C8A HUW restoration in Greece

[Haridimos]

At February 12 we took delivery of a veteran C8A HUW truck, after a lot of months of negotiations and waiting. Thanks to our french friend Philippe, all went well, and our dreams came true!

The adventure to the magic world of HUP's had just began!

Some photos of the first days in Greece.



The truck is in reasonable condition, but there is a lot of work ahead for everybody. We have desided to go on a ground up restoration, to give a new life to her.
From this point I'd like to thank Hanno Spoelstra and Allen Tooes, a former HUW owner, for their help.
Today, we removed the nose and upload the engine. All went well according to schedule!

Kostas

(continued.. )

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Kostas

Great to see another of the HUP family being restored. Looks like you have a very good starting point.

How is the running gear and engine?

Cheers Phil

[Haridimos]

@mr. Phil,
I have to admit that I feel myself "lucky" for two reasons. The first is that the time when I was looking to get a local C15 or a C15A from a very few and tired remained here, appeared out of a sudden that HUW for sale infront of me, and the second is that at the SAME time YOU have started the overhaul of your legendary HUP, so your progress -presented so wisely at your site- is a big course of lessons, not only for me, but for every MLUer..

Feel absolutely free to make any comment you like, I will read you with great respect...

Nikos (L) and Fanis(R) removing the nose, the radiator, a help of a hydraulic jack , the crane.
We decided not to remove the cub, before uploading the engine. Made a mistake?

[Haridimos]

Some more photos from yesterday's operation of uploading the engine.

We planned to pul out the engine in two stages with the help of a small but very strong crane.
Finally, we got it! The 235 engine was out in the open air!

Third foto : Nikos(L), Kostas(M, Haridimos) and Fanis(R).

[Haridimos]

Back to work! This is a last week's photo. The HUW without her engine waiting patiently for our care.

More news to come next week!

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Kostas

Glad to see you are making progress on your HUW. Been working away on my HUP steadily but sorry to say have not kept up progress postings on MLU or on my own web page. But your work and others this summer is prompting me to get caught up on posting the Overhaul process on my HUP.

Cheers Phil

[Haridimos]

I took the doors and the wings off, and Im ready to lift and separate the cab from the chassis.
At the same time Im scratching a rear door from sheet metal and some bits from an old rusty one.



@mr Waterman:
One other reason for posting the restoration work is to prompt and encourage each other to go on..

You are the leader for the rest of us, don't forget that!

kostas

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Kostas

Just as I was reminded, remember to get the 4 bolts through the frame of the body and the chassis at the front of the body. They are kind of hidden from view so easy to forget.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Cheers Phil

[Haridimos]

Hello Phill,
Thanks to you and R. Clark (HERE) we saved a lot of time and pain, and we finally managed to remove the body from the chassis. We remove the front sections and we found the hidden bolts. Everything was there.
The chassis revealed in a tired and rusty shape, but the good thing is that there are no cracks or other lethal damages..

Next phase is to sandblast the chassis and other parts in the comming days, as long as we have the weather on our side. Three weeks without any rain...


The 1st photo is from mr. Waterman's site. 2 to 5 is the HUW.

[RHClarke]

Haridimos,

Your truck looks to be in great shape. I note with interest that the "skids" (in the 4th photo - the curved rails on the bottom of the frame) on your HUW have not separated - a common point of failure on Heavy Utilities. You may wish to inspect them to make sure that cracks have not developed. If they have, a simple weld repair will do.

Keep up the great work!

[Haridimos]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your comments and the recommendation for the "skids". I remembered that you have a similar talk with mr Waterman about cracks on that area of the HUP's body, (with some photos also! ), but to confirm that I have understand exactly where the point is, a post a todays photo of how the "skids" looks to me..:



Thanks again for any help!

Kostas

[RHClarke]

Kostas,

Your right side red arrow indicates the most common points of failure for the skids. My passenger side skid separated from the frame and failed at the weld.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi

Agree with Rob the passenger side is most likely place to break or crack, drivers side is a little different design which looks to be stronger.

Tough place to get the welding torch into, did one pass on the crack lines with the body was on its side and then did another with it back down on the stands.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Cheers Phil

[Haridimos]

Rob and Phil,
Again many thanks for your advices, and Im sure that without having them whole thing would be much more difficult to bring it out and I could dare to say impossible.

Now, some dirty work against our enemy: Rust!

