ranchhopper

A little more progress yesterday and today got the new cab lights mounted on the roof resealed the roof where its spot welded to the rain gutter and got the front springs and axle beam painted. I went with red because the truck chassis was painted red at the factory in Hayward California Im saving the worst until last the drivers kick panel is a mess it needs some extensive work maybe next week I will get to it.

The whole truck was pin stripped I may redo it Im going to number and letter it in old west style letters.

I always make things harder on myself I could just go all red but that's not enough of a challenge I guess.

I have finished the cargo bed for the RS now on to body work and paint I matched the paint so close there is no distinct difference where I shot the new paint and where the old is. I did clean up the frame and shot it today the rear frame had real bad pitting under where the fifth wheel was bolted that got wire wheeled and primed with POR-15 before painting the roof was shot with fresh paint this morning tomorrow the front axle and springs will get wire wheeled and cleaned up and maybe get some paint I had to replace the air tanks yesterday they were real thin where the straps went over them. The air cleaner canister came off the parts truck as did the straps to hold it on the mushroom, air canister and new cup on the bottom were painted last week and reinstalled the kick panel was repainted behind it as well. There was several small holes in the pillars along side and over the windshield they have been repaired and the pillars shot with paint the doors are still original I have not painted them and I cant tell the difference standing beside them or from far away. The driver side kick panel is a basket case Im going to try to repair it and make it look presentable for this season until I can find one for reasonable price to fix it. Lastly the hood Im going to take it off and paint it in the shop it will be painted dark blue on the top down to where the body line starts over the fenders and follow the line of the hood to across the doors and around the back the blue part of the hood will have white stars and they will follow the blue stripe across the doors and the rest of the hood and fenders will be the same red as the rest of the truck.

These have been sold.

Its a hand hold you grab that when climbing up on the bumper to get in.

A little update on the progress of the bed going on the RS everyone else was making me feel lazy with their restoration work so heres an update on the progress. I went to a friends sawmill and picked up some kiln dried ash wood for the seat slats stained them and two coats of polyurethane later they came out pretty good Im not a fan of painting wood hiding its natural beauty. I fabricated up a much lighter tailgate than the original and just this morning welded it to the hinges everything is fastened with stainless steel hardware. This has been a bit of a costly endeavor with paint at $250 dollars a gallon not to mention the reducer and hardener and all the stainless steel carriage bolts but worth it the veterans will be happy to sit on new benches in this years parades all that needs to be done to finish the bed is finish the rhino liner on the floor the sides were done last week and the polished aluminum diamond plate inserts that go between the ribs on the bed will need to be installed when they arrive this week sometime. The tractor is next some fiberglass work and paint will spruce her up for the summer until next winter when I will take it apart for a complete paint job.

Those were the old powder wagon fleet I bet they are high mile trucks but they should be all open road miles.

OK it wont be until tomorrow sometime.

I have a set of aluminum bottoms from my RL parts truck I would sell it may be a bit before I get them off the truck because I have to move it to where Im going to disassemble it. I need it to run so I can get it over to the shop I sold the tops to a member here so all I have is the bottoms.

I have a 73 donor truck the cab is junk I can take the parts out for you and ship them but it will be a couple weeks I have to be able to drive it to the spot where it will be stripped down for parts.

This one is at camp dodge in iowa I bought a few deuces and generators there the IANG guys there are really good guys.

Some of them have rippers on the back instead of winches that was probably a cat and pan combo at one time.

The military must have bought thousands of these they come up for sale all the time same model low hour machines many with newly rebuilt rails nice old unit.

I was looking for the dry weight in my mack books yesterday either I overlooked it or it wasn't there thanks Dave.

Look at the bright side Mike could have been a LOT worse.

Im sure the tractor can handle 2300 I put a 500 pound counter weight on the three point two years ago.

That's a bit heavier than I figured it would be .

I have a 237 to pull in a month or so I need to know the weight so I can use my ford 4000 industrial tractor or have to find something else to do the job.

Im going with a set of military LEDs they are 12 volt 195 dollars a set.

OK will do.

They are sold but I figured I would leave the ad up until they are gone.

I had the carbs rebuilt from my 2N tractor and 49 CJ3A jeep came back looking just like that its amazing what people that are professionals who do that for a living can restore something like new.

The dimentions are top of the box are 20 inches long 16 inches wide front is 10 inches high and 16 inches wide. The one box is heavier than the other I repaired where they broke the welds with 3/16 aluminum rivets and ran a small piece of steel angle iron along the front to stiffen it up the other could use the same thing on the bottom.

Hard to find one who admits they voted for the campaigner and chief all the years he has been emperor I have only had a hand full of people who proudly admitted voting for him.