Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

The centre section of the frame isn't welded to the arch bars fully round, leaving space for water and dirt.... creating the perfect environment for rust. I decided to weld up the gaps after I sand blasted the frame. You can sort of see the difference if you compare the first two pictures.

After two coats of primer and a base coat in green I installed the arch bars to the chassis and removed the temporary braces.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

I didn't have much luck with the bumper bolts... Even before sandblasting the chassis at the start of the restoration, I tried welding on some nuts to the studs that remained after the bolt heads were broken off......hoping I could get the bolts out....I tried several times, but no luck. So at the time I cut off the last remains and used a centre punch to prepare for drilling out the studs.

Now two years later I was ready to drill out the bolts. Drilling went OK, but tapping new threads proved a bit more challenging. I broke the tap in the last hole.....now what? I tried heat, huge amounts of penetrating fluid, pliers and punches....but in the end I decided to try a tool I got from Ebay, A Tap extractor from Walton. It's basically a holder with 4 pins, that insert around the remains of the tap. With some patience....WD40 and even more patience, the broken tap came out. I was able to tap the last bit with new tap.


Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

I was afraid the bumper wouldn't fit properly as one or two holes I drilled were at a slight angle, but as you can see in the pictures the holes in the bumper have enough play to get all 8 bolts in!

The extractor is quite a simple tool , but it worked. The pins, or flutes, sometimes break, but even with a piece broken off they will still do the job. You can also buy seperate new "flutes". The only trouble with the tool is that they only work for one size tap....so if you have a habit of breaking taps, you will need a variety of different size extractors.

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

Amazing these CMO have lasted so long when one considers the rush in which they were built......

Never seen such and extractor for broken taps....... quite the tool.

There are very few time that a welded nut on a stud will not work...... in such instance apply mega heat on the casted piece might have done the trick.......

Nice work Alex.....

Cheers

[Russ Gregg]

I have a full set of those 4 flute Walton tap extractors in my tool box at work, unfortunately they always buy 3 flute taps.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Guys, Thanks for your comments.

Bob, sadly I didn't have the tools to get enough heat in the metal. Drilling was OK, but the challenge was keeping the drill straight as it seemed the casting was far easier to drill into than the old bolts
Of course the tap broke in the last hole as I was rushing to get the job done, before it got too dark!

Russ, the Walton tap extractors are also available for 3 flute taps....and even for 2 flute taps! Maybe you have to convince the guys at work to buy matching taps.....or just don't break them

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

It was about time to spend some time on the driveline of the C8......starting with the transmission and slowly preparing to move to the engine.


I removed the transmission from the engine and chassis some years ago and it was patiently waiting ever since. It was hard to even see the actual transmission through all the layers of dirt, oil and grease. The gear lever was pretty much seized, as well as the small lever for the reverse gear. I had already treated some of the parts with penetrating oil, but even then the gear lever hardly even moved.

After removing all the grime, from the exterior of the box, I was able to remove the universal joint and the gearbox cover/shift tower with the gear lever still attached.

Inside it wasn't looking all that bad....and it even had some oil in it. The sliding gears however were seized to the shaft.
As you can see in the pictures, a previous owner added and extra lever and additional shaft… probably to drive some sort of wrecking gear. With help of Frank von Rosenstiel I have since found out my C8 was used as a tow vehicle in a Toronto used car lot, before ending at a farm vehicle in Pefferlaw, Ontario.

The extra gear and shaft were easily removed…and after liters of penetrating fluid, some heat and some gentle persuasion, the sliding gears moved again and I was able to disassemble the transmission.

Alex