Vladislav

I think all Macks of that year had firewall and door openings (the whole cab inside) painted graphite metallic. So that's not a Freedom feature. For the frame my way would be ordering a pair of new straight steel rails from PG Adams or so of similar section as the alu ones are, slide them in place of the bad ones and reattach all the chassis parts back on. Probably a big job but you get very close to original config in the end. The rails may be ordered pre-drilled for a few more coins (about 70% extra to the cost though) but that is notably time consuming along the job. I like the look of the truck in this current color very much. But no doubt bringing its appearance back to that limited series butch is a must to do along a possible resto deal. And if I'm not wrong Rene, the Nederland guy had a few sets of Freedom decals fabricated in the past. He used to be a member on here (Mack boy?) so checking out may be an efforts saving point too.

So... Did you allow her to steer the FWD in a parking lot???!!! The Hahn would be another story, but FWD!!!... And those 99 Cents mentioned above also smell related.

Don't you need the heater unit to be re-arranged? It's under the passenger seat in the stock configuration.

Thanks guys.

Didn't go for free as it seems to me but looks like a good solid truck on the picture. Thanks for sharing, I like them L's.

Wow! Great! Thanks for sharing! Just looks like I need a couple of evenings to go through all those nice shots.

Paul mate, It happens I'm a penny bit busy in the recent times. Interesting thread, would be cool if we see the final result some day. Here is a link to my R-model restoration work. Including the opening arrangement. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/61222-r-model-cab-resto-report/#comment-444164

The Longest Day...

Looks like a common TRD-72-something Mack tranny of those times. The main box is an over with that "mirror: shift pattern" if I understood correctly what you're talking about. I mean 4th (direct) is down and the 5th (overdrive) is up. The reason is, when you shift direct you slide a sliding clutch up front in the tranny to unify the main shaft with the spigot (the pinion). This way you get a "solid straight shaft" through all the transmission (the main box) which means a direct gear (actually no gear). As long as you slide the sliding clutch up front you move the shift lever to the rear (it has a ball moint in the tranny top cover). So the direct is normally with the lever pulled back. And when you put the lever up front in the same cluster it slides the clutch into another gear wheel, the first on the main shaft after the constant mesh set. IF that gear is lover than 1.0 ratio you get slightly lower ratio which would be #3. So you're Ok shifting 1st left-up, than 2nd left-down, than 3rd right-up and 4th (direct) right-down. Or if we count starting from the crawl gear which shifts against the reverse it would be 1-2-3-4-5 with 5th direct. So life's good. Until we desire an overdrive tranny. Practically it's done by installing a fast set of gears in place of the 3rd gear set. Which was slower than direct but becomes faster. Physically tranny remains the same. But when you shift right-front you get a ratio faster than 1.0. So you have first shift to direct which is right-down (or back). Later series transmissions were bult the same way (including T200 series). But correction was done in the shifter rails arrangement. There's a kind of a balancer lever in the top cover or I don't know how to call it correctly. Design is when you put the shift lever right-front it moves the rail and the fork also up front due to double reversing by that balancer setup and the shift tower ball joint. So you're getting the overgear after the direct one following the normal shift sequence. Speaking the compound it could be of different ratio. Some trannies (duplex) had if of 1/37 (if I'm not wrong) so you have "halves" for splitting (usually for Lanova Diesels). Gas jobs had wider revs range (up to 3000RPM's against 2000 with diesel) so the truck could drive with no splitting and the aux box could be slower for off road or slow pull operations. Actually the compound could also be a triplex or quadriplex attached to that same main box.

Don't you ocassionally have drawings for laser cut panels you're going to install? Or are you going to hand cut those plates? I also want to make new insert panels but their geometry isn't really simple shapes, needs a bit of head scratching for measurings and scatching.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the great purchase! Also thanks for posting photo's on your new toy, we all like to see cool truck pics. Vlad

Seems like a steal

Situation of the same kind is here. Besides of of some crazy taxes you can't import a truck with lower that Euro-5 emission level. Same for cars but 40 y.o. and older ones go as an exception.

Haven't you separated their heads? The older style I have on my NR-model had threaded plugs at the ends. So you just fit tension by them. There also shims inside too. In your case an idea pops up on some grinding of the end caps to minimize gap. Sure if the ball portions are even in their shape. Too probably you may find an aftermarket rod with the same cones and length (Strenle Brothers or so web-site) but those you have look very steady and vintage for the truck. I have a similar set on one of my Macks, they found a way to get onto a 1984 MH somehow. But I haven't got myself to their inside.

What you say is a matter of taxes. To level up those who live poorer. They're poor by different reasons, some were born in poor family having no money for education, some are illy and some are just lazy. Seems the approach is a two sided coin. At one we should be merciful since those folks are humans. And at the other we who can make good (or normal) living for ourselves may share some worth with those others for being calm and easy to not get in our line with hungry protests or crime. But that's a side note. The main stream is the cost of local production is ballasted with taxes over the edge. Ok, strange situation. Your government wants high taxes from you to produce something or to not produce much instead. But they can import cheap goods from China to supply you and everybody around with. But where get they money from? Here it's clear. The country explore natural resources and sells them. The government do that. Or controlls, no much difference. Then they buy all kinds of goods from all over the world and sell them in the country. I suppose the goods turn out 3 times cheaper than if a man would make it by his labour. I mean in a natural form. Say you'd need to work 12 months at a plant as a worker to afford a car but now your wages allow you to buy a car in 4 months (literally). But here the reason is known. Those who control the export money flow can cut off a good dozen for their private needs. And the rest goes to the nation to be calm and qute to not disturb the big boys. So the cut off is as larger as the main stream is. This way you don't need some locals tinkering in their sand boxes with potential risk of anyone to grow up high enough to ask "Who you are for doing that there?" Just easy sell-buy with stable margin. But that's a country with export-based economy. And what is the source for supply in the US? Growing national debt?