restoration 'New' yellow Ward laFrance from France

[TooTallMike]

Don't blame me, it was the others who made me do it...

 

Earlier this year I sold 'my' WLF to a nice chap down in the West Country who is going to use it to work on his collection of crawlers and other tasty kit.

 

At W&P I was notified that another would be coming available and in August we went over to view it. A deal was done and last Friday it arrived. Chris unloaded it with the Berliet and it was shunted into my workshop by Ross. On Saturday I rebuilt the carb, cleaned the plugs, stoned the points, replaced the coil & king lead and then with a flash of the jump leads on the starter it roared into life. We celebrated by driving it around the field. Everything on it works apart from the crane slew which has an as-yet un-diagnosed 'issue' (I knew about this before the purchase and it is not a serious issue as I have a complete spares truck).

 

 

 

The truck was built late 1944 and has a 1952 rebuild plate from Aalen Ordnance Depot, Germany. It has French data plates suggesting further service with the French army. Following this the truck was operated by Garage Canuel, Giverville, Normandy in whose colours it remains. The vignette in the windscreen indicates that the truck was last insured in 1991. It is understood that the garage owner retired and simply locked the garage doors with his fleet inside. He sadly died around two months ago and his assets were sold off.

 

The cab has been extended rearwards by around 150mm to make space for a very civilised suspended seat. The crane boom has had a substantial amount of bracketry welded on to permit the rear winch to be diverted over a snatch block to give an improved position for suspended front lift. The lockers and wooden side boards from the rear body have been removed and a pair of hinged steel side panels have been installed. The plan is to keep the truck unchanged externally other than a tidying of the paintwork. Underneath it requires a torque rod or two, a new front prop, full air system inspection...

 

Oh, and a Cummins...:-D

 

- MG

[Degsy]

I'd heard you'd bought this Mike, you just can't do without a WLF can you?:-D

[Tony B]

Just can't keep away from them can you? 1952 seems to be a good year for rebuilds.

[42 chevy]

I believe 1952 was when the US Military was starting to replace there WWII era vehicles so the WWII vehicles were rebuilt and given, leased or sold to our allies. Alot of the parts I have acquired over the years are shown with packaged dates of 1952 or reinspection/repackaged dated 1952.

 

John G

[Gordon_M]

Huge rebuild effort for Korea - I heard stories of dealers touring the UK at that time buying back US heavy equipment that had been sold off just a few years before.

 

I'd guess that the rebuild effort overshot and resulted in a pile of material that could then be donated to friendly countries as defence aid too.

[AndyFowler]

Lovely truck Mike ! Will she keep her civilian paintwork ? Looks very tidy already !

[Tony B]

Huge rebuild effort for Korea - I heard stories of dealers touring the UK at that time buying back US heavy equipment that had been sold off just a few years before.

 

I'd guess that the rebuild effort overshot and resulted in a pile of material that could then be donated to friendly countries as defence aid too.

 

Doing a quick search. 1952 was the year a lot of reorganisation was done for the US units in Europe. Even so that is now sixty years ago. A lot will have happned to the old ladies in the mean time. At least with a stretched cab there is room for a baby seat.

[TooTallMike]

Interesting about the significance of 1952 rebuilds. Is there any info out there about the rebuild depots? Any surviving records?

 

Andy - it'll be staying yellow for a while as I think there are enough green ones out there now. It's not as tidy as the photos suggest but I shall just regard that as 'charm'.

 

Tony - baby seat is on the cards as t he hard top means I can fit a third point for a proper seat belt.

 

- MG

[42 chevy]

Mike;

 

My series 2 was rebuilt in 1952 at the Red River arsenal in Texarkana Texas and then was shipped back to the Belgium Army under MDAP. I have a rebuild tag on the engine block.

 

Check your email, I sent you one.

 

thanks

 

John G

[Tony B]

This is the one off mine.

[Rosco]

I didn't encourage him honest :cool2:(Not that he needed any encouragement). I only went along to navigate.

 

Lovely truck, looking forward to the diesel conversion.

 

Ross

[TooTallMike]

I sent off the paperwork to DVLA last week for registration and received the tax disc and paperwork through the post yesterday! They even returned the French registration paperwork as requested.

 

10/10 to DVLA for once.

