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

[Jessie The Jeep]

On a hunch, I suspected a poor earth was causing the trouble. The jump leads were pulled from the locker and clamped onto the Dodge tow hitch and the trailer towing eye, creating a new earth connection. The lights were turned on again and instantly, nice bright lights!

The wires in the trailer plug and socket were connected as they should be, so I cleaned all the earth terminals on the trailer, but it gave no improvement. On the Dodge, the earth wire from the socket disappeared into the Dodge wiring harness and I've no idea where it went from there or where it was connected to the chassis.

Rather than waste hours trying to chase where it went to, I made a temporary jumper wire from the white trailer socket wire to the Dodge chassis to make a new earth. The lights then worked as they should. This is the tail light and indicator.

With the problem sorted, I made a permanent connection from the Dodge chassis to the trailer socket earth wire and checked everything once more. The last picture is the tail and brake lights. All the lights were working properly so everything was packed away in the garage again.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

I had a bit of a swap around this morning, to make the trailer more easily available to pack the camping gear for the next trip. It is usually parked sideways across the back of the garage with the Jeep in front. It used to live in the old garage as seen below, with the trailer tipped up and the hitch over the hood of the Jeep. Usually, the hood was open so I could access the batteries and fuel pump.

I tried backing the Jeep into the new garage, but the aerial and spare wheel wouldn't clear the wall shelving, wasting around two feet of garage length. Instead I had to drive in forwards. The back of the Jeep is of course higher than the hood, making it a little harder to get the hitch between the spare wheel and aerial and over the back seat rest as the back of the trailer body was touching the ground.

Fortunately, there was just enough length before the door to squeeze the trailer in.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Stannington Battle of Britain Day - June 18th

The Stannington show was only a one day event. It really should have been two days, after the amount of effort that had gone into it and all the exhibits already there. We had planned to drive there and back in a day, but a few of the guys suggested we camp near by and make a weekend of it. So on Friday afternoon, we set off for the camp site at the former RAF Morpeth, where we'd all stayed during the easing of covid restrictions in August 2020.

It was only a few miles from Stannington village. The drive there was a bit torturous and by trying to avoid the motorways and fast roads, it resulted in crawling through Gateshead and Newcastle during rush hour(s).

The 30 mile trip took 90 minutes in the end. Neil's Jeep had a broken spring, so he was without his vehicle, but Chris had his Dodge, Derek and Andy came in Derek's Jeep and we had our Dodge and trailer. Despite being a breezy day, the campsite was sheltered and we had a nice evening with a pink/purple sunset.

[Jessie The Jeep]

On Saturday morning, our three vehicle convoy set off the few miles to Stannington Village where we were then redirected to Lough Farm, about 3/4 mile up the road. We were told that all the vehicles were displaying at the farm. As it turned out, this wasn't true and only three Dodges and four Jeeps were at the farm, including ours. We later found out that all the other military vehicles and classic cars were in the main village show field.

I originally parked the Dodge pointing in the same direction as the other vehicles, but when it became clear that nobody else would be joining us, I turned it and the trailer side on. These two Jeeps were parked near to my Dodge with the two other Jeeps along side the farm building.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Part way through the morning, Derek, Andy and Charlie headed off in Derek's Jeep to see what was going on at the village.

While they were gone, I did a mini photoshoot with my daughter in her Land Army outfit at a few locations around the farm, then went indoors to look at the displays.

They'd set up a vintage shop, house and school room, plus several other smaller displays inside the barn. It was clear that a great deal of effort had gone into the displays.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The public were shuttled between the two sites by two buses, one being vintage and the other with disabled access. A little while after lunch, we took the bus down to the village to have a look around.

The main feature in the show field behind the community centre, were some fullsized fibreglass replicas of a Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft, both in Battle of Britain camouflage. There were a number of dioramas and quite a few military vehicles. Some of those vehicles should have been at the farm, as the event was very village biased.

It's a shame that both the Hurricane and Spitfire had droopy wings as it completely spoiled the look of the replicas.

[Jessie The Jeep]

One of the most interesting displays was an air raid shelter. Along side was an officer with a tablet computer connected to some loud speakers. He was playing an air raid siren, followed by the sound of bombers, a raid with the bombs falling and the all clear signal.

There were a number of radio controlled model aircraft on show, most of which were the usual club sized aircraft, with a few larger scales. In the car park around the community centre were a dozen or so classic cars. Inside were more stalls and displays, including a group working an RAF plotting table, recreating the tracking of a raid on the North East of England. We've seen them before at Barnard Castle.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There was a huge queue for the bus back, but we spotted Chris' Dodge and Derek's Jeep parked out front, so jumped in the Dodge for a lift back to the farm.

