Today was a sheet metal kind of day. Yesterday I picked up an order of sheet metal for making the remaining storage that go in the back of the truck. Today I started in on making the two smaller vertical bins. They turned out rather nicly and as an added bonus my welding matches the wartime welding rather well. I’ll be farming out the large bin side pieces as at 54” long it’s a bit much for the 36” brake from Princess Auto.

By any chance are you recording measurements or making any drawings of the boxes Jordan? I will have to fabricate all the boxes for mine when I get to the bed.

Small parts made up today. Copied the latch’s from the original bins.

It's those small details that make your project stand out. Great to see the business end of the truck coming back to life.

Alex

Lots of progress today. I picked up the sheet metal from the shop today. They did all the heavy bending for me since I’m limited by the size of my break. I had made the end panels last week already. So today’s task was to do a fitting and then welding everything up. It’s looking more and more like the wartime photos.

Lastly I got the radio battery trays installed. They are removable just like the radio table.

Nice bit of progress there, Jordan! Has your lovely Wife been singing Vera Lynn songs to you in the background while you work?

David

Haha David, I just told her that and she started to sing We”ll meet again..don’t know when...don’t know how....”. Yes I’m a lucky guy. She’s a keeper.

Anyway back to the truck. It was another productive day. The doors were finished for the two smaller forward bins. Hinges and the lock tabs were welded on.

I also started in on making the second POL container. The shop did a great job of bending up all the 1/8” plate for me. I basically just dressed the very sharp sheared edges and welded it up to match where the original welds were found. One interesting point was when I used a block of wood to clamp one of angles in place. All went well and the angle was welded in place. It was then that I realized there was no way to get the block out. After a few minutes of head scratching I remembered my chisel. It was all split up in no time.

Picked up more steel today and was able to get a few more bits closer to being finished.

Today was spent working on the antenna mounts for the roof. So far one is pretty much done except for some minor welding. I stopped as I ran out of gas for the welder. The plates were copied from an original British FFW plate I had picked up years ago. The ends were pressed braked to get the radius bends to fit over the roof structure.

To make these bends in the 1/8” plate I had to make up a small press brake jig to use in the shop press. I’m quite impressed with what it can bend.

Lastly the UPS truck showed up today with my order of LED 6v bulbs. Wow they are bright and they fit in the side marker lights very well. I also got ones to fit the original headlamp reflectors. I know for future to not look directly at the reflector as these are quite bright at 900 lumens.

More info on the lights please
 

Hi Jordan

Would you give us more info on the lights, I've wanted to up grade the lights on my trucks for safety reasons for years. The normal information voltage, model numbers, source etc. Do the seem to run hotter or cooler than the original bulbs.

Years ago found some halogen headlamps replaced which were brighter but had a nasty habit of either burning out with a few hours, or being Ok and lasting, the vendor was good and replaced ones that burned out quickly. Though he did ask that I confirm the voltage and asked if I had generator or alternator.

Cheers Phil

I literally just got them yesterday afternoon. So I have no information on how they work out long term. It took a lot of internet research to learn about bulb base sizes and such cross referencing to the Mazda numbers.


Phil, any chance on some pictures of where the fuel line was run in your C8a from the fuel filter to the fuel pump

Not good but all I could find
 

Hi Jordan


Would you believe out 5000+ photos from the HUP restoration I don't have a good photo of the fuel line routing. It is just one of those hard things to get a clear shot. Was hoping I'd taken some shots with the fuel system mounted to the chassis before I lowered the body back in position but apparently that's something I missed. So here are the two best shots I could find.



My HUP has a solid line from the chassis to the fuel pump but I think it should be a rubber flex line. Memory is telling me there is a service bulletin about changing the fuel line will have to look through them and see if I can find it.


Attachment 113947


Cheers Phil
Attachment 113948

Phil, thanks for the extra pictures. I totally understand about not having certain pictures.

Flex lines.....
 

Hi Jordan

With the flex of the cab 13 anbd tyhe CMP frame flex lines are good insurance.

Doesn't matter what angle and how many pictures you take you will always find a spot you missed....

