1941 WC-1

[morrisguy]

AWM pic of 1/2 tonner in New Guinea mud

[morrisguy]

Northern Territory , Australia . Another AWM pic . Now after all that , who said that 1/2 tonners didnt serve outside of the USA ! For those who dont know it, we had a real shootin war goin on down here , the Japs bombed us many many times , they landed reconasiance parties on Australian soil and their subs sunk ships right down off our Southern coast .
Mike

[gpw_42]

Morrisguy: thanks for your pics, and the reminder to all of us about what was going on in Oz/Pacific before we (the US) started fighting in N. Africa (Aug 42 for the USMC at Guadalcanal, 8 NOV 42 for the US Army in N. Africa). The pics are awesome to see the trucks in use (both in the mud and with the Aussie lasses!). For anybody who hasn't been there, I'd STRONGLY recommend a trip to Townsville, Queensland (as a general tourist, not MVer). When I visited there 10 years ago, I was amazed by the friendly folks...

Thanks also for the suggestions on tires/breaking it down to a chassis/cab. I'll get after breaking it down here in the next few days - a lot of the front sheet metal is already pretty loose, so I hope that won't take too long. I got into messing around the engine a little last night, and the pics of that should come tomorrow - definitely for the UGLY category! I might end up putting a couple of old radials on the front (I've already got one...) just to make it easier to steer.

Steve

[jameshawke]

Hi
It lookes a good find,and a good basis for the restoration I would be interested to hear about your project as I'm also restoring a WC1.
Good luck

[Dozerman51]

I have a book that shows both open and closed cab T-215 1/2 ton's up for surplus sale in a garage in Dieppe France after the war. Who say's they never went to Europe. You can clearly see the American stars on them.

[Ray Edsall]

G Day all .And Mike . Just to clarify Mikes remarks about a shooting war going on down here in 1942 .It started for us in Sept 39 . We had German raider and U boats operating along our coast line from the start . The first American ship to be sunk in the second world war was the City of Rayville .Hit and sunk by a mine in Bass straight, layed by a German raider in 1940 off Cape Otway .Only 1 fatality .He lost his life when he went back to retrieve his wallet . My Uncle, who was a fisherman at Apollo Bay at the time, went out in his fishing boat to rescue them, along with other fishermen from the Bay ,A day later another Ship hit a mine off Wilsons Promatory. Lang Kidby posted some pictures off early Vc and Wc dodges in a bone yard in Papua /New guinea a few years ago .Some where near Port Morseby .I believe . Ray

[gpw_42]

OK, as promised...I've just been slower than I'd planned.

Left rear fender rust


No telling what it'll look like after the sandblaster does his thing. Anybody know what's the right gauge of sheet metal to weld in, for a patch?

Right side windshield frame


Back window


Not too bad, but will need replaced. It'll be nice to repair the wire mesh and make it all line up neatly again.

Interior


Dashboard


I considered saving this for "The Ugly." Speedo is shot; gauges will likely be replaced. Glove box will likley be replaced; unfortunately, the glove box lid is gone, so no data plates with it. Am anxious to get the build card request out to Chrysler Historical, so I'll know the right info to punch into the repro data plates when I get to that point.

Speedo, seat frame and windshield frame concern me the most; the rest seem to be a matter of elbow grease and restoring.

No pic, but the driver's door mechanism doesn't work like it's supposed to. Not too big a deal, but had to stop twice between the CA state line and home after the knucklehead at the Ag inspection station messed with it. Oh well, minor details, and that's what restoring one is about.

The Ugly may come tonight or tomorrow - depends on getting some more pics of some engine compartment details.

Steve

[FrankUSMC]

On your missing seat, just watch e-bay or shop around. On both of my WC1s, they were missing the seats. I got very lucky twice and found very nice seats shopping around for the bench seats for Dodge trucks from around 1939 and up. The last set I found on e-bay a year ago, got them at a very good price. They came out of a Dodge 1939? pick up. They did not even need recovering.
Good luck and keep us posted.
One of the few. Frank USMC RET

[Gordon_M]

it'll have some good info, but the date of manufacture on the build card might not be the date of delivery.

The D/O/D is the date it was accepted into service by the Quartermaster or Ordnance inspector. It could be the same date it was built, or weeks / months later, depending on batch size, whether it was accepted first time or something needed reworked, etc.

Get the build date, then check the serial number and D/O/D listing. We really should have a list of trucks with known D/O/D and compare the build card info for this.

[gpw_42]

Well, here it finally is, The Ugly! Trying to clean enough rust off the engine serial number pad on left side to see what sort of engine it is (T2xx?); so far, no luck. T207 would have been original, but...the truck was manufactured under contract W-398-QM-8286.

Frozen engine, complete with rat's nest in #1 cylinder:



Little buggers had 3 acorns in there!

Next, the extracted rat's nest:





Is that a cosmetic casting flaw, or a crack, running parallel to the length of the block? Any way to test, with the engine in the truck? All 6 cylinders now sitting in about 1/4" of Marvel Mystery Oil; sure hope it can do magic work! Intake valve in #1 broken for a long time; exhaust valve in #4 may have broken while bringing the truck home. The top of the valve looks encouraging, as it's in good shape, not pitted or nasty with exhaust. Maybe it it was running clean, whenever it last ran?


