1942 dodge ambulance resto

[jake neville]

hi guys.

i'm looking for a bell housing to complete my engine rebuild. if anyone knows of a spare anywhere....help

[jack neville]

Since Jake has moved his ambo chassis to another location it has freed some space to do some work on the body. Whilst being relatively straight on the important rear box sides except for a small section around the fuel filler, there is rust in the roof section and a bit of damage around the front windscreen. The cab front left floor section and rear cab floor are also rusty. It cannot be saved without picking it all apart to tackle the rust.

[jack neville]

Fortunately when he got the ambulance from Ray, he got an extra part cab from a Carryall which had been converted into a pick up. Ray had used part of this cab to repair his own ambulance and Jake got the remains. Fortunately by unpicking this pick up cab we could get the panels needed to repair the ambulance.

[jack neville]

This part cab was not without its own problems. The cowl and dash was missing but the ambulance had a good complete ones that could be reused. The top part of the windscreen was better on the part cab which meant I could sacrifice that top section when separating from the ambulance roof. The front floor corners of each had one good side. The right from the part cab and the left from the ambo. The best firewall was in the part cab as was the best left side panel. That meant I could cut the front left floor section from the ambo without worrying about saving any of the surrounding sheetmetal. The part cab supplied the door frames. The part cab had a better transmission cover panel. .

[jack neville]

The front left corner above after being cut out was stripped of the unwanted metal and then spent a couple of days in the electrolysis bath to ensure all the rust between the seams was eliminated. Then treated with fishoil. Next the front cab was cut under the seam where the windscreen joins the roof. The floor was cut and the whole lot removed.

[jack neville]

As the rear cab pillars were being replaced I could remove them by cutting the welds and cutting them into smaller pieces and paring away. The amount of rust inside the pillars almost filled them.

[jack neville]

Comparing the two floors revealed the part cab to have the best transmission cover and the best floor would come from using the part cab front and the ambo rear and grafted the two together as well as adding some new metal where the rust on both floors was equally bad.