mattb73lt

My 2 cents on the hinge arrangements. In my efforts to bring my L cab back, I found about eight different hinge arrangements for the doors. Most had, and early production, two hinges and no vent window. About '48 (might be earlier) they added the vent window. X versions and late production (B73,75,77, C600) had the three hinge arrangement. LM's and off road versions had four or more hinges. Spacing of the hinges can vary even more, but this is usually only on the very heavy off road versions. LT's had two hinges. If it has three, it's usually a cab swap or replacement late production cab. On the lock side of the door there are two dovetails and the lock centered in between. The jamb side has the female receivers to support the door when closed. Lock and inside door handle arrangements are numerous over the production run. I attached pictures of the NOS LJX driver's door I located and used on my B73. Very early door with the single window and three hinge arrangement. It only needed one modification to accept the vent window setup and that was removing the forward glass channel. I'll also say take all of that with a grain of salt. The factory did a lot of stuff to satisfy it's customer's, so custom or one-off versions are always possible. Variations on the production line are out there.

Wow LOOOOONG wheelbase on that truck. I always loved the look of that B series. I grew up around the Weston, CT VFD and was a member for 9 years. That dep't had a 1934 BG pumper they bought new and they still own. In the 80's I was a member of the Muster Team and we drove all over the area to muster in CT, NY, MA and over to Long Island. Great truck and we won a lot of trophies with it. The dep't had Matt Pfahl do a complete restoration to it several years ago and it's better than new, now

I recall seeing this particular B81 on probably one of it's last jobs before being sold. Mid to late '90s in Hartford at the Riverfront Recapture Project, when O&G took over the project after George Tomasso Constr. crashed and burned on it financially. The state fired Tomasso and O&G finished it. The truck sat around the site with a lowboy attached to it, I'm not sure if it was that trailer or another.

WOW!! That looks great. It's going to make a great foundation for the rest of your restoration.

I run a Sheppard box in one truck and a Garrison unit in the other. Both receive 15W40 and work fine. Somewhere in my Sheppard Instructions it does call for Engine Oil for a fluid. What ever I put in the crankcases goes in the reservoirs. Makes servicing easier as I only carry one oil for them.

What engine did you put in? Duplex, Triplex, Quadraplex are all available if it's a Mack motor. You could fit almost anything into it with some effort.

Excellent, great progress and you're closing up on having it done. If you can't post pictures from you're computer, try making a post then editing it from your phone and adding them from there. I've had to do that numerous times to post pictures. I don't know if it's a formatting issue or something. Also, I've waited a few days after taking pictures to post them then dropping them in and they go, no file size issues then. No idea why that happens , I didn't reduce the file size.

You're right, there are some sizes that are very hard to source. From trucks to cars, some older (read obsolete) sizes are extremely difficult to locate and when found are of poor quality if you intend to drive on them. I've sourced a lot of tires over the years from Coker Tire as they specialize in antique vehicles. Years ago I bought a '40 Ford Deluxe Fordor. A mostly original car that came with almost new repro Ford script blackwall tires. While correct for the car, they wore horribly and didn't handle the rain well. I doubt I put 10,000 miles on them before they were worn out. Coker did have some European tube type radials that fit the 6.00X16" rims and those are far superior in wear and handling. I'm still surprised that no major US tire manufacturer offers a 24" tire and we have to look offshore for a source. While low volume, there's still a lot of vehicles out there on them. Has the industry moved so far away from them, is everything from the last 30+ years resting on 24.5" rubber? 24" always seemed the heaviest of applications that I ever saw and for the reasons you stated. It just doesn't seem that a 24.5" tire could compete with a 24" in extreme service.

That was my point for the 24" tires, that all there is, 24" tube types. I've never seen a tubeless 24" tire. Obviously 26.5" don't exist and there's no rim to replace the split rims. Hard to believe they are so hard, if now nearly impossible to source considering all the trucks that ran them.

I don't know if there is a replacement for 24" rims/spokes, Ive never seen any and haven't heard of anything like that. 24" Rubber is difficult to find for sure. If there was a replacement, I would guess it would be a 26.5", reasoning that 20"= 22.5" and 22"= 24.5". I've heard of Chinese 24" rubber people have bought, but don't recall a source for them?

I'd switch them. I swapped both of my trucks, B42 with 20" spokes to 22.5 tubeless rims. B73, I debated long about keeping the original 22" spokes or swapping to Budd hubs. I wanted the look of the Budds and the aluminum rims. Either way it was going to get tubeless 24.5"s. The swap was worth it for the variety and accessibility of tires if I ever had an issue on the road and needed a tire, which has never occurred, thankfully. And they're radials, which wear and ride better. If you drive it or use it I'd make the swap. Unless it's a really great original truck and your desire is to remain factory original.

Yeah, I assumed "busses" in general, I'm just more familiar with school busses.

The only vehicles that I know of that can't run caps on the steer axle are school busses. I only have hobby trucks, but I don't run caps on the steer axle, rear axle(s) ok but not up front. That's just me.

I stripped out a few and they were pretty easy to move around the shop by hand. I'd say 750#'s or so, maybe be a little less. The shell isn't too heavy.

That sounds great. So much to do for the recovery!! The footings look awesome.