WITLESS THURSDAY-IT'S RAINING TO BEAT HELL

[joel gopan]

My CCKW 352 SWB was manufactured in May 41, and has been thru an upgrade in its Military career, open cab, the brakes are now Hydrovac boosted, later radiator, 40 Amp charging system, and the engine has the deep oilpan. My question is did the factory originally always install cotterpins according to the TMs, and use the correct length, could they vary? This is driving me nuts, cause I do not know if my truck is "Motorpool" Class, or "Mongrel" Class. Would any self respecting GI have driven a truck such as mine if he knew the real difference?
The truck is running fine and I have run out of topics for the moment. Don't feel bad if your truck is slightly different 60 years later, enjoy it, and park in front of a Jeep. I tried to research the space that would be required to deliver all the waterbuckets that were actually stored on the Bidons of Jeeps and Trucks in WWII. My best estimate is one 10" Pizza box, does anyone have any evidence to the contrary?
Joel

[armydriver]

When a GI is assigned a vehicle he doesn't really care about it's configuration, only if it will get from point A to point B . Truthfully unless you construct a CCKW from all NOS or repro parts they all have been mongolized after some 60 years. All we can do is to try to get them back into a presentable running condition. That is why I classify my truck as a " combat class" truck. Repro mudflaps, originally had a winch, but now has a non-winch type bumper with the holes in the floor board for the winch leavers, and replacement parts off of several parts trucks. I love combat class, it leaves a lot to the imagination.

[Bill_Wolf]

Being a youngster....I read somewhere that at the big rebuild depots that one group of workers was assigned to strip the trucks down and stack the parts in boxes based on the specific part not the specific truck. For example all water buckets would go in one box regardless which truck they came from....

They would then transfer all the boxes to the rebuild side where where the rebuilders would then pull the needed part from the stack. Not based on keeping the same parts with the same chassis but based on need. Thus any truck that hit a rebuild depot would not be original. It may have the correct parts but not the original parts

Thus unless a truck was a virgin from the factory there is no such thing as "All original" like the Jeep boys like to push.....

This is what I have read....If I am all wet here (little water bucket humor) ...please let me know.

Bill

[bobc]

I'm sure they did this with all the vehicles,I have a halftrack that is a mixed bag vehicle,but yet everything has OD paint on it,I agree with Army Driver,combat class is the only way to go,especially if you are going to drive your vehicle,not trailer it to shows. Heck you can even add a canvas water bucket if you want!

[armydriver]

You are right Bob, and another thing about combat class is that you don't get upset if it is dusty, or a scratch appears on the new paint job. Only real collectors at the shows can really appreciate all it takes to build a factory original truck. The average person looking at that old vehicle only wants to know a little history about it.
Back in 1902 the Army realized that it needed to issue a .45 caliber pistol to it's troops fighting the guerillas in the Philippines as the .38 Colt did not have enough shocking power to knock the vine bound Moro's down as they charged the soldiers. They took all of the old .45 Caliber Colt single action Peacemakers, tore them completely apart, putting back straps and trigger guards in one box, frames in another, cylinders in another and cut the barrels from 7 1/2 inches to 5 1/2inches. They re-blued the guns, re-case hardened the frames, put on new wooden grips and re-issued the mixed serial numberd pistols. The frame number became the primary number of the weapon. All of these so called " artillery" models have a mixed lot of serial numbers. To find one with all matching numbers is extremely rare.
It is only common sense to think that the military did the same to WWII vehicles at re-build facilities.

[armydriver]

I failed to mention in the above that prior to the adoption of the 1911 Colt automatic every major part of U.S. military pistols were matched to the serial number of the frame. The barrel, cylinder, trigger guard and back strap all had the same number as the frame.

[joel gopan]

My M-1911, and M-1911A1 have matching numbers in the usual places.
Joel

[bobc]

I got thinking about wter buckets in combat photos yesterday,it was raining here also, so I got digging through my halftrack books,I acually found 2 pictures of combat photos showing canvas water buckets,one was on the water can the other was on can bracket but no can,what a relief I can now put my NOS water bucket on my halftrack,if I ever get it done.If this rain dosen't stop soon I'm going to go nuts.

[Bill_Wolf]

Bob....you're being a real instigator to start trouble here......

[bobc]

It's the rain,I'm going stir crazy. I haven't touched OD all week,I'm going through withdrals.

[armydriver]

Bob, catch some of that rain and send it this way. There has been no rain in San Antonio for the whole month of April. This is the dryest April on record here. Rain east of here and north of here but not in the immediate San Antonio area. Looks like a long hot summer.

[armydriver]

Joel, besides the frame and slide, what other parts are numbered? I have a real early 1911, one that does not even have the 1913 patent date and I have only a number on the frame and inside the slide. Just interested. My 1911A1 only has a frame number, but is all GI issue.