Yesterday I broke off a spark plug in #5 cylinder head...1/2 the "bolt" part was rusted away, and I guess I didn't wait long enough for the WD-40 to do its thing. Same with one of the water outlet elbow screws, so decided to just let the other alone.

Bondo above driver's door:

Anybody know what gauge sheet metal, to get a replacement? That's gonna be a chore to bend it to fit naturally. Also, the bottom of the cab, directly below this, looks like it'll come back from sandblasting full of holes. All intact now, but...the good news is that this seems to be the only Bondo in the whole truck!

Rust in frame crossmember:



That's pretty ugly, as the bottom portion has come loose from the top.

So, that's the ugly...at least as I know it now. I'm sure my list will revise [hopefully only The Good and The Bad, no more Ugly! ]as time passes. Almost got the gas tank out yesterday, and hope to send off to get ReNu'd tomorrow or Saturday. With luck, will have it down to a chassis/cab by Sunday.

Steve

[Gordon_M]

Mig welder is your best friend.

Blast that windscreen frame and just keep putting MIG weld in it till it is solid, not a particular problem.

The cab top corner needs to be cleaned inside and out before you can repair it. All that metal is thick, and my preference would be to do a blast clean, including down the screen pillars and behind the header panel, then just place a large patch of metal behind that cab corner and MIG it into place, then shape from the outside.

Watch for rodent waste material, don't touch it or breath it. (Weilles disease or something like that) Wash or blast, then disinfect, then repeat.

If you want cheered up a little, start at the BOTTOM of this page and work up;

http://www.gwim2.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/td20u.htm

I had to do this with my TD20 cab, but luckily every other square inch of the metal on the truck was rock solid.

Gordon

[gpw_42]

Gordon, thanks for your words of encouragement, and wise advice! The pics on your website are amazing...how'd you like a trip the CA desert? Suppose that would have been a more tempting offer in January/February...I will be resorting to you for advice as this process moves forward, as my headliner is only in slightly better condition than your's was. Do you get to drive your TD20 much these days?

That reminder about rodent feces is on target - back in 1997 we had a guy in my battalion die from Korean Hemorraghic Fever shortly before I arrived in Korea - so I'm familiar with your point, and had forgotten about it. Hopefully I'm done with any of that sort of thing (without taking any precautions, so I'd better say a prayer!), but dumped some more acorns out of the gas tank yesterday when I got it on the ground. Who knows what else is rattling around inside there, as I haven't yet gotten the sending unit cap off. After my abortions on the head, I'm trying to let the oil do the work for me!

I was also VERY surprised at the color of the OD which was under the hose on the gas tank filler neck. The OD was MUCH more green than usually associated with OD (esp. for early war!). Need to take a pic of that before I send off the tank for ReNuing. I think that was the original 1941 filler neck hose, judging from its condition and the wire clamp holding it in place.

Thanks again,
Steve

[Gordon_M]

No problem Steve, I was well warned about the rodent infestation on the TD at it came from the US, and apparently there is a desert mouse of some kind round that way which has a particularly lethal variant of that disease, hence the wash and disinfect twice...

The TD is not yet complete. All the parts are there, just needs plumbed and wired but loads of other vehicles to work on too. take a bout two weeks with the right facilities and sufficient enthusiasm, getting the engine professionally rebuilt and the cab roof fixed was about 70% of the entire truck restoration.

The chassis crossmember you have there is quite crummy too. I think you'll need to look hard at it, and the other boxed crossmember up front. All this is caused by dirt building up inside the crossmember and blocking the drain holes, which then allows more water and dirt to build up. You'll find it reached a level of 1 or 2" high so you have four points on the side of each crossmember to deal with. No huge deal, MIG is your best friend again, but with those missing rivets it might be a case of pulll it and replace with a rust free one.

It never stops.

[george]

WOW acorns It looks like you are going to do her justice

[gpw_42]

Can anybody decipher the significance of these casting numbers?
Left rear of the block (either 1119729-15 or -35):


Left side just forward of the distributor hole (I believe it's 6 10):


Serial number boss. I can't make anything out, and have scrubbed repeatedly with a wire brush. Can anybody enhance enough to make it legible?:


The cylinders now have diesel added to their Marvel Mystery Oil bath - I've got to go out of town for a couple weeks, and this will be a perfect time to let the lubricants do their thing without me around to be impatient and screw up their work. The good news on that front is that I was able to remove that broken off spark plug in the head.

Removed the oil drain plug and all the oil in the pan is a gooey mess, almost the consistency of grease. Poured some diesel down the oil filler tube, and will let it sit to see what happens. Might have been better off to just drop the pan!

Believe it or not, I've been trying HARD to avoid the siren song of the engine compartment and focus on the bed. I've gotten all the subfloor removed, in reasonable condition (considering where/how it started) so that I'll have forms if needed. I ordered replacements from John Bizal, so doubt I'll need them, but...

I need/want to launch into the rear axle before reinstalling the bed, and just realized (!) that I should do the welding on the rear of the cab before reinstalling the bed. I guess my plan of doing things in chunks of the truck is falling apart:)

I've been getting some good info out of the Forum's archives - there's a treasure trove of info there!

Steve