mattb73lt

My condolences. It's a beautiful and desirable truck. It's value should be inline with the above statements. Unless circumstances move you otherwise or if you have no desire at all for it, I would suggest holding on to it for a while and maybe mothball it for a period until you have a clear mind on what you want to do. A similar thing happened to me with my father's '41 Cadillac. Not my kind of car and not one that I would pursue, but it was finished and drivable and actually has turned out to be a fun social car to drive around with friends in or go places in.

There’s no rebuilding this. Such a waste.

I've seen this aircraft at Bradley IAP (KBDL) in Connecticut a few times several years ago while it was there to transport new helicopters from Sikorsky to Europe. Massive doesn't even begin to give you a scale on it's size. I've been on C-5 Galaxies before and this is so beyond those. Such a shame and all of this is so unnecessary.

That's great and I'm glad it's given you some motivation!! I've been at it not quite that long, but I would say an earnest effort over the last six years and had it stored about 20. It does get tough at times to stay motivated, but when things start looking this nice it really helps.

10 more pieces down and only 12 more pieces to FINISH!!!!!! That should happen in the next few weeks in probably two batches. I can't believe I'm running out of things to fix and paint. Still a ways to go for assembly, but it feels so good to see a little glimmer at the end on the restoration tunnel.

I found a set of NOS KD517's still in the boxes a while back. I had to flatten the bases to fit the roof profile a little bit. I have a few old bases that are still usable, if you want I can send you some pictures? Someone else asked me about them but never followed up to what I sent them.

One of the big considerations was stone damage. With my current truck, I've had some stone dings from rocks coming out of the grooves in the tires as you come up to speed on the highway.

A tip 'o the hat to harrybarbon and my wife(who actually suggested it!!), but I actually brought my fenders into the dining room to cure up due to the winter temps. I shot the underside with Lizard Skip for a few reasons and rather than heat the barn they came into the house.

Forgot to mention I added mud flaps to the new fenders and added a stainless strip I made to the top of them, that I buffed out later. The original fenders had them but they were just plain flaps. I wanted to add them back to protect the fuel tanks from damage.

No direct answer, but inquiries to Coke or Mack archives for photographs? Or maybe a Coke product collector's club as another source? Barring that, maybe some light sanding in key areas, like you've shown on the radiator shroud, to determine break points and colors of the paint scheme? My cab was painted mostly green over the factory red for the company it was leased to, with a LOT of pin striping to dress it up. Most of it lost to time and repaints and not how I wanted to go with it, just the overall red. Just some thoughts.

Try to leave a little more of a gap in spacing the pieces together, don't butt the edges together before you tack them. It helps with alignment, expansion and will give you a better/flatter weld.

The good news is those horrific patches are invisible, now.

It was still a little wet when I took those pics, it'll flatten out a little when it cures up. Once wet sanded it makes a really good base for color.

doubleclutchinweasel, this should whet your appetite for progress a little more! Epoxy primer I just laid down. Enjoy!! 😂🤣😂

And the cab is raring to go, too!! It’s just sitting there waiting for it’s rebuilt home!

Ok, here you go!! Toiling away on this breath taking work, kinda like watching paint rust. Sanding, sanding and more primer. This part sucks and I hate the mess, but about to turn the corner and throw down some color in a week or so!! Today’s grind and some black epoxy primer to lay down later today! Lots of pieces just about ready!

This is the problem with this type of quick fix, continued rust. This repair was about to fail and get real ugly. If you overlook it, it’s going to ruin your work. The dark area was entrapped rust under the patch. Fix it right and it’s permanently gone. Both fenders were done this way.

It’s called stitching. Once aligned and tacked in place, you work your way around the repair. No more than an inch at a time, depending on thickness of material and never next to the last weld. I usually work several separate repairs at once, so I don’t heat an individual repair excessively and cause warping.

Are you running a 12 volt starter? When I converted my B42, I added two R model battery boxes. I probably only needed one with two six volt batteries in series. Anyway, I ran the cables under the boxes and up the left frame rail on the left box. Out of the right box, underneath the box, up the right rail to the cross member under the cab back, then over to the left rail to join the others. So I have four cables to the starter, 2 pos and 2 neg, attached to the studs on it. I used 2/0 AWG welding cable as it easy to form the bends needed.

Another reason why this takes so long, fixing other people’s crap repairs. When the fenders came back from blasting there was still a few large patches of filler in the center of both of them. I knew something was hiding in there and there was. Someone scabbed over where the turn signals were and they rotted through on the under side with a patch, pounded the repair down on the top side then bondo’d over it. The only way to really fix it is to cut the whole thing out back to good metal and form a patch to fill it. After hammering to form and then welding it in, it only takes a few skim coats of filler to finish it off.

Mine had that green paint on them, almost like Detroit Diesel color, but were painted over in what was close to a Cummins old gold color. When I did some test spots, I ended up with the color I painted it. It should probably be more of a hue like yours. But, it’s done now. Did you get any more pictures of his trucks? I love that L cab B77 he has.

I dealt with Mahoney and Son almost twenty years ago when I put my Jake on. Tom was fantastic to deal with. He was able to get all the parts I needed to get it done, gaskets and a few internal parts I needed to swap out. What blew me a way, was that he loaned me the fixture to grind the rocker arms to accept the Jake. He didn't know me from Adam and mailed it to me!! Then, I got talking to him about adding a T590 turbo to it that came with it. He gave me his retired father's number in Florida to call about the details of doing it. I called him and had a lengthy conversation about adding the "Smoke Kit" to a 220, as he called it. I was fairly new to the hobby, then, and was so amazed they would help a total stranger out so willingly! I did notice a slight difference in the castings of out two Model 20's, in the recess area between the two cylinders. Yours has a cast flange, where mine does not in that area and the electrical pickups are in different spots. They'll still do the same thing, though.

Yes, It was a standard B model I modified to fit. There is a company that has L & B series, Rhode island Wiring and I think one more I just can't remember the name. Or, you could make your own. Then there's after market places like Painless Wiring that make hot rod harnesses that could work. The original style ones are not cheap! I bought mine back in 2005 i think and the price has skyrocketed.

The quality of all the aluminum castings was poor. When I was doing the repair work on most of them, it was surprising to see the seems, voids and fissures in them. My radiator tanks do have their issues.

Sweet, I just saw your video on FB. Nice work!!