Bob. I agree a copper bar would be pricey, but possibly doable. Be interesting to cost out what a correct sized piece would be with the appropriate bends in it. The rest is just hole drilling to locate the standoff insulators and the terminal posts. It was copper because of the low electrical resistance it offered. Brass might be just as expensive as copper, or perhaps more so. I personally would not go near aluminium to save my soul after all the negative feedback that surfaced from it's use in home wiring a few years back.
Get yourself a copy of "Wireless Set Canadian No. 19 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS For TRUCK AND GROUND STATION". It was published by Philco in the USA in October 1944 for the Canadian Military and covers everything you need to know about setting up a Mk II or Mk III 19-Set in any of the 2Gx or 2Kx 15-cwt Wireless Trucks and the HUW. There was a flood of these NOS manuals hit the civvy market back in the 1980's and they still pop up from time to time at flea markets and such.
One thing I would suggest, with the interior plywood you have still in place is study the hell out of it! Photograph it all until you are ready to scream and measure where all the mounting screws went. It they are original and still there, they are easy to spot: slotted, curved head sheet metal screw about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, surrounded by a small finishing washer. If you have a second wireless box handy with original plywood still in place you will discover something interesting. The mounting screws for each piece of plywood are all in exactly the same place on each piece. It took me a couple of full Saturdays exploring all the boxes at Princess years ago before that lightbulb went on. Wilson Truck Body was running a full blown assembly line building these boxes with all the related demands for efficient use of hardware and reliable consistency of product.
I suspect they took advantage of cabinet maker/custom millwork shops and their equipment to make the pieces of interior plywood. One of the first puzzles I had looking at the interiors was why there was a seam line around the walls at the midpoint half way up. Why didn't they just slap a four foot piece of plywood around the bottom and fill in the upper portion with a smaller strip? Then I noticed the consistent placement of the original hardware on the walls from box to box. Some years later, while working at a local window and door manufacturer, I learned about the amazing machines the millworks industry has available for mass manufacture of large pieces of wood, predrilled for hardware. Think IKEA RTA furniture today. These machines do have size limits for the wood they can handle and back in the 1940's the size limits probably dictated the size of plywood to be worked.
So basically, all the pieces of plywood for the insides of these boxes, and all the trim millwork that covered the plywood seams, would have been pre cut and predrilled, ready to be mounted inside the boxes at the appropriate point in the assembly line: speed, efficiency, consistency. I suspect a similar pre drilling process was used with the roof assemblies to ensure all the pieces that had to be mounted on it were in the same place over and over again before they were dropped down on the open box shells.
By the way, the trim strip millwork covering the plywood seams is still a standard item at Windsor Plywood and a few other woodworking supply shops around town in these parts.
Gotta scoot. There is a snowstorm underway I have to sit and watch.
Cheers
david
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