The WC53 Carryall thread .

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

The excitement of watching this project come full circle has been awesome.
I would love to look at it closely in person.

[Bruce in BC]

The great sewing machine operator fiasco

IMG_1412.JPGI bought myself an old walking foot sewing machine. It needs a clean up, oiling, a new belt and if I was serious about attempting to sew seat covers it would need a servo motor too. I made a few boo boos and a few messes but I managed not to sew my finger. The machine is stored in my shop, and covered. I got it as far as the front entrance to the house and did my first sewing there. Now that we have christmas guests the machine is destined to return to the shop. Apparently my sewing machine can not reside in the sewing room. Big old industrial sewing machines may intimidate those whimpy newer dress machines. Sewing machines, welders, grinders and table saw sawdust are not compatible. It may nap in the shop but using it in there would ruin the machine.
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So the result is a bunch of green leather shift boots and one emergency brake cover. The closet lever is a split boot for the twin shift transfer case. transmission is next and in the back ground is a lay down style shifter for the middle transfer case. You can just see the end of the emergency brake boot sticking up beside the passenger seat. Now I need to make a bunch of bezels for these things. The boots are far from perfect but they will do the job.

Cost of leather was pretty much the cost of tearing apart four leather couches and disposing of their carcass's. The sewing machine came in at fifty bucks which was a great price, and the lowest I have ever seen for one that works.
Thanks for the compliments and interest, we got 400,000 views within striking distance.

[Bruce in BC]

Alex I found a project for your wife.

All carryall owners should have one of these. Just change that car to a Carryall. The year is right. I doubt many of these are left.
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Some waterslide paper and a colour printer and she would be in business. I would pay for one:-)
Might be fun to come up with a different tag line
" United states department of phenomenon" or some such thing
" Dist 51 test and research area"
" Dist 51 restricted area access "
" Dist 51 authorized access" now that would be cool and toss a little space ship in the scene, say above and behind the Carryall in the decal. The space ship would need to be in blue, up in the sky, small and obscure.

[Bob Thompson]

How about an A.E.C. sticker? You could say it was based in Hanford.

When Manny's upholstery closed down many years ago, Manny auctioned off all his shop gear. I bought a heavy duty sewing machine that he had purchased right after WWII. He said he had bought it from an outfit in Chino that made canvas products for the Military.
While I was preparing to load the machine I was approached by a guy who had bid against me but had not brought enough cash to get the machine.
He asked if I was in the business and I told him no I like to build cars and I want to learn to do my own interiors. He told me he would give me three complete interiors and three where he would only charge for materials if I would sell him the machine for what I paid for it.
Turns out the guy did nice work and I always felt I got the best end of the deal. He went on to do cars for the Roths, the Sylvestry's and a lot of high profile builders. He did a couple jobs for Boyd Coddington before finally running him out of his shop. The name of the place was Jerry's Top & Upholstery. I wonder if that old machine is still going?

[Bruce in BC]

Kick panel is in

The kick panel is made out of aluminum. Some 40 year old Aircraft stuff I had kicking around, it had a real gross pattern stencilled on the side. The pattern is now covered in leather. The top was bent over because a bit of the wire harness goes through the fire wall in that area.
I made up some cheap bezels for the shifter boots. It may be necessary to make up some better quality ones when time permits.
The fire wall padding needs some additional work to clean things up and look factory. No clue how or what will get done with that area.
Getting closer, all this little stuff takes time. it has to be done before inspection.

[Bruce in BC]

Dodge panels came in two sizes?

This one is for sale in south Dakota. 200 bucks? Looks like a good deal to moi.
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This looks to be about a foot longer than a Carryall, those rear doors would fit a Carryall with a bit of trimming

[Bruce in BC]

Spare tire location #6

This is a new one on me. Imagine lifting that 120lb tire and rim and getting it to stay there while tightening the nuts.

[Bruce in BC]

Is this one of the missing Dodge 4x4s?

