Info needed: TOOL BOX Chevrolet c15a no. 12

[Paul Edwards]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone have a drawing or some good photos of the tool box that sits between the cab and cargo box?

Much appreciate any assistance.

Cheers,


Paul

[Grant Bowker]

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ghlight=george
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=19356 pay particular attention to the attachments (both PDF and JPG) that include a set of drawings/photos

[Paul Edwards]

Thanks Grant,

But..................isn't the number 11 and 12 cabs different as they didn't carry a spare wheel. Is it then is this case a simple top box arrangement, without the hinged ends.

Cheers,


Paul

[Grant Bowker]

Oops, You are right that without a spare tire the lid opens differently (piano hinge the full width of the box). I'm pretty sure the lower part of the box would be the same and I can try to photo/dimension from Bob Carriere's "no spare" box on the weekend (unless we can get Bob to do it sooner).

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Paul / Hi Grant

Yes the tool boxes of the cab 11/12 are different and more than just the top lid.

For example the top lid is slightly off set to give room when open without jamming on the cab..... and inside each corners are provision for storing two POW cans and the bracket serves as a brace for the corners.

Although easier to reproduce that the cab 13 you would need dimensions, heavy gauge steel ( 14 or at least 16 gauge) .....bending is minimal and would be for the lid and the box top along with the two corner braces.

I am currently packing up for a week of cottage holidays but upon my return on July 3rd will work with Grant to take pictures and exact measurements. Except for the lid all parts are flat steel cut to size and Mig welded at 90 degrees. A corner recess has to be cut for the gas tank filler....... as a cab 12 you may be correct to hunt for the filler necks of a cab 13 tank for ease of refilling at the local gas station. Look for a rusted cab 13 box and salvage the neck part which is usually soldered on with lead.....or keep it original as a speaking point.... Stock HD long piano hinges are readily available.

Lifting the empty tool pox is a two man job. You will need to make 4 J bolts that will allow attachment to the frame, two short wood spacers and some folded over steel that sits on the t-case flat cross member.

....unless Grant wants to start getting some measurements/pictures off the ex-Gord cab 12 in the little field...... that box is badly rusted, beyond recovery/rebuilding but a good pattern to measure from...... Grant feel free to remove it if so inclined ...... and use the tractor to lift it off the frame..... the other cab 12 that I used the cargo box did not have a tool box.....

Sorry for the time crunch......

Bob C

[Paul Edwards]

Thank you Gents.

Cheers,


Paul

[Grant Bowker]

Another related consideration - were 12 cab "only" fitted with runflat tires or did the switch to more conventional tires happen during the 12 cab run. This might give you the choice of which type toolbox to fit...
Assuming you are going to use conventional instead of runflat tires for your truck, where do you want to mount the spare, on top of a toolbox (whether strictly accurate or not) or inside the cargo body?

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

Another related consideration - were 12 cab "only" fitted with runflat tires or did the switch to more conventional tires happen during the 12 cab run. This might give you the choice of which type toolbox to fit...
Assuming you are going to use conventional instead of runflat tires for your truck, where do you want to mount the spare, on top of a toolbox (whether strictly accurate or not) or inside the cargo body?

The 2B1 box with its associated tyre free tool box was fitted to early 13 cabs so not much chance of a factory 12 cab sporting a box with fittings for a spare.

My humble suggestion is to keep the spare in the wife's car fallowing up the rear...

[Paul Edwards]

Currently fitted to the truck are some nice pattern Trak Grips tyres (which I believe from memory are RF), so good that Barry Ring used them as his pattern tyres for his new run of "Trak Grips". so I'll run with these for the moment and mount any spare in the cargo box. I'm sure I've seen a picture somewhere with the spare wheel on the roof of the cab.

If I were to mount on the tool box then I have to source the tyre holder and that's rarer than rocking horse poo!

Thanks.

Paul

[Grant Bowker]

Other considerations- a wheel and tire (worse if runflat) are heavy for lifting into the bed, even worse onto to the top of the toolbox, I wouldn't want to try to do it solo.

Putting a spare on the cab roof may have been done by someone, but I doubt it was an officially sanctioned fitting. I think the roof would be at risk of buckling and it would have been a miserable job wrestling it up there.

