Well, after a week hiatus, I'm back.
I had promised to bring a vehicle to the local Memorial Day services and,
as you all know, didn't have the Carryall done. But, I have this Emergency
Back Up historic military vehicle, a 1966 M274A2 Mule. It runs, but has
it's share of problems and had been serving as a Carryall parts table for
the last few months. I decided I could get it display presentable in time
for Memorial Day.
It just needed an inner-tube patched, a fuel tank replaced, exhaust issue
fixed, and.. oh yeah, paint.
I put a sheet of plywood in for a floor on the Carryall and moved all the
parts into it to make way for Mule work.
Paint isn't all that hard if your prep only consist of wiping everything
down with Naphtha and masking the data-plates.
I had a chance to play with my knew air ratchet. Sweet! Took the fuel
tank off in 3 minutes. Those of you contemplating an air compressor
purchase, DO IT.
I also painted a set of Command Car seat frames for my friend, Deryk
Walker, who was trying to get his newly upholstered seats back in his WC56
to make the same event.
Anyway, late Sunday night / early Monday morning found me scampering around
the neighborhood in my freshly painted Mule. Later Monday morning I drove
it onto Mike Hewitt's trailer (thanks AGAIN Mike), loaded the kids in the
Cherokee and traveled the 2 miles to the cemetery. Drove the Mule off the
trailer where it promptly died. I guess it was appropriate, being at a
cemetery and all, but couldn't it have waited until after the services?
Anyway, trouble shooting reveled no spark so it couldn't even be push
started. The display area was uphill and although the Mule isn't heavy, it
is 4 wheel steer and difficult to push. So there it sat while I took my 3
year old daughter back home for a change of clothes. (She had decided to
go swimming in the memorial fountain while her older sister's back was
turned and dad was tinkering on the Mule.) When I finally got back I used
the starter to walk the Mule back onto the trailer, and beat a hasty retreat.
No, I didn't work in the garage Monday night... I slept. No, I didn't work
in the garage Tuesday night... I didn't want to hurt something.
Last night I went back to work on the WC53. I moved all the parts back out
of it and onto the freshly painted Mule shaped table. Then I patched up a
couple holes. Someone had made a "field expedient" modification to the
Carryall when they had trouble with the captive nuts that hold the
passenger side rear fender on.
Drilling would have been too easy, so, near as I can tell, they stuck an
spike through the hole left by the captive nut and drove a hole through the
inner wall of the truck, just behind the wheel well. Then they used a LONG
bolt to hold the fender on. It worked so well they repeated it again on
the next missing captive nut. The resulting holes look like bullet exit
points and I did my best to flatten these miniature volcano shapes. Then
skim coated with Bondo.
Chris Davis
MVPA# 20000
Lake Forest, CA
'42 WC53 Carryall
'66 M274A2 Mule (FOR SALE!)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:41 PDT