1944 C-15A-Wire-5 Restoration

[RichCam]

Well Gents,
Jim and I finally got all the bits, parts and pieces together on the C-15A today! I couldn't believe how long it took to get the throttle cable properly mounted and I figured out that the best way to wire the instrument panel was to take the driver's door off. Other small details like engine timing and slight carb adjustments seemed to take most of the day. Anyways - at 3:30pm - I fired up and took off down the side road on my first drive in a CMP! Shifting didn't seem too much different than the carrier except the truck rolls a lot better however that centre gas pedal had my foot searching a couple of times! Upon return to Commercial Pallet, I had a few more things to tighten up and adjust and then we were off for a highway test. Jim and I took her down #117 to Baysville, a short johnt of about 5 km. According to the speedo, it was doing 40 to 45 mph in 4th gear, no problem! We stopped in Baysville to do a once over, front and rear brake drums, lights, tires, etc and then headed back to Commercial Pallet. Attached are some pictures of the C-15A after we got back.
Tomorrow, we are off to a Huntsville Dutch Liberation Day lunch. I won't have the Radio Box on the back, I'm going to bob tail up and back. I want to make sure everything shakes out before we put the box on the rear axle.
Cheers!

[Peter Duggan]

Richard,

Enjoy your CMP time. You certainly earned it. Keep the pictures and updates coming.

Peter

[RichCam]

On Tuesday, May 5th, a small group of locals celebrated the 70th Anniversary of Dutch Liberation Day at the Schat Bakery in Huntsville, Ontario. The event was spontaneous in nature due to our reliance on favourable weather and vehicle availability. As it was, our jeep participate experienced a transmission issue on the ride into town and was not able to attend.
However, we were able to parade the Huntsville Legion MkII carrier down the main street, park both the carrier and the 44 C-15A on the street, have a nice little lunch and achieved our goal of maintaining the awareness of historical significance of the day.
I must say, driving the C-15A down the back roads from Baysville to Huntsville and back was quite enjoyable if not loud! The truck was very smooth to drive and I was comfortable hitting speeds of 45mph without straining the engine or developing any type of speed wobble or excessive vibration.
Attached are some pictures and a YouTube link provided by Cogeco TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSzggOZ8Xu0
This week - the Wire 5 Radio Box goes on!

[RichCam]

As with anything over 70 years old, it takes longer than anticipated to "get 'er done" but the exterior window, window screen and interior sliding windows are now complete and installed on the Wire 5 box. Jim and Steve did a great job rebuilding rusted frames, forming new ones, freeing up mechanisms and restoring latches and sliders. The interior of the box is going to be restored by the new owner. Not shown are the 5 black out curtains and interior louvers for the roof vents.

[RichCam]

Attached are some pictures of the present state of the exterior of the Wire 5 Box. I have to mount the No.19 radio antenna storage tube and the new owner is going to install the sliding step underneath. Unfortunately, the box did not come with the lower stowage racks. I am going to assume that these were removed when the box was originally mounted on the trailer to provide adequate clearance. I should be able to mount the box on the C-15A chassis this Wednesday or Thursday for a test fit. Will follow up with more pictures.
Regards,

[Dennis Gelean (RIP)]

Thanks for posting this, love to see pictures of the black out curtains. the spare tire holder is the correct one. 2 cmp seats were used in the van bolted to the floor. I have a original ws19 radio table but need plans for the slide out tray the holder in the front is for a fold up table that was supplied with the penthouse. the devil and the money is in the details.

[RichCam]

Guys, it has been a busy summer and I'm spent a good portion of September on the Wire 5 project. We had problems with the HEI coil and electronic ignition/distributor system on the 250 engine. I pulled it out and replaced it with a more traditional mechanical points, distributor and coil. Next, we couldn't figure out why I kept loosing acceleration, especially under load. We discovered a major vacuum leak in the carbutor so I pulled that out too and replaced it. Now the engine runs tickety-boo. Smooth idle, no smoke and much more simple plumbing - just the one vacuum line to the vacuum advance.
With the chassis running properly, it was time to lift out the Radio Box this morning and get it on the frame!