1942 Wc 25 radio command car

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's an interesting US softskin that's for sale on Ebay. Just look in the military vehicles category in Ebay motors. Was that body style very common? I don't remember seeing one before.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's Dodge's version of the radio command car on the same Ebay military category. I've seen this kind before.

[Lynn Eades]

The first one is a Dodge 1/2 ton (T211? or T215?) If you like 1941 pattern. The second photo is a 1942 3/4 ton (T214) ( low silouette) is better known, and far more successful.

[chris vickery]

The first as shown, WC-1, I believe

[Keith Webb]

BOTH are very desirable, especially the rarer 1941 version which looks like a 'barn find'. One featured on the cover of a W&T once.
Be very interesting to see what they make.

[Mike K]

Out of the 80,000 odd 1/2 Ton Dodges built , quite a few have survived in The U.S . These barn finds seem to never end . Carryalls , Command cars, Ambulances and pickups , turn up on EPAy regularly .

Basically three series

T207 Sep 40 to around April 41
T211 April 41 to Sep 41
T215 Sep 41 to April 42 .

I have owned a few including a WC 24 Command car , made up from a WC 21 chassis . I found the Command car body in central NSW in 1979 . The vehicle had been sold by Vic Drew ( Melbourne surplus truck dealer ) after the war to a country post office in NSW where it did the mail run . It was damaged in an accident and the body removed , the chassis cut in half to make wheat bins . I salvaged the body and put iton a WC 21 chassis , Its now owned by a VMVC member .

The radio version is rare , it had a SCR 193 or other alternative radio setups in it .

Mike

[gordon]

The ordinary half ton Command Car is not at all uncommon, but usually a lot more cut about than that one.

You can tell it is an original Radio Command (much rarer) by the fact it has the big battery box in the right hand runningboard.

They made a bunch of radio 3/4 ton WC58 too, but then moved to just putting radio kits in ordinary Command Cars and Carryalls (with 12 volt systems on the 3/4 ton WC series of course)

Late war they stopped all that nonsense and just made 12 volt weapons carriers which could take the same radio kit.

Hmmm, APT Canadian Weapons Carriers were late war - were they 6 volt or 12 volt then?

Gordon

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's another command car on EBAY that they aren't getting any bids on yet. The guy wasn't very up on the photography bit. I had to fix the pix in Photoshop before I could tell what it was.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's his parts vehicle. Is it chopped with the box added or did it come like that?

[Mike K]

A pic of the WC 24 that I owned . Taken on ANZAC day 1982 , corner of Swanston and Flinders streets. Hasn't that spot changed since then . It was a dismal wet rainy day , a Sunday I recall . That particular day was it's one and only outing , on bodgy plates too ..... me with long hair , looking like an extra from Kelly's Hero's , the Clint Eastwood war movie . Seems like yesteray , I had my Jeep there that day too , driven by Mike Cecil .

Mike

[David DeWeese]

Hi,
Picked up one of these a couple of weeks ago. Actually it is two WC25's about 200 miles apart from each other waiting for someone to come along and put them back together.
Knew about the WC25 with the lengthened chassis and cut sheetmetal for a few years now here in Texas, and then the missing rear sheetmetal section finally came along, and .......

Thanks, David

[Bob Carriere]

....and I love those Texas moth holes about the rear fender well.....

Bob

[David DeWeese]

Hi Bob,
Haven't counted the bullet holes yet, but guess there is well over twenty.
Would have probably been more, but someone finally hit the star......
Thanks, David

[Bob Carriere]

Being from Texas......The shooter hit the star first..... but in semi auto he pulled too hard on the trigger and drifted his grouping to the right..... hahaha

It will give you a chance to practice welding hole shut !!!!

Bob

[gordon]

Bullet holes aren't actually that bad to fix. When i did the WC36 body there were a hundred holes in it, but there were also a couple of shotgun blasts which caused a lot more work.

Yep, it was from texas, up at Booker in the panhandle - how did you know?

Gordon

[David DeWeese]

Hi Gordon,
Bought another 1/2 ton command car a few years ago from a nice old gentleman in Gruver, Texas, north of Amarillo.
He told me that in the '40's an Oliver tractor dealer in Amarillo bought a train load of 1/2 ton command cars and sold them to the public.

He said the local farmers bought two of them each for $70 a piece, and used one truck for farm use and the other one for parts....
Almost all you find today in the Texas panhandle are cut 1/2 ton command cars, probably most of them from that load...
Thanks, David