Cmp c15a gs

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Joel Culliford

Here are a couple of questions, what colour should the chassis be painted...black, green or the colour of the body (ie brown)?? and where to find a t-valve like this


Joel

As Harry has said, your fuel tank tap appears to be in good nick from the photos fellahs, so clean her up, and it should work fine.

Mine looked very similar to yours when I found it. All I did was pull it apart, clean the crap out & put it back together.

To create new and clean fuel lines I used rubber fuel hose (good stuff that'll handle injection pressure levels) and used double flared brake line with threaded brake line nuts.

Between the tap and the tank I chucked in some in line fuel filters. Not original, but very reliable and who's gonna know except yourselves?

[Bob Carriere]

Joel

If you look at Tony's picture you will see that he used a specail brass fitting easy to find at CarQuest or CTC..... it has a male pipe thread at one end to fit into the valve body.... the other side of the fitting is designed to take a 1/4 inch doubled flared steel brake line. The original assembly had 3 rubber lines going into and out of the valve body. This was done to deal with vibrations and body twist in severe driving conditions. I have found that Jeep 9 or 12 inch fuel lines fit perfectly..... I don't thing you need to go that far for a dependable running vehicle.

Can you post a picture of your valve body to show the back side where the nut and spring is located just want to make sure your assembly is complete.

It should clean up real nice using acetone or paint remover..... you can even shine it up with a cloth wheel and buffing compound.....when you take it apart you will find an internal tapered shaft..... if scratched or scored..... you can smear some valve griding compound on the tapered shaft.... use the fine stuff..... and insert the tapered stem and rotate by hand.... no need to fully re-assemble. once properly polished....clean thoroughly in gasoline.... re-assemble with a few drops of motor oil on the tapered shaft .... you need enough pressure on the spring at the bottom to keep it tight but loose enough to allow easy turning ... Fuel Filters are an essential part of a dependable system....

Color wise the whole underneath should be the same color as the overall shade of the truck. There are early WW II flat Olive drab green paint that very closely match what was initially applied at the Oshawa factory made by Gillespie number 34087 which I found to be a perfect match to the shade of OD green found under protected areas of my truck.

If you are thinking of camouflage colors with "Mickey Mouse ears" pattern seen in Britain or even Europe you are on your own..... not an expert in that area.

Bob C.

[Marc Montgomery]

******Be careful about welding up holes in the cab *** some of them are supposed to be there !

you may find a couple holes in the roof over the passenger side... this is for the clip to hold the roof hatch when open

There may also be holes in the rear cab wall, some had em, some not.. this was for a 1 quart brass fire extinguisher..

other holes may be for mounting of a shovel and/or pick axe and helve (depending on model) on the cab rear

lots of holes on the doghouse too.. for fire extinguisher, and shifting plates etc..


OH and do try to remove nuts and bolts undamaged if you can, for re=use.. they are hard to match these days. A lot of items can be found, just not at Cdn Tire, nor cheaply when you do find them.

and dont' forget left hand threads on left side lug nuts...but I guess you've discovered that..?

[Marc Montgomery]

you have an very good base vehicle to start from... the doghouse still has the round inspection covers (an item hard to find) and even the floor grab handle...some very nice details to have already and not have to look for!

BTW- the CMPs did not have rear "windows".. there was a frame with double channels and two sliding (thick) sheet metal plates.

These frames however are almost always rotted at the bottom.

What are the students cutting with the saw?

[Adrian Rittner]

Thanks for the note on the back window. We were wondering about that. Yes the channel was a bit rotten. Anyone know the size and thinkness of the window plates?

The welding of the holes were obvious holes that shouldn`t be there. One was for an afterthought extention arm for the PTO. An operator probably stood outside the vehicle and controled the lever. They bored a hole in the body to reach the outside. We filled the hole and left the pto operator in the cab. Curious to see an original winch as there is not one on the truck, and being a GS body (not recovery) not other need for PTO really.

