1944 C-15A-Wire-5 Restoration

[Dennis Cardy]

Robert..
A Plus 1 on what David has said about mounting the various roof ladders.
Good advice for sure.

He is absolutely correct..if water leaks in past the mounting bolts..the wooden structure underneath can and will disintegrate in a matter of months..

Not joking when I say if you have a friend who is into boats…he will immediately recognize what you are facing and recommend the ladder mounting flanges be properly "bedded" in a flexible caulking compound..

Thus preventing any water getting in.

Dennis.

[Dennis Cardy]

Bruce Parker,
Thanks for that colour photo of the Wireless Van…and that update.
Always wondered where it ended up…

Here it is at the Bruce County farmhouse shortly before it was passed on to you.

May I ask a few questions…??

You talked about doing a brake job..
How were the front brakes when you got it.?
Probably toast by that time..Was it a total brake rebuild…?

To be honest..cough…cough….when you are running on original Run Flat tires that are flat..you don't really need a lot of help from the brakes to slow you down…cough cough.

Dennis.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

Bruce Parker,
Thanks for that colour photo of the Wireless Van…and that update.
Always wondered where it ended up…

Here it is at the Bruce County farmhouse shortly before it was passed on to you.

May I ask a few questions…??

You talked about doing a brake job..
How were the front brakes when you got it.?
Probably toast by that time..Was it a total brake rebuild…?

To be honest..cough…cough….when you are running on original Run Flat tires that are flat..you don't really need a lot of help from the brakes to slow you down…cough cough.

Dennis.

Thanks for the retro pic. We've crossed the line back in time to black and white I see.

How were the brakes? (don't worry, I shan't be coming after you for a refund after all these years...) Yes a total rebuild, my first ever. The bright side was that because the brakes were so bad I became an expert in down shifting.

Here's another pic from my late 1970's album showing the 15cwt's original number. The MB went to a guy in Manitoba (Robert Rosteki?) in trade for an 11 cab Ford 15cwt.

[Robert Bergeron]

Hey Bruce. I can't find the proper hardware to clamp down the handrails and guards on the roof . Any suggestions my friend ? Thanks .

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Robert Bergeron

Hey Bruce. I can't find the proper hardware to clamp down the handrails and guards on the roof . Any suggestions my friend ? Thanks .

Have you looked down the holes to see what's there? Do you think maybe lag bolts onto wood? Or (horrors!!) were you supposed to use a nut before the plywood ceiling panel went in?

You might consider nutserts. They're like an oversized pop rivet but threaded on the inside. You insert them into a slightly oversized hole then a special tool draws it up from the bottom locking it in place in your roof sheet metal. When the tool is removed it leaves the threaded insert there to take your hex bolt.

[Jordan Baker]

Robert. what is in the hole as it is now? Do the fasteners just screw into the wood framing inside?

One thing I was thinking might work if the hole is somewhat contained. Mix two part casting resin and pour it in filling the hole. The just before it sets up you can screw in the lag bolt. The resin was cure and grip the bolt and fill the hole. This would only work if the area under the roof was somewhat contained, if not a lot of resin could go down the hole.

[Robert Bergeron]

Thanks very much Dennis, Bruce and Jordan. Very interesting look into the past there Dennis and Bruce. Bruce / Jordan : I ripped out the old panelling inside the box. I then primed the bare aluminium before making new plywood panels. I never saw any holes , bolts or screws coming out from the roof above. Maybe there are inserts in the steel structure supporting the aluminium sheets . If so , i could not of seen them from inside . Both Bruce and Jordan have excellent ideas . I will clean out a few of the holes on the roof and try to have a look at the bottom. Now that i think of it as i write this , it might well be metal screws driven through the aluminium sheet and the the steel frame forming the structure. More to follow and again thanks for all the good ideas fellows.

[Dennis Cardy]

Bruce,
Processed and printed my own B&W film back then..Jeez…who could afford colour..

