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My Former WC51 "Flying Control Dodge" - A New Chapter


Jessie The Jeep

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The next job was turning the four metal spigots that locate into the mounting tray. All four were turned on one 30mm aluminium bar. Once the taper was machined, they were parted one by one, and then the four mounting holes drilled. It took 5 hours of machining to make these four pieces!

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The mounting plate was also riveted onto the radio case, and this was also glued for additional security. While that was curing, I made a start on the retaining clips. I had wanted some bright steel strip, but couldn't get any thin enough, so ended up with stainless steel. This was very hard to work, but after drilling the holes, the slot was cut with a miniature stone cutting disc.

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Once the base was dry, the retaining clips could be fitted. The spigot on the back of the rivet I made was drilled out with a 1.5mm drill to allow it to splay out. A little Hysol was put on the backplate of the clip and the assembly put in place.

The case was then balanced on its front, with the rivet head resting on a large drill bit clamped in a vice. I then used a centre punch to splay out the back of the rivet.

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The two radios are now ready for their FT-154 mounting trays to be made.

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A couple of days ago, I spotted a FT-154 mount on ebay. It was already at £50 with two bids, and the auction wasn't over, so I wasn't going to bid. There were however, a number of good photographs of the mount from various angles. It didn't look particularly complicated, so I decided I could probably make a copy with little cost and a little bit of effort.

The FT-154 Radio Mount is made in two layers. The lower part fastens down to the radio operators table. There are four shock mounts attached to this, and on top, a metal tray that the radio attaches to.

I started my copy by making the upper part of the mount. The 1.5mm aluminium was cut to the correct shape, and then the ends of the slots drilled with a slightly under size drill. They were then filed to elongate the slots to the correct length and width.

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On the bottom of the tray, there is a 'U' channel. This stiffens the sheet and also forms part of the brace for the electrical socket mount. This brace was made from an off cut of the 1.5mm sheet, folded to drop the height from the top of the channel to the main plate. This brace was riveted to the channel, which was in turn was welded to the sheet at four spots along its length. The socket mount was then riveted to the tray. It still needs the hole cutting to fit the socket.

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This is where the day ran out and the mount was refitted to make sure the welding hadn't distorted the fit. It was then removed again, placed on a flat bench and a small fillet of Hysol applied along the edge of the channel.

The next stage will be to make the second upper tray before moving onto the shock mounts and the lower parts of the trays.

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Had another trip out in the Dodge today for the Help for Heroes event at Sedgefield. A chilly but enjoyable trip out.

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Here's my two BC-348 receivers along with the recently purchased BC-191 tuner. In time, I'll be making a BC-375 transmitter to fit the tuner into. I saw a complete BC-375 on ebay for $1500; about $1450 more than I have available!

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As previously mentioned, complete BC-375 transmitters, if they become available, are asking serious money, so I decided to buy the tuning unit and build the rest myself. The tuner has most of the complicated parts, and I should be able to take moulds of the knobs to cast more for the rest of the unit. The only other difficult parts to make will be the gauges and louvres.

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The picture below shows the BC-191 along with the BC-348 on the radio shelf, working out positioning and spacings, while the second picture shows a composite picture with a BC-375 image overlaid. The final set up should be something similar to this, although I will need to add a second shelf to support the other BC-348 receiver.

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Before the weekend trip out, I also fitted six mounting clips to fasten in the warning flag, the weather vane and part of the child seat mount when not being used. I also fitted a switch into the meteorological panel for the panel light and partially wired up the light with the recently purchased cotton insulated wire.

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  • 2 months later...

Did a bit of servicing yesterday, plugs cleaned and gapped, dizzy bits cleaned, fuel filter cleaned etc., and did a quick video of the start afterwards. Over the freezing weeks in December, this 67 year old truck was starting better than my modern car, and that was after being left for two weeks in a barn between engine runs!

 

 

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A job that I've been wanting to do for a while was to add windows to the Dodge. The cold wet day on Saturday prompted some action, as driving in the rain with the sides open gets a bit cold and damp. Freezing cold isn't ideal with the Mrs and little legs on board, and neither can pull off the Smurf look.

The sides and rear doors are to be skinned in aluminium sheet to give a thin section to bolt the glazing through, otherwise, the glazing would be recessed by 1/2 inch due to the thickness of the ply, and this would allow rain to gather and soak into the ply. The right side has two long windows as I need a good view for lane changing or overtaking. The left side just has the front window as the rear will be obscured by the radios.

