"LUCKY 13" Restoration Process

[spillmk1]

Looking good, I’m so glad I had my dash out when I wired my halftrack. Good times!c

Don G.

Agree!!!
I would have needed my gantry crane attached to my belt to hoist me back out!!!

Keith

[Selliott]

Oh No You Didn’t..... just say I hadn’t done anything till now!!!!!  Let me set the record straight.......I was out there less than a week after surgery on my crutches trying to help you!  By two weeks I was hobbling around working, and now A little under a month and I’m doing ALL the work again!!! Don’t lie to all these good people.

[coreyelliott]

IT MOVES UNDER IT'S OWN POWER!  LUCKY 13 MOVES!  So after a ton of work, and sore days after that work, Shon and I finally got the passenger side assembled and the track installed.  I've got pictures to post, but I'm too tired to do that now.  I do have a video though!

After we got the work completed last night, Shon jumped in to move it.  It was cold and we didn't warm it up, so it was running a little rough, but it moved on it's own.  Also, we didn't know it, but there was a block of wood laying on the shop floor behind the passenger side tire.  It caused Shon an unexpected bump and lurch when driving over it.  If you read Shon's lips, he looks at me and says "it's the tires".  We assumed there was a flat spot on the tires, but we were wrong!  The next day, I moved Lucky 13 out of the shop on it's maiden voyage outside.  We are so happy and relieved that we have reached this point.  It's literally like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

In the near future, we plan on verifying all fluid/oil levels and hit all the grease zerks.  Then we'll take it on a little bit longer trip.  Of course, we'll try to provide video for that, too.

Here's the video:  https://youtu.be/6nLdP3Mkh-k

Corey

[8683jb]

Nice video. How exciting for you guys! It looks great!

[Smadge]

Fantastic!!

[big44maghunter]

That is great guys!  Good job.

[RB-058]

Milestone!! Congrats!!

Btw, what kind of paint do you guys use? I like the flatness of it!

Rob

[R.E.Co.]

Congrats! Moving along!

Jon

[coreyelliott]

Btw, what kind of paint do you guys use? I like the flatness of it!

Rob

We use Rapco 34087.  Paint discussion can lead to all kinds of conclusions, but we like this one.  Here is a link: http://www.rapcoparts.com/34lukoldrmoc.html

Thanks to all for the compliments!

Corey

[RB-058]

Thanks for sharing this information Corey!

Rob

[coreyelliott]

There hasn't been much traffic on this site lately, so I thought I'd post a couple of updates.  Shon and I have worked on several different projects on the halftrack and I've taken some pictures of some of them.  Plus, Santa sent us a HUGE late (or early) Christmas present that I'll show you last.  Anyway, hope all of you are safe and loving this quarantine!   

Corey

[coreyelliott]

Been working on headlights.  We have about 6 different lights in varying condition that we could use.  We luckily ended up with just enough parts.

Here is the condition of probably our best light.  We also had two glass lenses, one in great condition and one with a small hole in it.







Our reflectors were in pretty bad shape, the few that we had.








Luckily, we had two reflectors in good'ish condition.  Here is one after being blasted.










Epoxy primer







And here is a reflector after paint.  I used a rustoleum aluminum that I found to be the shiniest.  Still not chrome, but I hope it works.










I had to put the paint on really thick to get the finish I wanted; however, even after several days it was still really soft.  So, I threw it in the oven and about 200 degrees.  Not a good idea.








I refinished this one and now they both came out well.








Now paint.










I bought bulbs online.  The whole box for $15!








Had to try and do the wiring ourselves.  Used a cut down screw head with a blob of solder to act as the contact points.
















And then there was light!  Hooked it up to the battery on my Tahoe just for a test.





Corey

[8683jb]

Outstanding job Corey! What a score on the bulbs!

[spillmk1]

Nice job!!!!

[coreyelliott]

Thanks for the kind words!   

We made the decision to restore the BO drive light resistor and mount it like normal.  It even has the correct resistance to work with a 6v bulb; however, we decided we didn't want to throw another variable in the electrical system if we didn't have to.  So, we decided to just run a wire through the resistor but not actually use it and instead, replace the bulb with a 12v bulb as many others have done.

This is the only before photo I can really find, even though I've already uncrimped the housings.








Unsoldered the 6v bulb.









Resoldered a new one.  1156 seemed to be similar wattage and size.  I used some liquid electrical tape to help protect the solder connection as it was pretty exposed and could be susceptible to vibration.  Then blasted the parts.













Used the original connectors but replaced the wire.  Recrimped the cases together and added the ring.  After cleaning up the glass lens, it was really clear.  Don't have a picture of it turned on, but it puts out a nice amount of light.













More to come soon.

Corey