C60 cwt Signals CZMk IV

[Gordon Yeo]

Rob

Thanks for the tip about Canmilair as a source for the replacement dash plate decals. I'm only 50 miles both of London and militaria definitely is their passion.

Gord

[Gunner]

Hi Gord:

Amazing work you have done on the C60! I'm in awe of your skills as a restorer! She has clearly gone to a great home and is in the hands if someone who loves what he does!

You are in a unique position compared to most restorers as your truck has more known history than most. Working backwards; Greg traded some artefacts I needed in exchange for the truck, I got it in trade with the CWM for my Ram tanks, the CWM got it direct from the RCAF where it had been modified into the generator vehicle it was. The original "King's" Crown RCAF badges and the markings for the RCAF experimental establishment were still on it when I got it. I hope you managed to salvage some of the markings. It arrived from the CWM without an engine so I can't offer any hints as to where the engine bay bits may be. All this to say I suspect that it may have been issued new to the RCAF experimental estahlishment here in Ottawa and never left 'home', hence the low milage.

Good luck with your ongoing restoration... I hope I can, like Jon Skagfield, visit one day and drive it! Better yet, maybe we can talk you into bringing it back to Ottawa someday for a big parade or similar event!

Ubique and Arte et Marte!

Mike

[Gordon Yeo]

The truck is plodding alone slowly, I have run the engine and have a to do list. I sent an e-mail to Canmilair about the dash decals and never received a reply, just as well, I have several sets coming from a friend. My carburetor was rubbish and my usual parts supplier got me a remanufactured carb, on the counter the next day, for less CDN$ than Chevsoftheforties wanted USA$ at their counter. Shop local!

Gunner
If some information I have received about the truck comes through , then I had better do the old girl proud, it might be very special. As to the unit badges, there wasn't much to save, picture below. If you want to come for a visit your very welcome, as too it going back up to Ottawa, not on my dime. I am in a unique position with this truck, it hasn't been butchered, bubbafied and beat to death by the general public. It is a joy to work on and very easy to restore.

Gord

[Gordon Yeo]

I have mounted the rad and got the engine running, Monday it gets the final tune up and settings done. The steering is all sorted out and back together. I didn't see any sense in spending the blood and treasure on re-springing the seat backs and just put sheet metal on the frames. Not a very original idea, but a lot easier and faster.

Hopefully I will have things working well enough to be able too drive the chassis out of the shop this week. That will make some room to start working on getting the body sections finished off ready too mount in the chassis.

As a comment on the weather we have had this past few months. Here in South-Western Ontario we have been very excited to have our weather warm up to normal in the last week. Our day time highs have been below the usual night time lows for quite some time. But, aren't we lucky here! The U.K. is ravaged by gales on Her coasts and the Thames river has gone mad. Then the extreme heat and fires in Australia. Makes a little cold and snow look real easy to live with.

Gord

[Gordon Yeo]

dropped the pictures

[Bob Carriere]

...one heck of a dune buggy Gord.

Back to working on the skin of my cab 11 doors.... have you used the welding Zinc primer for blind spots you can rustproof after the parts are un place.

Any suggestions / comments...?

Bob C

[Gordon Yeo]

Bob

I haven't used any of the weldable zinc primers, I'm a Rust Check fan. Hopefully some one with more experience with welding will give you some guidance. Good to hear that you are back working on the truck. Time to put your radio toys away and get back to the real work.

" Heck of a dune buggy". Yes that is going to be cold driving down the road, isn't it!

Gord

[lssah2025]

Great looking resto, keep up the good work..

[Gordon Yeo]

Had to get the shop emptied out too set up for lunch, with some fellow MV enthusiasts, last Saturday. Had the truck running for the first time in, well decades?

[Bob Carriere]

Did you record the first sputter / roar of the engine....?? how do you intend to keep up with Phil Waterman.

Bob C

[Gordon Yeo]

Bob

The first sputters were rather undramatic and not preserved for the future. It almost started and almost runs, needs a like work yet. As too keeping up with Phil, I'm not even in the same league.

So, what do you think of this winter S--t. Working in the barn on the 11 cab doors or still in the warm house with the radio?

Gord

[Bob Carriere]

Not doing much these days except trying to survive a double pneumonia...... can't breadth....not enough energy to even play with the radio.

