1942 dodge ambulance resto

[jake neville]

a coupleears ago now i purchased a WC54 ambulance from Ray edsall. i have finally begun stripping it down for a full ground up restoration.
so far i have had the chassi and axles striped down blasted and painted. new suspension bushes/pins, brakes are currently being done and just waiting on parts to arrive from vintage powerwagons to start rebuilding the front and rear diffs. new bar tread tires arrived earlier this year from the states.
plan to have it back on it's wheels in the not too distant future and begin work on the running gear.
i've had the chassis number checked out with the chrysler museum and they tell me this ambo is one of a contract of only 410 ordered and built early in 1942. i have also managed to uncover the original numbers painted on the body.


2013 house 189.jpg 2013 house 185.jpg 2013 house 194.jpg 2013 house 224.jpg 2013 house 211.jpg

[Bob Carriere]

...obviously not your first try from what I could see of the other Dodge in the brackground.

Congrats.

Bob C.

[Lynn Eades]

FORD I'd say, Bob.
Nice project Neville. Chassis looks very good. Keen to see the progress.

[jack neville]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

...obviously not your first try from what I could see of the other Dodge in the brackground.

Congrats.

Bob C.

The Dodge in the background is a Ford/Marmon Herrington. The other truck under the canvas is a Fordson WOT2H. Jake did a substantial amount of work on both of those. The Jeep he did no work on except play with spanners in the back as a baby (my version of baby sitting), and pretend to drive. He actually did learn to drive in it when he was four. Jake is one 26 and keen to give the jeep another make over soon.

[Ian Fawbert]

Looking good! It will be a nice vehicle to see out and about at events- not to mention the camping abilities!!!

The numbers you mention, are they USA or ARN or both? I only ask as i was interested in the history of the vehicle- whether it was found here or an import?

I remember hearing of one imported a few years back up here- was seen on the docks by an AMVCS member but i doubt this was it.

Cheers,
Ian.

[jake neville]

after months of not being able to access MLU i can now update my work so far on the dodge. thanks to hanno spoelstra for fixing things up for me.
heres a few old pics and some recent ones of the restoration as i have no idea where the old post is.

[jake neville]

a few pics of the disassembly. wasn't much to do as it came pretty bare. just the body on a rolling chassis.

[jake neville]

chassis, springs and diffs. sandblasted and painted

[jake neville]

both front and rear diffs stripped and rebuilt, new shackle pins, bushes, brakes, bearings, seals etc.
because this is an early 41 model ambo it has the smaller diff. so to speed the old girl up a bit i purchased 2 complete half ton dodge diffs from jim harris and have fitted the 4.89 gearing into the back diff.
currently doing the front. has all gone together well so far. thanks to robin mawson for his time in showing me how to do it all.

[jake neville]

rear diff installed. nice to finally see some green paint back on it. wheels and some new rubber on the back. time to attack the front.

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by jake neville

. so to speed the old girl up a bit i purchased 2 complete half ton dodge diffs from jim harris and have fitted the 4.89 gearing into the back diff.
.

I think 4.89 is the standard diff ratio in 1/2 tonners . Bevan Fenner fitted 4.1 ratio diffs in his 1/2 ton dodge ,( he sold the truck to Graeme Kerslake , then it went to QLD ? ) maybe you could ask Bevan where he sourced the 4.1's from ? Mike

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jake neville

after months of not being able to access MLU i can now update my work so far on the dodge. thanks to hanno spoelstra for fixing things up for me.
heres a few old pics and some recent ones of the restoration as i have no idea where the old post is.

Jake, glad we got it sorted, sorry it took so long! Merged your new thread with your old one.

That's quite a project you have there, the Dodge Ambulance must be quite rare in Australia?

Hanno

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

That's quite a project you have there, the Dodge Ambulance must be quite rare in Australia?

There were quite a few of those Ambos here during the war, but just about all of them left Australia when the US forces moved Northwards .