From what I have of what is left that is deemed possibly original the selection valve had three flex line in and out ..... and some of the frame filters had flex lines,,,,, and there was always a flex line entering the fuel pump with the hard line clipped to the frame and on to the filter. So you are only critical at the pump just replace the short piece. the out put of the pump can be hard line as it is clipped to the water/radiator elbow .....and therefore moves with the engine block.

One line strangely enough that is subjected to engine torque yet has no rubber joints is the steel steam line from the rear of the block to the radiator neck or tank.......

Bob,
Are you sure there isn't a piece of rubber hose between the steam line and the radiator? (forward of the steel support bracket at the front of the block)
I have one on my C15A and the steam line and radiator fitting don't come even close to lining up without something to make the curve. My steam line and support were copied from what were represented as original parts and the radiator is original (but recored) so the space between radiator fitting and steam tube on my truck should be close to original layout.

Certainly makes sense.....
 

On two of our seemingly original cab 12 the line is solid and runs directly to the filler neck of the radiator where it connects to a brass fitting. The pipe has a tar impregnated loose cover similar to what is used for electrical wiring.

When the radiator shop redid my radiator core they installed a brass threaded connector directly in the rad tank and soldered shut the opening at the bottom of the neck...... they said it would be stronger....I did not bother to argue about it.....and it does work nicely.

Maybe designers got wise with the cab 13 .

Cheers

A whole lot of parts for a simple antenna mount. Nearly finished the building of this unit.

I also just got a nice delivery this evening. Newly made side light socket bodies.

Antenna mounts all painted and the last 5 large bins are all finished with construction and ready to go to the sandblasters this evening.

Gas Line and Filter
 

Hi Jordan


Took a while to find it but here is the Service Bulletin I was remembering.


Attachment 114065


Interesting the addition of flex lines not found on earlier CMPs. Just shows why we find all sorts of configurations on things on CMPs as time goes bye that are not necessarily shown in the manuals. It is interesting that these little change do show up in the parts books.



Bart Vanderveen was able to narrow down the date of construction of certain CMPs by what combination of special or different parts using the different dates on of publication for the parts book.


Looking through the parts book it will have little notes like "after serial number ?????? use part number ?????." But then again you can find a particularly early CMP that has every single update done to it.


Cheers Phil


PS- What did you use to seal the gasket around the fuel gauge sender unit? The ethanol containing gas has plagued my trucks with weeper leaks that come and go.

Hi Phil.

Funny enough Brian Gough and I were just talking about that same thing of narrowing down build dates just the other day.

As for sealing on the fuel tanks I think I made gaskets from 1/8” neoprene.

Picked up the parts yesterday and spent most of the afternoon painting. Today I finished the painting and got all the bins installed. I managed to time my painting of POR and the SCC2 paint so that I could spray the SCC2 directly on the almost cured POR. I find the topcoat of paint really bonds to the POR and you get a very strong paint.

All of the bins painted and installed really changes the look of the truck. I like it

I also worked on my side and tail lights. All new wiring as I won’t use original 75 year old wiring on the truck. The socket bases were new made and they worked perfectly for installing the braided shielding. Lastly I found one of the original blackout disks that was fitted to the side marker lights. As if these lights didn’t give off much light to begin with.

Things are moving along nicely. The antenna mounts have been mounted to the roof. It’s odd punching a bunch of holes in the canvas. I also got the convoy light rebuilt.

Here is the truck as it stands now. I really like the look of the 2 gallon POL can carrier mounted at the front end of the box.

I don't think that is in any way a 'simple' antenna mount. :)

It looks to be a modification of the original "Aerial Base No.1" mounting (used with the Wireless Set No.11) where there was a tension spring to hold the insulator itself in the "cup" of the mounting. This was then modified later by adding the square adapter and flat plate on top to take Aerial Base No.8 (and later No.10) when the Wireless Set No.19 replaced the earlier set. The 7-hole (for the six mounting bolts and central feed cable) mounting that was introduced with Aerial Base No.8 has remained the standard to the present day, nearly 80 years after introduction.) :)

Chris.

I agree Chris. It’s very complicated. It was originally done for the 11set. In one of the original photos there is what appears to be an 11set mounted in the truck. Or at least the charging board for the 11set. The Mk1* Carrier and Otter were also made to be able to fit the 11set or 19set.