Bob C

[Gordon Yeo]

Have been working away on the cab and engine getting things ready too start the engine up. We tried a start up but things didn't come together well, did a whole bunch of tweaking and set up the muffler. This time things worked much better and the engine runs very nicely, which was a great achievement.
A few pictures, have the windshields in, the dash finished and even got the muffler looking properly mounted. Need some warm dry days for a road test!

[Bob Carriere]

Nice job on the engine Gord.

Are you running a Roch B carb?

...and you used the 216 valve cover...... any suggestions on how to keep it from leaking...... did you use thicker gaskets.....? glue/sealer ???

It will be a shame to take it out for a test run and get it dirty.

Bob

[Gordon Yeo]

Bob

I got a remanufactured Rochester B1 carburetor and swapped out the cast base to fit the 235 manifold. My engine guy put his hand on the tappet cover and frame too asses vibration and said it runs very smoothly. Rebuilt hydraulic tappets must take some of the credit.

I put the 216 tappet cover on to have all the holes in the correct places. When trying to hold down the cover and not have any oil leaks it became apparent the modern gaskets are rubbish. My solution was too use two gaskets and dope them with the Aviation form-a-gasket. I like to use it and the expression ' sticks like s--t to a blanket ' was invented for this stuff. Side cover plates are usually difficult to get right and this stuff does the job.

I was at Acton yesterday and you were missed, get better soon. I got some supplies from Brian Asbury for wiring the lights up and can get at the rest of that project. Thank you to every one, who spoke to me yesterday, for their kind comments on how the truck is progressing.

Gord

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Gordon

Is that the oil line for the gauge, next to the manifold? Figured this might be a temp location.

With the modern gas the manifolds really run hot particularly on the bigger trucks that have to work to haul their aerodynamic bodies through the air. I've had to shield the oil filter lines for the top mounted oil filter and have routed the gauge line away from the engine with a loop over to the left cab frame then across the channel under the windshield over to the dash.

My solution to the valve cover gasket was similar gluing the cork gasket down to the cylinder head to act as a coffer dam around the top of the cylinder head. Without using gasket cement on the top so that cover can be removed to adjust the valves. Yours with the hydraulic valve lifters this should not be a problem.

Most of the the sheet metal valve covers have over the years been wrapped after years of tightening the top bolts trying to stop leaks. There have been some creative fixes for this including big U shaped hold downs fit under the cover bolts and extend down to the lower lip.

Your project is sure coming along and your attention to detail and finish is really setting the standard for the rest of us. Keep us posted.

Cheers Phil

[Gordon Yeo]

Phil

Thanks for the suggestion about re-routing the oil line. I was more concerned about having it lashed down and didn't consider the heating problem

At the moment I am trying to get my light wiring sorted out. I have scrounged up and reconditioned enough take-off original lights to do the fender markers and tail lights. Now I need to mount the tail lights, would any one out the have a picture of where and how tail lights are mounted on a Lindsey van body?

Gord

[Alex van de Wetering]

Gordon,

Excellent work and very inspiring.

Now I need to mount the tail lights, would any one out the have a picture of where and how tail lights are mounted on a Lindsey van body?

On a C60X Lindsey body the rear lights are mounted on the rear lower edge of the body, between the strips holding the rear fenders (left and right in same location). I presume your Lindsey body will be the same. I guess you should be able to find two small holes (bracket) with a larger hole (wiring) in the middle(?)
Clive's factory photo's CD has two excellent shots of the rear lights on a C60X. Attached you will find a pic of a restored C60X. The brackets were enlarged to add a larger light for modern traffic, but the idea is the same.
Originally two lights on the left, one on the right, although the brackets were identical on both sides....with two holes....one not used on the right side.

Alex

[Gordon Yeo]

Alex

Thank you very much for posting the photo of the tail lights. The mud flaps on the C60X are mounted exactly the same way as my C60 and the holes for the tail lights are there. There were no original lights on the truck and I needed confirmation that the holes present were for the original light brackets. I also will be mounting more appropriate service lights so that gives me a good design to copy.
You posted that you were glad to see another Lindsey body being restored, now you can say you have been a help in that enterprise.

Gord

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Gordon

Looking back through war time photos that have been posted over the years the small L shaped two light holder was pretty much standard.

Take a look at http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=14097 I'll find some other photos.