Passenger's door before, with some rust at the lower part, and after surgery:



Note the laminated layers of paint , the very first initially was dark blue, after that was canary yellow, and the last was something between brown and grey..
For that reason I didn't find any stencils or serial numbers at all..

[Haridimos]

My HUW served as a wrecker in she's civilian life, so they have modified the rear part of the body butchering the upper of the door to make room for the crane. What a sin!

Here is our work yesterday, before and after the surgery:

[Haridimos]

The left rear door before and after medical treatment:

[Haridimos]

One problem that from the begining seemed to me like a nightmare was the total absence of the rear door.

Allen Tooes from the South Hampshire UK, -friend of me now! -send me a HUP rear door, but it was so rusty so I used it as a pattern to make a new one.

I think the final result is very satisfying.



(to be continued)

kostas

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Haridimos

One problem that from the begining seemed to me like a nightmare was the total absence of the rear door. Allen Tooes from the South Hampshire UK, -friend of me now! -send me a HUP rear door, but it was so rusty so I used it as a pattern to make a new one. I think the final result is very satisfying. kostas

Satisfying indeed. Excellent work. Did you make a construction diagram for the door?

[Rob Fast]

Many years ago I was in touch with the original owner of this HUW and he sent me pics of the rare and tough to find door/blackout switches. Did you get a hold of these parts as part of your deal with Allan and if so can you post some detail pics? Cheers Rob

[Haridimos]

Originally Posted by RHClarke

Satisfying indeed. Excellent work. Did you make a construction diagram for the door?

Νο Rob, we just dismantle the rusty door Allen send to me, we extracted the lock-door assembly and we made a copy of the hole thing inch by inch. We transplant also the hinges.

At the last photo Giannis measures the distances from each side, was 42 cm, or 16,53 inches.

[Ken Hughes]

Hello Kostas,looks like you know what you are doing,you are making a very good job of the old girl,i am impressed

[Haridimos]

Originally Posted by Rob Fast

Many years ago I was in touch with the original owner of this HUW and he sent me pics of the rare and tough to find door/blackout switches. Did you get a hold of these parts as part of your deal with Allan and if so can you post some detail pics? Cheers Rob

Rob,

Please check your PM's

Kostas.

Originally Posted by Ken Hughes

Hello Kostas,looks like you know what you are doing,you are making a very good job of the old girl,i am impressed

Thanks Ken!

[Haridimos]

Chassis sandblasted and primed yesterday.
Before and after:



Well...I know what you will comment..: That I need a good set of tyres!

[Phil Waterman]

Hi

Great progress, you are making is amazing progress. I'm a year out on my overhaul of my HUP and you are rapidly catching up. So I'll stop typing and get out to the shop, and work.

Cheers Phil

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi Great progress, you are making is amazing progress. I'm a year out on my overhaul of my HUP and you are rapidly catching up. So I'll stop typing and get out to the shop, and work. Cheers Phil

I'm seven years and counting on my 45 HUP project. Both you guys make me look lazy. Keep up the great work.

[Haridimos]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi

Great progress, you are making is amazing progress. I'm a year out on my overhaul of my HUP and you are rapidly catching up. So I'll stop typing and get out to the shop, and work.

Cheers Phil

Hi Phil,
Do not apologize for yourself, the key difference is that you work in one -say -scientific way and personally, as a beginner at the CMP world, whenever I have a technical problem, I refer to your site and the data base.

Keep going Phil!

kostas.

[Haridimos]

A little update on the works:

Before and after:



More pics to come tomorrow!

Today is Balentine's Day, and my wife is gonna kill me if I stay longer above the PC pad!

[Alex van de Wetering]

Excellent work Kostas. Ready for Normandy 2014?

Have you had any luck in finding tyres yet? I have asked around, but no luck yet.

Alex

[Haridimos]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Excellent work Kostas. Ready for Normandy 2014?

Hi Alex,
The Normandy 70th Anniversary is indeed a brilliant milestone that everybody here wish to be present. We have two and a half years ahead!

Have you had any luck in finding tyres yet? I have asked around, but no luck yet.Alex

I found two pairs of used HANKOOK 900X16 tyres in a dealer's yard here and that finding really surprised me... didn't know that Greek Army had such Korean material...

A little more progress:
The rear left corner before and after...

[Haridimos]

Some more:
The rear RIGHT corner before and after treatment.. I think that rust is a common thing at that place of a HUP and I remember that mr Waterman faced the same problem...
I have to check his site again...