DEW Engineering?

[Pete Z]

I finally made my way to Ottawa this past week-end to pick up my M3A1 CDN2 and I have been going through some of the documentation I recieved with it. There is an old appraisal where reference made to the fact that both sides show evidence of recieving the "DEW Engineering patch kit" which apparently "was applied to the whole fleet circa 1981". Can anybody elaborate with details of what this kit or procedure consisted of? The truck shows evidence of some CF-performed body work with fibreglass repairs to the rear corners, front floorpans and rockers being fairly evident.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Pete Z

I finally made my way to Ottawa this past week-end to pick up my M3A1 CDN2 and I have been going through some of the documentation I recieved with it. There is an old appraisal where reference made to the fact that both sides show evidence of recieving the "DEW Engineering patch kit" which apparently "was applied to the whole fleet circa 1981". Can anybody elaborate with details of what this kit or procedure consisted of? The truck shows evidence of some CF-performed body work with fibreglass repairs to the rear corners, front floorpans and rockers being fairly evident.

Pete
..What the hell is an M3A1 CDN..??
Sounds like a Canadian version of the White Scout Car..

[Pete Z]

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

Pete
..What the hell is an M3A1 CDN..??
Sounds like a Canadian version of the White Scout Car..

Ooops! My mistake. Make that an M38A1 CDN2. My typing (and apparently proof-reading) skills suck.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Pete Z

Ooops! My mistake. Make that an M38A1 CDN2. My typing (and apparently proof-reading) skills suck.

SHIT..!!
I thought you had a White..
Still lots of fun...
Hope to see it at BBB this summer..

[rob love]

They were referring to the body patches that were available for the M38A1CDN2 and 3s back in the early 80s. There was a CFTO outlining all the various patches available, and as well fenders were made available again as a repair part, and were part of the life extension of that particular fleet.

Being from the West, we didn't use the patch kits much. I was at CFB Winnipeg during this time period and we did not use them at all. But any Jeeps we saw that came on VMOs from the East had them, and plenty. Often they were merely pop-rivetted on, sometimes the installations were done better.

Since I never saw the patches new in the box, I cannot say what part DEW engineering had in their development or manufacture. DEW is a company that has done R&D, as well as manufacturing and modifications for the DND for many years now.

WRT the life extension programs, they were common back in the 80s and 90s. We would buy a fleet of vehicles that were expected to last 6-9 years. Then, thanks to the expense of replacing a fleet of vehicles that size, we would have to life extend them, especially the eastern vehicles which would suffer from corrosion. The 5/4 tons were life extended around 1984, the MLVWs around 1992 and the ILtis also was around 92/93.

After all, what good is a truck if you can't get 20 to 30 years out of it?

[Pete Z]

Thanks for the reply Rob. While my eastern M38A1 (CFB Petawawa) is pretty solid, there's a few amateur-ish body repairs evident. The PO told me that it is all CF-performed body work. Looks like I'll be buying a few panels from Willy's Acres rather than messing around with fixing up old repairs.