 

- MG

[TooTallMike]

So, as many people already know, I finally got round to starting this conversion 6 weeks before the War & Peace show. Having completed several of these previously I was confident that I knew all the tricks, but there were inevitably still one or two things that presented challenges. The following is a précis of the work carried out – suffice to say that as on the TV restoration programmes there is a huge amount more to plan and do than the little illustrated here.

So, acquire one ex-dustcart Cummins 6BTA 5.9l engine from Ebay:

Strip off all ancillaries and remove head. Clean and paint block, install head studs (to allow for future power upgrade work):

Strip and paint head and re-install:

Re-install ancillaries:

Fit NOS gearbox:

Remove petrol engine from truck:

Repaint scuttle and clean and re-fit air components and wiring:

Drop new engine in:

Be pleased new engine landed where it was calculated to land:

Remove old radiator and weld Unistrut channel into radiator surround to support radiator/intercooler pack:

Re-install radiator assembly:

Start playing with new toy!

[N.O.S.]

And very refreshing the 'yellow peril' looked amongst the sea of green at Folkestone!

 

Before you do anything in haste with the old engine Mike - might it be available for a temporary 'one trip' fitment in a WLF if necessary? :whistle:

[Grasshopper]

You're out of luck Tony, it's already winged its way back to France!

[TooTallMike]

And very refreshing the 'yellow peril' looked amongst the sea of green at Folkestone!

 

Before you do anything in haste with the old engine Mike - might it be available for a temporary 'one trip' fitment in a WLF if necessary? :whistle:

Talk to Uncle Mark - he has an engine sitting unloved in his workshop that would suffice.

 

Sorry I missed you at W&P, you've been on my 'to call' list for some time. I will get round to it I promise!

 

- MG

[w896andy]

Mike

 

Nice to see a white cab JCB working for a living, I have one exactly the same, it does far more lifting than digging and the most useful thing I've ever brought.

 

Did the Cummins engine fit on the original engine mountings on the truck ?

 

Andy

[TooTallMike]

Mike

 

Nice to see a white cab JCB working for a living, I have one exactly the same, it does far more lifting than digging and the most useful thing I've ever brought.

 

Did the Cummins engine fit on the original engine mountings on the truck ?

 

Andy

 

Agreed that JCB is a very useful tool. I use it at least twice a week for lifting and shifting. The telescopic boom will reach right into the back of a container to pick or place heavy items.

 

The engine is sitting on the original chassis mounts at the rear, but with custom mounting brackets to the bellhousing as per photos. The front chassis mount is made up from 90x90mm 6mm RSA as the original chassis mount is too far forward.

 

- MG

[TooTallMike]

Link to video of truck working hard towing another WLF.

 

 

- MG

[N.O.S.]

Having seen these pics I feel less a lot stressed about the suitability of the lightweight 6B flywheel housing! :sweat: > :coffee:

 

What application did that particular housing come from? Steel or Aluminium? (looks to be aluminium)

 

Yellow's front bumper centre hitch point looks so much more useful than the original - I plan to reinforce the back of the standard bumper and make a subtle hitch with vertical pin mount as the original bumper is pretty feeble.

[42 chevy]

Mike;

After viewing your youtube video, I see you encounter the same problems we have in the US. No one respects a big vehicle towing a load, the person driving the black car that pulled out in front of you could have waited. Those drivers are clueless and impatient.

 

John

[kw573]

Yes, I got the same impression! Like flies buzzing around a honey pot blissfully unaware of the peril that awaits the next wrong step :embarrassed: . How can you test for spacial awareness?!?

Sam.

[John Comber]

Well done Mike, she sounds well on song and gallops up over there far quicker than the old Scammell with load:clap:

[TooTallMike]

Mike;

After viewing your youtube video, I see you encounter the same problems we have in the US. No one respects a big vehicle towing a load, the person driving the black car that pulled out in front of you could have waited. Those drivers are clueless and impatient.

 

John

 

I think the problem is the truck is just too inconspicuous...

 

Over the winter it's going to get a set of air horns. I can't decide whether they should be under the bonnet, on a front wing, or on the roof. Front wing would be at a good height for car windows :wow:.

 

- MG

[TooTallMike]

Well done Mike, she sounds well on song and gallops up over there far quicker than the old Scammell with load:clap:

 

Cheers John,

 

I'm tweaking the fuelling and boost response to improve the performance so next time I go up that hill I may really give those motorists something to worry about!

 

- MG