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I saw this parked behind the museum yesterday. Very nice.

You are wise to place a disconnect on the batteries for safety and durability reasons. I would place the cut off as close to the battery as possible on either leg of the circuit (positive or negative). This will cut down on the chances of having a hot cable shorting out while the truck is unattended. Most fire apparatus came equipped with a "Cole-Hersee" built switch that allowed the use of either or both batteries. The switch is widely available and runs around $40.00. I also found a marine application switch on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Battery-Switches/dp/B01E53G7QI/ref=pd_sbs_263_7?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01E53G7QI&pd_rd_r=S4RPF8VBJ648T2C2SQ5Y&pd_rd_w=7PrhO&pd_rd_wg=Svupr&refRID=S4RPF8VBJ648T2C2SQ5Y I use "Battery Minder" maintainers on all of my trucks and other applications such as the golf cart and equipment trailer. They will not overcharge the battery and have a de-sulfinater feature which extends battery life.

And to get the addition to the museum done ASAP!

Very nice. If that is the original FDNY E-65 I believe it used to sport the logo "It ain't easy being green" from the Kermit quote.

The 67 - 72's hardly ever rusted; 73 - mid 80's came from the factory equipped with rust holes in the fenders. If there are survivors out there than they are probably sporting after market tin or they lived in the desert.

And I thought he was referring to her eyes.

Correction - Cal Little sold his last Ford pickup with about 100,000 miles on it to an ex-friend.

They could haul so much weight because they lightened themselves up by rotting away.

I believe the West Barnstable FD has a similar truck. It might be worth a phone call.

Missing it this year. The DW and I are in the midst of an 8 week trip through UT, AZ, and NM. I hope everyone has a good time.

I think glass work is much easier, and should be less costly, then metal work. There are no issues with shrinking, warping, or stretching metal like there is when you weld a patch into sheet metal. This is particularly true in your case since you have full access to the back side of the hole.

I have never done automotive glass work, but I have fixed lots of boats in my time. I don't think it will be a big deal. Clean the back side of the hole, rough it up, coat with resin and patch it with glass. Re-coat with resin and squeeze out any extra resin. The front can be filled with resin or Bondo. Getting paint to match will be the hardest part of the fix. If it is a large hole you may need to build up the surface with glass and resin before you complete the final finish. The key to working with glass is to remember that the strength comes from the glass, not the resin. Use only enough resin to saturate the glass and do your best to remove any excess resin before it hardens.

That is pretty much the standard package. Same comment; I hope a suitable donation was made.

I hope you sent them an appropriate donation. The museum is a non-profit and donations help keep this invaluable resource available for all of us.

I am not a painter by any stretch of the definition, but I do my own work, so I have been forced to learn some things about paint matching along the way. When it comes to matching old paint, especially reds, you will have a chore to get it right. Take a panel that you have polished to a good automotive paint supplier and have them scan it to try to come up with a match. It will probably not match completely, but it will be a good starting point. From there you will have to keep adding tints to get what you need. The best way to do that is to use an accurate scale (a kitchen scale that precisely measures ounces or grams works best) and carefully track how much of which tint you added by weight until you get the match you are looking for. A very small amount of tint can make a very big difference in the color, so don't add a lot to begin with. (1 oz. of black in a pint of red will give you purple, not dark red as you would expect) In my case the first scan was way off and a second scan was closer, but not quite right. Since one was too dark and the other too light I mixed them by weight until I found what worked. All total I ended up spraying and sanding off about 6 or 7 times until I was happy with the match. The paint shop will also have chips that have a hole punched out so you can hold them against the panel to see what matches best. You really need to do this in full sun light to get the best match. I was fortunate to find a paint supplier who really worked with me and let me take the chip selection outside to get this done. This helped confirm the scan results. I start out with a 10 oz. base and add tint 1/2 oz. at a time. If 1/2 oz. is too much you may need to start with more base. You will then need to paint a panel to see if it matches. You can try a small swatch, but in my experience this will not give you an accurate match. If the paint doesn't match sand it off and try again. It is time consuming and can be frustrating, but in the long run it will give you a good finish.

If you have a PN, you may try calling some of the major fire apparatus dealers in the hope of finding NOS. A competent machine shop should be able to make one in a very quick time frame.

Did they provide a part number?

Have you contacted Hale?

Albert, Contact the museum and ask for the shop drawing of the part you need. It should be easy to make.

Not you and not just Ford, but in general people tend to sometimes take a persons opinion of an item at bface value. Most every manufacturer makes something or does somethiing that leave a person scratching their head. Chrysler's Lean Burn, Caddies 4 6 8, GM's Geo Metro,Chevies 305/350 soft cams, Vega's Aluminum Silcate block with a steel head gasket and Cast Iron head, GM's 4100 3 main bearing block and Fords Pinto fuel tank, the list goes on. Amen! (and you left out the infamous GM 5.7 diesel) We had a saying in the fire service that it's not OK to train on the citizen's property. I wish the auto manufacturers felt the same way.

Richmond RI I assume?

The ad says "Glider Kit". So is just the running gear new? I'm more than a little cynical that it is "new" in the way we think of most products being new.

Not to hijack the thread, but in addition to Mack58B42's well thought out comments I'll add that the way tankers, or tenders for the western crowd, are used has changed quite a bit over the last 25 years which has dictated a different design than was commonly used before. In previous generations most departments used the tankers as on-site water sources, whereas they are now used to supply portable tanks which other pumpers can draw from while the tanker leaves the scene to get more water. This requires "quick dumps" which the driver can operate from the cab, a feature that is tough to build into a home made conversion. The insurance industry drove some of this since property owners can now get lower fire insurance rates if the FD can prove they can sustain a certain flow of water on the scene by using tankers in lieu of hydrants in rural areas. Also, going away, tankers are the most dangerous type of apparatus to drive in the entire fleet. Having a modern chassis is at least helpful in making it safer. I consider tankers so dangerous that I believe they should never be operated with red lights and sirens, a pretty radical thought for the fire service. Why? A tanker that arrives a little later to the scene is much more effective than a tanker that wrecked on the way and never made it at all.

The gent I bought my toter from was a drag racer and he mentioned that one of his concerns was winning money while racing and thus being considered a "commercial venture" that would require a CDL. He checked with a state police officer he knew and basically the officer said if anyone tried to stretch the law to that point they didn't belong in law enforcement.

When I was in Kodiak, AK they called this "termination dust" as in the termination of summer. Time to put away the flip flops and get out the mukluks.