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The following three pictures show the view from the drivers seat. Overall, the view is good, and where the radios will block the left side, I can lean slightly to get a better view. The aluminium sheet will have a slightly smaller opening than the wood, allowing the glazing to have a small overlap where it will be bolted.

The sides will still be free to fold down so that on the rare occasions when it gets hot, they can be opened for fresh air.

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The following sections will block in the gap in the front of the body just behind the doors. They have been primed with dilute waterproof PVA before they receive checkers. The sheet aluminium should arrive tomorrow afternoon, so perhaps I'll get a little more work done before it gets dark.

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The front panels in the body of the truck were fitted today and painted checkers. They are still a bit bright, but once fully hard, I'll give them a wipe over with an oily rag to tone the white down a bit. It was freezing cold outside and I was struggling to hold the paintbrush, never mind painting checks!

The aluminium order has been delayed and won't be in until tomorrow, but I did get the polycarbonate sheet cut for the glazing.

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I went back to work today, but here's yesterdays progress on the windows. I collected the aluminium sheet late morning, and had to go shopping for a few other odds and ends too. This included a new powerfile since my last one died recently after many years of service.

The rear and side doors were removed to work on, and the truck taken back to the farm as I don't need that while I work on the doors. It's better off in the barn as we're getting hard frosts again.

After marking out the aluminium, the hole was cut roughly to size with a metal nibbler and fine trimmed with the powerfile. The aluminium was attached to the door with self tapping screws and will be drilled for bolts to hold the glazing in.

I'll fit all the aluminium and etch prime it before moving on to the glazing. The only exception was the small window in the front of the body which had the glazing fitted before the truck was returned.

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Today, the wooden side doors were trimmed slightly on their top edge, as the aluminium skin was going to wrap over the edge to prevent water running off the roof into the end grain. The window areas were then cut into the aluminium and filed clean.

Each sheet was then drilled and screwed to the plywood side panel before the overlap at the top was hammered around the edge. The sides and rear doors were then etch primed, ready for the white base coat of the checkers. After painting, they just need drilling for the glazing and the glazing trimming to fit the openings.

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On Friday morning, I took the doors over to the truck to mark out where the checkers go. This allowed me to bring them back to paint them in the comfort and warmth of home today. While I was at the farm, I gave the Dodge another run, as when I took it out last time, it coughed and spluttered a couple of times.

After about 5 minutes of running smoothly, it coughed and spluttered again for a minute or so, then the revs picked up before cutting out and then failing to re-start. I suspect there's some crap in the carb or fuel line somewhere that starved the engine and caused the erratic running. I'm planning to go back next week and strip the carb.

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Four hours of trimming polycarbonate, drilling holes and fastening nuts and bolts saw the five pieces of glazing fitted into the four wooden panels. These are ready to go back onto the Dodge now which I'll probably do next week when I go to check out the carburettor.

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Today I went over to the farm armed with a load of tools to sort out the Dodge Carburettor. I must have had my whole workshop with me, just in case! I guessed there was a blockage by the way the engine appeared to be starving itself of fuel last time out. I suspected the blockage moved somewhere critical during the last run in the barn when after 5 minutes of running normally, the RPM suddenly began to rise for several seconds until it stopped dead. My conclusion was the blockage starved the engine, leading to a lean run, hence the RPM rise until it couldn't get any more fuel.

So the carb came apart, but I found no contamination in the float chamber, and the fuel was flowing freely from the pump when the float valve was opened. I could see anything else anywhere it shouldn't be either. So it all went back together again and I tried a start. There was no signs of firing, which was odd as there was plenty of fuel through. I pulled a plug, but couldn't get a spark at the plug or points, so tried fitting a new condenser. The engine fired in less than a turn on the starter!

Here's the cause of my concerns!

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While I had all my tools everywhere, I loaded them up into my new vintage tool box which fits nicely under the floor.

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While the Dodge idled as I warmed through the engine and tested that it wasn't going to stop again, I refitted the rear doors and side panels which are now virtually complete. There's still a couple of small jobs to do next time the truck is home. The first is some 'L' section aluminium to be fitted over the top of the doors to form a gutter, and also some 'L' section to be fitted at the bottom of the doors to make a gutter just above the tailgate to stop rain running down the doors and into the back of the truck. The other thing is to then wipe over the white checkers with an oily rag to dull them down like the rest of the truck.

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