Not a build as much as a resurrection?

[jim lee]

I bought an ex WWII army truck (Dodge WC53) that had been pretty much worn out and forgotten in about the mid 1970s. The original plan was to restore it. But it quickly turned into seeing if we could use it for off-road camping. I guess people call this "Overlanding" now.

Anyway, I've been keeping a blog abut getting this old machine up and running again.

If anyone is interested : Carryall Build blog. There is a link on that page "The story starts here". That will lead you to the beginning.

Enjoy!

-jim lee

 

[Hulk]

What a beauty man you have, looks awesome

 

[jim lee]

Thanks!

-jim lee

 

[MoreGone]

Wow, I just see all kinda of potential in that rig. What a beauty. I don't think I have ever seen one of those before. Although it does sorta look like the buses that drive all over Glacier National Park.

 

[58-fc170]

Welcome to the old truck over landing club.

That beast looks like a promising start to a serious rig.

 

[Bouncer]

Nice. cant wait to watch this thing evolve.

 

[Road]

I bought an ex WWII army truck (Dodge WC53) that had been pretty much worn out and forgotten in about the mid 1970s. The original plan was to restore it. But it quickly turned into seeing if we could use it for off-road camping. I guess people call this "Overlanding" now.

Anyway, I've been keeping a blog abut getting this old machine up and running again.

If anyone is interested : Carryall Build blog. There is a link on that page "The story starts here". That will lead you to the beginning.

Enjoy!

-jim lee

That is an awesome beast, non-directional military tires and all, and is just so cool looking. I'll check out your thread link, but think you ought to make a thread here, too. It definitely qualifies as build, far as I'm concerned. Lot of guys post 'build' threads for retro-fits and resurrections.

I'm envious, man, and wish I still had the workshop space for that type of project.

.

 

[Terry Pickens]

Beautiful rig to restore / build.

 

[ohiowrangler]

WOW, Now that's cool, can't wait to see the end product, Ron

 

[jim lee]

Thanks guys!

I love it when it runs. But today? Today I'm digging in to pull out the transmission. Its a whole extra layer of hurt working on an ancient machine like this. Why? Because for 75 years people have been hacking up the mechanicals, everything tends to be either a frozen ball of rust or a glob of prehistoric tar-like grease. You sweat bullets trying not to break fragile possibly irreplaceable parts..

And as you dig in, and break stuff, (whoops) the project grows uncontrollably. Even if you don't break things, you tend to uncover things that you need to deal with. Right now I'm taking a break to post this because I think I found where the body is settling down on the frame and its -just- about to hit the driveline.. You can see where a previous owner jammed in a 2x4 to hold the body off the frame.

Groan.. This tranny swap deal may have just grown into a month long project.

Its all part of the process I guess..

-jim lee

 

[Road]

Thanks guys!

I love it when it runs. But today? Today I'm digging in to pull out the transmission. Its a whole extra layer of hurt working on an ancient machine like this. Why? Because for 75 years people have been hacking up the mechanicals, everything tends to be either a frozen ball of rust or a glob of prehistoric tar-like grease. You sweat bullets trying not to break fragile possibly irreplaceable parts..

And as you dig in, and break stuff, (whoops) the project grows uncontrollably. Even if you don't break things, you tend to uncover things that you need to deal with. Right now I'm taking a break to post this because I think I found where the body is settling down on the frame and its -just- about to hit the driveline.. You can see where a previous owner jammed in a 2x4 to hold the body off the frame.

Groan.. This tranny swap deal may have just grown into a month long project.

Its all part of the process I guess..

-jim lee

Heh, oh my...yeah, projects like that tend to grow side projects. If it's any consolation, we're all rootin' for ya!

 

[Smileyshaun]

The great thing about a super old build is if you decide to change power plant or drivetrain it's a complete open book , most anything will fit

 

[58-fc170]

Ah the joys of old vehicles.
At least consider your self lucky most of the fixes are straight forward and not chasing some electrical gremlin through 4 different fuse boxes and numerous sensors and control modules.

 

[jim lee]

For those of you that are following the build log. There's an update tonight : Carryall Build blog

@58-fc170 I love the simplicity and lack of "features". It does what you want with so little. Mostly iron. When I finally got tired of sparks falling out from behind the dash board, I rewired the entire truck. That would be kinda rough on a modern car. Nothing on this is microscopic, so you can fix most anything.

-jim lee

 

[Rusty burbin]

I went to your thread and it's seriously cool! I dig these old trucks!

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[58-fc170]

Don’t be to worried about redoing the body mounts. Some simple sheet metal work and rubber mounts and it will be good as new. I tend to like the cj-7 jeep polyurethane puck body mounts for vehicles that mounts aren’t available any more.

 

[jim lee]

I did an update to the blog. Mostly I 'm in the middle of gearbox Hel.. Land! So its basically a lot of pictures of gears and shafts. Trying to source replacement parts as we type.

To make life easier I put a link to the blog in my signature. Newest will be at the top.

-jim lee

 

[jim lee]

Replying to myself? How sad..

Anyway, for those of you following this. I just did an update to my build log. As always, the link is at the bottom of the page here.

Enjoy!

-jim lee

 

[58-fc170]

Excellent use of the dish washer. :)

 

[jim lee]

Donno' about the dishwasher. It couldn't get it dry enough. I've used it for cleaning up RC cars and BOY does it work well for that! You need to make sure they are as clean as possible BEFORE running them in there or you'll be in big dodo.

Was able to get the machine up and running enough to take it camping this weekend though. I'll do an update later, but here is at least a teaser pic.

Got a great campsite! And even the weather was nice!

-jim lee