Canadair CL70 CFR 58-91588

[Robin Craig]

I am blessed with access to a full sized tractor with pallet forks which makes a huge difference in being able to shunt the units in and out of the shop.

They we placed on pallets and then some extra pallets underneath to provide a stand off from the snow and ice of winter. Temporary covers over the top keeps the weather out.

Over Christmas I had time to leave them in our shop over the holiday and left them dry out and we cleaned out the hulls of many years of debris.We found many trinkets and had everything in cardboard boxes and I was struggling with how to deal with the myriad of parts that a job like this generates and how they would be inventoried.

We decided that the rear car would be the best to start with and Gerry has stripped it down and removed the drive train and track which then gave access to the underside of the hollow structural steel (HSS) chassis and the bolts that secured it to the rear car. We decided as the chassis is going to have to be made new we would doing any grinding underneath and not mark the tub which is aluminum. The underside of the tub had been coated with a rocker guard type of material likely to prevent abrasion from track thrown debris in use.

The track is a jointed track with a simple bolted and hinged connection. The axles butt up to the inside of the chassis and a bolt keeps it snug and located. There is a basic track tension mechanism in the sides. The front and rear cars drove from opposite ends, so there is a shaft running the full length underneath with a hanger bearing assembly along the way and a simple differential unit that couples to the axle with the drive sprockets. The shafts are connected with a strange tapered fastener with a nut n the end. Many f these did not come apart easily and were destroyed. The pattern piece that was saved will go to our machinist Andy for him to make some new ones for the rebuild.

Sadly Gerry has been doing most of the work as I have been working nights on the Township plow truck, but I can tell you Gerry is much faster than me when he works and is so much more skilled at least I know my hours of plowing is paying for his labour. That is just the way the cookie crumbles, but in the end progress is being made.

[Robin Craig]

We knew that both the front and rear chassis would have to be replaced, We acquired as part of the purchase a spare NOS unit.

We took some time recently to look at both of them side by side in some detail with a view to understand how they were made and how we will be making a new one. It was also time to closely inspect the NOS chassis that we knew had some damage owing to ice forming from ingress of water at incomplete weld joints over the years.

Our first surprise is that the the NOS chassis is not the same as the removed one. There is an extra axle support assembly that makes no sense to us, and that there are some longitudinal pieces missing. We don't know what other variant or earlier development this came from but in all other dimensional issues it is the same.

We have made a list of all the material needed for a new chassis and this long weekend I will be attempting to make a jig to build the new chassis on by using the old one as a template.

[Robin Craig]

The issues of parts storage has been solved by the purchase of a pair of ex Canadian Air Force pallet storage boxes of some considerable quality.

These units came up by absolute providence on GC Surplus and I really wanted them so made a good bid to ensure I would be successful. These are fibreglass with double doors at one end and adjustable shelving and some very nice tote boxes with lids and dividers on each shelf.

It is a huge leap forward and these two will get plenty of use over the coming years on a number of projects

[maple_leaf_eh]

What is the NATO stock number of your pallet-mounted tool box? I might be able to find out the original price. Then, you'll see whether you or the Queen got the better deal on auction.

[Robin Craig]

Terry I will look for the NSN over the next couple of days.

Thank you

[Robin Craig]

We have through another forum found that there is another RAT undergoing a make over up at the Montreal Aviation Museum under the stewardship of Mr Ken Frincken.

The unit they have is not quite the same as this one and I suspect that as it came from the estate of a former Canadair senior employee that it may be an pre production unit judging by some of the comments that he has made.

Theirs is ahead of our in completion and we expect to visit each others machines during the coming year, if not get them side by side.

In delving through some of the photos sent by Ken I have spotted that the chassis frame of theirs has the centre support as our spare does, something tells me theirs is a pre production machine and ours is a later machine.

[Robin Craig]

This past week we started into the front car of ours.

It had been suggested that the car was built around the fuel tanks. We suspected differently and that was our direction.

After removing the flange from around the filler neck we would see the filler neck flange connection to the fuel tank. We knew then that progress to remove the tanks was indeed very possible.

The tanks are held suspended off the floor of the car by two saddle straps that are bolted through the side of the car. Once we got these apart and were able to twist and fenagle the tanks around we could get all the crews out and the necks came off. Once the lines were off the tanks came out quite easily.

I want to try to get one tank functioning if at all possible, I am ok with having one only, the other tank looks sketchy, but we haven't look at the tanks in the parts front car as yet.

The best tank will go out for cleaning this coming week.