mattb73lt

No, I have to work Saturday and Sunday, now. Big weekend at work.

Picked up the deck this morning and dropped it at O&G in Torrington for blasting and paint. The manager actually set me up with another party they do business with and had a much better price for the work. Should have it back in about a week or so. Then went to Atlantic Trailer and ordered the wood, 17-16'X7" boards should cover the deck. 860 fasteners, six drill bits/counter sinks/drive bits, also ordered to install it. I'll head back over in the morning to pick everything up with the B42. It had a big work out today running stuff around. Interesting how different the two trucks are. The B42, smooth, quiet, easy shifting. The B73, harsh, loud and rough. A lot of the roughness will go away with the body mounted, the harshness will go away as things wear in. And while I love the loud bark of the Cummins and Jake, it'll get a decent muffler in the future. Another day of gathering things up and logistics.

There’s a lot of those “safety “ films from that era. Always surprised me how long those films were in circulation, decades for a lot of them. That one brings back a lot of memories of patrolling the highways investigating and cleaning up those scenes. A lot of tragic things happen out there. Everyone I worked with had a very morbid sense of humor from dealing with it. Most of it never made me flinch, it was what it was and that was my job. There are many scenes though I’ll never forget. Trying to hold someone together until more help arrives. Doing CPR on someone I pulled from a wreck in a snow storm, while the family yells at me to save their husband/father. The roads are a dangerous uncaring place.

Thank you for that, it's much appreciated!!

I'm hoping it'll turn a few heads. It's the largest and most comprehensive restoration I've ever done.

It's a 24' Jerr Dan roll back with a 10K winch. The deck is a wood inlay. I'm going to use Apitong, a red Brazilian hard wood, for the decking. It's used a lot for trailer flooring. I'm ordering it through Atlantic Trailer over in Cheshire.

All kinds of stuff getting done. Friday, the B73 hit 500 engine miles and got it's first oil change. No issues since getting it running and it remains very dry on the top and bottom. The oil was still pretty clean and I still have to cut open the old filter just to see what's in there. All 20 new crossmembers have been installed and the head board work should be next. I dragged the hydraulic system out and was able to separate all the lines from the valve body. It'll need all new lines and a valve body as none of it is serviceable. A few lines need to be lengthened for the new installation. All the pistons are ready for installation as are the lifting frames, everything needs paint before assembly. I need to source some wood strips for the top of the frame rails that the body slides on. I'm hoping to get the bed back this week for it's trip to be blasted and painted, that won't be cheap. I'm also going to order the deck wood this week, too.

I have Hagerty on all my antiques.

Looks great!!

I’m going to leave it pretty much as it is and repair what’s there. I few changes. I’d like to find some polished aluminum chain lockers to mount on the head board and with the new wood deck it should look awesome.

It is the very place! Been in business over one hundred years. They still do great work. I was in and out of there in about three hours. The front end is now spot on level!

I think they made about 2003 LTs of all configurations. That could be a little bit more than half way through the production run. The best bet, now that you have the serial number, would be to contact the Mack Museum and request the build records for the truck. That could answer a lot of your questions and help you with the history of the truck.

The deck is being worked on. I farmed this part out to a friend who has been a big help in fabricated a lot of parts and patch panels for me. His work and welding is amazing. He's replacing all 20 cross members I bought and doing some patches on some soft areas. When he's done, I'll pick it up with the B42 and take it up to O&G in Torrington to have them sandblast, prime and paint it for me. Going to go with black for the bed, it'll be easier to repaint if needed. while I've done about 95% of this truck myself, somethings are more efficient sending out. Having a flat shop floor is necessary to have the bed come out straight and not build any twist into with the repair work. Truck is running great, another test trip should do it for the first oil change at 500 engine miles. It's so much fun driving it and finally seeing it in one piece!!

Welcome back!! Glad to see you starting in on it again. Life does throw some hurdles at you and when it does, projects usually go by the wayside. I wish you all the best on your rekindled endeavor. You can get it done, even it it's just a piece at a time. The history and emotional attachment of your truck should help motivate you. It's going to be beautiful when you finish it!

