Restoration priorities and places

[NAM VET]

I'm actually pretty fortunate when it comes to my new-to-me M42. I am the third owner since the mid 70's, and my truck was always garaged and frequently driven, and well maintained. Plus it came with boxes and boxes of OEM/NOS spares. Just needs some cosmetics, and a few minor repairs, like getting the turn signals, horn, and a small leak from the steering gear fixed. So far, in my several hundred miles of driving it, it starts and runs like a champ. Has things like a new radiator, wiring harness, and what seems to be a working wench. And another advantage for me, especially seeing the winter weather over so much of the nation, is living in Upstate SC, so I can do pretty much anything any day. Being retired has its advantages. As I have previously mentioned here, with a new knee now two months out, I can finally drive the truck, and start on my restoration. I have spent many hours over the past several months pouring over catalogues, and ordering this and that, and trying to decide where to start, and what location to begin.

I could do a lot at my own home, near Charlotte, but I would need to buy an engine hoist, partly to take off the winch, and paint and clean the bumpers, and remount it. Plus, I have decided to pull off the bed, and others here have used a hoist to do so. But this past spring, when the wife and I decided to sell this home, and move down to Charleston, I gave just about all my tools to my son down in Columbia, SC, 94 miles from me. We were down there for the Christmas Holiday, and found we can't raise the truck up high enough to engage the locks on his lift (my truck now has a nice fiberglass "hardtop" which would take grinding to get it off). Plus his work garage is just too full to give me room to remove fenders and such, and paint the truck.

Long years ago, I rebuilt my VW Type III at the Ft Bragg auto craft shop, so stopped by the Ft. Jackson craft shop when I also picked up some spirits at the post Class 6 store and visited the post auto craft shop and talked with the Army managers. 20 bays, ten with lifts, paint booth, prep booth, and of course every sort of tool and hoist, and it has secure storage. Very inexpensive. Like three bucks a day to use a bay, open to 8 pm.

I tend to have a tendency to be overly meticulous when I embark on some major project, and will have to avoid the tendency to try to be too precise, and take too long to get my M42 on the road. So.....

After hours of thought, my plan is to drive it across Columbia to the craft shop, stopping by a sandblast company, to have them blast the truck's bed, then pull up to the Post Shop, and pull off the bed, then (assuming I can legally drive the truck without the bed) back to have the frame blasted from the cab back, as the frame under the cab is pristine, one of the benefits of a half century of leaking oil and grease! Then prep and paint, and fix the minor above problems.

But all plans have unexpected problems, and I will just have to resolve them as they arise.

I will keep you all informed, and will be back with questions of the members of this forum. By the way, when I got back from my year in Vietnam, I was an A Team Commander with the Fifth Group, then at Bragg, and had the engine out of my VW, and was using the parts washer there, when I had an immediate deployment with my team to the Mid East, and just had to leave my disassembled motor on the work bench. When I returned a month later, and was putting my motor back together, I could not find the shim washer that went under my distributor drive. So I went over to the parts washer, and reached down and felt around, and sure enough, found the shim! I guess other troopers did not want to put their hands down into that tank.

After a couple of weeks down in Charleston, hopefully will start, finally, my truck's restoration.

All the best, guys

NAM VET

[shadow 9er]

I wish mine had come with a working wench...lol

Good luck, using the post's auto shop sounds like a great resource!