New to the Shilo Museum:WW1 Cadillac Ambulance

[rob love]

I was already at it with some various lights today. Nothing new to report. There were a couple of anomalies, but nothing enough to be definite.

[David Dunlop]

Rob.

With the current flow of 100th Anniversaries relating to the First World War, it might be worth the museum contacting the Brandon Sun to tell them of this find. Two possibilities: any news article might get you leads on the vehicle, and, perhaps their archives have information about it, it it was a local donation during the war.

David

[colin jones]

Rob, that would have to be privilege to work on such a vehicle and what a great piece of history. 103 years old and quite complete, Wow, just Wow!!
Good luck with the Caddy and I will be watching with interest.
Colin.

[rob love]

Colin, there are a great many vehicles at the museum that I consider it a privilege to work on. There are a lot more 1912 Cadillacs out there than say vehicles like the Lynx scout car or the C15TA. But when you talk about a 1912 military ambulance, that would have to be pretty rare.

Had the director in today looking it over. Got approval for fresh rubber for now. Tubes, tires and flaps are going to run about 2K by my estimate. Thankfully the tires are still in production.

The harder part is going to come in trying to decide on what do you keep as is, and what do you repair or replace. Overall, I think most of the wood is going to be repaired and preserved. Some of it is a little soft, but complete.

For now I'll complete the cleanup. Plenty of mouse droppings and dust to clean out of the box and cab. I'll get the tires done in the next month so that it can be moved, and let the dust settle. I have enough of the tarpaulin to reproduce it quite faithfully, although there are still things to figure out between the end curtains and the cab canopy.

We got the signage from the Elkhorn museum where we got the truck. It has a little history on the initial find and recovery of the truck from Winnipeg some 75 years back. Notable is that they call it an ambulance or troop carrier, so they may have realized the box is not long enough for a stretcher.

[Jack Innes]

Rob,

What an exciting vehicle! The original starter is actually a starter-generator, while running it runs as a generator & is driven by the timing gear train, but for starting there is a shifting mechanism that engages a drive gear with the flywheel. The electrical system is amazingly complicated.
Be careful in freeing the engine, even though it is a big robust car the castings are very thin & fragile. The transmission also is fragile & can break its case easily if something jams.
I can supply a photocopy of the illustrated parts book & maybe the owner's manual for the 1912 Cadillac car if you need them.

Jack

[rob love]

Jack

I may take you up on that offer at some point. David Dunlop aent me a PDF of some promotional literature for the 1912 Cadillac which also contained some parts listings for some of the electrical and mechanical. (Thanks Dave ) I saw that about the starter doing both jobs. As I mentioned someone has replaced the starter/generator with a more conventional generator. A handcrank is on this vehicle and appears to be original including the khaki paint. It would be just like the army to order a cadillac and not have any of the options, although it was my understanding the electric starters were standard that year.

Just finished vacuuming out the body and boxes, meanwhile saving every scrap of anything bigger than a fly.

The tarpulin for the box is quite complete, despite being in many pieces. Thankfully someone had the foresight to leave it all in the box. The canopy for the operators area is 98% missing, and as well I am thinking it may be military as well. The winshield frame is wood, with a neat wooden headboard and a interior mirror the side of a deuce westcoast mirror. It is so heavy I thought it was a step of some kind at first.

Tires, tubes and flaps were ordered from Summit racing today, and as I estimated came out to a ltitle over $2K.

I don't have my camera at work today, or I woudl show some photos.

Anyway, back to work........a civil servant must never rest.

[maple_leaf_eh]

What is the triangular thing resting against the driver's side front wheel?

Is the engine cover off, or missing?

I cringed to see the ratchet tiedown on the old axles. I hope the ride didn't do any damage.

What a tremendous find! And thanks to the local museum for treating it so well since 1949 too. The good people of Elkhorn must have sensed they had something precious even then.

Is there a wagon-maker or wheelwright in the area? Those men know how to build bodies like this one. Species of wood, cut of lumber, seasoning and fasteners are all little details a CF-trained wrench bender won't necessarily know, or have the CFTO for ;-) .

(Send me a DIN message. I have a Camp Hughes map sheet that your folks might appreciate.)