By late afternoon, we were waiting around for the go-ahead to start the convoy through the village. The other Jeeps had already disappeared by this time.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Around 15:30hrs, the convoy set off.

Derek's GPW was in the lead, then Chris' Dodge WC51. I was next in my WC51 with the trailer in tow.

Paul, who also has a WC51, brought up the rear of the military section and the vintage bus just coming into view, followed that.

[Jessie The Jeep]

We made two laps through the village, stopping briefly after the first to swap passengers into the appropriate vehicles for lap two.

The passenger swap was needed, as the convoy broke up after the second trip, for those heading straight home and those going back to the campsite. Derek and Andy headed straight home after the convoy split. Chris took some of the gang back to the camp site before heading home himself.

[Jessie The Jeep]

We made a small detour to the RAF Morpeth water tower to get some photos. It wasn't far from the camp site and it could be seen above the tree line from certain parts of the site. Neil's family and us stayed at the camp site on Saturday evening and packed up to return home on Sunday morning.

Additional pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/stannington.htm

[Jessie The Jeep]

Bowes Railway 1940s Weekend - June 26th

We took the Dodge and M201 to Bowes. A full report is in my Flying Control Jeep thread. See the link below.

 

[Jessie The Jeep]

Chester-le-Street Steam Fair - July 9/10th

I did have a great weekend at the Chester-le-Street Steam Fair in the grounds of the Lambton Estate, however, it wasn't smooth sailing from even before I set off. It began on Friday, while assembling the Dodge roof and I caught two fingers on a sharp piece of wood and sliced two gashes across my knuckles. They've been opening up every time I used my hand. Despite the injuries, I got there mid afternoon and melted as I set up my tent in the roasting afternoon heat. My boxes and cans were emptied from the back of the Dodge while I contemplated where to put them. They'd spend the night in the tent, particularly as one of them had all my cooking gear inside.

Allocated space was going to be a bit tight on Saturday due to the number of vehicles booked in, so I squeezed all my boxes and Jerrycans in front of the Dodge and trailer.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There were about 22 military vehicles there on Saturday and a few less on Sunday. Most were in a row as seen below with camping behind the vehicles. Jeeps only just outnumbered Austin Champs.

A few other vehicles were displayed in dioramas elsewhere on the site. I had a quick wander around the site on Friday evening, but not everything had arrived and other stuff was under cover for the night.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Being a steam rally, there were a good selection of fullsize traction engines, miniature traction engines and static engines on show.

In addition, there were a wide range of classic cars and trucks. All of the vehicles and dioramas had their own areas around the 50 acre show site.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The dioramas and re-enactors weren't all just World War 2, but across a range of time periods, many doing displays in the arena.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Late afternoon on Saturday, it was the turn of the military vehicles to display in the arena. A couple of laps around the arena and then interviewed about the vehicles so the public could get a little more background knowledge about each one.

The Dodge wasn't running very smoothly and felt like it was going to die if it remained on idle too long. I put it down to fuel vapourisation in the very hot weather.

Wifey and daughter dropped by the show for a little while during the afternoon and during our wander, I lost my camera lens cap through a hole in the pocket of my HBT trousers. I was annoyed. I almost lost my phone too, but that fell out near the truck, which is when I discovered the hole.

Washing up after tea, I managed to slice my left hand open on a sharp edge on the grill pan! Things weren't going well this weekend. My luck changed later in the evening when I went for a wander again, walking the same route I had with wifey. Towards the end of the walk, near the static engines, I found my lens cap!

[Jessie The Jeep]

On Sunday, there was another military vehicle parade, but I decided to miss it due to the problems of the previous day.

Since there were a few less vehicles there, the K2 ambulance moved over and I had a little more space to spread out my display.

[Jessie The Jeep]

I packed up my tent straight after breakfast, as Sunday was forecast to be even hotter and I didn't want to be packing it up at the hottest part of the day. There was a huge rush of public and exhibitors through the gate at the end of the day, so a few of us hung around for a while until the traffic eased. Eventually it was time to leave, so I go to start the Dodge and it fires, coughs, splutters, revs and dies - then wouldn't restart. Just what I needed at the end of a hot and tiring weekend.

