1943 Dodge WC-51 Repairs and Updates

A couple of weeks ago I was happily working on my "new" Farmall C kit (basket case, really) project, but then the brakes were put on it when this WC showed up out of the blue. Of course I had to do some fiddling with the new-new project, since the Farmall is merely an old-new project now. I got several things done today on the truck. The first thing I worked on was to oil the flapper doors on the little heater cube under the glove compartment. The heater isn't hooked up under the hood so I don't know if the heater core leaks, but I did get all the flappers working. Do you see it under the map table in the photo below? No? It is peaking out there. And that map table is made from particle board, so obviously it's not original. I'll make one from solid wood at some point.

Ok, I just had to get a better photo of the heater...

When working on an old vehicle like this where there are so many little projects to be done, it's difficult to not get sidetracked. The heater doors mentioned above were one such project. Here's another one. The passenger door latch is difficult to unlatch so I grabbed a screwdriver and tried to adjust the catch. And of course it's not adjustable, but I was able to move it outward ever so slightly so that the door is easier to unlatch now. But then I thought I'd take a look at the driver's side latch. It's been used a lot more than the passenger side, so the brass catch was worn, and someone added some brazing and crudely shaped the mess with a file. I figured I could make it look a little better, so I tried getting the screws out. One broke. Sigh. But I did get the remnant out with vice-grips.

The broken screw is a countersunk flathead, so I grabbed a wood screw and was ready to tap it for 10-24 threads, as I couldn't find a suitable replacement in BOB (bucket o' bolts) in the garage.

I then thought, maybe, just maybe I have a screw in the basement. Yep, found one, so I don't need to make one.

And below is the catch that I fixed up as best I could with a drill press, file and grinder.

The replacement screw head was Phillips, so I cut a slot so the next person to mess with the catch won't need two screwdrivers.

On to the big project for the day, getting the factory Air Conditioning operational once again. Ok, it's just a fresh air cowl vent, but I'm calling it AC. The cowl vent is rusted shut, and the operating handle inside the cab had been broken and bugger-welded together. The poorly done weld broke when I tried getting the vent to move.

After a lot of fighting, I got the vent free of the cab. I had a casualty of a broken screw and I also had to use a cutoff wheel to slice a rivet in two, but it had to be done to get the vent off so I could do the necessary repairs.

This next photo below shows the one screw I broke while trying to free the vent. It's a shoulder screw.  More on that later.

The next few photos below show the broken lever that operates the vent.

Below shows the rivet I had to cut off to get the vent out of the truck.

Below is the broken hinge screw that I need to make two new ones of. One screw had already been broken before I got this truck.

I ground off all the nasty weld buildup on the lever halves, and will weld the two pieces together with a MIG.

Not the prettiest, but like they say, "A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't."

This next photo below shows the handle of the AC unit hanging down in the center of the photo. The flapper door isn't bolted in yet but you get the idea where the handle is located under the dash. And there's the starter motor rod/button right behind the AC handle that is so difficult to get my foot on. The linkage is so loose that the rod points up too high and too close to the dash support. I'll need to fix that.

Now to make some shoulder screws for the door pivot/hinge points. Below are the dimensions for the two screws.

And this next photo is the dimensions of the shoulder screw I need to make to replace the rivet I had to cut to get the vent off the truck. I could try to rivet the two parts back together but working up under the dash to do that would be horrendously difficult, so I'll just make a screw.

The three screws are done. The hard part of installing the vent is next. The cab of the truck is tight and I don't bend like I did 50 years ago.

The whole thing was rusty so I put a layer of paint on the underside. I'll leave the top of the vent its original patchwork color for now.

The AC unit is all bolted in and functional again. As expected, it was a real chore to get both my hands up under the dash to get three shoulder bolts installed and tightened down, what with the small cab space and the five levers poking out the floor of the cab.

Here's a shot of the window and vent door closed.

It's a couple of weeks later, and I was perusing FB Marketplace (why, oh why do you do this, my dear wife would say) and ran across a guy selling parts from his WC63 project. For those who don't know what a WC63 is, it's basically a stretched version of the WC52 (the "winch" model) that has one more axle in the back to carry more weight. I snapped a photo of the rear tandem axles and their unique drive system. The rearward axle is used for 2WD operation. When the transfer case is engaged, the second rear axle and the front axle are engaged, so it's a 6x6 truck, instead of the WC51/52 4x4 layout.

Below is the guy's WC63 project. It's got a later model Dodge cab on it. See those headlight guards? That's what I snagged.

The guards have been modified with a round bar welded to the top of both guards, so those have to be ground off, and the guards are a bit bent up so I need to try and straighten them without breaking any of the grill wire welds.

I started with the passenger side guard in the hydraulic press.

I went further than straight so that when the pressure was released, the thing would hopefully spring back to flat.

I guess I went just a bit too far. It's almost straight.

Here's the driver's side guard. It was a little trickier, as both top and bottom flat bars were bent. I used a C-clamp to help the bottom bar get bent back into place, so the wire didn't get stressed too much.

The guards are installed and look good. The headlight buckets are not stock, so that's why they look so big. Someday I might try to find original buckets, or just keep these.

Once done with the headlight guards, I thought I'd try to see if the winch had any stampings under all the layers of paint. In the photo below I could not make out anything.

After some acetone and wire brush, the markings started to be revealed. The top is stamped MU2, the model of the Braden winch. The serial number is below the model, 14499.

I was at a tractor swap meet and picked up some choice items for the truck. The first item is a Black Out Light. It's 1991 vintage, and made of plastic, but I figure it looks the part better than having nothing there on the fender. I'll paint it to make it not stand out so much. I replaced the 24v light bulb with a 12v bulb and it works great. I do need to make a mount for it to fit the fender contour.

The second item was a 5-gallon gas can from 1951. The passenger side running board has a gas can mounting plate so of course I had to find an appropriate can to fit it. I do need to make up a nylon strap to hold the can in place.

I was told that this truck had been used as a service truck for a logging company. They had added 1/4" diamond plate in the bed and put 1/4" plate steel along the back end of the box. I took all that off today. I used an angle grinder with a thin cut-off wheel to cut welds. There is a bit of cancer in the bottom edges of the original box but it's all just flat sheet metal, so pretty easy to patch.

I was hoping the wood under the diamond plate was original, with original steel hold-down strips. Nope. The wood is just laying in there too, so that will have to be dealt with before driving this thing too far from home. The piece of steel weighed a lot more than I anticipated. I could barely lift one end of it off the bed of the truck to slide it out. I'm guessing it is close to 300 pounds.