At first i thought that this was one of the rare 3 door military conversions, after looking at it a bit more i think it is a civilian truck. No clue as to the location.

[Bruce in BC]

details, details details

Shifter boot bezels and chain socks.
I went back and looked at Alex's tail gate, it sure looks better than mine. I will gut mine and create some stock looking parts for the mechanicals at a late date.

[Alxj64]

Shifter boot bezels and chain socks.
I went back and looked at Alex's tail gate, it sure looks better than mine. I will gut mine and create some stock looking parts for the mechanicals at a late date.

Negative good sir. I am not that happy with it myself. It doesn't fit quite right on the driver's side. I now have better sheetmetal tooling so I feel like I could have done a much better job if I were to do it now. Ohh well. Afterall it is a 70+ year old military truck and I am planning to leave the outside of mine a touch on the rough side so as to additionally not give away the internal modernization.

Not much to report on my end fellas. I am tinkering with my Bridgeport while waiting on pieces and parts to show up. My wiring harness parts should have been here two weeks ago and still no word on them... I was hoping to get that stuff over the holidays so that I could sit down and start working out a pseudo diagram. Otherwise I am just messing with running hoses and finishing the routing on my intercooler plumbing, also finished up my hard brake lines from the MC down to the frame connection.

Because I am OCD about the mil-spec appearance. I am running 3k psi teflon hose with steel braided connections for my Power steering stuff... but I don't want the bright texture of the hoses... I have some better retainers on the way for the looming but who else goes through the effort to HIDE their SS braided hoses? I am working backwards of pretty much 90% of the hot-rod builders out there...





Ohh, and painted the Bridgeport... You can see the tiny size of my garage that my build is happening in.

[Alxj64]

Actually started on some wiring tonight. Using a 37 pin Amphenol for the firewall bulkhead connection. Will I use all 37 wires? Doubtful; but wiring them all up now for eventual functionality. Low amperage rating means most of these will just be switching wires to other relay stuff under the hood. I'm still waiting on my 20 circuit Infinitybox system to show up.

[Bruce in BC]

Cheap !@#$%^& import air tank

I have a import air tank from away. Most likely made in China. Not sure what the issue is but it leaked like a seive. First I used some high end gunk that all the plumbers and gas line guys said was bomb proof. It might be bomb proof but it is not air proof. That tank would leak down in a few hours. Then I switched to teflon and tightened the heck out of the fitting and chased them before doing so. Still leaked at about the same rate. Then I switched to Loctite 545 chased the fittings and tightened the beegeezus out of them. One connection sealed and another did not. So I pulled that one connector and tossed in a new one as well as going back to the 545 Loctite. The air system still looses some air but in 8 hours it has dropped 10 lbs. Not good but it beats what I started with. So both the connections that have the 545 in them do not leak. There are 4 more connections that are super hard to access, I have put soapy water on them and see no leaks but that air is going someplace.
May put a residual 2 lb check valve in each of the lines to the rear bags.

That connector looks like fun Alex.

I may pull the truck out tomorrow and mount the XZLs.....

Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

Drove the truck a few feet today.

No license and I need it to get inspected to get it licensed. Those darn tires are heavy and a challenge to get mounted on the truck. It seems to stop ok, I suspect I will need to bleed the brakes again and check the power steering fluid for air. I was in the back yard backing up the truck and backed over a chunk of the wood pile.. This is in high gear and two wheel drive - did not even spin a tire.
Man is it noisy, had me laughing at all the noise in the cab. There are some serious rattles I need to track down. i snuck it out on the street for a pass- of course my wife arrived home and lectured me about Insurance"

Ooodles and caboodles to do, to get it 4x4 capable.

[Alxj64]

Congrats on the drive! Thats awesome! Think you could get a video of it running?

[Bruce in BC]

Video

I think my camera will do that, but I have never used it to shoot video and then down loading it would be an adventure too. Be a few days before it gets a proper drive. Got some stuff to look at . My volt meter is pegged. Not sure if it is the meter, the alternator or how to check the actual voltage.