Despite only fitting a new condenser earlier in the year along with the new plugs, I suspected the condenser was the issue. There was virtually no spark at the lead or points, so the dizzy was stripped and a new condenser fitted. This time the Dodge roared to life and the idle was smooth and steady. The drive out of the site was a different route to the entrance and was a nice drive through the private estate of Lord Lambton. The trip home was uneventful.

Once home, the Jeep had to come out of the garage so that the trailer could go in at the back of the garage. Over recent weeks, with the Dodge pulling the trailer quite a bit, the trailer was left at the front of the garage. Next week, I need the Jeep for the Breighton Aerodrome 1940s weekend, so the trailer was put away at the back again so the Jeep was easily accessible.

Further pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/cls.htm

Edited July 12, 2022 by Jessie The Jeep

[Enigma]

On 6/9/2022 at 10:10 PM, Jessie The Jeep said:

On a hunch, I suspected a poor earth was causing the trouble. The jump leads were pulled from the locker and clamped onto the Dodge tow hitch and the trailer towing eye, creating a new earth connection. The lights were turned on again and instantly, nice bright lights!

The wires in the trailer plug and socket were connected as they should be, so I cleaned all the earth terminals on the trailer, but it gave no improvement. On the Dodge, the earth wire from the socket disappeared into the Dodge wiring harness and I've no idea where it went from there or where it was connected to the chassis.

Rather than waste hours trying to chase where it went to, I made a temporary jumper wire from the white trailer socket wire to the Dodge chassis to make a new earth. The lights then worked as they should. This is the tail light and indicator.

With the problem sorted, I made a permanent connection from the Dodge chassis to the trailer socket earth wire and checked everything once more. The last picture is the tail and brake lights. All the lights were working properly so everything was packed away in the garage again.

Will you round of the plate holder? Just in case you scrape your leg in the shed when squeezing past it.

[Jessie The Jeep]

On 7/15/2022 at 2:57 PM, Enigma said:

Will you round of the plate holder?

There isn't really a need, as the trailer normally lives across the back of the garage as shown below. It's rare that it needs to be at the front and when parked at the back, it's out of the way with the lights and registration plate up against the wall.

Just got back from a fly/drive-in with the Jeep. It was so hot, with all the airfield concrete and tarmac reflecting the heat back. Loads of pictures to sort, so a report on my Jeep thread will follow in the next few days.

[Enigma]

Ah, I see. Should be no problem, your shed is like a game of Tetris.

[Jessie The Jeep]

August 14th~17th - Another Crate

I needed another crate! No, it's not my OCD kicking in, but another requirement for 1940s camping. We recently bought a 240v generator for events like Beamish, where we are away for a longer than a weekend. During the day at events, I wanted to hide it away, but also be able to keep fuel and accessories with it in a self-contained package.

The original plan was to make a dummy Jeep engine crate, until I realised just how big that would be. It was also going to be made from recycled shipping pallets, as we had four spare. These proved very hard to dismantle on a hot day; much harder than the one used for my 50 cal crate a few months ago. They would have also added a lot more weight to the box. 

In the end, I bought some plywood and strip wood from B&Q as an easier, but more expensive option. The basic ply box is 28 x 18 x 18 inches, with a 3/4 inch thick timber base. The base is only a couple of inches high, with the whole box lifting off the top. This gives easy access to the generator and accessories.

The box was both nailed and glued together, though the nails were really for cosmetic value. I cut grooves into the plywood panels to simulate 6 inch planks. The box was primed with a couple of coats of dilute waterproof PVA glue and then given two coats of olive drab; the remains of the first batch of paint bought for the Dodge.

[Jessie The Jeep]

While the paint was drying, I turned to my computer to look for an appropriate looking font. I'd found a couple of pictures of an engine crate and found a font that was similar. It just needed a little editing of some letters. The markings I chose were for a replacement cylinder for a Wright Cyclone aero engine. As I said before, I was going to go for a "Go-Devil" engine crate, but needed an object more suited to the size of box I now had.

The lettering was printed onto thin card and then covered in Sellotape. This gives a smooth finish that will wipe clean and the tape helps to reinforce some of the small stencil bars that hold the letters together. I then spent a day with a scalpel, cutting it all out.

On the 17th, I was ready to start painting, beginning with the top. I began using a small piece of sponge, which was fine for the larger letters, but had to switch to an old and tired modelling brush for the smaller letters.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Both sides were painted next, resting the crate on two strips of wood at either end when I came to do the second side, so as not to smudge the still tacky paint on side one.

The ends were next, with the Curtiss Wright logo added too.