How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

Some more pictures. For creating the ends that are folded over I drew out a pattern on some paper and then traced it out onto the sheet. It was cut out using a zip disk in the hand grinder. I also cleaned up the edges with a hand file. The first edge I put the 90deg bend in prior to attaching the sheet to the frame. I then worked me way clamping and welding along the frame to the other end. This last time I simply hammered the edge down onto the frame, clamped it and welded. In hindsight if I had to do it over again I would probably start with clamping/welding the sheet in the middle and then working out to both ends.

[Bob Carriere]

...obviously not working under wartime pressure of one spot weld every 5 inches.

Can you image the face of the guy redoing that rear wall 75 years from now!!!!!

Any problems bending the sheet metal in the curved corners...?

Cheers

[chris vickery]

When I replicated the rear wall on my 12 cab, I made my piece of sheet and test fit before welding.
The folded over end, I broke first and clamped into place. I then rolled the sheet around the first corner, clamping as I went. I worked it to the other end, up around the corner to the front. I then marked it where it met the edge. I removed the sheet and added the required amount to the marked line I made on the second edge. I then boke this 90deg. So, I essential had a piece of sheet metal which was the correct lenght with breaks on both ends.
I then refit this to make sure it was OK.
As mentioned Jordan, I did start from the center and worked back and forth towards each end. I replicated spots welds only where they were supposed to be, which included along the cross bracing at the rear.
My main mistake which led to some difficulty was the fact that I used 16g instead of 18g. In the end a very good rear panel.
If you notice on original panels, the spot welds do show up. Thats they way they were made, quick and dirty.
Keep up the good work!

[Alex van de Wetering]

Jordan,

Excellent work. Thanks for this step-to-step description....and great to hear you ( and Chris) managed to get the rear wall around the frame without pre-forming the sheet....that's something that has been bothering me for a while. I had already looked at the lamp post across the street, but it seems I can leave that alone

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

HI Chris

Of the 5 cab 12 and one cab 11 at the barn .....the rear wall does not wrap around the angle iron BUT finishes flush and spot welded..... I have only seen the wrap of the skin around on original cab 13 such as the water truck done at the Caldwells one year.

Cheers

[Jordan Baker]

I'd rather overkill it with the spot welds then under do it. On my original the welds were every couple of inches but it also varied a bit.

As for going around the corners it was really simple. The 18ga simply followed the bend of the frame. If I let it go it would spring back. But with clamps I could easily hold and pull it in tight.

I decided to smooth out my welds as I probably over did it with the heat a bit to get good penetration into the frame. On my original only a few of the spot welds were visible and that was usualy from the rust forming between the sheet and frame and pushing the sheet out.

[Jordan Baker]

Things moved along rather nicely over the past few days. I finished all the welding and fitting for the lower cab wall. I then cleaned and metal prepped the metal using the POR products. The wall was given a spray of POR15 to seal against hopefully any rust. Then the usual tiecote primer and final SCC2 layer.

For the anti-sqeak material I used the product Mac's Antique auto parts sells. It worked great and matches the original stuff pretty closely. For making the curves along the frame I had to take small wedge cuts. I used 3M spray adheiseve to secure it to the cab frame and make sure everything stayed lined up while installing the wall.

The only other issue I had was the the wall ends wouldn't line up for the bolt holes. I think this may have partly been caused by the wall frame getting pulled a bit from installing the sheet. Ratchet straps came to the rescue and I was able to pull the ends in one at a time.

Lastly I installed my rebuilt/NOS rifle mounts. Its nice to see parts making their way from the cabinet to the vehicle. Slowly.... but its in the right direction.

[Jordan Baker]

Last group of pictures for now.

I did have a lot of trouble trying to get the long cab to rear crossmemeber/spring all lined up. I found my issue was that I bolted the spings down tight before installing the cab. I ended up having to undo the mount to frame bolts and this let everything move around and fall into place.