Very nice to see the 83-385 on the door of the radio van. Going to follow up on that for sure.

Never discovered that as I had done a quick repaint of the whole vehicle after the valve job...using Duck Hunters Brown paint purchased at the Canadian Tire store in Port Elgin. A surprisingly close match and semi-matt to boot.

The box was a bit Tatty after being rescued from a wrecking yard..and the cab and chassis was post war glossy green. So the quick repaint really tied things together.

Now it can be told…the paint was still wet the next morning for the Paisley Rally and Parade.

Here it is as found..about a half hour drive from Paisley. Parked out the back of a man's place.. after the engine died.

He told me it had come out of a Borden auction. He had thrown away the useless radio box and substituted a more useful one from a pick-up truck.
Plywood sides for hauling firewood and sections of galvanized culvert for rear fenders..

Totally stock ..still had the original tires and side curtains.. but the round canvas roof hatch cover was long gone.

That little boy is now in his mid 40's…and the father of two..

God help us.

Wonder where your jeep ended up.

Dennis.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

...I came across these pics I took of un-mucked with 2K1 bodies at the time I was restoring Dennis' old truck. I hope they can be of some assistance.

First is the inside of the generator 'fridge'. Note the two way exhaust fitting on the floor. Also of note is the rack on the mid rail for the 12V Johnson chorehorse. It's very similar to that in the HUW and consists of two rails made of 1" by 1/8" angle welded together with a gap big enough for a 1/8" in plate. The chorehorse was bolted to the plate and the plate slid into the rails. You can see a small pin and chain on the tops of the rails which were what keeps the plate and chorehorse in place. This arrangement allowed for 'quick release' of the generator to allow it to be operated at a distance from the vehicle.

There isn't a similar rail assembly on the bottom and I am of the opinion that's proof there was a 120V Onan in the lower part of the generator cabinet as standard in 2K1 bodies.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Here's the warning stencil on the generator cabinet door. Failing to heed this warning about keeping the outer doors open when operating the generators would of course kill you due to carbon monoxide filling the inside of the radio body.

Second is one of the many 2K1 bodies I found that had the lower half of the interior painted various shades of blue/green. I can't say whether this was done factory or in service to lessen the scruffy appearance of scuffs on the white, but it sure was military and not post war civilian applied.

[Jordan Baker]

Bruce.

Thanks for the pictures. I'm wondering if that sliding rail setup may have been used to some extent for the Wire-3 mounting?

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

A couple taken on the right side to show the wiring and terminal strips for the batteries and switch boxes. The first shows screw holes in the wood paneling above the rifle boots that I took as the mounting holes for the C5 Charging Panel. As I didn't have a panel at the time I couldn't test out this theory.

[David Dunlop]

Robert. You will not find any hidden nuts or retainers inside the roof rail holes. I can assure you, these items were all secured by lag bolts, through the aluminum skin and into the underlying 1/4-inch plywood. They relied on good, solid wood to provide a secure anchor. If Gord Falk reads this thread, he may be able to obtain one from his 2K1 box and provide exact dimensions and/or photos of these lag bolts. The roof structure consists of an outer steel frame. A set of curved steel channels, identical to those used in the wall framing, run from side to side. The ends of these channels line up to the tops of the side channels. A layer of 1/4-inch plywood was then fastened to the top of the roof channels. Sheet aluminium was then placed down over the plywood, folded up under the edges on all four sides and the corners neatly welded. A series of predrilled holes were around the perimeter. The roof was placed onto the box and the roof channels were welded to the tops of the wall channels. Aluminum rain gutters were then slid in place around the perimeter of the roof on the outside. Three inch long aluminum, truss head slotted screws were then inserted through all the perimeter holes and screwed into steel fasteners on the upper inside of the walls to secure the gutters in place. These steel fasteners are identical to the two Jordan has posted photos of on the Signal Buzzer thread. Once all that was done, the interior 1/4-inch plywood would have been installed, starting with the two ceiling pieces. So, long story short, there is only the depth of the steel channels to work with on the roof to fasten anything safely. If you try and pour anything into this cavity, it will just flow down to the walls. Gord is in the process of taking apart the roof on his 2K1 box to replace the upper plywood, which has rotted out on his Wire 5. It is a huge task.