The factory or drilled holes were left. But that raises any question. We looked in the orginal Chevy shop manual. It has great drawings of the front cab loking forward including the instrument cluster and features. But there is no diagram looking back in the cab. Meaning we have no idea where the tools, bags, rifle holder, fire extinguisher, etc, should go. Any one have a handy picture?

the old rubber was really fused to the rims. Cutting them with a saws all was the only way, then literally chisel the band away from the lip of the split rim. Personally if I was doing that task myself, I would have given up and squeezed the old noggin for a better idea. But the one kid was so determined and surprisingly made a science out of it.

[Adrian Rittner]

PAINTING - the ultimate question.

The more I read about paint and schemes, the more confused we get. I used to have website links that specified paint (even samples of colours Brit and US) and disruptive paint orders during the timeline of the war. Brit green to brown (dtb), verses US olive drab.
Two things to consider. We plan to dress the CMP as a front GS lorry in the Italy campaign with 1st CND Division. Are we correct in assuming that the entire vehicle was painted "dog turd brown"? Does anyone know the modern paint numbers for this colour?
Second question. I was suspect when someone mentioned that the chassis and body should be repainted in the same colour. I guess that would depend on the year manufactured and the time period portrayed...no? This CMP was built in Oshawa in 1942. It is the earlier cab13 with the square access hole, etc. I would think that the chassis specifically was painted one flat colour at the factory according to the contract or batch made at the time. Then delivered to DMD. Then history takes over. Depending on what level of service the vehicle ends up, different paint and camo orders come into play. Overtime a vehicle gets overhauled, repainted or even whitewashed in some accounts. So my thinking is that they would only re-paint the outer body, not bothering with the interior and underbelly. So would the chassis be one colour, the interior... whatever.. and the exterior the order of the day. Italy late 1943 to early 1945, I understand was the Brit earth brown affection know as DTB. No to little disruptive over painting.

So to reiterate am I correct in this logic.
Vehicles originally painted to contract spec at GM plant - solid flat olive drab finish.
Vehicles deployed to north Africa - get overhauled and repainted sand, desert tan.
Vehicles deployed to Sicily - overhauled and repainted brown with black scheme or I have also heard that trucks from redeployed from Africa to Operation Husky would be tan and black scheme.
Vehicles deployed to Italy - overhauled and repainted earthen brown, I have not come across any disruptive paint being used in this period, but still used the roundel symbol on the cab for air recognition.
Vehicles deployed to western Europe (d-day to NW) - overhauled, repainted bronze green, and adopt the allied star symbol on the roof and the "crooked" star on the doors.

I bet there is an entire thread somewhere in this forum that explains all of this but I can`t find it.
painful -help needed.
Adrian

[Keith Webb]

Vehicles originally painted to contract spec at GM plant - solid flat olive drab finish.

Not olive drab; Khaki was the British colour, Olive Drab was the US colour.

[Joel Culliford]

Well the students tried to crank the engine over and found out that the flywheel is cracked. Now they have removed the transmission and started working on the bell casing. Pain in the backside with some of the bolts in the actual casing itself. One looks like it might be stripped.

On a positive note the new master cylinder was reattached and the new lines were installed and now the brakes work.

I've also attached two new pics of the fuel line switch

[Bob Phillips]

Hi Joel; Nice to see kids working at preserving history. If you can't get that fuel valve to work properly PM me and I'll see if I can't find you a NOS replacement from the collection here. Might even have a flywheel if yours is damaged....Bob

[Joel Culliford]

Well the students finall removed the flywheel...holy crap...what a pain to remove. First they students removed the transmission (one student thought he could lift the whole thing himself, he tried but quickly yelled for help). Then they had to remove the clutch plate and then the flywheel, all with the bell casing on because you can't remove the bell casing until everything is out of it first...ahhhhh

We are trying to see if the flywheel can be replaced but we don't know yet. The students finished off the major body work so that it can be sandblasted, then returned so we can get it painted. Two of the students can not wait for it to get back so that they can complete the body work.