The guy standing by the passenger door, in the black shirt, is Pat Archiere from Danbury, CT and that's his son's Brockway they restored. It sat for years off the edge of Pat's driveway waiting to be restored. They pulled off a beautiful restoration on it. Glad you both are having a great time! Enjoy!!

A little B73 spring work today. Once in a while you need some help. Adding a helper leaf to the left front spring that was sagging a little after I put the engine in last year. Re-arching it helped, but once it got the weight of the engine and cab on it, it was lower than the right side and had a little reverse arch where it was originally bent. I wanted to put two new top leaves in, but was told it could be up to a year to have them manufactured. I don’t plan on doing any heavy hauling with it so this will be a good alternative.

Do what you can when you can. You've made great progress so far. It's a busy time of year and you gotta make money when you can. I ran my own train off the tracks taking on a 1941 Ford cruiser for the State Police Museum. Thought it would be a winter project, but my engine woes burned that time up. I promised to get it done and make it roadworthy and they've been bugging me to get it done and they are footing the bill for all the parts. So now it sits in the shop burning up my time. I was able to move the flatbed deck to my friend's shop tonight, plus all the steel to repair it. That'll take about a week, then it'll go to get sandblasted and painted. Thursday, I'm taking the B73 to a spring shop to add a helper leaf to the left front spring. It was re-arched as the two top leaves were bent when I got the truck and it started to sag a bit when I put the engine in.

"HI-HO" D'Addario is out of Bridgeport, CT. It was very big company and very diversified. They had a large fleet of those trucks. They had custom dump bodies with "HI-HO" built into the sides of the bodies and you'd see them everywhere. The drivers were very proud of their trucks and kept them spotless. One summer when I was a kid, D'Addario was paving the local school roads. The drivers would actually wax the trucks while waiting to drop the hot pavement. My buddies and I would ride our bikes over and watch them pave. The owner was killed in a plane crash in 1986, along with a couple of executives. The company never really recovered. They still deliver fuel, but most of the operation is gone. In the late 90's, I found about six of these trucks being picked over for parts in a field along the Connecticut river in Cromwell, CT.

They're not. This was a really nice pair I found in upstate NY. The ones that came on it had some damage the black paint was hiding. The right one had about a 4 lb patch of JB Weld covering a hole where they must've backed into a rock. Over the years I collected up several sets of tanks, one set complete with brackets. But, these were the nicest I came across and really max out the bright work.

Ha-Ha, No, just some elbow grease and polish!!

I know someone was asking about aluminum polish quite a while back and I can't recall who. But, these are the two products I just ordered that we tried a few weeks ago at my friends shop. Both are made by Alumaclear and the only place I was able to purchase them from was on their website. I have been using a product called Zephyr 40, but that stuff was leaving the aluminum cloudy unlike the Alumaclear. It leaves a much clearer final finish. I did the radiator and driver's tank with it today and spent about 20 minutes on each. This was just the blue Ultra Fine product. I'll try the green stuff out later.

He passed a few years ago. I am in contact with his daughter and son in law. The son in law runs the company now and has for some time. I do keep them updated on my progress and send them pictures. Some of which made it to the previous owner before he passed. I'm also in touch with the original owner's nephew in Texas, he was from New Fairfield, CT before relocating his trucking business there. I did track down the original owner, too, and he came by the house in 2004 to see the truck, albeit in pieces. He was amazed the truck still existed and that I was able to track him down.

Up at Matt Pfahl's today to drop off a NOS Early L model driver's window and regulator that came out of my door. He's got a LM he's doing for a customer. Still running great, 475 miles on the truck and 375 on the 220. Now that I'm driving it, it's still hard to believe I polished this turd up to what it looks like from how I found it. I've owned it for 25 years next month and have been consistently working on it since 2015 when I started this thread.

,I feel for you. Years of mandatory overtime, double shifts, working three weekends a month, deployments, training, family. It took me years to finally have an abundance of time to do what I wanted to do and the means to do it. Keep at it, just something you can get done with the time available!

That’s how you get it done! A little at a time, sometimes bigger steps. With life that’s not always possible. Ordering parts, organizing something, getting some hardware on your way home from work, just something to move the ball forward.