another older toy... this one just called out to me, poor thing deserved better. idiot me decided to take it on- 'plan' was tires, paint, minor cleanup, and donate to local air museum ive been a member at for years but never did any volunteer hours(work hours/their hours are similar) so thought I'd throw a few hundred bucks and a few hours at this old thing...I'd contacted the museum about these two trucks years ago- they wanted them, but never came back- no time for such silliness either likely... well the entire scrap machine area they decided to scrap, even though scraps dirt cheep, they were tired of the mess out back- we had a old cnc machining center base casting with a 8" tree growing out of it, boss said 'enough'...i'd stashed this away from the scrappage stuff a couple times over the prior 5 years, knew it ran well, and had antifreeze, just king kong couldnt steer it...well I asked again- sure if you want it, they even let me stash it in a back building to attempt to see if steering was viable to repair...
well, it wasnt. saginaw 540 manual box was completly trashed...but, the bigger idiot in me didnt want to give up easily (or smartly). spent a few hours at a pull-a-part checking steering boxes, required lefthand worm pitch(odd in USA), in hundreds of vehicles only found 4- E250, D250, land rover, Astro...and the astro was smallest, plus had ports pointing at what would be the only clear area...ordered a rebuilt one for a 2000 astro from Lares corp, and...
astro box, input with speedway motors spline adapter, pinned/welded to a goldwing u joint/stubshaft, shortened column with 4 sealed bearings/snaprings to replace what had been a one piece shaft with one unavailable bearing... output used a Jeep TJ pitman arm reamed for a howe racing 1 1/8" ball stud to ft the original drag link. had to cut the chassis, weld in a 'box' of 1/2" plate to bolt the new astro box on to, had to relocate the two shifters, had to cut/flip brake pedal assembly to clear the relocated shifters- even without power, it steered way easier... then removed generator mount, flipped upside down to raise 3", making BARELY enough room for a hacked up ranger bracket/pump...and somehow it all works, drives like a new one(except has a clutch)
a few evenings stripping paint, epoxy priming/filling/painting, repaired fiberglass seat pan/'hood', went to check out brakes, found linings peeling- unavailable bonded/cast iron shoes, 11" diameter 1 3/4 wide... just none out there, even the smaller cast ones are expensive... did more searching, found a NOS lining kit for a 62-up F100...drilled/riveted those on tonight...
hoping to be done by end of february, still gotta get lights/horn/front tires/rewire it, detail engine, make a seat pan 'hinge'(thinking a 4 link/side swingup-over thing, with hood pins to lock closed) fix gauges, paint the military star/stencils(not a army truck, but same exact model they had worldwide in use), and call the museum... think they will be happy with it, and hopefully it will be around for many decades after i'm gone- hopefully still running, its in really good mechanical shape...whether just displayed with other ground support equipment(they have a twin to it- but its rough), whatever...gonna put a dedication plaque on it 'in memory of' some dear old friends of mine, one who really loved the museum, they were WWII guys, was very fortunate o have gotten to know them, and my kids too...old Don who I got my Cub from served on Enterprise during the wost part of the war up to it getting towed back half sunk...he loved the museum... hoping maybe that will help remind them to take care with it too...not many of these 50/60s machines left out there as its cheaper to buy a good used one than even put tires on one... ive already sunk about 1500 in it and aint done yet, even in good shape its not 'worth' half that... that Clark I did I only had 800 in all up, its probably a 3~5000.00 machine because of its age(1993/1800 hours), but I never sell anything... if I get done needing it, it may wind up at the museums restoration shop too...but the old one I think fits their motif well, and it should have a easy retirement as a rarely used display piece- in fully functional order
56 yrs old, had never riveted a brake lining in my life... glad I found these- was in a bit of a panic that it was gonna get real expensive to find a set, only took about a hour and a half even drilling/counterboring all the holes
theres a ton more pictures here if anyones bored... the 'old forklift restoration hobby' has very few members LOL
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90822467@N08/albums
man I'll be glad when this things done...my wifes ready to kill me - even SHE said I should be working on my mustang instead of this thing