fxfymn

Happy New Year to all. Hard to beleive it was one year ago to the day that I dragged the 52 home. Time to get working on it for the '12 season.

Welcome to the board.

Here Here! Why is it that we all bemoan every rig that heads to the scrapper and than we poke at someone who made the effort to save a rig? Besides, one absolute maxim about buying a rig is to NEVER believe that a picture of the rig is what it actually looks like. I have looked at a lot of rigs that were beautiful in the picture and turned out to not be worth the cost of the trip to go look at them in person.

Being in the FAA biz you'll like this. Right after high school I trained to be an A&P mechanic. I'll never forget one of my old salt instructors telling us to never mark our tools in case we left one in the wrong place on an aircraft we had been working on. As stated here keep looking for used tools. They are the best bagain out there. Tools are funny; if you need something you'll pay almost anything for it at the time, but a week later it has almost no value. I know a very busy car dealership mechanic who runs three bays. He has a complete set of tools in each bay courtesy of new boy mechanics that had to buy everything new and couldn't afford the payments.

Pictures? First thing to do is to write the Mack Museum with the chassis number and ask for a history of the truck. They should send you an owner's manual. Send along a suitable donation for the service. It's not required, but most folks here consider it the civil thing to do. You should get lots of help from the B owners on this site. Good luck with the new rig and have fun putting it back the way you want it.

WooHoo! As my Mom always said when a loan was paid off; That's a satisfaction a rich man will never know.

Funny you said it's going to Buffalo. My Dad's best friend ran an H model from Boston to Buffalo twice a week for a lot of years. Nice truck. And to answer your question about the diamond deck; most 50 plus year old fire trucks that have been in busy houses have a similar wear pattern on the diamond deck if it hasn't rusted away first. Mine does.

If you have a Harbor Freight in the area you can buy a cheapo gravity fed HVLP gun for around $30.00. The fan is small, but it will beat the hell out of a spray can. They also sell filter/funnels for next to nothing. Search around for painting help online if you haven't tried it before. Great chance to learn on someone else's rig.

There was a concrete plant across the street from one of the staions I worked at where they would put some diesel fuel under the truck and light it off on very cold mornings to get the engine oil warmed up. It always caused quite a stir with the shift rookie when he came running in to report that the mixers across the street were on fire and no one moved.

My bet is that is a yard donkey used by the FDNY, or some other large city, mechanics to move rigs around the shop. Our shops had a similar rig they made out of an old school bus chassis. And while it appears to be an MC or MR I also wouldn't be surprised to find out it was a C or even CF model aerial tractor that had been wrecked and given new life by the shops. If it were intended for a suppression use it would have some type of warning devices such as a siren and red lights in addition to the bell. It also lacks any kind of fire fighting capability.

Great rig and it's always nice to find a piece of family history. I know I'd love to find the L model my Dad drove. Is this your first restoration? If so, don't be afraid to ask for advice here. Take your time, set a realistic budget and than plan on spending twice as much. Seriously, don't start with the body work. Get the mechanicals working first and than get to the body. Once you start removing paint you have no choice but to keep going unless you want to cause further damage. If you sand and than put a temporary prime on it, you will only have to remove the primer again. As the docs say; do no harm first. Good luck and unless you are wealthy enough to pay for someone else to do the work you have all of your spare time filled for your next few years .

The only problem is they are not facts, just distorted statistics designed to make things seem worse than they really are. Against unions? So you would want to give up the 40 hour week, health care, decent pensions, safer working conditions, and better pay so the owner could put more in his pocket. Take the time to read up on the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Is that the working conditions you want to work in? I'm damn proud that my Dad was willing to walk a picket line very three years in order to raise the standard of living for the rest of us. You think it was easy to feed a family without work for a couple of months? He, and the rest of his co-workers, knew what they had to do and they did it. If you are truly far right, as many here claim to be, then you should be in favor of individual choice including the right to organize. I love these so called conservatives who want government out of regulations, but can't wait for government to tell us what to do in our personal lives by regulating marriage, abortion, religious choice, etc.

You can always try CarFax.

Number 1 and 2 just prove what a crappy job we used to do when we built a car. I love the fact that I can buy a new car and expect it to last ten years without rusting out. We still lead the world in manufacturing. If we had been bombed to oblivion 60 years ago we might have had the chance to reinvent our manufacturing and transportation sector. I prefer the alternative. Funny how the author failed to mention that government deregulation is what led to the banks becoming so large. #34 Were aging as a country resulting in many more social security recipients. What a shame better medical care and living conditions have allowed this to happen. And last, but not least; if it’s so great in so many of the countries we are compared to than why are people still coming to the US so they can realize the American dream? A little less pessimism and a lot more optimism will help keep this country great.

The school buses used in Kodiak, AK are not much different than the the first video. All wheel drive with floors about four feet off the ground. No such thing as a snow day in that part of the world.

Merry Christmas to all!

If you read the article you'll find that Ford stopped production of the Ranger due to poor sales. It seems most buyers prefer the F models now that Ford has increased the fuel mileage. Didn't say, but I'm sure they will increase hiring at the F model plants to meet customer demand. Sorry guys; capitalism trumps over politics again.

A $50 Lesson I recently asked my neighbors little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people." Her parents beamed with pride! "Wow...what a worthy goal," I told her, "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that! You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and trim my hedge, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house." She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?" I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party." Her parents still aren't speaking to me."

Ya gotta love someone who knows they are going to sh.. themselves when the tank blows and takes steps to prevent soilage. That's planning ahead.

Along a similar note: The latest issue of Vintage Truck has a warning about a fellow in West Newton, PA who is scamming folks out of money by falsely taking deposits for trucks and tractors he does not have to sell. Goes by William "Bill" Stevenson and he has prior convictions for fraud. Love the quote from the North Belle Vernon (PA) PD "Apparently (Stevenson) no longer lives in the North Belle Vernon area, but "wherever he is living, he is defrauding people." and "You should warn your readers that if you buy anything from him, all you will get is the loss of your money. He has nothing to sell."

I wrap the strap around the circumference of the tire and cinch it as tight as I can. This makes the beads expand out to contact the rim. Of course you need to remove the valve core to get air into the tire quickly as well. I saw a lot of courageous things when I was on the job, but my all-time number one was the gas company welder who would weld a pipe onto a high pressure line while the line was leaking gas in order to stop the leak. He welded a pipe large enough to cover the crack at 90 degrees to the leaking pipe with a valve attached to the other end; when the weld was complete the valve was turned off to stop the leak. I understand the mixture was too rich to burn, but welding on a gas pipe blowing gas out at 25 or more PSI takes more nads than I could muster.

The best "fix" in my mind would be to limit campaign spending to $1.00 per constituent. If a corporation, labor PAC, or anyone else can buy a congressman's vote for that we are in deeper trouble than we beleive.

The best DIY tool I have found for breaking the tire from the rim is to set my pallet forks just wide enough to clear the rim. The weight of the tractor pressing down on the forks has broken every bead I have tried it on. The pallet forks are also very handy for lifting the tires off of the truck. I'm still using the old fashioned load strap to cinch them tight enough to get the air back into them.

In the sad, but true category, most of the activity described here is illegal and considered to be a terrorist act. Seriously, even making the so called Maquiver Bombs (alkali & foil in a soda bottle), is a crime that we arrested & prosecuted folks for. Damn shame you just can't have fun anymore. Now if you take a couple of ounces of black powder and, uh never mind.

Great stuff.