How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

Work has rather ground to a stop due to the winter temps finaly arriving. However it has not stopped me from searching out some stuff. The newest arrival is the rather hard to find canvas round hip ring cover. Other then being a bit dirty from storage it is complete and in great shape. Thankfully it hasn't shrunk and it fit really well.

Did these covers have some king of stiffining strips in them? There is three long pockets sewn on the inside of the cover.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Jordan

My HUP still had two of three battens, when I got it back in 1979. I believe they were oak, mine have now been lost along the way.

Cheers Phil

[David Dunlop]

Was that to try and prevent rain water from ponding on the top of the cover, Phil?

David

[Phil Waterman]

Hi David

Yes, but when flat battens are used the water still seems to pond a little when truck is not moving. The canvas does arch up when the the HUP is moving so water doesn't pond.

My HUPs canvas cover had been heavily tarred. But was whole and I have, saved it, and used to make replacements, I'm on my second replacement and actually need to make a third as the current ripped when it flew open at road speed. Makes quite a noise when it slams back on the roof.

My orginal still had two broken battens when I got the HUP, but unfortunately have now been lost.

Back to your question, were the battens to help prevent ponding? Yes but I wonder if the original ones had been steam arched to give the round cover a domed shape.

Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Some small progress was made the other day. I restored the data plates for the truck. I gave the plates a light sanding with very fine emery cloth to remove some of the oxidation. Once this was done the boarders and data fields were masked off. I then gave the plates a few light sprays of flat black spray paint. I used a brand called Testors. I find it goes on very fine since its intended use is for the plastic hobby world. I left the plates to dry for a number of hours. Once dry a hobby knife with a chisle blade was used to simply remove the paint from all the raised letters.

[Jordan Baker]

It's been a bit since my last update. Mostly because I've been working away on the 10cwt trailer. Today one of my Chiefs was over so that we could roll some beads on a good for his hotrod. Anyway short end of a shorter story I got him to help me out putting the offset edge along the cab roof rear panel. It's been bugging me since last fall to get it done but I just never really felt confident using the roller on my own. Well seeing how easy it went with his hood and using that as practice we setup the roller on my big work bench. It gave us enough room to feed the sheet in and also let it come out the other end. After a few trial runs on some scrap we had figured out the spacer blocks to get the right depth. Once we started rolling everything went very smooth. Next up will be getting the panel fitted and welded in. Then I plan on cutting the window hole and rear comms hole.

[Jordan Baker]

Just another picture