2010 at the Hammond Barn

[cletrac (RIP)]

If May 26 or whatever was the hottest day yet, your CMP sweep must have been a looooong way east of the Rockies!!

[Grant Bowker]

The 23rd was toasty warm around here. Well clear of the snowy mountains but still well clear of the cool damp coast. Since there was no crawling on the ground involved, I would have prefered the snow (perhaps not all of it but some cooling would have been nice) that some western stations saw.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by cletrac

If May 26 or whatever was the hottest day yet, your CMP sweep must have been a looooong way east of the Rockies!!

You westerners have my most heartfelt thanks - your weather kept the "global warmers" quiet while we sweated it out here in central Canada. It looks like we are getting some of that cool western weather tonight - the temp will dip to 17oC...

[RHClarke]

Bob usually gets one or two boxes of CMP goodies each month. June's deliveries were larger than normal...

[RHClarke]

We had 30oC+ weather in May, but June's weather is plain nuts! It was 10oC this morning when I arrived at the barn. The good news: the bugs were not very active, and sweating was minimal. However, one step out of the barn insured you got very very wet. Some fella named Noah was rounding up wood for his boat project.

Bob and Grant spent the day conducting various indoor tasks including the removal of broken off manifold studs. They are getting quite good at this task. Bob helped me purge the HUP brake system and verified that the HUP's bearings were properly loaded.

The next task was to fit the driver side door to the HUP. A bit of background is necessary here - one of the first bits of work I contracted out on the HUP was the repair of the driver side door. Its frame was racked and the skin was beyond economical repair. The hinges were a mess as they had been broken more than once and welded a number of times. The lower hinge was welded directly to the door itself. The upper frame side hinge was welded to the frame. I sent the work out to a recommended metal banger in the west end of Ottawa. The door came back looking like it came right off of the assembly line - less the junked hinges. A test demonstrated that the door fit the opening very well. I felt that the money spent on the door was well worth the result. That was about five years ago.

Recently, I attached a pair of newly acquired "unique to the HUP" hinges to the door and attempted to attach the door to the frame. Things did not go well. Once attached to the frame, the door would not fully close. After some head scratching, the Hammond crew moved on to other tasks.

Today, the door was put in the frame with the hinges attached to it. As the photos show below, there is a misalignment of hinges. The problem stems from my rash decision as a CMP rookie to send work off to folks who were not familiar with our trucks. The metal banger thought (as did I) that the angle on the hinge end of the door was as it should be…Wrong! The metal should be at an angle of 90o when compared to the outer skin. It isn’t.

The three of us discussed various solutions to this little problem. It was suggested that I find another 45 HUP door – easier said than done as good 45 HUP parts are getting to be as rare as rocking horse dirt. It has been almost eight years since I got the HUP, and further delays awaiting parts is not my preferred option.

The next suggestion included the removal of the door skin and banging of the metal back into position. Considering the money I paid for this door, that suggestion didn’t gain too much traction.

Next was to drill new holes in the frame, but the location of the present holes show that they are there for a good reason – they are drilled in the center of the interior cab support bar that joins the windscreen to the lower part of the cab frame. Drilling new holes through the end of the bar would weaken the structure - so no go.

The most workable suggestion we came up with is to extend the length of the frame mounted hinge part. We are looking at welding 5/16 thick metal bar stock to the end of the frame side hinge, filling the holes and then drilling new holes. The “purist” in me had reservations over this move, but I have lots of frame side hinges, and if I am lucky enough to find another driver side 45 HUP door, then a quick fix can be affected. So, that’s the path ahead.

Unless you have some reasonable suggestions??

[RHClarke]

One of the good things about being "between contracts" is that I get to spend more time at the barn. With the new house pretty much set up to the missus' satisfaction, I have spare time!

This Thursday turned out to be quite exciting. After spending a few quiet hours working on things metallic, I heard a car splashing along the barn access road. Visitors!

Clive Law and Don Dingwall stopped by to pick up Law the Younger's Iltis. After removing the swimming pool liner, Clive connected the batterys and tried to start her up. No such luck. Fuel was added to the tank and some was dumped down the carb. The little green truck roared to life and then died. This noise attracted the Hammond airforce in great numbers. It seems they only attack clean people...

So, after much swatting and fuel supply trouble shooting, we cleaned the carb's interior and gave her some more gas. The little truck roared to life again and stayed alive at high revs. After a few minutes she managed to idle at a reasonable rate of rpms.

Clive added some new veterans plates to the truck and Don drove off in search of more fuel. Clive chased Don down to Cheney and nothing more was heard. I trust they made it back to Ottawa as Clive posted last night.

You never know who will show up at the barn...

Photos:
First - Clive and Don (well hidden in back) remove the pool liner from the Iltis.
Second - Clive just after having his bell rung on the roll bar.

[Stuart Fedak]

Nice to hear that another Iltis is on the road. I hope to see the Iltis at Bob's BBQ in a few weeks time.

The big trick with starting the Iltis is to pull the choke on (left side of steering wheel). It also helps to pump the gas a few times, and pull the manual throttle half way out (right side of steering wheel). If the engine rpm is too high, reduce the manual throttle, till it warms up. Don't forget to push the choke back in once it is running OK.

Cheers!

Stuart

[RHClarke]

Bob is at it again. This time his challenge was to figure a way to move his 20ft sea can around the yard. It was suggested that he weld some wheels onto the box, but he came up with a better idea. The following photos show his creativity. A sea can wide square tube axle is slipped into one of the forklift slots. The end assemblies are then attached to the tube and secured in place by some long pins. The front end of the box will be lifted by the tractor and the sea can will be moved like a rather large trailer.

The really interesting thing about the end assemblies is that they can be used for moving other items - such as CMPs that are missing wheels or have "frozen" wheels.

Good job in my opinion.

[Young_Law]

Originally Posted by RHClarke

Clive Law and Don Dingwall stopped by to pick up Law the Younger's Iltis.

Thieves!

Bob, you may want to add security to the property. These hooligans are not be taken lightly.

[RHClarke]

Both Bob and I intend to have our CMPs running for the BBQ. To that end, we had our carbs sent out for rebuilding, coating and flow testing. The new carbs have arrived and by all reports, they look fantastic. We will see if they work as good as they look.

I have been working on various HUP bits and pieces including the small front fenders, the small floor plate (which grants access to the starter/brake master cylinder) and the crank centering/support mount on the front bumper.

My HUP fenders were a mangled mess that I had bent back into reasonable shape. The major challenge was to replicate the curve on the outside of the fenders. After hammering the hell out of the metal and making more of a mess, Bob suggested that I take some other CMP fenders and cut the rounded parts off and weld them to the plates for the HUP fenders.

A spare set of fenders were pulled out of the shed and we discovered that the outside or exposed dimensions of the fenders were the same. The bolt patterns were off by about two inches, but holes can be easily filled and new holes drilled. A quick side by side comparison showed that the larger donor fenders could be cut down to "HUP size".

The donor fenders were marked and then cut to size. The holes were filled with weld and ground down. New holes have been marked and will be drilled later this week. Photos of the end product will be posted later.

The floor plate for the HUP is similar to a "normal" CMP but is about one inch narrower. I cut down my "normal" plate to fit the HUP. As luck would have it, the holes match the large floor plate, so no drilling was required. I had to remove the flanges (which set the doghouse into place), cut them down to size and re-weld them to the small plate.

The crank support was rather easy to fab up. Flat steel stock cut down to the requisite dimensions, drilled and filed accordingly. It took about an hour to make it. It was then attached to the bumper by bolts that had their heads ground down to resemble rivets.

A few more steps forward!