Work on My F8, No. 11

[Jim Price]

David,
I purchased them from a tire dealer in Moree, New South Wales, Australia. I was lucky in that an acquaintance of mine was having a shipping container of military vehicle parts being put together just outside Syndey. Got my tires included in the container and was good to go!

Regards,
Jim

[Jim Price]

Got the bows and struts back from the fabricator last week and set about preparing them for installation. Welded tabs to each side of the bed so that we can bolt the bow legs to each. Welded nuts to washers and then welded them to the ends of each bow leg. Have bolted the struts to the bows for easier disassembly and storage. Will trim them after final assembly. Will finish by welding the bow braces (14") to the bows next week.

Was hot today...Well over 110F...

Regards,
Jim

PS What color should the cover for the frame be?
PPS Thanks, Mike, for the drawings!

[Jim Price]

This was one of those catch-up-on-the-details week. It did not start out well at all as the first stop was the Motor Vehicles Division to start the title process and to obtain a 90-day temporary permit. Got the 90-day permit ok which was good as we needed to drive the truck to several locations over city streets and had to be "legal" to do so.

The title process was another matter. It was bad enough that I didn't have a title (What, no title for an old military truck! Didn't they have to have a title just like every other vehicle?), I didn't have a notarized bill of sale and, no copy of the 7501 customs form when it was brought into the country. (Our favor sellers failed to leave any paperwork with the transit point in the US).

I was then told, "Well, Mr. Price we will be unable to do anything on this until you get us at least the 7501 copy and the notarized bill of sale!" With that I left. It seemed that the clerk (It's taken me several days to be able to call her that without adding a number of my favor four-letter adjectives....) was more interested in telling me "no" rather than advising me "how"!

So, took the truck to the tranny shop to get the leaks fixed in the rebuilt tranny. The shop fixed it up, no charge! The week was looking up! Drove the truck then to the speedometer shop to have the cable installed and calibrated. Was successful there and now we know how fast we're going for a change! Finally we dropped the truck off at the painter to have an overall "sheen" match put on.

It was back to the title process. After complaining loudly about the unfairness of MVD personnel, one of my friends referred me to a third-party title company that works primarily with the Spanish speaking vehicle owners as an interface with the non-bi-lingual MVD. It was there that I met Gina, my angel!

Gina advised that it would have been better to have forgotten where I bought the truck but since I'd been honest she'd look into the necessity of writing a letter to Canada for a notarized bill of sale. Well, it turns out that this is not needed for vehicles purchased from Mexico and therefore does not apply to vehicles purchased in Canada as well. Further Gina advised that I did not need a copy of the 7501 form but did need to purchase a surety bond indemnifying the State against any possible suit from prior unknown owners. Picked one up today.

Soooo, to make long story short, with Gina's invaluable help, today I picked up my new title and the license tag! Whew! All's well that ends well!

[Jim Price]

Today I looked over my new title and, lo and behold, found that the vin number had been incorrectly listed! Soooo, am back to my angel, Gina, on Monday to get that corrected! My bad! I was so relieved to finally receive it on Friday that I didn't go over it. Just goes to show that if anything can go wrong it will! My failure to go over the title may have related to the flat tire I spied out the window as I left Gina's counter ........

Regards,
Jim

[Jim Price]

Well, it turns out that the MVD's subcontractor's office is open on the weekends! So, yesterday I returned and got the registration and title with the correct vin number. My truck is now truly "street legal"! All is good!

Regards,
Jim