Photos below are HUP but all of original mounting brackets for the Pattern 13s I have seen have look identical. Note the switch this is a late production change replacing the tail light isolation switch which had been on the frame near the right rear wheel to a switch on the tail light. It turns off the tail light and turns on a light under the truck aimed at the differential back which was painted white. This was for blackout convoy.

As tail lights they are totally worthless. On all of my three I've added 3" commercial truck tail lights. On my large trucks I have concealed these behind the standard round reflectors which where common to military vehicles.

I've been looking for good bright LED units to replace the bulbs.

Think I have an original bracket that came with my C60S on the shelf that I can do a drawing of.

Cheers Phil

[chris vickery]

Just a sugestion Gordon;
On one previous project that I restored, I used 4 of the rubber style early taillights with red lens and added two later type M series w/ full lens 24v type changed to 6v on quick disconnects (Packard). I used the Packard connectors so I could remove them if I wanted to display at a show and be more period correct.
At any rate, I would suggest using mil-spec lights of some type rather than anything civilian.

[Grant Bowker]

For a LED stop/turn/tail light, consider the 7" bus units. Grote, Truck-Lite and Peterson (and probably others) should all make comparable units, designed to mount on flat surfaces. Who could miss them? An example of what I'm thinking of is at the bottom of page 78 of this catalogue. http://www.grote.com/marketing/Liter...Turn-Lamps.pdf
To be even more conspicuous, mount them on a removable board covered in reflective sheeting. http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...SevTSeSSSSSS--

[chris vickery]

The only issue with LED lighting may be the requirement for 12v. Not sure how the truck is being wired up but, if 6v, not sure whether or not LEDs will work. I don't think they make a 6v version...

[Harry Moon]

I've used both 6 volt and 12 volt LED in my tail lights. I couldn't get off the shelf 6 volt bulbs that fit in the pencil lights but did in 12 volt. I also replaced the lens cover with the "Jewell" type found in Hot Rod shops, they make the light stick out a bit more for seeing at an angle and the LED lights are clearly visible on the brightest days.
More recently on my trailer I set up a pair of magnetic tow-truck taillights with turn signals. Stick them on when traveling and stick them underneath when on display or parade.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Gordon

Here are some photos and drawing of the Tail Light Bracket from my HUP, maybe someone could confirm these against other brackets.

If the drawing is not large enough to read the measurements I can post a larger version on my web page.

All the extra lines are how I do the lay out to drill and cut before bending. When I made up the replacements for the HUP during the restoration I printed the drawing full size self adhesive label stock which I just stick on the steel.

Just realized that a dimension was missing the thickness of the steel 0.140 inches thick. Also the drawing shows a sharp bend while of course it is slightly radius-ed.

Cheers Phil

[Gordon Yeo]

Phil

Thanks for posting the drawings for the rear light mounts, I'm sure I can read the dimensions as posted. I will have two separate rear lighting systems each mounted independently. Rather than use M-series lights I plan on using a trailer light package for the rear lights and do a little reverse engineering.

I took your advice and re-routed the oil pressure gauge line around the back of the engine away from the manifold heat.

Here is a picture of the lights that I have reconditioned and made leads for, I got the lenses for then at Acton. Thanks to Harry and Grant for the suggestions about LEDs, I've already been tip off about them.

Gord

[Gordon Yeo]

I have run out of things to do on the truck, for a while. My canvas bits are going to be made soon and then I can finish off the nose piece. I need some warm weather to do more painting on the van body and from the weather forecast that won't be any time soon. So, on to more practical jobs and getting ready for spring work.

Here are a few pictures before the truck went into storage. I looked up the delivery bill and it arrived March 27 last year.

[Gordon Yeo]

Another part of the interior restoration of the signals van was the screen doors. In the original configuration the doors had been hung on hinges, when the truck came the doors were mounted on rollers running on a track. The bottom of the doors had a channel cut into it and slide on an angle iron bolted to the floor. A piece of angle iron bolted to the floor just inside a door way! That's an accident waiting to happen!

Here are a few before and after pictures of the doors with all the extras stripped off and ready to mount.

[Gordon Yeo]

I have been busy at other things this summer and haven't been working at the truck till recently. A few pictures of the van body being mounted. Between the log skidder, some pipe for rollers and loader tractor I managed to get the van body repositioned with good results.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Excellent work Gordon. Great to see this truck one step closer to the rebirth.

Alex