How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[David Dunlop]

Nice find, Jordan. Big leap forward for you with the project!

David

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

He made is ring from laminated BC Fir...very strong and looks the part...and have some left.....hint hint. Cheers

Someone closer to you is looking for this type of wood as well. Hint! Hint! Hint! Cheers!

[Jordan Baker]

Not much to report. I pulled my canvas roof out of the deep storage corner of my shop and tried it out on the wire-3 box. It fit perfectly.

[Stewart Loy]

Jordan,

That is a sharp looking cover for that box!


Stewart

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

So Jordan, are you going to cut holes in it for the WIRE-3 fittings?

(I cringe as I say that)

[Jordan Baker]

I'm glad I got one way back when you had a run of them made. Bruce I will most likely be putting some small holes in for the wire-3 fittings. But all in good time.

I spent a bit of time tonight taking all of the canvas racks apart and the various rifle and headset clips. I'll start sandblasting them this week.

For the box my plan is to cut off the side, fix the floor/frame sheet metal. Get it sandblasted and then make new sides. Oh lots of work, but it's all for a great cause.

[Frank v R]

lucky guy, I saw the recovery video, super rare item, but also great that yours will help others with their trucks, more wireless trucks coming back to life,

[Bob Carriere]

From Bob to Bob

[David Dunlop]

Bob.

Luca Giovanetti, in the For Sale Forum. I think the post went up in the last 24 hours.

I seem to recall Jordan has the original plates for his Chev.


David

[Jordan Baker]

Started working on the left fender today. It was a bit beat up and no longer had the nice curve to match the right side one. I traced out the right side curve some plywood to act as a guide while fixed the fender. As the metal had been stretched and warped I have had to cut it so that it would bend. It is slow work but it should get it back close to the original shape.

[Jordan Baker]

Work on the fender is all completed. The cutting really allowed me to get a proper bend in place. I was also able to remove the excess stretched metal and keep it from puckering. I ended up using a tiny amount of JB-quick weld over the cured POR to fill a few minor pin holes from my welding. I sanded the JB weld down with a palm sander then over coated with POR again. This should seal it in forever.

[Jordan Baker]

Fitted the door back on and it fits like a glove.

[Jordan Baker]

And the inside across the cab view

[Jordan Baker]

Cab rear sliding windows installed. I bought brand new flocked rubber track for them to slide in. They are a tad tight but I feel they will loosen up with a bit of time. This was by far the most tedious assembly I've done yet. The 22 screws with the lock washer and nut on the rear. Lots of washers and nuts were dropped but eventually I got them all in and tightened down.

[Jordan Baker]

Close up of the flocked rubber track.

[Jordan Baker]

Finally after many weeks of trial and error I managed to successfully teach myself the art of steam bending oak. I want to try and make the hip ring spacer as close to the originals as possible. I ended up making it from 4 pieces of 1/4" thick strips laminated together. What a learning curve but Im glad I stuck with it.

For my steaming power I used my 1943 2 gallon petrol burner unit, 20lbs empty propane tank (full of water), some black pipe and a steam box made from 4" PVC pipe with end caps.



The form was made up for the 24" inside diameter of the ring. This let me clamp and glue the wood strips as I built it up to the proper thickness.




Here I have successfully curved and laminated two of the strips together. The ring is very strong and fit the hip ring very well.



Lastly I cut the taper on the ring to fit the slope of the roof.



Now it is just drilling all 16 holes and figuring out the lengths of all countersunk screws. I am extremely pleased about how well it ended up working. My plan is to paint on a few coats of POR letting it soak into the wood. This should seal the wood for life.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Jordan

Excellent work, couple of questions:
How thick were your oak strips?
What glue did you use?
Did you form and glue in one step, or did bend them first then put glue on and clamp?

Last when you cut the roof taper did it give you a second spacer?

Your pictures and discription has added to the CMP knowledge base, now how to make the hip ring spacer is there to be followed by others.

Strange you should post this now, last week had a bunch of 1 inch wide 12 inch long 1/8th thick oak strip left over from a project. So I decided to try a compound bend just wetting then glueing with Gorilla Glue. Was surprised how sharp and strong the bends were once the glue was dried.

Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Oak strips were 1/4" thick. I had a nearby lumber mill cut and them to my required size. For glue I used the Gorilla foaming urethane glue. It gave me lots of time to get the wood lined up and clamped together. I formed the wood first then once dry did a final cut to size for diameter. Applied the glue and then clamped to the previous layer. One thing is that these are very labour intensive to make due to the hours involved.

Yes ive got a second spacer and possibly a third and forth. Ill be putting more details about them in the for sale section.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Lovely work Jordan! It's always great to see what creative ideas one comes up with to get stuff to look the way that it should.

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

Most hard wood will bend once steamed but some are better than others for ease of bending and strength.

The best is Black Ash or Brown Ash which grows in wet ground areas. Used extensively in basket making. Brown ash was also used as a poor man oak in the early 1900 when Oak was harder to come buy.

White Ash would come as a close second as well as White Oak.

The reason the above wood bends easier is in the physical structure of the growth rings. Looking at a close up of the growth rings one will see a very dense ring followed by a more open ring structure reflecting the wet early growth compared to late Summer. These kind of woods are referred to as open grain compared to maple, which will also bend but not as easy, which is a very tight grained wood.

