C8 progress in Texas

[David DeWeese]

Had some time this weekend to make the spare tire carrier. Only tack welded the threaded rod for the wing nut as I am sure the tire dimensions will change once it is inflated, and some adjustments will be needed....
Next project is making the spare wheel. That's the last thing big I will have to fabricate, then I can finally return to repairing/restoring only original parts!
Thanks, David

[Bob Carriere]

....going to make a spare rim for the spare tire.....????

You continue to amaze me..... !!!! doesn't anybody have a spare rim....? anywhere...?

Bob

[David DeWeese]

Hi Bob,
Unfortunately these 13" wheels are very hard to come by, no matter where you are located on the globe. Of course, I am screwed down here in Texas.
If anyone has an affordable extra 13" wheel, please let me know.

edit: Bob, the plan is to use the center out of one of my 15" aftermarket wheels I bought a while ago,(post #65). The center will be cut out, turned down to correct size on my friend's lathe and welded into one of the wide late '60's Chevrolet Corvair 13'' outer rims.

Thanks, David

[David DeWeese]

Hi,
Had one open day this week to make that spare wheel. Cut out the centers of both wheels and headed over to a friend's house to use his lathe.
Things got slow when I found out the edge of the center rim piece I was working with was now hardened from cutting it out with a torch. Add to that the saw-tooth profile of the piece from the torch work, and it made for agonizingly slow progress to keep from breaking tips off the cutting tools..

Things got even slower when the automatic feed on the lathe broke, so the rest of the machining was fed by hand for two hours.

Anyway, made it home in time to dress the outer rim, true everything, weld it, prime it and put on a coat of paint before the sun went down.

Thanks, David

[David DeWeese]

Hi,
Disassembled my reproduction storage lockers to prime and paint them this weekend. Decided to keep the "X" stamped locker doors because I liked the look of them too much to just throw them in the scrap bin.

Tack-welded a dummy fuel filler neck on the end of the left tank to match the right one, now both being fairly close to the style of tanks used on the Duple body C8.

The plan was to add fuel to this left tank from it's original cap now located inside the lower locker, as I did not want to cut a hole in a nice original tank.
Well, I noticed this tank is vented through a hole that is located next to the filler cap. I was worried that fuel vapor would now be building up inside the lower locker. This seemed like an accident waiting to happen, so....

Found an old military generator shroud with the right size louvers and made a removable end panel for the lower locker. That end panel had to be removable anyway to access the center bolts that hold the lockers to the lower framework. I have no idea how the original lockers were made, so this is the best I could come up with to make everything work out.

Anyway, the reproduction lockers and fuel tank mods are finally done, so no more painful fabrication is ahead for me or anyone else to suffer through.....hopefully!
Thanks, David

[Keith Webb]

Looking great, David!

[David DeWeese]

Thanks Keith!
This weekend I had time to refinish and install the cab rear panel. The original rear panel was beat up to the point of needing a new skin and a lot of structural work.

Luckily I had a nice 12 cab rear panel here that only needed a few dents taken out. It also had an advantage over the 11 cab panel as it has the two seat recesses in the upper angle iron. That will give me another inch of leg room!

A fire extinguisher bracket also needed to be installed on the panel first as the tight space between the rear panel and lockers makes it so you can't get to the bolts to install it later. I found one on a 1/2 ton Dodge ambulance body here that was still in good shape. It lined up with the 6 bolt holes on the rear panel, but is it the correct style?

Anyway, it was nice to do some restoration, instead of fabrication, on the C8 for a change.
Thanks, David