Bruce. Fantastic photos of the Gen Box for a special reason. The upper framework shows the portable chorehorse setup perfectly. This was standard for all 2K1 and 2K2 Wireless Bodies. The standard setup on the floor of the Gen Box was a second, permanent chorehorse. This can be confirmed by the wiring diagram found inside the fuse panel on the wall of the wireless body between the two right side windows. The wiring for the 110V Onan Generator is denoted with dashed lines around it stating it is an optional installation. The 2K1 boxes all came from Wilson, however, fully wired for either installation.

I do not know how exactly the permanent chorehorse was mounted to the floor of the Gen Box. Of the dozens I looked at at Princess Auto, I could not make sense at all of the surviving hole patterns in relation to the mounting holes for the chorehorse. I did find three 2K1 boxes with the same heavy steel plate shown mounted to the floor in your photos. The one with the two big grab handles. Coincidentally, those three 2K1 boxes also had a steel bracket holding a metal shroud mounted to the upper right corner of the Gen Box, above the two rifle brackets. Next to one of these brackets was a paper notice advising the Onan Generator must never be operated before this shroud was clipped in place over the exhaust pipe. It mentioned the model number for the Onan Generator, but it was unclear what was actually being protected. The other odd thing was that the presence of this plate setup strongly suggested that if an Onan 110V Generator was installed in a 2K1 Wireless Box for whatever reason, it must have been portable. Must have been a damned brute to move as well.

Sorry for the long winded rant.

David

[Larry Hayward]

Robert,

By chance do you have any scale plans for your Wireless body, as I'm looking to create a model of one?

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

As an impressionable young lad of about 16 years old (although I did own my MB already) it was the Paisley show that cemented my love of CMPs and carriers. At the show was Steve Alford's carrier, somebodies 13 cab F15A painted desert yellow with a dark green mickey mouse pattern and your C15A wireless that I ended up buying. Somewhere I still have photos of the event I'll try and dig out.

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

Bruce,
Processed and printed my own B&W film back then..Jeez…who could afford colour..

Very nice to see the 83-385 on the door of the radio van. Going to follow up on that for sure.

Never discovered that as I had done a quick repaint of the whole vehicle after the valve job...using Duck Hunters Brown paint purchased at the Canadian Tire store in Port Elgin. A surprisingly close match and semi-matt to boot.

The box was a bit Tatty after being rescued from a wrecking yard..and the cab and chassis was post war glossy green. So the quick repaint really tied things together.

Now it can be told…the paint was still wet the next morning for the Paisley Rally and Parade.

Here it is as found..about a half hour drive from Paisley. Parked out the back of a man's place.. after the engine died.

He told me it had come out of a Borden auction. He had thrown away the useless radio box and substituted a more useful one from a pick-up truck.
Plywood sides for hauling firewood and sections of galvanized culvert for rear fenders..

Totally stock ..still had the original tires and side curtains.. but the round canvas roof hatch cover was long gone.

That little boy is now in his mid 40's…and the father of two..

God help us.

Wonder where your jeep ended up.

Dennis.

[Dennis Cardy]

Bruce,
Would definitely like to see some photo's from the rally. Have a bunch buried somewhere.
Came across this newspaper shot from the Owen Sound Sun-Times. Do you recognize any of the people or the vehicles..??

Dennis.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

Bruce,
Would definitely like to see some photo's from the rally. Have a bunch buried somewhere.
Came across this newspaper shot from the Owen Sound Sun-Times. Do you recognize any of the people or the vehicles..??

Dennis.

Driver of the first M38A1 is the venerable Dennis Cardy. The M37's driver behind I think is Ted Dente. Brian Asbury is driving the M38 following.