Leo Shackleton ( or his brother ) were VMVC members years ago , they were young teenagers in Melbourne at the time the yanks were here and one of them snapped a pic of a Dodge Ambulance driving along Sydney road, Coburg or Brunswick . The pic appeared in a VMVC newsletter many years ago . Mike

[jake neville]

hi mike

would love to try and dig that photo up if anyone has a copy. might be able to recreate it one day when the trucks finished.

[jake neville]

time for a dodge update

i have commenced stripping down the 2 engines i have to see which one is suitable for a rebuild.

both appear to be in reasonable shape. i picked them both up for $300 from a deceased estate in melbourne. the guy i dealt with was unable to tell me what they came out of. some kind of car based on the clutch and bell housing that were attached to one of them.

they are both the larger capacity engine, 2 inches longer than the T214 it should have in it. i am after a bit more grunt to help with the diff's i have put in it.

i have been doing some research in an attempt to figure out what size they are but am not really sure by the numbers i'm looking at. everything i have searched on the net hasn't been much help as these things were built for decades in a large variety of sizes.

the engine number is :P2018114C
and has :K260 cast in the bottom of the block
L20 cast in the head

anyone familiar with these engines please fill me in, the only engine i can find listed on the net with 260 was a straight 8?? confused i will attempt to attach some photos if this thing lets me.


this is the one i plan to use, seems to be a bit more modernized with an automatic choke and a few other minor differences. hopefully more power??

the other has 231 in the side of the block and :E131

[jake neville]

finished overhauling the front axle this weekend. new brakes, bearings and seals. bit of mucking around to swap the diff centres over. The axle splines are different between the 1/2 and 3/4 ton dodges, i had to pull the crown wheel and pinion out of the 1/2 ton diff and set them up on the 3/4 ton case to take the bigger axles. the rear axle was easy as you can just install the whole pumpkin and use the 1/2 ton axles aswell. it all went together nicely after that. installed it this afternoon and will give it a lick of paint next weekend.

[jake neville]

finished painting the front axle on the weekend. fitted the new wheels and tyres. pulled apart the shock absorbers. all still had fluid in them and were in very good condition. refilled with oil and bolted them on.
the 2 pintle hooks i had were pretty buggered and had a lot of slop in them. i pulled the two apart and with some new pins/ spring and some welding and grinding managed to put one good one together. nice and tight now.

[jake neville]

hi guys.

i'm looking for a bell housing to complete my engine rebuild. if anyone knows of a spare anywhere....help

[jack neville]

Since Jake has moved his ambo chassis to another location it has freed some space to do some work on the body. Whilst being relatively straight on the important rear box sides except for a small section around the fuel filler, there is rust in the roof section and a bit of damage around the front windscreen. The cab front left floor section and rear cab floor are also rusty. It cannot be saved without picking it all apart to tackle the rust.

[jack neville]

Fortunately when he got the ambulance from Ray, he got an extra part cab from a Carryall which had been converted into a pick up. Ray had used part of this cab to repair his own ambulance and Jake got the remains. Fortunately by unpicking this pick up cab we could get the panels needed to repair the ambulance.

[jack neville]

This part cab was not without its own problems. The cowl and dash was missing but the ambulance had a good complete ones that could be reused. The top part of the windscreen was better on the part cab which meant I could sacrifice that top section when separating from the ambulance roof. The front floor corners of each had one good side. The right from the part cab and the left from the ambo. The best firewall was in the part cab as was the best left side panel. That meant I could cut the front left floor section from the ambo without worrying about saving any of the surrounding sheetmetal. The part cab supplied the door frames. The part cab had a better transmission cover panel. .

[jack neville]

The front left corner above after being cut out was stripped of the unwanted metal and then spent a couple of days in the electrolysis bath to ensure all the rust between the seams was eliminated. Then treated with fishoil. Next the front cab was cut under the seam where the windscreen joins the roof. The floor was cut and the whole lot removed.