How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

A big thanks to a fellow MLU'er for helping my project move along. I'm very thankful to have picked up a near complete WS19 ground station.

Yes I know it's not part of the truck restoration but it's part of the onboard equipment.

[Jordan Baker]

I started in on making the new sides for the box this past week. I stopped in a local fabrication shop and they will be making the long top channels on the sides for me. The originals are 14ga and 80" long. Id love to do them myself but that is simply just to heavy a gage and too long a piece for me to do at home on my own.

However what I have begun is making the smaller vertical channels. I got the 16ga cut to near finished size and then bent them up in about 1.5hrs worth of work. I still have to cut the sides down to the proper depth and angle. I also made up new parts for going on either end of the wheel wells on the outside lower edge of the box.

The one thing I am not too sure how to do is where the bottom of the top bows meet these channels. The channel appears to either have been cut and bent to be parallel with the box sides. Or was it stamped?

[Jordan Baker]

Figured I should get the tail gate all POR15'd and primed before all the rain showed up. Wednesday was a great day to paint so that is what I did. Im really happy with how the tailgate has turned out.

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Jordan

I was examining my 2C1 box and if I had to do the side pockets I would do this.

measure carefully the size of the indentations and the depth..... about 3/32 or the tickness of the metal if you were using 14 guage.

Center the outline of the indentation on your new 16 gauge vertical brace.

Cut as outlined in the attached sketch.....MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A GOOD PIVOT POINT...... at least 1/8 uncut.

Think of a damper in a chimney..... you should know about dampers......
Pull the upper 48% out by 3/32 and pushing the bottom 48% out an equal amounts.

Weld from the back first to fill the gaps......then the front and sand smooth the front visible side....... make sure yor behind welds are solid as they will carry the torque of the hoops.

Now I must point out that I have not tried this but it is how I would tackle it.

Good luck and post us some pictures. No doubt the original was stamped before assembly.

[Jordan Baker]

Ha why should I know all about dampers, although not much dampens my enthusiasm?

I like your idea and it makes sense to me. I might try it out on a scrap piece first. I'll have to wait till Thursday or the weekend to play around with it. Darn work getting in the way of the hobbies it supports.

On another note I broke my metal brake today. The top clamp is held in by some rather dodgy weak welds (princess Autos finest) and well I felt like superman when I realized I pulled them out. Thankfully it's a simple fix using stuff I don't have at the moment.

[Bob Carriere]

....just pulling your leg .,......but it is the first thing to turn off when you get there.

Brakes do break...... if you exceed the limits of the poor welds.... nothing you can't repair.

Cheers

[Jordan Baker]

Usually by that point things have progressed well past the chimney. Lol.

Too be fair I had noticed the threaded studs bending from where they were welded. I'll be replacing with grade 8 set screws with some good welding to the heads. I've checked the other side and its bent and pulling out as well.