New to the Shilo Museum:WW1 Cadillac Ambulance

[rob love]

I now have a camera at work. Due to the yellow lighting here, all photos will still have that tinge to them. CE told me that once we burn a few ballasts, they will change them all to LED.

Front right wheel is off. I have sandblasted the components, POR-15d and painted them....they are drying as we speak. I hand sanded the first wooden spoke and painted it to see how it works. The next one I will try simply cleaning the spoke with xylene and see how it looks painted, and perhaps save many hours of sanding.


Anyway, a couple more shots to test posting them from the work computer. Well I guess I can't post them directly since there is some missing security token, so here they are off photobucket.

[rob love]

Got the first wheel done a couple days ago. Because the wooden spokes would not take well to the sandblasting, I totally disassembled it. Steel parts were blasted and POR-15'd followed by a coat of OD in a close match to the original paint. The spokes were sanded down and given several coats. Only had to replace one nut, otherwise everything else came apart OK and went back together fine. There was a little pitting on one roller of one bearing, but I was warned they were extremely expensive, so it will remain as is. The hub cap, being aluminum, was not sandblasted but rather soaked in some carb cleaner and the numerous chisel marks were smoothed out a bit.

Spent almost 3 days in total on one wheel. This is going to be a slow restoration.





Also, here is a shot of the starter generator. Looks like someone converted it to be pulley driven at the starter end.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by rob love

Anyway, a couple more shots to test posting them from the work computer. Well I guess I can't post them directly since there is some missing security token, so here they are off photobucket.

That means they are too large to attach. Please resize and attach them to your postings as photobucket will discard them one day making this thread worthless.

Thanks
Hanno

[rob love]

Hanno

I'll give it a try.

Adited to add: Eureka....it worked. Thanks Hanno. Too often I seem to blame the government computer when it is just simple problems. While there are some extra layers of security involved with this computer, it does seem to be the simple thigns that cause the issues.

Much like mechanics blaming the onboard computers for car problems these days. More often it is the simple things like spark plugs or connections.

[rob love]

Work is now underway on the Cadillac troop carrier. I am trying not to use the term ambulance as I found nothing on it to indicate that use.

Got the fourth tire together and installed the other day, so it can now roll on the floor. I moved it to a more active area of the shop so I could start working on the cargo box and tarpaulin.

The vehicle is to be part of a WW1 display starting on 1 July, so there is no more time for procrastinating. The hope is that we can preserve the original wood, but it has had significant shrinkage (as George Castanza would say) and is now a full half inch less in width than needed to match up with the holes in the metal brackets behind. I removed the 3 bows and today managed to get the right side off the cargo box. We have put a call in to the CCI about the proper methods of preserving the wood. With the amount of material missing, there is going to end up being a choice between moving the holes in the wood to match the metal, or putting new holes in the metal. Personally, I don't like either choice, but lean towards moving the holes in the wood.

The other alternatives are to try and add 1/2" onto the boards width, or else get new boards made.

The good news is that I was able to remove all the nuts and bolts with no breakage. I did order a bunch of hardware from a place in the us called Blacksmith's bolt and rivet supply who have most of these fasteners available, including the square nuts in about 4 different styles. If I do run into stubborn nuts I can merely split them.

Here are some photos of the present state.

[derk derin]

It's amazing what a new set of tires does to improve the look of a vehicle!
The paint on the side stowage lockers looks yellow? Is that the color they are?
Great looking project but dissapointed it's not an ambulance!!!
Regards,Derk

[rob love]

Originally Posted by derk derin

It's amazing what a new set of tires does to improve the look of a vehicle!
The paint on the side stowage lockers looks yellow? Is that the color they are?
Great looking project but dissapointed it's not an ambulance!!!
Regards,Derk

The truck was painted yellow overtop of the Khaki. The Khaki was overtop of the original Cadillac Black on those portions which were factory. On the woodwork it would appear to have been primed in grey, so it ended up being khaki over grey on the wood. The wheels and hubs were painted red overtop of the Khaki overtop of the Cadillac black.

My thoughts are to gorilla glue the wood back together, reinforce and repair any gouges with expoxy, sand it all smooth, paint the wood with POR-15 grey, then paint the wood outside surfaces with semigloss olive while the POR-15 is still tacky. Of course, my plans will depend on what the conservators say. I could be out to lunch...I am but a lowly mechanic so I'll see what the experts say.

Front fenders will be removed if I can and lightly blasted, painted with POR-15 black, then overpainted with the semigloss OD. The hood will be chemically stripped (it is aluminum), then possibly zinc chromate (substitute) followed by the khaki.

I have ordered all the "common sense " fasteners for the tarp from the DOT manufacturer. All those fittings were ordered in government black as per the originals. Only problem with the new stuff is they put the word "DOT" on top of the little turnbuttons. The oval head slot drive screws to hold the fasteners were ordered through Blacksmith supply.

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Rob

I have had hit and miss success with overpainting POR while it is still tacky....... I know they say you can do it and it may depend on how tacky is tacky...... in a few instances it resulted in the top coat of OD to have a crackle finish........ and only a sand blast will get you back to the original surface.

I would suggest you do a test scrap piece first and take notice of the temperature and humidity during your test......

It may also depends of the actual chemical composition of your top coat versus the content of the POR...... would just hate to see you mess up a fantastic vehicle.

Cheers

[rob love]

I am attaching some photos of the MT section in Camp Hughes, and their conversions. It would appear they liked to use model T cab and chassis. There are some vehicles in the background, including one ambulance that seems to have the hood of a Cadillac.

These photos came from Grant Tyler, who has been part of the Camp Hughes Conservation group for as long as I can remember.

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by rob love

I am attaching some photos of the MT section in Camp Hughes, and their conversions. It would appear they liked to use model T cab and chassis. There are some vehicles in the background, including one ambulance that seems to have the hood of a Cadillac.

These photos came from Grant Tyler, who has been part of the Camp Hughes Conservation group for as long as I can remember.

Hi Rob, not a Model 'T' to be seen in any of the 3 photos. I am not sure what the chassis are, but hazarding a guess, I would say that they are the Hudson 1/2 ton chassis based on the Hudson Super Six. That chassis was used for passenger cars, ambulances and as troop carriers carrying up to 8 troops.

Regards Rick.

[rob love]

Thanks for the information Rick. These older vehicles are way outside of my normal scope of interest, so I have a lot to learn.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by lynx42

Hi Rob, not a Model 'T' to be seen in any of the 3 photos. I am not sure what the chassis are, but hazarding a guess, I would say that they are the Hudson 1/2 ton chassis based on the Hudson Super Six. That chassis was used for passenger cars, ambulances and as troop carriers carrying up to 8 troops.

Regards Rick.

Was just looking at 1916 Hudsons on google and the radiator does not seem the same. In the one photo you can see a partially assembled truck where it looks like the military is actually building the cowl. It will make it much harder to identify the vehicle if that's the case.

If there is an old car guy who wants to take a stab at IDing the vehicles, I can email a higher resolution photo that can be increased in size to help identify.

IDing those trucks is a bit of a red-herring in all this, but since camp Hughes is only a half hour from here it will still be good to know.