Picture of the Week 1/4/2010

[Bill_Wolf]

[John V Cliche]

Hard to believe there is a CCKW under there
Assuming this IS Neil's truck

Nice job

John

[Brad]

what is this? German? reproduction..

[dr deuce]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You did a GREAT job on that!

[SpookyDad]

Yes it is my truck and it IS a CCKW 353 underneath.

The picture was taken just after my first muddy off-road experience with her. She performed perfectly! No trouble getting up a very muddy hill where the Ford had to be towed out with the M3 Halftrack.

Neil

[lacoda56]

I gotta admit I had my doubts when you first started this project, but you've done an amazing job and should be proud of the finished product!

[SpookyDad]

Thank you for the compliments.

The outside is only about 70% finished and there are a lot of details to still to go on. The inside however, is only 30% done. It does keep me busy though.

Neil

[Brad]

forgive my ignorance but what is the truck?

[SpookyDad]

Brad

The truck is a Kfz 72 radio truck. There were a number of manufacturers who built this truck to a common set of specifications. Similar to the Ford/Willys/Bantam versions of the jeep. These trucks were manufactured up until 1938. The German Army abandoned these trucks due to poor off-road performance. Only the rear axles were driven on the German vehicles and they were far too heavy for the deep mud in Russia. The Army even resorted to equipping the trucks with removable tracks for the rear wheels. From what few accounts there are, the tracks were nearly useless. This led to the adoption of the Opel Blitz ( A GMC company ) and Ford 3000 trucks as the primary transport for the Army. So it was good old American engineering and design that was keeping both sides moving during the war.

I have lots more information on my website: http://716heer.org

Neil

[Cat Man]

Neil,

I must say that is one of, if not THE coolest conversion I have ever seen. You had us going a bit when you started the project, but I'm really impressed.

The detail is just wonderful. And the unit history makes it even better.

I'd like to see some more detail pictures. Are they posted somewere?

The 716heer.org site is great too. Very nice pictures.

You are the master. We are not worthy oh great one!


Cat Man

[SpookyDad]

Cat Man

Thanks for the compliments but there are plenty of people on here who do very nice work on their own trucks.

What parts would you like to see details of?

Over Christmas I was trying to overhaul my site and the HTML files became unstable. I think I have it rebuilt now. Everything below the third level was unaccessable. I am pretty sure it works now. The build pictures are here:

http://716heer.org/html/build_pictures.html

Those show the project from start to finish.

There is still a LOT of prettying up to do. The fenders for example need to have the welds ground down and filled. So much of this project has been just figuring out HOW I am going to do it, not doing it. Some things worked well and others not so good. I have left some stuff that needs reworking in order to take the truck to events. Sometimes this is ok other times I just see it as a glaring ugliness. The radiator cover and the hood panels are a good example. I made these before I had a sheet metal brake so the lines are really wavy.

Neil

[Brad]

wow thats quite the project looks like you've come along way..

[armydriver]

Nice job. She is a real beauty