"LUCKY 13" Restoration Process

[coreyelliott]

Well, we haven't updated our post in over 3 months so I'd like to post at least something to let you guys know we are still around and kicking.  It's been hot here, as summers are; however, we've been dealing with humidity this year.  We aren't used to humidity in the summers here in West Texas and it can some times really get us struggling.  Also, Shon has been on summer vacations with his family and I have been with mine.  But there really is a bigger reason or two that has led us to our lack of updates, which I'll touch on down below.

First, We got our shipping stencil printed and cut out.  We printed the stencil on stencil decal paper and hand cut them out with an exacto knife.  LOOOONGGG procedure.  We also got the invasion star painted on the hood and the regular star painted on the front.  Painters tape and an exacto knife for those.

This was all being done several months ago as we were preparing for our first public event.  There was a large car show and we had already contacted the organizers and they were ecstatic to have us attend.  The event was close enough to drive the truck to, but we've never had it over a mile at one time so we needed to go on at least a 4 mile journey to make sure things went well.  As the driver, things seemed to go really well.  It was a little weak on the top end and I could only get it to maybe 40, but other than that it went great.  That was when Shon, who was following me, pointed to head back to the shop as he passed me.

We threw the rubber on about 8 of our bogies.  We knew it would happen eventually, but we just assumed we would have a little longer.  We don't drive it much so we assumed they would last a year or two.  They didn't.

We were now going to be down for quite some time without the funds for either NOS bogies or urethane recoating.  Since we were going to be down, we decided to go ahead and replace a leaking freeze plug and investigate our leaking water pump.  Shon lined up a trip to Brent Mullins while he was going to be near there on vacation and we had come up with enough money to buy 8 NOS bogies. 

Pictures follow.









 

[spillmk1]

Looking good!!!
That hood stencil is fun isn't it?

Not sure how fast Bertha will go.
When we have the Shacktown Militia rolling to an event (1955 M38A1 Jeep and Half Track) we run
about 25-30mph and just grin like possums and wave to the surprised passers by. 

Keith

[coreyelliott]

Looking good!!!
That hood stencil is fun isn't it?

Not sure how fast Bertha will go.
When we have the Shacktown Militia rolling to an event (1955 M38A1 Jeep and Half Track) we run
about 25-30mph and just grin like possums and wave to the surprised passers by. 

Keith

Thanks Keith.  Luckily for me, Shon handled the hood stencil!

I think we will just keep it in the 30mph range for our max speed and be happy with that.

Corey

[coreyelliott]

We got the new bogie wheels installed and wrapped up some of our other things off the "to-do" list and took Lucky 13 out for a drive.  Things went great.  We do have a clunking noise coming from the driver side track and I think it's because the track is too loose.  It might be hanging up on the sprocket.  See the video below!

https://youtu.be/2QgWiNoGwqE

Corey

[emptyhead]

Very nice

[yd328]

The halftrack looks and sounds great. Check the toe out adjustment on the rear idler. 

Gary

[coreyelliott]

The halftrack looks and sounds great. Check the toe out adjustment on the rear idler. 

Gary

Thanks, Gary.  We have checked the toe adjustment and it's not correct.  It's out by about an 1/8".  We've adjusted the turnbuckles as much as we can.  Looks like we will have to look at getting some machining work done in the future to get these set right.

Corey

[coreyelliott]

Well friends, it's been awhile since there's been an update.  We have really tightened up some loose ends and have figured out things such as what we want to keep on the truck and where we want to store them.  Our temp fuel tanks are all plumbed.  It starts in less than one revolution and has great compression in all cylinders.  It might be running a bit rich still, but I can live with that until the motor is fully broken in.

Because things are going so well, we decided to take the halftrack to an event we were attending in New Mexico.  Shon's truck pulled Lucky 13 with no issues, except for just drinking the diesel fast, but that's to be expected.  Stopped at the local brewery and had some really good locally brewed pale ale and unloaded the halftrack with no issues.  The next day, we loaded up our GIs in Lucky 13 and sat off to battle on a 4wd road up a hill. 

We made it 6/10th's of a mile and all of the sudden Shon noticed smoke coming from under the passenger side floor.  First thing I thought of was electrical fire somewhere around the battery or battery wire.  I stopped and Shon got out and raised the hood.  It was antifreeze hitting the manifold causing the smoke.  Based on the damage, we immediately thought the headgasket had blown.  After a little further looking, that wasn't it.  The damn freeze plug I had installed only a couple of weeks ago was leaking.  Unloaded the guys and told them they were gonna have to hoof it.

We got home home and Shone immediately tore apart the manifolds.  The bottom freeze plug (behind the manifolds, of course) had just fallen out.  I'd never installed these disc types before and I guess I simply didn't flatten them out enough.  Because they are located in such a shitty spot, we decided to toss the freeze plugs and just tap the castings and install plugs.  No more leaking then!

Thanks for reading,

Corey

[Jesse]

Wwii pictures 12AD

[autocar925]

When you tapped for the threaded freeze plugs, what size plug did you use?