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Restoration of my 1941 Dodge WC16 Radio Command Car


zepher11
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Zeph,

 

I was on vacation last week so I missed all of your posts. I have been amazed at your progress in one week! It is really coming together quickly and looks great. I absolutely LOVED you including the dogs in your posts. They definitely represent the dog days of summer!

 

Thanks so much for the updates! Good luck on the work for the next 9 days. I hope that you have a great time at the show next week. Take lots of pictures! Are the dogs going with you and riding in your vehicles?

 

...Kat

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Some people have their work in their blood. You have your blood in your work. Hope not too much! Take care.

Mikie

 

That's for sure. Comes with the territory. At least I have the work week to recover... B)

 

Zeph,

 

I was on vacation last week so I missed all of your posts. I have been amazed at your progress in one week! It is really coming together quickly and looks great. I absolutely LOVED you including the dogs in your posts. They definitely represent the dog days of summer!

 

Thanks so much for the updates! Good luck on the work for the next 9 days. I hope that you have a great time at the show next week. Take lots of pictures! Are the dogs going with you and riding in your vehicles?

 

...Kat

 

Hi Kat,

 

It's really starting to look like its old self. Now that I have the body on, I have been pulling out all the previously painted parts to install. Just trying to stick on a few things before heading to the convention. As much as I would love to take the dogs, they well have to stay home. They'll be sad. I will definitely take photos and post them when I get back. Looking forward to heading down to the show.

 

Z

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Some people have their work in their blood. You have your blood in your work. Hope not too much!

I don't consider anyone to be a true MV (Military Vehicle) owner if they can't tell, at the least, of badly skinned knuckles or getting at least a few drops of their own blood onto their MV at some point.

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Installed all the "lift-the-dot" studs on the body for the top and doors. There are a mixture of screw in style for the blind installs and then threaded for the areas where a nut can be applied. However, the back part of the body had most of the holes rusted out a bit where the screw style studs should go. I ended up ordering the 10x32 threaded studs for that section.
The only problem with that is that I discovered that one can not install a nut there due to space limitations. I didn't quite know what to do until I found these things called weld nuts with 10x32 threaded nuts on them. I ground down the end on the short side and was able to stick them in there and tighten all of the lift-the-dots studs down. Only the stitch and rivet counters may notice them.
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Here is what the weld nuts looks like:
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Weld nuts installed:
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Also found an NOS governor with the threaded ports for the vacuum line, so now I can replace the NOS non threaded to use on another project:
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Plus I received the latches/handles for the tailgate this week. When I went to install nothing quite fits right, so it has been slow going modifying the mounting points, etc...

 

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Zeph,

 

Where did you get those weld nuts? We have run into some tight issues on the plane as well. I can suggest those to the guys.

 

I totally understand about nothing fitting quite right! We have a car guy that just joined our team. You should work on planes after you finish this one. :lol:;)

 

...Kat

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Zeph,

 

Where did you get those weld nuts? We have run into some tight issues on the plane as well. I can suggest those to the guys.

 

I totally understand about nothing fitting quite right! We have a car guy that just joined our team. You should work on planes after you finish this one. :lol:;)

 

...Kat

 

Hi Kat,

 

I found the weld nuts on the McMaster-Carr website. They have several variations. These ones really baled me out as a solution. Seems like I order all my nuts, bolts and screws from McMaster-Carr nowadays. They seem pretty reasonable pricewise.

 

I think I will leave the plane restorations to others. I thought the command car was big! :)

 

z

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Finished installing the latches and handles this am. I wanted to sandblast the tailgate this am before it became too hot, but it took too many hours to get these fitted. If one turns the handle it stays and has to be manually turned back and worked a bit back and forth to get the latches to work. Best I can do at this point:
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I received the hinges I ordered from McMaster-Carr finally. First try the box showed up minus hinges. Looked like UPS ran them over and they went MIA. I ordered the hinges without holes, so I could try to figure out how the battery box mounts and fits:
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After getting the hinges to sorta work, I then needed to install the running boards to see how everything aligns as the battery box bolts to the running boards. Odd thing is is that the battery box on the rear side only has one tab to bolt down. The running board has two holes like the front of the box.
I then needed to cut the oak running board mounting wood. I had to make some very large blocks for the two sides of the battery box. This took quite a while to align everything. Plus I had to make some longer running board bolts to match the standard sized ones:
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Getting the wood and bolts aligned:
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The driver's side running boards:
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All painted and bolted down:
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Then I had to deal with this. I bought a nylon insulator for the steering column. I installed and then I could barely turn the steering wheel. Took me about another hour and a half to remove the whole tube to get this thing out and then hone it. Much better now:
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Installed the fuel filler neck that I found. Not quite a command car filler neck, but I modified the best I could to make it look like it is:
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Sandblasted this am before it really got hot. Blasted a couple of fuel can holders, the glove box and the tailgate. Took me a couple hours to knock all that out:
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I fitted the cowl vent today as well. Interesting contraption...I guess it is actually the air conditioner:
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Checking to see if the fuel can holders still fit. It's been a while:
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Well, I finally realized that I reached a bridge too far, or for Civil War buffs, The Angle. I was going to install the fenders, but I realized that I would have to rig something up for me to install by myself, so I punted and will not worry about them until after the MVPA show this week:
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All primed and painted:
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Let's say that painting inside of the tailgate was...well, problematic:
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All out of time now, so I will be trying to figure out how to load this thing up this week for the trip south to the MVPA show.

