Re: 42 WC53 Carryall


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Posted by John K. Seidts on February 05, 1998 at 13:55:21:

In Reply to: 42 WC53 Carryall posted by Eric Groth on January 31, 1998 at 23:47:04:

Gordon sent me a rather lengthy email. I am pasting it here, because it saved me from some grief. I am also adding some of my thoughts on the work in progress.

Hi John, a few thoughts on your proposals;

The hidden rear edge of the 'cab' floor is a mass of rust on any
Carryall. Dirt and water get thrown over the back edge and trapped in
the gulley where the power cable runs. The good news is you can make
any repair here strong rather than tidy - as long as it ends up flat
for the floor to bear on. You can pull the whole panel and replace it
with anything that has the same strength plus a channel for the cable -
I replaced 3/4 of mine, and undersealed the lot before fitting the new
wood. You didn't say if you had the floor and / or gas tank out of
the beast, I would advise pulling both, the floor should be quite loose
and would benefit from sanding and cleaning, and the tank would also
benefit from a clean out. When you replace them fit the floor first
and make sure all the holding down bolts and seat plate attachment
bolts are home before you refit the tank - you cant really get a
satisfactory result the other way round, believe me I know 8-( For a
little extra rigidity use a 'C' section channel for the front wood
edge. Refitting the tank will be a swine, try the filler tube to see
if it will unscrew as it gets in the way something rotten when
replacing the tank. I'd leave the tank out until you had done all the
welding and leading you were going to do. Plan on fitting a new sender
unit to the tank too, and even then it will be a little approximate on
the guage.

If you are fitting new wood, and using kiln-dried Oak (as the original
was) LEAVE THE WOOD ROOM TO EXPAND, otherwise it will swell and push up
- experience again 8-( These comments are even more important if you
are planning to fit a whole new floor, which I did with little
difficulty apart from the foregoing. If you have the floor and tank
out you can really get stuck into the body with a gas torch to melt the
lead out, just mind where the fuel line runs. You can also stand on
the ground inside the vehicle, which is ideal for working on window
boxes etc. My Carryall went for blasting as a pile of loose bits plus
a stripped body on a rolling chassis, better for structural purposes as
we discussed earlier.

If I've told you before I apologise, but the repair procedure for any
part of the shell is pretty much similar;

remove the inflammables,
torch out the lead from the subject area (there will be LOTS of it,
normally only visible when blasted though)
grind out the broken or rusted metal joints and the assembly brazing,
mig weld the metal solid,
re-lead the joint,
finish with filler if absolutely necessary.

I'l guarantee that if you try to weld anywhere on the body you will run
into lead or brazing as above, and we know how well they weld, there
will be lots of original assembly and repair lead on your Carryalls
you've never run across (yet).

It was quite easy to repair the front floor and door aperture using the
technique above, and it put a lot of strength back in the shell, even
made the door close properly. Running boards and battery tray can be
pulled quite easily (make new running board hold-down bolts by welding
a 1" core plug to the top of an ordinary coach bolt) battery tray can
be re-fitted with bolts that have had the heads ground down to look
like the original rivets. Window boxes on one side of mine were in
tatters when they came back from blasting, I repaired them in situ with
little difficulty, then painted and filled with putty. The putty forms
a little groove like a kitchen sink, you just stuff three or four
handfulls in each box then stab your fingers down the middle to form a
run to the hole which you push through to the drain tube. You would
not believe how many restored Carryall owners moan about leaking window
boxes soaking their rear floors! It isn't my idea to use putty, mine
had some in that looked like it had been there from the factory. You
should aim to work on them in place if possible, easy repair with flat
sheets and right angled joints, not visible when finished anyway.
Watch out for the X-)(*&^%$#"! sized threaded inserts on the window
boxes, the larger of the two options for 3/16" - 12 guage by 24 tpi I
think. Alan Bowes suggested Brownells as the only current source for
that size and head combination, they are also used on the interior door
handle mechanisms.

While we are on about drain tubes cut the tubes for the two rear boxes
long so they dont just run into the body gap but right down to below
the wood floor level. I couldn't get satisfactory access to duct the
front two tubes right down though.

right, that's enough for now, hear from you later as to how it all
went, I'm ready to tackle the shell on the VC 36 when it gets here with
all my accumulated experience from the '53. Gordon 8-)

Additional thoughts from John:
My carryalls have elm wood for the floor boards. Finding this right now is hard for my wood man. I just thought this was interesting.

Two of the window boxes are rotted out on my vehicle. At this point, I think I am going to have them fabricated and will weld them in place after I have chased out all the lead. My vehicle never was graced with much bondo or lead after its initial manufacture, but it still has lots of rot in hard to reach places. The rear cab of the one we are not restoring right now is fairly intact. I will be using that one as a model for the fabricated pieces. The sheet metal manufacturer I use generally makes boxes, and his equipment is not configured for making compound bends. But he is good at making up things with what machinery he has. I will be taking measurements of pieces made for the vehicle before and after fitting, so if anybody out there wants those, I will have them. This weekend is shot for working, due to committments, and I am focusing on studies for the next few weeks, and less on work (I am a pre-med student) But when I get the pieces made, and start welding, I will update the list with ALL the ANGUISH and HEARTBREAK of rebuilding this beast.

John, and many thanks to Gordon for his time and expertise.



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