Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

Hard to believe it has been 4 years already since this vehicle was cleared from customs and picked up.

Time sure flies, but you make very good use of it! I'm very pleased this Otter is in your hands and being restored as thoroughly as you do.

[Jordan Baker]

All four towing shackles removed and dissembled. Thankfully no heat was required. The Milwaukee impact driver did amazing work on the bolts and nuts getting everything removed. The shackle bolts did need to go in the shop press. These parts will all clean up nicely.

[Jordan Baker]

Towing clevis all sandblasted and cleaned up. Other than the four 9/16-18 castle nuts, all of the original bolts and nuts will be used. Interesting manufacturing marks were found on two of the clevis bolt heads. I believe they are “B D” I’m not sure what company that would have been.

[Jordan Baker]

Todays job was to remove the engine hand crank hole cover plate. Only one of the bolts had to be cut. The nut had been crudely welded in place and the force of the impact driver had snapped the weld. Due to the weld blob I was unable to get a socket on it. So I resorted to zip cutting the head and cold chiseling it off. The original bolts were those dome headed counter sunk ones anyway. So I wasn’t concerned about cutting an original bolt.

[Jordan Baker]

The other bit accomplished today was removing the two engine cover panels and hinges. These were all held in place with the domed countersunk bolts. Thankfully they all came apart easily. Much easier thanks to the use of the course thread than the BSF thread as used on Universal Carriers.

I modified a slot attachment for the impact gun by grinding it down thinner to fit the slot on the bolts snug. Using a socket or wrench on the nut side I was able to use the impact driver and get them removed. On some I used an old broken screw driver to hold the screw head side and impact gunned the nut side.

There were four hinges to remove and 16 bolts. All will be reused on assembly. It was also great seeing he Hamilton Bridge part numbers turn up on the hinges after sandblasting.

[chris vickery]

Hi Jordan
I’m all for originality but does the structural integrity not concern you when reusing 70 year old fasteners? I can see using them
in areas where there is little stress or minimal force but I would never use them on any area requiring them to perform to engineered specifications.
Even leaf springs can be questionable, as spring steel grows weak and brittle, especially once it is pitted. Ask me how I know…
Thoughts?

[Jordan Baker]

Good points Chris.

Safety is always a top concern when it comes to putting a vehicle on the road. I do evaluate all my fasteners when I’m doing the rebuild. Anything questionable is replaced. In the case of these boss head (domed countersunk bolts) there is many of them and they have all been in great condition. When I rebuilt the CMP I found one of the steering knuckle bearing cap screws had a split down the length. It likely had been that way from almost new. Had it caused a problem? Probably not however it was replaced.

One interesting bit I’ve found on this vehicle is that Hamilton Bridge seems to have used the oversized or heavy nuts on pretty much everything.