January 4th ‘09  A work weekend

This weekend we held a work weekend for the truck. It was productive in terms of work done but not so much visually. First we pulled the wheels from the rear axle to inspect the brakes. There were mixed results. On the down side, the passenger side brake pads were completely shot. On the up side, the brake springs were intact and the wheel cylinders had been resleeved. Like all the others, they were seized solid.

 We pulled the deck off and painted the new framework. The underside wood was treated with waterproofing material. The welds were ground down on the fenders and painted with Eastwood’s rust encapsulator and chassis black. The deck was reinstalled and the wall behind the cab was built, primed, painted and installed. The hood and engine side panels were installed. The engine side panels still need louvers, reinforcing ribs and hinges but they will do for now. The hood panels need the vents but these can be installed later. 

January 8th ‘09  Framing is complete

Inspired by the work weekend I worked hard and completed the external framing for the box. The roof rafters are made from 2x8’s. The curved profile was cut in and the resulting width was 2.5” The side framing was made from 2x2 material to keep the weight down. All the joints were lap jointed that were glued and screwed together. Although the construction is fairly light, it is quite strong.

January 11th ‘09  All grey now.

The siding is installed and the box has a coat of Kilz primer and a coat of grey paint. The inside is partially primed.

January 18th ‘09  Frustration.

This weekend was the event weekend I was shooting for. The tires were supposed to arrive Friday but were delayed until Monday. The brake components arrived but I didn’t have the time to get them installed. So nothing much happened this week.

January 25th ‘09  Interior work begins.

The tires arrived and were installed. Work on the benches and storage cabinets was started. The benches are designed to fold down into bunks. The interior framework for the back storage lockers was roughed in. The lower part is supposed to be accessible from the outside but there won’t be time before the next event to get the outside doors working. 

February 1st ‘09  Lights and turn signals.

The headlights, taillights and turnsignal controller arrived. The headlights are Ford Model A reproductions. They are 7” flat front like the wartime lights. The original Krupp truck didn’t have turn signals on the front of the truck so I bought lights with turn signal lights built into the headlight. Safety first. The rear lights are ‘28 - 31 Ford lights. The top light is an amber turn signal and the bottom is a red running light. The turn signal/brakelight switch illuminates the top light for the brakes so I had to cover the amber glass with red repair tape.

February 5th ‘09  Time to go.

This weekend was our debut event with the truck. Work was feverish during the week. The front bumper and license plates were completed. The repro star antenna for the mast was built. The brakes were installed and hooked up. An appointment was made with a brake place to get the brakes checked over and bled. They couldn’t figure out how to get the brakes to bleed so it put me behind 4 hours. The windows were supposed to be fitted but that had to be put off as was the rear door. Fortunately the weather cooperated and it was beautiful. The bunks and storage was supposed to be complete but only the extra shelves made it into the cabinets. It was nowhere near where I had hoped to be but we were functional. The 100 mile drive up to the event went flawlessly albeit slowly.  The pictures from the event are here .

February 7th ‘09  Everything goes wrong.

The truck performed like a champ throughout the event. Once the event was over we started the truck and headed back to the site entrance. We got 50 feet and the truck quit. It would start and then quit. All manner of things were tried and finally somebody suggested we look at the fuel filter. It was black and it was new before we left. SO we headed back to Navasota for a new fuel filter. It was installed and still no gas so we assumed the fuel pump was bad. We went back to Navasota for a fuel pump. A new one was secured but still no gas. We had run out of time and the truck had to be left at the site. One disturbing thing had begun to happen on the last few times we tried to start it. The engine would turn over and within a second the bendix would retract itself causing the starter to whine and the engine to stop spinning. While waiting for my wife to arrive and take me home, I pulled the starter. I noticed there was a single chipped tooth on the gear and the ring gear looked quite worn. This was not good but time had run out.

February 15th ‘09  Recovery attempt #1.

During the week I posted the details of the breakdown on www.cckw.org . It was suggested that I had a clogged intake tube in the gas tank. A plan was made to use the pressure tank from my brake bleeding operation and blow air back through the line into the tank. Then I was going to hand pump the gas from the tank and replace it with fresh gas. A backup plan of a 5 gallon Jerry can with a fuel line into it was conceived. The first plan worked fine. There was one hiccup in that the fuel pump wouldn’t pump the fuel out of the tank until I primed the line. Then it worked fine. Fuel was being delivered to the carb. The short turnover and bendix retraction was still happening. With a little quick start spray I got the engine going. I took the truck up from the woods to the Museum main entrance. When I got near the top of the hill a horrible grinding started coming from the starter and sparks were coming from the access hole. Figuring the starter and ring gear were now history, I briefly consider driving it home anyway. It was beginning to heat up and smoke so I decided to leave it at the museum.

February 18th ‘09  Another rescue is planned.

During the week I posted the details of the rescue again on  www.cckw.org .The consensus was the ring gear and/or the flywheel needed to be replaced along with the starter bendix assembly. A realistic estimate of the time requirement is 10 hours. It is too remote a site for that operation, so 2 options remain. One is a trailer recovery and the other is a removal of the starter and using another vehicle to pull start it. That will be first attempt and assuming nothing horrible happens when it starts, we will attempt to drive it home. I have 150 mile breakdown recovery protection on my insurance so if we don’t make it, it will end up getting towed home anyway.

