[Bob Carriere]

Hi Phil

Hoping you and your family are doing OK with all this covid crisis.......

My first project will be to restore a 2B1 cargo box for my cab 11. I have 3 boxes that are rusted beyond use but will serve as great pattern......one is assumed 1940 the other 2 are from 1942 cab 12 and even in that short time the assembly and some fixtures are slightly different and all three have different overall size by at least 1/4 inch.

I am hoping to use the better one with a solid diamond plate floor and fender wells and rebuild the head board and rigid and folding side panels. We have one battered tailgate out of the 3 but a good model.

On closer examination of the box we found that a lot of smaller parts where eventually welded in sub unit than into full sides so reproducing on a small brake should be possible. The tailgate and head board will need to be done in a local fabricator shop using an 8 foot hydraulic brake....... the rest is just MIG welding. Price of steel has skyrocketed since the Covid crisis and delivery of stock is a "sometimes' next week to ten days as opposed to 2 or 3 days turn around time and cost almost double from 2 years ago.

For the above reason we may experiment with using one guage size thinner than original....will save $$ and weight and our trucks will never be overloaded like they would do on Australian farms with stacks of feed bags.

On all of our 3 rusted cargo boxes the best preserves part are the floor panels and underpinnings......some still showing a very very light coat of pale OD green and little surface rust... the worst being the side panels eaten right
away to a gaping hole.

Consideration is being given to purchasing a proper box brake with a 48 inch width and 12 gauge capacity........ our current 36 inches 16 gauge is some what limited but great for smaller project. Grant and I have also taken to making our own dies and using the 20 to hydraulic press the bend heavy bar stock we good success.

Will need to learn and master "hot riveting" for the various two inch x 1/4 bar straps of the tail gate and the many 1/4 in. stock for the hinges and we have a small forge that will be fired up for the occasion.

We had Summer for the last 2 days now back to chilly cloudy weather.

Intend to document the repro of the box on the Barn sticky for future reference.

Let's all hope we get out of this isolation and bug crisis and get back to whatever normal ever was.

Cheers

PS..... the rotisserie will also be used when I start working on the LRDG project........... meanwhile I may have to pull the tranny out of thecab 11 and see why the clutch slips in 3rd and 4th and determine where the oil is coming from......clutch disk plate may need relining..... now is the time to do it before I install a roof....as I can use the overhead electric which, through the floor opening...... to support the tranny during process.