1944 C-15A-Wire-5 Restoration

[Dennis Cardy]

Guilty as charged your honour…LOL..

Nice to know it found a good home at Oshawa.

Their radio installation may not be as advanced as Bob's …but it's sure a good start….

Have some "as-found" shots of it somewhere..Think I paid $250 for it.
Had been parked after the engine had died…Did a compression test…pulled the head and after a valve job ..and a new fuel pump
soon got things going.

From a Gear-Head point of view.. prefer the Ford flathead..But hard to beat the simplicity of that Chevy 6.

Just like Bob's…the radio box was missing..But a search of local wrecking yards soon turned up the correct one..Fifty bucks for that..
Aah…the good old days..

Dennis.

[David Dunlop]

Robert.

Short hex head lag bolts are used to anchor all the roof safety rails and brush guards. Can either be flanged, or plain, used with a flat washer. They will need good, solid 1/4-inch plywood directly underneath the outer aluminum sheet metal roof skin to work at all. Once water gets into that upper layer of roof plywood and the rot process starts, nothing you bolt or screw down up there will stay in place very long. The box simply flexes too much when the vehicle is on the road.

If you cannot get any hardware to grab when trying to mount those fittings, you have a problem.

David

[Dennis Cardy]

Robert..
A Plus 1 on what David has said about mounting the various roof ladders.
Good advice for sure.

He is absolutely correct..if water leaks in past the mounting bolts..the wooden structure underneath can and will disintegrate in a matter of months..

Not joking when I say if you have a friend who is into boats…he will immediately recognize what you are facing and recommend the ladder mounting flanges be properly "bedded" in a flexible caulking compound..

Thus preventing any water getting in.

Dennis.

[Dennis Cardy]

Bruce Parker,
Thanks for that colour photo of the Wireless Van…and that update.
Always wondered where it ended up…

Here it is at the Bruce County farmhouse shortly before it was passed on to you.

May I ask a few questions…??

You talked about doing a brake job..
How were the front brakes when you got it.?
Probably toast by that time..Was it a total brake rebuild…?

To be honest..cough…cough….when you are running on original Run Flat tires that are flat..you don't really need a lot of help from the brakes to slow you down…cough cough.

Dennis.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

Bruce Parker,
Thanks for that colour photo of the Wireless Van…and that update.
Always wondered where it ended up…

Here it is at the Bruce County farmhouse shortly before it was passed on to you.

May I ask a few questions…??

You talked about doing a brake job..
How were the front brakes when you got it.?
Probably toast by that time..Was it a total brake rebuild…?

To be honest..cough…cough….when you are running on original Run Flat tires that are flat..you don't really need a lot of help from the brakes to slow you down…cough cough.

Dennis.

Thanks for the retro pic. We've crossed the line back in time to black and white I see.

How were the brakes? (don't worry, I shan't be coming after you for a refund after all these years...) Yes a total rebuild, my first ever. The bright side was that because the brakes were so bad I became an expert in down shifting.

Here's another pic from my late 1970's album showing the 15cwt's original number. The MB went to a guy in Manitoba (Robert Rosteki?) in trade for an 11 cab Ford 15cwt.

[Robert Bergeron]

Hey Bruce. I can't find the proper hardware to clamp down the handrails and guards on the roof . Any suggestions my friend ? Thanks .

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Robert Bergeron

Hey Bruce. I can't find the proper hardware to clamp down the handrails and guards on the roof . Any suggestions my friend ? Thanks .

Have you looked down the holes to see what's there? Do you think maybe lag bolts onto wood? Or (horrors!!) were you supposed to use a nut before the plywood ceiling panel went in?

You might consider nutserts. They're like an oversized pop rivet but threaded on the inside. You insert them into a slightly oversized hole then a special tool draws it up from the bottom locking it in place in your roof sheet metal. When the tool is removed it leaves the threaded insert there to take your hex bolt.

[Dennis Cardy]

Bruce,
Processed and printed my own B&W film back then..Jeez…who could afford colour..

Very nice to see the 83-385 on the door of the radio van. Going to follow up on that for sure.

Never discovered that as I had done a quick repaint of the whole vehicle after the valve job...using Duck Hunters Brown paint purchased at the Canadian Tire store in Port Elgin. A surprisingly close match and semi-matt to boot.

The box was a bit Tatty after being rescued from a wrecking yard..and the cab and chassis was post war glossy green. So the quick repaint really tied things together.

Now it can be told…the paint was still wet the next morning for the Paisley Rally and Parade.

Here it is as found..about a half hour drive from Paisley. Parked out the back of a man's place.. after the engine died.

He told me it had come out of a Borden auction. He had thrown away the useless radio box and substituted a more useful one from a pick-up truck.
Plywood sides for hauling firewood and sections of galvanized culvert for rear fenders..

Totally stock ..still had the original tires and side curtains.. but the round canvas roof hatch cover was long gone.

That little boy is now in his mid 40's…and the father of two..

God help us.

Wonder where your jeep ended up.

Dennis.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

...I came across these pics I took of un-mucked with 2K1 bodies at the time I was restoring Dennis' old truck. I hope they can be of some assistance.

First is the inside of the generator 'fridge'. Note the two way exhaust fitting on the floor. Also of note is the rack on the mid rail for the 12V Johnson chorehorse. It's very similar to that in the HUW and consists of two rails made of 1" by 1/8" angle welded together with a gap big enough for a 1/8" in plate. The chorehorse was bolted to the plate and the plate slid into the rails. You can see a small pin and chain on the tops of the rails which were what keeps the plate and chorehorse in place. This arrangement allowed for 'quick release' of the generator to allow it to be operated at a distance from the vehicle.

There isn't a similar rail assembly on the bottom and I am of the opinion that's proof there was a 120V Onan in the lower part of the generator cabinet as standard in 2K1 bodies.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

As an impressionable young lad of about 16 years old (although I did own my MB already) it was the Paisley show that cemented my love of CMPs and carriers. At the show was Steve Alford's carrier, somebodies 13 cab F15A painted desert yellow with a dark green mickey mouse pattern and your C15A wireless that I ended up buying. Somewhere I still have photos of the event I'll try and dig out.

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

Bruce,
Processed and printed my own B&W film back then..Jeez…who could afford colour..

Very nice to see the 83-385 on the door of the radio van. Going to follow up on that for sure.

Never discovered that as I had done a quick repaint of the whole vehicle after the valve job...using Duck Hunters Brown paint purchased at the Canadian Tire store in Port Elgin. A surprisingly close match and semi-matt to boot.

The box was a bit Tatty after being rescued from a wrecking yard..and the cab and chassis was post war glossy green. So the quick repaint really tied things together.

Now it can be told…the paint was still wet the next morning for the Paisley Rally and Parade.

Here it is as found..about a half hour drive from Paisley. Parked out the back of a man's place.. after the engine died.

He told me it had come out of a Borden auction. He had thrown away the useless radio box and substituted a more useful one from a pick-up truck.
Plywood sides for hauling firewood and sections of galvanized culvert for rear fenders..

Totally stock ..still had the original tires and side curtains.. but the round canvas roof hatch cover was long gone.

That little boy is now in his mid 40's…and the father of two..

God help us.

Wonder where your jeep ended up.

Dennis.