Well, I still haven’t been able to get an answer out of MD Juan about the floor pan thickness and dimensions. I measured mine to be made of 14g sheet and the dimensions are 38″ x 72″, or 96 x 183cm. I made up a list of hardware that I will need to put the trailer back together also. A lot of the bolt heads and nuts were very pitted or partially rusted away, so I will replace them. Pretty much all of the slotted hex nuts were pretty pitted up, so I will replace them. I took the measurements for the frame cross members so that I can see if I can find a fabricator to bend them up for me – they are pretty simple. They are made of 14g sheet metal bent into a c channel. They are all made the same with the rear being slightly different in hole pattern. They are only held to the outside frame rails by 2 rivets and 2 extra tack welds (the rear is welded up at the seam though. Might as well replace these while I have the tub off since it won’t be that much more trouble!
I won an auction for a pair of M100 drain plugs on eBay yesterday for slightly more than I paid for a pair 15 years ago. Yes, I bought a pair of them back then – but they were misplaced! If you could see my shop you would understand. I figured that most places are selling them for $28 ea + shipping, so $39 delivered was a good deal, and they are something I would have to have to finish this resto. BTW, I paid $17 ea + shipping 15 yrs ago!
While I was out in the shop yesterday, I decided to pull the new wiring harness out of the box to check everything out. I actually had 2 harnesses in there. I have a late style harness wired for turn signals, and an early one with Douglas connectors and not wired for signals. Weird thing is – it has a FEMALE plug that goes into the front right frame opening. Looking at my other trailers, I think it should be a MALE plug. I also have the single end, wired, late style intervehicular cable and a 6′ double ended (male and female), early style intervehicular cable. While I was looking for the intervehicular cable, guess what I ran across? The 2 drain plugs that I bought 15 yrs ago – still in the NOS box! I guess I will try to RE sell the ones I just bought on eBay.
I was going to cut the last welds to set the tub free today. I bought the fiber reinforced cut off disks last week. I got everything together and ran the drop cord – plugged up the Dremel and – NOTHING! Beat on it everywhere, tried other receptacles – NOTHING! That’s weird, because it was working fine last week when I was off. Oh well, on to other things.
So, I scuffed the primer down on all of my small parts (so far), and mixed up a little OD24087 for the touch up gun. I took them outside since it was such a nice day, and laid them out on the overturned M100 tub. 2 coats and let them sit – not 1 bug in all of the parts! While they were drying, I installed the wheels/tires back on the running gear. When I was putting the lug nuts on, I noticed something weird – F marked bolts in the hubs on both sides! Also something that I never realized – you know that military vehicles have left hand threads on the left side, right? Well, the trailers do too, of course! TIP: An easy way to tell a left hand thread nut is the flats have little indentions on them. And, of course, the left hand thread studs have an L stamped into the end of them.
Almost time for some new shoes!
Ready for assembly after they dry. Nice dirty 4 wheeler used as a prop.
I had a little time left before dark, so I cleaned up some of the GOOD hardware and painted them.
Here’s an easy way to paint nuts/bolts/washers. Wrap one wrap of bailing wire around a bolt, leave an inch between them. Make sure you leave enough wire for a handle (more than I did – notice my OD fingers!). If you want to paint the ends of the bolts, thread the nut on until it is even with the bolt end.
Easy way to paint bolts and nuts
That’s probably all I will get done this week. I have doors to paint (2nd coat – 5 doors), and a water line at the well to fix (broke this afternoon) tomorrow.
Rebirth of an M38A1 