[Paul Edwards]

Arn't they heavy! I had trouble moving em 1/2" off the ground to pop em the hub.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Paul Edwards

Arn't they heavy! I had trouble moving em 1/2" off the ground to pop em the hub.

Yes, very heavy what with the stamped rims, thick runflat sidewalls and, if you're luck, they are full of calcium powder.

[Paul Edwards]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

The 2B1 box with its associated tyre free tool box was fitted to early 13 cabs so not much chance of a factory 12 cab sporting a box with fittings for a spare.

My humble suggestion is to keep the spare in the wife's car fallowing up the rear...

Bruce that's a very expensive optional extra. First I need a wife! then I'd have to buy her a car! I think I'd have better luck hunting down that spare wheel carrier.

Paul

[Grant Bowker]

A series of photos, courtesy of Bob Carriere, of the toolbox for his Cab 11.

[Grant Bowker]

More photos, including holes in the bottom of the box that were patched before installation.

[Grant Bowker]

Another group, not in logical order as the rusty (pre-work) photos are folllowing the ones with the first coat of paint.

[Paul Edwards]

Thank you Gentlemen that's very useful.

Regards,

Paul

[rob love]

I have to wonder if that small compartment that Bob has a POW can in, might be for the funnel as opposed to the POW. There are already brackets on the 15cwt for 4 POW cans, and as I recall you would be hard pressed to fill the truck without the funnel and spout.

[Bob Carriere]

..... now back from the cottage...... I am looking for measurements in my file.

Or will take new ones.......... from my previous experience repairing mine it seems that the whole box was welded from individual flat pieces except the lip for the top.

If I can be of further help just ask.....

Rob....yes the original short filler neck on the cab 11 was a bad joke..... it can be filled easily using the square funnel or screwing the flex horse cock onto the 2 gal gan.......

I have two such boxes and have seen a few more and they all, at least in the cab 11 configuration..... have the same two pocket slots for the 12 gal POW which assume also serves as a corner brace..... which implies a max of 8 gallons of extra fuel if no water or oil was carried. My rough estimate is about 10 miles per gallon no matter what speed of actual rolling....2x4 or 4x4.

My main tanks have been modified to do away with the reserve sections...... the fuel valves were funky and when doing the POR lining I drilled extra hole in the baffle's bottom......easy to do with the large access cover removed. One quart did both tanks.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

Try this one for size......

Now making corrections and checking measurements

[Paul Edwards]

Thank you Bob you are a star!

Cheers,

Paul

[Paul Edwards]

Hi Bob,

Just been studying your drawings, is there an anomaly between drwg 1 and 2? In the first drwg the height is 10 1/2 total height but in drwg nos 2 the height is 12 1/2 plus.

Cheers,


Paul

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Paul Edwards

Hi Bob,

Just been studying your drawings, is there an anomaly between drwg 1 and 2? In the first drwg the height is 10 1/2 total height but in drwg nos 2 the height is 12 1/2 plus.

Cheers,


Paul

11 gauge / .125 has me wondering. I would have though it was constructed with 18 gauge or maybe up to 1/16" thick steel. Even if 11 gauge (or 0.09") it wouldn't be .125 which is 1/8" thick. Or is it that solidly built?

[Grant Bowker]

Bob's tool box is "solidly" constructed. An accidental brush against a sapling is more likely to hurt the sapling than the toolbox. Even then, there were spots of rust-through in the bottom.

WRT the gauge, I wish folks could actually make a standard be standard. I.E. not changing over time, not being a different thickness for the same gauge depending on the type of metal https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/sh...l-gauge-chart/, not referring to decimal thicknesses by the nearest (but inaccurate) gauge number...

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Paul

Using "gauge" measurements in 2021 is very misleading.....like buying a wooden 2x4 8 feet long..... it is actually 1 9/16 x 3 1/2 in...... you may wind up buying according to metric measurements of 50 or 60 or 70 thou.......

So I have reverted to asking the fabricator/steel shop to tell me what is the standard size he can get that is the closest to the gauge required .... sometimes a little thicker when doing floor items.....

I also have to adjust my building design to my skill levels and sometimes correct obvious (British) weakness in the original factory design.

