How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

Todays small amount of progress. I am sure glad I picked up one of the welding extension cables from Princess Auto last fall. Now I can easily reach everything I need from the shop.

Got one of the four channel end caps welded in. I also welded back in one of the hangers for the 1gal oil can holder. When we recovered this box from the woods I had to cut this hanger as I wasn't able to get to the bolts holding the bracket on. Yes I could have just welded in a brand new piece of channel, but other then my two cuts there wasn't anything wrong with it.

[Jordan Baker]

Spent most of the day Friday working on the box. The two wheel wells needed some work done to them. Two end panels had suffered from some metal rotting. New pieces were cut and the old ones were cut out. I was able to re-use three of the loops that are welded on these panels. The fourth one was made.

Saturday was spent going to Cleveland to check out the MVPA National convention. Had a great time.

Today's plan was to get the new angle iron sections welded onto the floor and also get the front panel tacked in. I did manage to get this done even with the weather not cooperating. Setting up three times and bringing my tools and welder back inside three times was a bit of a pain.

[Jordan Baker]

Fitted on the two sides today. I discovered I had some issues with the wheel wells dropping a bit when the original sides were cut off. This left me with a bit of a gap to lclose. I ended up using a floor jack and ratchet strap. Using the strap to hold the jack tight to the box frame I then jacked it up with a block of wood. This pressed the wheel well in tight to the side panel and I could get some good tac welds in.

[Jordan Baker]

Not much to update. Almost done all of the welding on the box. The only bit left is to weld the bottom edge of the front panel to the box floor/frame.

One nice accessory that I recently came into was the components for the buzzer located in the cab. This came from a friends CMP. He wasn't wanting to do a wireless truck and had no need for it. Now it lives on in my truck.

[Jordan Baker]

Finished with all of the welding today. I would have been done sooner, but I ran out of welding wire mid weld the other day. With a new 10lbs spool in the machine I set to it when I got home this morning from work. I had to finish welding on the last 4 rope hooks and the tail gate thing-a-ma-jigs.

Once that was done, I did some POR prepping and then some touch up POR15 was applied. Tonight as the sun was going down I mixed up the tie coat primer and gave it a good spray. All sides and the floor/wheel wells got a good coating of the primer.

I also refitted the tailgate to ensure the hooks all lined up and everything does.

[Jordan Baker]

Taking advantage of the nice weather today and getting a lot of parts painted. Its SCC2 as far as the eye can see. Well not quite. The wireless table was painted in a KG#3 colour. I did that just to help break up all of the brown.

[Jordan Baker]

Well the box is all painted on the top side surfaces. Later this week Ill try and track down one of my farming neighbours to come by with his tractor and we can flip the box over. Then I can finish paint the primer and final colour.

I also painted a few other parts I had ready to go.

Now its time for some dinner.