Wireless Van C15 Australian

[Rod Salter]

5 Years roll on
Then a chance reading of a post about wireless boxes on Facebook, and some contact investigations led me to a reasonably good chopped off wireless box.
My wife and I do another one hour each way, road trip with a trailer to get it.
A good day away, Looking at his collection and a nice morning tea with him and his wife

The box is pretty good, some dents in the roof where a chain had been tied too short when it was lifted at sometime or tied down to transport.
A short little rust along the lower edge in one section, 3 sections of window shutters, Two very rusty tool boxes with the two water/fuel can brackets and both guards, also a set of steps.

I got straight into sorting and seeing how to put it all together.

The hatch door, direction finder bracket, and 3 window shutters from the 1st rusted box and from the 2nd box - 3 window shutters and a good insulator
Some of these window shutters had a sections of sheet metal (overkill) welded to them

[Rod Salter]

Now on to something I believe I am very good at “pulling things to pieces”

I stripped the upper cabs from both of the drivers cab floors and selected the most complete floor
Then from the cab roof/rear walls I have selected the the square top section, the lower section of the back of the rounded top cab and its hatch, and some of the sides panels to the door opening
I have to unpick quite a few spot welds and a lot of pieces to fabricate, especially the storage boxes over the drivers cab

[Rod Salter]

I tipped the box on its side to examine underneath.
I also tipped the cab floor on it's side too

Under the box the support chassis rails are bent upwards at the front ends and a cross member is dented
Under the drivers cab floor the support chassis sections were gone

Where to get more?
Some of you might want to look away or scroll down now!

[Rod Salter]

I tipped the first rusty box over too, and selected sections of the support chassis rails.
I cut them off with a plasma cutter and grinder.
The porta-power was a big help as it would spring apart when enough cutting was done

In hindsight I did that wrong, it took forever and there was a quicker easy way I thought of later

[Rod Salter]

While the good box was on it's side I carefully marked, photographed, and removed the internal roof strips and sheets of ply
A fresh rats nest fell down showering dust
Most of the canite is in good condition
I removed the external brackets, the insulator and fittings from the roof

I have a heavy section of steel sheet to beat all the dents flat and hopefully round out the top corners
Also flatten the edge where the box was chopped off

[Rod Salter]

I dismantled the drivers cab roof/back wall
I am using the top section with the flat storage box area still on it
I have cut the bottom off and the sides from the rear wall with the rounded top corner
The spot welds were difficult . I eventually got them all into pieces

The tool boxes will need some work too

Before it all gets to big to handle I will get it all off to be sandblasted and primed

[Rod Salter]

I have stripped the chassis of all bolts
When I removed the main centre chassis cross member and threw it to the pile of parts,
It flipped over.
There is a stencilled number on the underside!!!!!
There are enough digits to be an ARN, I wonder?
I dash to the computer and look into the AWM books
The number looked like 63864, which is a water truck
However 63861 is a wireless signals truck
I have now wire wheeled some of the surface and I have found the chassis number, it reads 2844400169R. Which is exactly written in the AWM book, with engine number WR3815726

As an interesting side note, in the AWM book ARN 63862 is also a sig van and the chassis number was consecutive 2844400170 engine number WR3815722. Four numbers earlier
And ARN 63860 another sig van chassis no 2844400171 engine number WR3815882 not even close
These three trucks were perhaps parked side by side when the ARN were assigned to them

Unbelievably someone stencilled the ARN under the cross-member of this truck
How exciting!!!!
I have to wonder if I have Irish ancestors

Keith Webb tells me he has never seen that before, although a few times the ARN has been painted on some removable parts

As this truck was engine-less I am using the engine I am rebuilding as posted in the Chev C60 and C15 Thread http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=34289

This engines number is R2784806 I wonder if it an older engine?
If anyone comes across this number I would be thrilled to know to what truck it was fitted