The different layers in the growth rings allows the wood to stretch and give to some extent as long as it is wet.

For example Brown ash, absolutely knot free, as to be worked green for best results. That means a fresh cut log as to to be kept soaking wet until worked. A long plastic sewer pipe is ideal. Having the wood cut as "quarter sawn" allows the grain to be all flat and parallel to the bend. Adding a cup of Fleecy or Bounce to the soaking water will increase the wetness of the water and facilitate deeper penetration.

Wet Quarter sawn Brown ash, in one inch wide boards, are beaten with a two pound hammer over a log..... as the ash is beaten, the water logged wood squeezes the water with such force that every single growth ring will separate from one another giving you one inch wide splints for basket weaving.

The only other wood similar is the sassafras.

Once dried any of the above wood will retain its curved shape and can be glued in layers for greater strength.

........ my wife learned to be a basket weaver from native Canadian indians and most of these tricks were passed on to her by helders from Cape Breton Island.

Cheers

[JoãoBoscoBarbosa]

Hi Jordan,

Good work and I need reproduction this piece, then I need a information about the job.

How many the dimension of Oak strips: Width, lenght and tickness?

You use the vapor or only water? if vapor how many the temperature and time?

How many the dimension after cut the taper on the ring to fit the slope of the roof?

[Jordan Baker]

Both doors are now finished and installed. They got NOS bakelight knobs for the release handles. Ive also installed NOS mirror arms and mirrors.

Hopefully tomorrow Fastenal calls to let me know my latest order arrived. Then I can get the roof hip ring installed.

The last picture is showing a simple copper backer for welding up some of the rust holes. The larger purpose made one I have from Harbour Freight didn't fit. This one was made from simple 1/2" copper tube flattened out and bent to shape.

Im really happy with how much I managed to get done this season.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

...Hopefully tomorrow Fastenal calls to let me know my latest order arrived. Then I can get the roof hip ring installed.

What goodies does Fastenal have that apply to the hip ring installation?

[Jordan Baker]

1/4"-20 counter sunk flat head slot screws in various lengths and any qty I want and lastly much cheaper then the hardware stores who don't carry that size anymore........and breath.

It's frustrating for me because when I bought my hip ring years ago from Andre at an OMVA swap meet it came with all of the original screws in usable condition. Stupid me never secured them and over the past 8 years and a couple of moves I only had two left.

The only other thing I need to make is to cut the sections of the cloth tape that fits between all the pieces.

[RHClarke]

My 45 HUP hip ring was secured with hex head 1/4 in bolts. I have no idea if they were original or not, but I bought modern versions of them for my newly delivered JB Hip Ring. I still have not fitted the ring as things are kind of hectic around here with a family member taking residence in a local hospital. I can tell you that I am eagerly anticipating my next visit to the Hammond Barn.

Good luck with the remainder of your project!

[rob love]

I have been using these guys for various old style screws and fasteners. Price isn't bad, and best thing is they are not plated. They are also available in oxide black, which has a nice look and readily accepts paint.

http://www.blacksmithbolt.com/

They have 3 basic rules there: no hex, no phillips, and no zinc. They also add:

Of course, since we specialize in old-fashioned fasteners, you can also assume several additional rules, including but not limited to: No Pop-Rivets, No Torx, No Metric, and No Combo.

[Jordan Baker]

I wonder if there had been a production change along the way. I know that mine uses counter sunk screws pushed in from the bottom. The backing ring that fits on the inside of the roof has all the holes countersunk.

Great site Rob. They have quite the collection. I don't mind the zinc as it helps keeps the threads rust free longer. A few years ago I made up a plate to hol a pile of fasteners so I can sandblast off the zinc from the head. Then spray self etch primer all without having them fall over. Works great.

[David Herbert]

Most zinc plated fasteners have a tiny amount of zinc on them, just enough that they look pretty on delivery. This is very easily removed in some old battery acid overnight if you really hate it. When you pull them out give them a good wash in clean, hot water and ideally a dip in a phosphoric acid based rust remover.

I totaly agree about no Phillips/Pozy screw heads but there are some Phillips heads that were originally used in the turret of Shermans which really suprised me. From memory they are in part of the stabliser mechanism.

David

[Jordan Baker]

Ive thought about soaking them but I find the sandblasting cabinet works very fast for me. With my home made holder I can then prime them again before using them.

And with a quick phone call to Fastenal this morning to confirm that my order was in. I made the drive to my local store.

Before installing I used up the last of my anti-squeak material lining both sides of the wooden spacer ring. Once this was on, it was onto the install and everything lined up rather well with the aid of some long punches. Not pictured is the after look of cutting down the too long screws and using a sanding disk to smooth them down to the nuts.

I just have to make up the small metal curved strip that secures the canvas cover.

[Jordan Baker]

Ive been a little busy working on some side projects before winter arrived so hence the lack of updates on the CMP project.

This past week I picked up the basic steel needed for making up the tail gate on my wire-3 box. I plan on forming all of the channels myself on a metal brake I picked up.

Right now I'm just working on cutting out the basic shape in 14ga sheet.