheers Steve

[stevemil]

More progress this evening

 

Cheers Steve.

[25 pounder]

Good luck with your project , I'm restoring my 2nd Jimmy now:-)

[private mw]

wow did you drive it home ........

[N.O.S.]

Obviously missing the data plate with gearshift pattern

[Richard Farrant]

Obviously missing the data plate with gearshift pattern

 

actually, I am amazed the clutch had not stuck. That is the engine sorted out now for a bit of bodywork :-D

[HWade]

These old trucks do amaze me, the gmc that I fetched back from Hampshire had stood for 11 years and I got her running within a very short period of time, and the clutch wasnt stuck on that. Just put some air in the tires and it drove out of the ruts it had sunk into.

 

Howard

[stevemil]

Hello again we managed to recover the old girl today she ran without a hicup and got alot of looks as she went down the road heres yet another video more to follow

 

 

thanks steve

[HWade]

Hello Steve

 

great vidio reminds me of when I went to fetch mine, i had to cut a hole in a hedge to get the old girl out onto the road, your truck seemd to run well. Good luck with the restoration and keep those pics comming.

 

All the best

 

Howard

[stevemil]

Hi Again folks, We found the serial number this evening we have dated it to early 1942, supposedly there is a lot of paperwork to come from the solicitor for the truck so we're looking forward to trawling through this when it arrives.

We're hoping to get the truck in a state that it can be moved on the road as it's currently stored a couple of miles away at a farm, We are removing the body tommorow so that we can get at the hubs etc better. The brakes are first on the agenda so any advice on what to look out for in this area on this model would be appreciated.

Can anybody reccomend a company that can supply 7.50x20 tires for it? I suspect that these are a bit scarce now but here's hoping :-\ sorry for all the questions.

 

Cheers Steve..

[Degsy]

Pleased to see you are progressing. It depends on what type of tyres you want, NOS bar grips do turn up occasionally, usually in Europe but you have to be wary, due to age cracking is often a problem particularly on French made Uniroyals. New American imports by Omaha if I remember correctly were available recently from one of the Dutch dealers, you could get these brought over to Beltring I would think. Rex Ward brought in a container load from China a while ago, not bar grips but a reasonable tread pattern. A friend of mine bought some and he has been well pleased them. Another alternative would be Norwegian clover leaf pattern, these come up for private sale quite regularly and have a good reputation. Hope this helps you.

[HWade]

Nice to see you are getting on with the truck, do you know if you have demountable drums, it will make your job of doing the brakes a bit easier.If not its out with the half shafts ect. you may be lucky and find that once you have the drums off that the brakes are in very good order, i know when i stripped mine, apart from the odd spider the inside was very clean.I did take the cylinders off and inspect the inside, but they were in very good order with no rust, I just replaced the seals. I think if you are going through the whole braking system and relacing seals ect, i would change from standard brake fluid over to silicone (DOT5) brake fluid. This of course is up to you. Take a good look at the flexibrake pipes, they may look ok from the outside, but alot of mine had collapsed inside not allowing and fluid through.If its been standing that length of time I would replace them. Better to be safe than sorry.Just watch when you go to reconnect all of the steel pipes inside the chassis that they seal up, they can be a pain sometimes. you will soon see when you depress the pedal if there are any weeps of fluid. There is also a bleed screw on the Hydrovac unit. Well I could go on and on.Here is a pic of my stripped down. well all the best.

 

Howard

Edited May 16, 2010 by HWade

[c101 comando]

this is a super thread well done guys on finding it looking at your vids on you tube it struck me good it all looked and i could not help but wonder if this one would be a good candidate to be rust treated and preserved as it is with all the mecanicles restored to good working order

 

it would very nice to see a gmc that was a monument to the amazing service and work lives of these old trojans

 

i mean it can somtimes be dull to see jeeps that are better than new as facinating as there war time service is somtimes the peace time service can be more interesting not to mention longer

 

takes coat and runs

[N.O.S.]

takes coat and runs

 

I could agree you. There will be a few ready to lynch you, but I'll be here in the bunker urging you on!

[G506]

thanks we've had a play last night and tonight and have managed to get her running and moving under her own steam even the winch is working heres a rather bad video of her first start up

 

 

 

P.S we are looking for a better cab and body ours are very rough, we're not expecting a minter but something better than we have would be nice, any help would be much appreciated

 

thanks again Steve

 

Hi Steve,

why not have a go at repairing that cab? Not an easy job (as Ive found out on my Chevy) but you've nothing to lose!

Its good you have the spare wheel carrier, not an easy item to find.

I recommend Rex Ward for parts

Edited May 18, 2010 by G506

[G506]

Pleased to see you are progressing. It depends on what type of tyres you want, NOS bar grips do turn up occasionally, usually in Europe but you have to be wary, due to age cracking is often a problem particularly on French made Uniroyals. New American imports by Omaha if I remember correctly were available recently from one of the Dutch dealers, you could get these brought over to Beltring I would think. Rex Ward brought in a container load from China a while ago, not bar grips but a reasonable tread pattern. A friend of mine bought some and he has been well pleased them. Another alternative would be Norwegian clover leaf pattern, these come up for private sale quite regularly and have a good reputation. Hope this helps you.

 

 

Steve/Degsy,

also available brand new are Koker (marked up as Firestones and practically identically to originals)

[stevemil]

Hi again folks, thanks for all the comments and helpfull advice we have some avenues to explore now for tyres so thanks for that.

We have a more serious problem for now. We lifted the body off at the weekend and what we have found is not good. The whole top rail of the chassis is rotten around the rear axles and quite a bit of the bottom too, this has meant that with the weight of the lorry being on it for all these years that the area where the rear springs bolt to the chassis has gone uphill and the rest down:-(.

 

But dont fear we're not giving up on her, we think that we've sourced a second hand section that can be welded in and strenthened to make it good again, my brother has done this sort of work before on HGV's so we dont see this being to much of a problem but work on the chassis was not what we expected but I suppose she's nearly seventy years old so can be forgiven for being a bit ripe.

 

G506 It looks like we're going to be restoring our cab, finding a better one was a long shot, we'll have to see whats left after shotblasting

 

I'll post some pics up of the chassis tommorow.

 

Cheers Steve..

[stevemil]

Here's what we're up against

 

Cheers Steve

[Willyslancs]

keep your chin up mate , our Jeep chassis was like that years ago . got there in the end ....

[G506]

But dont fear we're not giving up on her, we think that we've sourced a second hand section that can be welded in and strenthened to make it good again, my brother has done this sort of work before on HGV's so we dont see this being to much of a problem but work on the chassis was not what we expected but I suppose she's nearly seventy years old so can be forgiven for being a bit ripe.

 

G506 It looks like we're going to be restoring our cab, finding a better one was a long shot, we'll have to see whats left after shotblasting

 

 

I'll post some pics up of the chassis tommorow.

 

Cheers Steve..

 

Good man! PM me with an idea of where the worst rot is on the cab, I may have some suggestions!

[stevemil]

Hi Folks it's been a while since i've posted on here. Not much has happened with the GMC since my last post as other personal things have had to take over but we're finally ready to get stuck into the restoration. We've managed to obtain a replacement Chassis, Load bed and a slightly better cab.

The first weekend in Feb we'll be towing it to the workshop and stripping her down. A small band of mates will be assembled for the strip down, then the axles will be serviced and fitted to the replacement chassis and we'll work from there. It will be great to finally get it into the workshop.

A couple of pics

 

 

Cheers Steve.