 

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The Meatcan

zeph, you've accomplished a lot in a short time! It's really looking fine. No doubt your handiwork will be met by an appreciative crowd at the MVPA show.

Looking forward to your pix of the event! Have fun! B)

Terry

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zeph, you've accomplished a lot in a short time! It's really looking fine. No doubt your handiwork will be met by an appreciative crowd at the MVPA show.

Looking forward to your pix of the event! Have fun! B)

Terry

 

Thank you Terry! Looking forward to the event. I'll shoot some photos for sure...

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Zeph,

 

Great updates! I too can't believe how much you have accomplished in such a short time. I really look forward to your pictures from the show this week.

 

Thanks so much for the heads up on McMaster-Carr. I will check them out.

 

...Kat

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Zeph,

 

Great updates! I too can't believe how much you have accomplished in such a short time. I really look forward to your pictures from the show this week.

 

Thanks so much for the heads up on McMaster-Carr. I will check them out.

 

...Kat

 

Thank you Kat. McMaster-Carr is great. Lots of great stuff, and I like the layout of their website.

 

I'm happy to have the grind behind me. Was hoping to have more of the command car completed, but I always seem to aim a little too high. Which, I try to tell my wife, is what I think is a good thing. I just like to have a goal(s) to keep me going.

 

I took tomorrow off to wrap up what I can, and get this thing loaded for the trip to the convention on Wednesday morning... SF bay area, so the temps should be a lot cooler. Likely in the 80's. That'll be nice!

 

Z

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Can't wait to see it in person.

 

 

Me too! Things are still looking good for me to be there n Saturday.

Mikie

 

I'll see you guys down there!

 

Today I installed the tailgate and pioneer rack:

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Stuck a few other things on as well:
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Well, put a little lipstick on this pig, and now it's time to go to the convention:
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WOW! It looks great! I really wish that I could see it in person. Have fun at the show!

 

...Kat

 

 

Very impressive restoration, especially when you see the work involved.

 

Erwin

 

 

Thank you guys. Just getting ready to head south here in a minute!

 

Z

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Johan Willaert

 

 

 

 

Thank you guys. Just getting ready to head south here in a minute!

 

Z

Enjoy the show, John...

 

You know how much I would have liked to be there and see the CC in person..

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i had a fantastic time at my first ever military vehicle show this afternoon. After a bit of wandering around in a daze of olive green overload, i spotted a familiar piece of metal. Zepher's command car was perfectly placed in line with a fully restored and a rusty flaky just-outta-the-barn car. As someone who has just enough mechanical skill to put together a sandwich, I am in awe of folks like Zepher who spend so much time, effort and money to bring these pieces of history alive. I'll just throw a couple of pictures up here since Zepher has done a much better job of documenting the details of his work.

 

post-2687-0-61148100-1471155236_thumb.jpg

 

post-2687-0-40228900-1471155421.jpg

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I just want to add a big thank you to Zepher for talking with me and showing me around. It was a great pleasure to meet you and to see the CC in person.

 

post-2687-0-09546300-1471155807.jpg

 

post-2687-0-81854700-1471155823.jpg

 

 

 

Mikie

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i had a fantastic time at my first ever military vehicle show this afternoon. After a bit of wandering around in a daze of olive green overload, i spotted a familiar piece of metal. Zepher's command car was perfectly placed in line with a fully restored and a rusty flaky just-outta-the-barn car. As someone who has just enough mechanical skill to put together a sandwich, I am in awe of folks like Zepher who spend so much time, effort and money to bring these pieces of history alive. I'll just throw a couple of pictures up here since Zepher has done a much better job of documenting the details of his work.

 

Hey mikie, it was great to meet you down at the MVPA convention. I hope you enjoyed it. I really had a great time. All home now, unpacked and downloading my photos of the show. Found some great artifacts and even some items for the command car. Very to happy to have come in to possession of some very rare radio suppression equipment for the WC16 command car. I now have the spark plug suppression shields had cables. Only thing I am missing now are some minor parts and the uber rare distributor suppression cap:

 

CC_0927.JPG

 

 

Amazing work !

 

Thank you!

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