February 21st ‘09  Success.

This trip was a success. The starter came out without any problems. The lower pan covering the flywheel was clean but the bendix gear is totally shot. The pull start went surprisingly easy. She started up after a couple of revolutions. The trip home went very smoothly albeit slowly. The engine will be getting a very thorough going over before we hit the road again. It is likely the transmission will have to come out and a new flywheel be put in. 

June 28th ‘09  A long overdue update.

This update is long overdue. Many things have happened although visually not much is different. Progress slowed due to funds being diverted to acquiring original radios for the truck. The collection has grown dramatically. Houston has been experiencing a drought and with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees under clear blue skies, alternative working arrangements had to be made. My garage had reached the point of explosion and a complete reorganization. Insulating the walls and ceiling needed completion as well. The shop is now much more workable and substantially cooler.

The starter took quite some time to get replaced. Normally these starters can be ordered from Jim Carter antique truck parts catalog. Recently they have had a shortage of cores so I had to send mine in with the promise that it would come back to me and not some other waiting customer. It arrived back 3 weeks ago and worked like a champ. During the installation, we discovered the flywheel could be dressed carefully with a file. Each tooth was reshaped and there were no major problems. The starter went back in and after a little starter fluid, the engine was purring along.

While the starter was out being repaired, work on the roof was done. The original truck had a canvas and plywood roof to minimize radio interference but we don’t need to worry about that so in the interests of durability, the box was given a steel skin. A drip edge was worked in that the original truck didn’t have but will help keep the rain out.

The next project was to complete the assembly of the driver’s side front fender. The build went well and the shape looks good. Now the finish welding needs to be completed.

I finally gave up on the rebuilt original hydrovac, opting for a new postwar one that is still in use today. They are stronger and more mechanically reliable. I ordered one along with the mounting bracket, a new muffler, a pair of front drive flanges, and a set of gaskets to overhaul the exhaust system. The latches for the doors arrived from England so the door construction can be started.

Apparently when the Army converted this truck to a fire truck, they added a number of reinforcing gussets in the frame rails. Unfortunately one of those gussets was exactly where the new bracket mounts. After an hour or so of trying to rework things, we decided to make a custom bracket. After some custom fabrication we finally have the new hydrovac in place. It was late in the day so we decided to call it quits at that point. Brake bleeding will have to wait until next weekend.

September 22nd ‘09  Another long overdue update.

A lot of work has been completed since the last update. The truck’s mechanicals are complete. The brakes are finished. The fuel tank has been replaced with an aluminum racing tank. A new alternator has been installed

The windows are complete. (The driver’s side are being refitted) The fenders are complete and mounted. The engine side panels are hinged to the top covers. The running boards are complete and it was decided to go with wood. The new aluminum fuel tank has a cover to hide the fuel lines, the fuel filter and electric fuel pump. It also has an extended filler neck to make it easier to fill from a Jerry can. A rack for 3 jerry cans is on the driver’s side running board along with the relocated battery box. The driver’s door was reworked and made as a 1/2 door. This style was common on the cargo version of the truck. The latch is lockable and functioning. Once a window regulator has been worked out, the top 1/2 will be added. The passenger side door needs to be made.

October 7th ‘09  Back from Colorado

A tremendous effort was made to get the truck ready for the Drive on Stalingrad event in Colorado.

The cab roof rack was constructed out of 1” emt tubing. It worked fine for the event but it really needs to be made out of 3/4”. It also needs to be wider and a little shorter. It will do until the cab is reworked. The cab is too narrow and needs to be widened about 4” on each side.

The main roof rack was built but not painted. The slats were installed down the sides of the box. The slats for the ends were cut but not installed.

The secondary batteries for a dual battery system were installed. It was decided to go with 2 6v golf cart batteries in series to supply a longer run time. The battery system is controlled by a selector switch in the cab. Unfortunately one of the 6v batteries was bad and the whole system is inoperable at this time.

The passenger door was completed and painted at the event.

The weather forecast for the event was calling for freezing temperatures. It was decided to build a rack for the original bunker stove we have. Although we don’t have any pictures of this type of installation, it looks completely natural. The idea was to have a place to hold the hot stove if we had to move in a hurry. The stove has a ash door at the bottom and the concern was cinders might fall out so a hook was added to hold a metal ash bucket. It also proved to be a good place to make a catch for the back door.

December 09  Camp Anderson again.

Even with 4 of us in the back of the truck in Colorado, it was very cold. The weather for Camp Anderson was calling for cold and wet. The insulation and the masonite panelling was given priority to help with the heating problems. This meant the method for operating windows had to be dealt with. After some experimentation I settled on an aluminum track with suede leather to close the gaps. The theory is the leather will swell when it gets wet and seal the window tracks. A simple leather strap loops under the glass in lieu of a proper window regulator. This matches one of the few interior photos that I have. The drivers side is complete but the passenger side is just screwed in place. This will be addressed once the passenger side door is cut into the box.

The planking strips on the roof were finished and the box was painted. A small leak has been detected in the roof so that will have to be tracked down. The tarp strip on the side of the box was painted Panzer Gray. I have been rethinking the idea of painting it Dunklegelb as I am liking the early war look.