How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Bob Carriere]

......and very creative problem solving.

Very nice job.

[Jordan Baker]

Well it's been a busy day of in and out of the shop. Loaded up the wireless table and the three top bows and dropped them off at the sandblasters. Right after leaving the sandblasters my phone rings. It's the sheet metal shop and they have my wire-3 box sides and main channels all ready for pickup. So drive over to get that stuff. While. At that shop the sandblaster phones to say my stuff is ready for pickup. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon. He had them done and ready in under an hour.

As for the side panels I had the shop press break the main 4" channels. These run along the top edge of all three sides. They weren't able to press brake in one piece like the originals. This just means I'll have a whack of welding to do carefully to avoid as much warpage as possible.

[Jordan Baker]

Tonight I finished (not this late but much earlier) the welding of the top channels on the side and front panels for the box. It worked out to approximately 80" of weld for a butt joint. Other then taking a while as I had to wait for the each pass of welds to cool before moving on, it went really well. Many clamps were used to hold the panels down flat to the work bench. I then went back with a flap disk and cleaned down the welds and blended them into the surrounding metal.

Tomorrows (todays now due to the hour ) plan is to finish the front panel and start in on the sides.

[Jordan Baker]

So much welding.....but I'm getting closer and closer. The front panel for the box is completely finished. I was able to use the original tied down loops and hooks. For the side panels I'll be using the original hooks as well. I also was able to use the original top bows brackets. I have also used the original box to match up the weld pattern. I'm still amazed at just how much welding/fabrication was going into these things during wartime production.

One thing I have not done was do any painting on the inside of the top channels. I thought I would wait until nearly finished. My plan is to drill a hole in a spot that will be covered once welded to the box. Once I'm ready I'll use a small funnel and pour POR into the channel. Then I'll rotate it all around to cover and soak the inside. I did that with the doors and it worked rather well. This also means I won't be burning any off from welding.

Next up will be finishing the side channels and then welding them on. The bottoms of them are open so I'll be able to spray POR inside them once done.

[Phil Waterman]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

So much welding....hed. My plan is to drill a hole in a spot that will be covered once welded to the box. Once I'm ready I'll use a small funnel and pour POR into the channel. Then I'll rotate it all around to cover and soak the inside. I did that with the doors and it worked rather well. This also means I won't be burning any off from welding.

Next up will be finishing the side channels and then welding them on. The bottoms of them are open so I'll be able to spray POR inside them once done.

Hi Jordan

Which POR poduct are you planning on using? POR15 does not stick well to fresh steel, it just peals off. Also bare steel has coating that needs to be clean off before the steel is etched to get a good adhesion of the paint. If what you are planning to use is self etching then it should work well.

On box tube truck beds I've welded up over the years I followed a similar plan of drilling holes into any closed compartments and filling them with oil and then draining the oil out. Seamed to have worked, the body on my old plow truck is 30 years old. On the platform bed for my C60S did a similar thing but put plugs in holes, couple of years later went to renew the oil coating when unscrewed the first plug water ran out. One of my welds must have had a leak on the top side. Any way removed all the plugs blew out the closed sections, then filled the closed tube with oil again. Drained again an left the plugs out, since then every couple years use a compressed air syphon gun to blow oil through.

Great thread enjoyable to read.

Cheers Phil

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi Jordan

Which POR poduct are you planning on using? POR15 does not stick well to fresh steel, it just peals off. Also bare steel has coating that needs to be clean off before the steel is etched to get a good adhesion of the paint. If what you are planning to use is self etching then it should work well.

On box tube truck beds I've welded up over the years I followed a similar plan of drilling holes into any closed compartments and filling them with oil and then draining the oil out. Seamed to have worked, the body on my old plow truck is 30 years old. On the platform bed for my C60S did a similar thing but put plugs in holes, couple of years later went to renew the oil coating when unscrewed the first plug water ran out. One of my welds must have had a leak on the top side. Any way removed all the plugs blew out the closed sections, then filled the closed tube with oil again. Drained again an left the plugs out, since then every couple years use a compressed air syphon gun to blow oil through.

Great thread enjoyable to read.

Cheers Phil

I think the risk with oil is that it may leak out and form a nice dark stain on your matt paint (unless you use semi or gloss). Filling and shaking with POR would fix this. I wonder why there is no POR type paint that will take a final coat. You'd think the manufacturers would expect much of their market would want to do exactly that.

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks for the suggestion on using oil. However I'm not keen on doing that for the reasons Bruce brought up. With the bottom edge of the top channel only stich welded there is a number of minor gaps were the oil would leak out and stain everything. My plan is to wash out the channels with the marine wash and then etch with the metal prep. Any POR that seeps out will get wiped away or covered up when doing the final painting.