New to the Shilo Museum:WW1 Cadillac Ambulance

[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.)

[rob love]

No idea what the triangular thing is.....I take a pretty crappy picture here in the shop. We have some kind of yellow lights which are terrible for photos.

Engine cover and radiator were off. I have them installed in their proper places now.

They are Bear traps as opposed to ratchets. By pulling forward and backward and outward more so than downwards, you minimize the load on the wheels. End of the day, it has to be tied to be on the road. No damage occurred. A little moderation and balance can go a long way in life.

The Elkhorn museum is quite a large collection of vehicles. It originated from a private colelction and became a town museum. I guess they sensed that if nobody had stepped forward to restore or repair it after 65 years, perhaps it could go somewhere that would. Trust me, we only opened up a tiny dent in their collection of vehicles. It is located right on the trans Canada highway and open during the summer, and I would reccomed it to anyone passing thru Elkhorn.

We have a wheelwright not too far away, as well as some wagon makers in Saskatchwewan. Problem is a lot of this kind of work is a dieing art, and the few guys who still do it can be pretty swamped. This wrench bender does know a little about fasteners, and I'll start ordering some of those tomorrow. I'll have to check for depot stock first before I start ordering them commercially. I am itching to make the tarp for it, but I already have more than a few projects on the go now.

Will do on the PM.

[David Dunlop]

Interesting about the hand crank capability of this vehicle, Rob. Since the electric starter and the electric lighting system were brand new introductions in the 1912 model for Cadillac, it would be somewhat understandable for the military to be wary of the reliability of the new technology and want traditional hand crank starting capability as part of their purchase. The question would be if the hand crank was an "in stead of item" or an "in addition to" item on the vehicle.

Just looking at your photos again and suddenly realized the old girl is RHD. she's going to feel right at home with the CMP collection!

David

[rob love]

Yes, it is right hand drive. Looking at google images for 1912 Cadillac, it would seem the majority of them were. I don't know it the left hand drive version was an option or later conversions.