April 20th 2010  Muster Day preparation

Budget and time restrictions seem to limit work to just before events these days.

 It was time to address the storage issues in the truck. The cabinet on the front workbench was built. It is planned to put a small air conditioner on the top shelf. An a/c unit is not period but a ventilation fan system was installed. Shelves were added at the back to allow the radios to be carried on the shelves rather than the floor.

Fluids and tire pressures etc, were checked for the trip to Austin.   

May 30th 2010  Palestine RR Museum preparation

Many items were planned to be completed for the museum trip. Unfortunately weather and other commitments limited this to cutting the door for the a/c unit. This was a small simple door that was a test run for the large storage doors. It turned out to be a little more involved than first anticipated.

Fluids and tire pressures etc, were checked for the trip to Palestine. On the trip back from Austin the starter quit working in Elgin. There was no apparent reason and after a pull start, the truck ran fine for the remainder of the trip. When cleaning out the truck on the day after the event, the truck started up just fine. Nobody can give me a reason why. It has worked just fine since then.   

July 4th 2010  Interior work continues.

The plan for the summer is to work on the interior of the truck and to rebuild the cab. Hurricane season is upon us again and this truck will serve as a “get out of town” vehicle if necessary. Window trim and quarter round has been added. Thin strips were added to the ceiling to cover the ceiling screws. A coat of white primer has been applied to most of the interior.

The operators bench has been nearly completed. The interior fittings are more like fine furniture than military equipment. A bit of router work needs to be completed and then it can be painted too.

The first hurricane of the season hit down the coast from us but we were treated to 11 inches of rain in 48 hours. Our area is not prone to flooding so we were fine. The large volume of rain revealed a number of leaks in the roof and windows. These need to be addressed before any further work is done.