You may need additional information for building your tool box.... my sketches are not always clear..... so ask away....... the tricky part will be doing the raised lip on the top for the cover.... I can take more closeup photos and measurements.

I can tell you that once finished it is a two man job to lift it on the frame.....and if your cargo box is already in place an overhead device......
That is when the farm tractor with the bucket comes in handy. For inside the barn, I have an overhead trolleys that will lift the vehicle and move it forward or sideways....... a realback saver!!!!

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

There is an unexplained anomaly...... will check tomorrow and post corrections.

From memory I can't be sure which is correct.

Thanks for the eagle eye.

Even with the heavy gauge I had rust holes in the bottom which I cut out and replaced with HD plate...... so nice to do but joints on heavy metal. The local fabricator is very friendly and will lets you sort out and pick pieces from his cut off pile cheaper than cutting from NOS stock

[Paul Edwards]

Bob,

How is the tool box fitted to the chassis? You can see from my photo the chassis cross member is full of lumps, bumps and rivets. Your sketch shows a continuous 50" long "U" section. Should the cross member be packed up with timber above these lumps and bumps before bolting the "U" section down?

Appreciate your advice.

Cheers,


Paul

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Paul.....

Yes you will need wooden spacers. I made mine from white ash, totally painted with POR 15 so they are waterproofed.

Once you have the correct size for each side, before painting them, hammer them in place to create dimples in your wood........ they drill out a matching hole with a suitable drill size..... just enough to accommodate the rivet heads.

The box held in place by four 1/2 inch "J" bolts that will go through the bottom of the box and are fixed inside the floor of the box. The bottom of the J bar goes down by the inside of the frame and fits across the bottom section of the frame and is turned up about one inch........ the other end is threaded and takes a healthy washer and nut.

On the fabrication of the box....... closer examination jogged my memory.... and has written on my rough sketch, the original construction was done in one piece........starting at the lip for the lid near the cab...offset 1/4 inch down and wrapped around the bottom bent up to the lip on the cargo side..... one continuous sheet. The two end caps and the cut out for the fuel filler are added as separate pieces and welded all around.......so is the corner can bracket/holder.

On the side end pieces you need to bend a slight 1/4 in. off set identical to the one on the cab side of the box.... this will allow your lid to close over the protruding lip. The lock hasp is standard hardware still available today. Two Corby locks were used.

My confusion on the one piece construction comes from a repro that we stumbled on that was made from 16 gauge steel and all sides were cut as individual pieces then Mig welded in a home made wooden jig. It looked the part and was much lighter. Not sure it could handle a full load of tools, jacks, chains, etc. but for our parade purposes would be quite adequate. Cheaper, lighter and will not require a "good" fabricator to make the bends. Sometimes you need to consider your skill level, the equipment you have to work with and the size of your bank account!!!!!

Cheers

[Paul Edwards]

Thank you Bob, very helpful.

If you get chance could you check height of the box (as per anomaly above), I can't believe the box to be only 10 1/2 inches high, more like 13 1/2 high as per the second sketch.

Cheers,


Paul

[Bob Carriere]

Yes the proper dimension from top of closed lid to bottom is 13 1/2 inches....

See photo of my cab 11......absolutely ridiculous design...... there is not one service station nozzle that will fit that restricted space.

The cargo box is from a cab 13....temporary use while my 2B1 is being rebuilt.

Funnel and horse cock works well but requires 2 hands at the pump...... directly from the POW is fairly straight forward. I currently carry and use a 2 foot section of Chev rad hose which fits inside the filler neck and allows the service station pump to fit...... watch out for over filling!!!!

Pictures of the longer neck is obviously cab 12 and the special 1/2 thick re inforcement plate is visible.....mine on my cab 11 is hidden has I did my rear cab panel just a 1/2 in. longer when I reskinned.

So the box is composed of one large full width piece all prebent, the end caps, the two inside corner brackets for the 2 gal POW, the lid, four hinges and two hasp for the Cortby pad locks. The corner cut outs are done separately and pre bent one piece.

I would hard pressed to find a local fabricator capable of doing those box bends in one seamless piece and would likely haveto do it in multi piece Mig welded in a homemade jig.

Cheers

Ooops two pict. missing