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A lot of books have been written about Mack, but most focus on the corporation and not on the products. In the fire truck arena I'd recommend any of the Harvey Eckart books as a good guide for the various models. Another resource is the Mack Museum. They have shop drawings of almost every part Mack ever made. A request should be accompanied with a donation.

Any idea of the chassis number or where it came from?

I remember going to the Allston Branch in the late fifties with my Dad to get parts for his friend's B model. Probably 57, 58, or 59. I know it was before the Turnpike extension was done.

Light water is a type of chemical foam used for hydrocarbon fires. Since it is apparently from a chemical company, although the door looks like it is the standard Memphis FD logo, my guess is it was used as part of an in-plant response for any incidents at the plant. It is not a water tanker (or tender for you West coast types).

German engineering at it's finest.

Dom, Make sure your restorer has done a fire truck before and you are able to go see the work that he did. I have seen far too many cobbled up "restorations" on fire apparatus because the restorer didn't have a clue about what is correct or not correct on a fire truck. IMO the only thing worse than not restoring a worthy truck is spending the money to have a half-assed restoration done that actually makes the truck less worthy. Things like plastic wire, stick on gold leaf, incorrect plating, and aluminum diamond deck are all big no-no's that show up on a lot of "restorations". If you have not done so I strongly urge you to call Doug Klink and at least talk to him about your project. He is very knowledgeable and is a very nice guy who I'm sure would be willing to spend some time talking to you. Here is another resource you may want to contact: http://www.texasfiremuseum.org/They do restorations and have a beautiful Mack LS125 sedan cab from Long Beach, CA that they have done. Look them up and give them a call.

I find it pretty amazing that it takes a year to build a fire truck and you can completely disassemble it in a couple of weeks. Nice job!

Not to be too obvious, but have you been to a good radiator shop? They are getting harder to find, but there should be one somewhere in Philly that can help you out.

I'd put the L's in there too, but it's kind of like picking your favorite child; they are all great.

That is an A, not an L. Love the pictures, thanks for sharing.

I have exchanged a few e-mails with Ken over the last few weeks concerning his planned trailer modifications. I keep needling him to come back, but he seems to have his mind made up that he is going to stay away. I think he will eventually relent and come back. Randy; A lot of the "Ken is leaving" was on a private post, that is why you cannot find it.

I would still check out a B or R regulator to see if it can be modified to make it work. My bet is they are pretty close.

That was exactly my thought.

Congrats. What a great way to use something that probably would have ended up at the crusher.

Got issue 3 today. No big boo-boos that I saw.

Check eBay for the water manifolds. A seller has had a set on there for quite awhile. If not still listed I had a set made at Cattail Foundry in PA.

And in my time a bottle of Bennie's beside them with a load of produce behind them.

There are some B model doors for sale in the parts section if you are still looking.

I hope so, but I'm pretty pessimistic. For a magazine called "Vintage Fire Truck" I thought they could have done a much better job of identifying the trucks in the gold leaf article. At the very least a quick model and year identification. I subscribe to magazines like this because I like truck porn and I want more of it. One of the things they always stressed in classes I attended that taught us how to deal with the media is that the media are media experts, not experts on the subject matter you deal with. I think this is a classic example of this; they know how to put a magazine together, but they don't know old fire trucks.

Mack was way ahead of it's time. Makes you wonder "What if" they had come up with the idea of intermodal containers instead of McLean.

Mack's answer to the C cab Ford.

Welcome; The first thing you need to do is to write to the Mack museum with the chassis number of the truck and ask for the truck's history. The service is free, but a suitable donation is welcomed. It will take a couple of months, but they will send you any delivery pictures they have as well as a complete owner's/operating manual along with the build sheets for the truck. This will give you a basis to start from. Secondly, put a picture of the rig on here or at the very least put the chassis number on here. You will be overwhelmed by the knowledge of the folks here and they will help you out immensely.

I finally got the second issue today. So far I am not impressed in that it seems to contain more factual errors than I would expect from any publication. Statements such as the one that "Mack purchased Ahrens-Fox" are simply not true (they bought out Beck for the bus business and ended up with the remnants of A-F including the design of what would become the C model) and I would hope any publication would do a better job of fact checking before an article is published. Here is a link to the history of the purchase: http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/35258-mack-beck-inter-city-buses/ And not to be too much of a nit-picker, but the article on the Pompano ALF states "no expense was spared in the restoration" and goes on to feature a photo of the back step where two building type soda-acid extinguishers are mounted; something that would have never been on the original piece.

Hey it's only one county away from PA! At least I was close.

What style? 9 bolt or 15 bolt?