Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Guys, The reach of MLU is amazing. I was offered a replacement master cylinder from a fellow C8 owner. The funny thing is that he is not on MLU as far as I know, but he did read about my master cylinder disaster. The replacement cylinder is now on it's way to get sleeved. Thanks Guido!

It's about time to update the log. Attached are some pics of the rear cab supports. One needed some work as the steel suffered a lot from the contact moist held by the wooden spacer which is sandwiched between these supports and the cab floor itself.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Some more pics of the supports and a sneak preview of the new wooden spacers.

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Alex

What ever hard wood you use as replacement make sure that the wood has been soaked in a oil base paint for the first one ro two coats than full strenght paint for a top coat...... takecare to insure that paint has soaked into every bolt holes.

I have literally encapsulated my wood using POR 15...... the finished product is very resistant to abrasion ) rubbing of floor and bracket).

In the original design as the wood got wet it decays and generates tanic acid that will other wise rust a bolt shaft to a perfect hour glass shape.

Keep up the good work.

Bob C

[Paul Dutton]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Hi Alex

What ever hard wood you use as replacement make sure that the wood has been soaked in a oil base paint for the first one ro two coats than full strenght paint for a top coat...... takecare to insure that paint has soaked into every bolt holes.

I have literally encapsulated my wood using POR 15...... the finished product is very resistant to abrasion ) rubbing of floor and bracket).

In the original design as the wood got wet it decays and generates tanic acid that will other wise rust a bolt shaft to a perfect hour glass shape.

Keep up the good work.

Bob C

Just out of curiosity, couldnt hard rubber be used instead of wood, solves a lot of problems and as so thin and only a packer wouldnt go noticed!
I know it goes against originality, which im all for, but why have to strip it all again in 10 years to re-do!
Im now waiting for the purists with pitchforks and burning torches at my door!!!!

[Alex van de Wetering]

Bob,

Thanks for the additional tips. I used Oak for the wooden spacers and treated this with a product called Owatrol. I did a test-piece first to see if the Owatrol, primer and paint would work together. The actual spacers received their first coat of Owatrol yesterday, which does indeed soak into the grain. I will post some pics in the next few days, to show which
procedure I followed.

Paul,

Well, for these floor-spacers rubber would probably work just as good. However, the cab 11/12 also uses a wooden frame in the roof section. Using rubber there would not be a good idea, as in this case the wood is not used as spacer, but as an actual structural part.

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Paul

I see nothing wrong with using a "modern" material particularly in hard to see areas. Hard rubber or the polyurethane used in modern car suspension would certainly insure long life and would have no detriment on the resoration quality.

After all I am coating my sandblasted parts with POR 15 and everyone knows that witches' brew did not exist back then.

As pointed out by Alex, wood is needed to redo the roof frame BUT I will increase the corner stress areas with thicker metal reinforcement behind the wood.

I am also running a Pertronix ignition system as it is more dependable and unnoticeable.

But I have kept a supply of old CMP tires with thick side walls to cut out rubber spacers such as for the T case, etc.

'Tis a strange thing restoration...... we work on a vehicle design to last minutes in battle and they have survived for over 70 years...... can you imagine how long they will survive after we are finished rebuilding them....?

Bob C

[Alex van de Wetering]

About time for an update!

Time for the wooden spacers; Phil Waterman uploaded some excellent pictures and measurements of the woodwork onto his website. I copied the measurements onto some new Oak, but of course I should have known better....the C8 wooden spacers differ from the C60S ones, as the chassis rails are quite different! So, in the end I combined Phil's pictures with the info and measurements that I was able to retrieve from my rotten C8 spacers and made the new ones.

I treated the spacers with a coat of Owatrol (a wood preserver) and made sure it soaked into all grain and holes. This was followed by a coat of black primer mixed with Owatrol, a coat of Khaki green with Owatrol and finally pure Khaki green. Only the last coat was done with the spraygun, the other coats done with a brush.
Soon afterwards I realised the long spacers were in fact too short! My original spacers were so rotten that I hadn't noticed that the straight edge at one end was not the actual end of the wood, but in fact the remains of a cut made to clear the steel cab floor supports. The spacers were about 20cm too short, so I took some more oak and fixed the issue.

The spacers are now waiting till I have the floor done.

Alex



Next update in two years