Vladislav

Seeing the picture I was sure for no less than a couple of minutes that's a scale model!

Ok, found much better pic. It was a restored British NM which was sold to Belgium. I took the photo in 2011. Don't know where the truck is now.

Hi Rodders, Looks like you're in the beginning of quite a long story bringing this animal back on the road. I was in the same ball park 15 years ago and still haven't crawled out of the ditch. My project truck is NR not NM though. I have NM too but it's in relatively good and solid shape so I don't tear it apart so far. Speaking the VIN plate you're looking for they seem being made in a few different styles along the production years. More correctly the style was generally the same but they were made of steel (my truck NM-6 of 1944), of zink (the pic of NM-8 in Belgium) and possibly aluminium. Not sure of NM's but I have one off a NO and it's definitely alu. The plate on my truck is in good shape. But strange thing steel gets corrosion no matter the truck is kept in a dry shed. And I was too surprized just recently watching that palate I couldn't read the VIN stamping (!) and a half of other texts. Some good media blast cleaning is needed I belive but that's not so easy task since you may loose the script at all if done wrong. The Jag is series one, right? Vlad

I have two R-model hoods redone to the moment. And discowered plenty of old poor quality repairs in both of them. What I advise you to pay attention to is grinding the base material (the cab wall) mating area to clear solid fiberglass, with no restovers of paint or old filler, and arrange maximum possible overlap. For the patch I suggest you need no less than 30-40mm wide stripe of bare fiberglass to glue onto. Also the grade of degrease and dust remove needs to be a top and well guaranteed mixed components of resin or glue. These simple basic nuances play very big role since quality of the seam is responsible for not only the seam itself but also for paint works and all the followng final assembly works.

Very interesting discovery! I knew the roof was fiberglass. But had no idea on the back wall. My cab is slightly shorter than yours so my guess the side portions are more aluminium at mine. Working with fiberglass isn't anything extremely exotic. First option in your case would be attaching a piece of aluminium sheet from the inside of the fiberglass wall to cover that window opening. I'd fit it with blind rivets putting their heads slightly deep into the surface so you could cover them with filler later. Than take a big can of glass-filled epoxy filler and wipe 2-3 layers of it onto the alu. After that you need an agressive orbital sander to smooth up the surface and than later a standard pre-paint procedures of sanding-primering-sanding. That described way has one big negative point though. Aluminium has high thermal expand coefficient. So you'd get risk of local deformation of that alu base when the truck is exposed to bright sun with filled area cracking. Alternative options could be using a kind of net or grill (stainless steel, alu, fiberglass, fabric) instead of the metal sheet. You'd need a kind of support from underneath to apply filler. I'd take a sheet of alu or plywood or so again but just put it temporary at the back. And insulate with a piece of polyethelene film (or so) for the filler to not glue up to it. If you're able to position the cab the way its back wall occures horizontal you may use epoxy (or polyether) resin instead of filler. Some kind of net anyway or you may use glass fabric or glass mat (as it's called here). Resin penetrates such stuff better so the mesh of threads could be tighter. You may apply 2-3 layers of glass fabric over each other penetrating with resin so you'd get actual fiberglass. Important point the edges of the existing hole must be grounded and sharpened for your new epoxy material to make overlap on the existing sheet, as more as better. Ok, one more interesting option is if you may find a sheet of ready flat fiberglass. A portion of a board of a boat or IDK what. This way you use it instead of aluminium plate not suffering thermal deformation effects. Well, one more idea. You may find a stock rear window off a R-model cab (with rubber), cut your cab for it and go Australian style!

...And I'm way not too

Agree, we are people, not made of iron. Just sorry to force you to confess you was not an angel that time

Larry, I'm not sure that was a good lesson. She sure should know that's not nice to be a plug in front of line of vehicles. But that would work if she's experienced enough to drive fast enough. But if she had been in her first days or a week in the street her goal might be keeping the drive at all and do not smash into anybody/anything. So seems the lesson could be of talking to her to drive fast enough if she could or if not than to stop on a shoulder from time to time to release the main flow. I'm sure in the most cases it's not easy to speak with another driver and explain things. So I usually just pass by keeping hopes the new driver becomes better soon enough. In my experience I stopped a couple of drivers who was making some wierd actions, just came close to their driver door and in a calm manner spoke what I thought was not good and how that could be better.

I saw Josie at the Thanksgiving at you in 2018. You have mentioned the Extra Small a few times earlier in the forum posts so I knew of her walking over the world. Casey was really small when you met me and Ilya and took us to Macungie. That time he was taking his place in a kid's seat at the rear of your Silverado. And couldn't say a word than if I remember well enough. That was in 2013 so I guess he was 1,5 or 2 y.o. than. So surprizingly the life goes by by so big leaps and bounds at the time we ourself think and feel everything (including us) continue being the same. I spoke with Ilya today, he's turning his 25 in a couple of weeks. Said about Casey's achievements. I'll send him a link to this thread. And hope you're doing fine!

So what kind of rear suspension does it have at the moment? A single drive on a pair of springs and a tag axle? Or a camelback setup like ST's used to have? The hubs look like two drive axles. Would look nice and impressive no doubt after some make up.

Interesting truck with interesting engine option. Condition of the cab and the engine is not very promising. But fixable with good amount of effrorts I guess. At the same time the chassis rails look kinda strange. Plenty of holes drilled in them here and there. Different rears in the past? Or that portion of the chassis went from another truck?

This was my thought. But Paul's comment above also makes sence. Thanks for the reply Jojo.

Are you sure the scratch was put by her car not her artificial nails??

WoW!! (What the nice truck!) Is Casey 14 already?? I well remember him being 2yo sitting in a kid chear! And pretty sure I was still pretty sure he's still the same! Shame on me! Great news! I like the look of the truck and like the idea. Manual tranny is something nice to play with. And you can always switch to an auto car and back.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. What is the production year? And which other engine options could be applied to her at the factory?