Canadair CL70 CFR 58-91588

[Robin Craig]

So,

It has been a long summer with little time for me or the CL70, such is life and my work schedule and demands, it pays the bills and has perks so I can't complain.

So the CL70 has, to ensure starting at sub zero conditions an ether starting aid system. The manual makes reference to it but doesn't give any details of maker or anything r even a picture of the "capsule" that contains the ether and makes it work. It was just one of those details that I was figuring was lost in time.

Once again, life, strange as it is, taught me that there is always the chance of a gem if you get off your backside and network and use your noggin.

So I went up yesterday to Oshawa as an invited participant to the opening of the Military Vehicle Conservation Centre which is the first part of the planned building expansion program as I am a museum member, so the CL70 was far from my thoughts.

But I digress somewhat, this week saw me wasting time on the vacuum that is Facebook but with a surprising benefit when I saw a Swedish truck for sale in the UK and the detail shots of the interior.

On the dash was a familiar looking device, and questioning of the owner confirmed it was an ether cold start system. See the picture attached and the silver reservoir type affair on the dash which if you were not careful could be mistaken for say a brake master cylinder reservoir. I asked the owner if he had ever seen the capsules that went inside but he said no.

[Robin Craig]

So imagine my foggy brain coming to life as I sat in the bleachers when the Museum's Scania 6 X 6 rolled out as part of the event, it is the only one I know of in Canada and came here for trials.

Once the opening ceremony was over I asked my friend Ken Lee to show me through the cab.

We talked about the system and the capsules and after some rummaging around in the cab we found some in the glove box.

Ken could tell I was happy to have found what they looked like and who the maker was and had some pictures and was well happy, it couldn't get any better, what a great discovery, exactly the same system.

Later after we all retreated to the 420 Wing and I was thinking about heading home Ken Lee ambled over and offered me a plastic shopping bag, the contents were quite obvious.

Ken had spoken with the Museum Director Jeremy Blowers and explained the events of the day and Jeremy had told Ken to give the caosules and the remains of the packaging to me.

How special is that? I will be returning the favour as it seems they need some Centurion parts and I just seem to have some, "fair exchange is no robbery" goes an old British expression. I felt blessed.

For those overseas the plastic Canadian Tire card is the same size as a credit card.

[Robin Craig]

As the fall rolls in and apart from the fall harvest my workload is getting lighter, my schedule is more open and the budget is improving after the marriage of my daughter and various other expensive escapades.

I was at the Odessa show offered a free engine as the start point possibly for a rebuild project to power the CL70.

Yesterday I went down the 401 to meet Paul Singleton and take delivery of his former dune buggy engine that has been dry stored for a good number of years.

My most sincere thanks go to Paul for his generosity. It will go down to the shop this week and get sat on it's side, one at a time and some diesel put in the bores and await a plan to free it up.

Thanks again Paul

[Robin Craig]

So, not much activity over the winter so far, the corn harvest dragged on and thankfully we did not endure DON issues as those in SW Ontario did. I have others in parts foreign looking for action on their stuff as well, must get on that again.

The engine donated by Paul Singleton, while not moving has some progress in store, I have struck a deal between a great friend, who while absent from these pages is known to many, Nick Tilgner has agreed to rebuild the engine in a complex horse trade deal that will see him get something in exchange apart from money. We will both win. He is quite a VW fan and has done and is doing another VW engine for himself currently. I like the idea that it keeps things with the circle of friends. More on that elsewhere on this forum.

The tires have truly been a stumbling block for this project, both their availability period, the colour of them, and the cost and the money to fund that.

I went straight from corn harvest to my winter side job of snow plowing on nights and as many will realise, it has been a good winter for those of us who do that and don't announce airshows.

I have had a bunch of crazy quotes for tyres with the wrong tread pattern and the wrong colour, grey being available in droves it seems.

Finally my local KAL tire shop unexpectedly blew all the others out of the water by a large percentage. Initially they only had stock of 10 in their system but now have scared up the other 10 and I expect them to arrive in about a week with the tubes. They are a 10 ply rating which gave them concern but when I explained they are going on a split rim they said I should have no problems.

It seems these tires are used in the mining industry and hence the ply rating, I am thinking I don't need a spare but the voice in my head says no.

Lastly, while I had considered chemical stripping, another local new resource appeared at the metal supply shop this week and I got a favourable quote that makes it silly not to engage on.

I am going to start with the rear car tub and see what we can get done on that, and then feed them the front car engine cover and the front car later as money is around.

I will get the chassis frame jig back down to the shop in the next couple of weeks and finish that up and then get going on cutting metal.

So, all in all a good outlook from here to spring. There is a reasonable prospect that the rear car could get back together by this summer and make it out to a show perhaps.

While our garage is still not finished it did lurch forward with the roof trusses going on and getting strapped.

more later.

[Robin Craig]

A bit of movement.

I now have all 20 tires and tubes on hand and in black no less, very happy.

The source of the small sidelights at the front and the rear single red light has I think been solved, they were a very popular GMC and allied brand product used in the late 1940s and quite readily available in both original and repro format.

The rear car body was dropped off for media blasting recently, I have decided against stripping it myself, a better job can be done faster by others. I hope to pick it up this coming weekend.

My mate Nick Tilgner has delved into the original engine and the one Paul Singleton supplied.

He says they are different engines despite appearance. The original one has
lots of surface rust under the valve covers , and its clear from the spark plug removal, that water has entered the top ends. The crank case looks pretty good so far.

What he may do is use the cylinders and heads from the donor motor to rebuild the original engine. He will make that decision based on condition as he goes deeper.

[Robin Craig]

The rear car came back yesterday, nearly all the material gone, the damaged areas highlighted now they out in the open.

I am quite happy with the work done by Last Chance Auto in Yarker, I was very hesitant at leaving it but I am quite happy with the result.

I brought the car over to my neighbour a few houses over, as he is rebuilding a plane in his shop and is very helpful and talented. We looked at the damaged sections and he came up with a much better way to remove the damaged pieces and he will shear me up some material for replacements. He also gave me a method for forming the rolled edge after the holes are cut.

I have an offer from a mate to HVLP paint it, so I will get the damaged pieces out next.

All good.

[Robin Craig]

I have plotted and schemed on most of this project and either found solutions or found money to pay for solutions. However I am stumped with the data plate removed from the rear car.

It is a typical plate with likely silk screened areas and stamped in data in the appropriate places. Regrettably it has some rather clumsy and thick paint that has been splodged on top.

I have tried pushing it off with my finger nail, some success but not much. I put the plate in the freezer to make the paint more brittle but it didn't do much. I am reluctant to take any kind of tool to it, even though the slodges are thick and should just spall and fly if enough sideways pressure is applied.

Does anyone have any earthly clue as to how to clean it without damage? It is the part that is most impossible to replace.