M43 Resurrection

[Oldfart]

My daughter is starting the resurrection of her M43. It was issued to the Marines and as such it had the Marine lifting shackle set up. She has not noticed the missing left rear side shackle bracket yet and I want to get her one as a present.

Not only have I been unable to find a bracket, I have been unable to find any references to the different style brackets used by the Marines. Does anyone out there in SS land have any idea where to look for information on these brackets??

I know, Pictures, Pictures. I will head to the farm this morning and snap a photo of the right side bracket for all to see. Left side would be different as the bumperette bolt pattern would cause there to be a left right side difference. I should have photos attached by day’s end
.

 

[DAP]

Post over on the M37 web site. Somoeone over there a long time ago had a drawing of one that you could take to a metal fabricator to have made up from steel

 

[Oldfart]

Promised photos

 

[DAP]

Wow your rear cross member looks like it was hit and caved in. What happened?

Seeing the Marine coprs "paper clips" on your bumper reminded me. The truck I am rebuilding was Marine and was a winch model. Unfortunately the winch and stuff was long gone and the winch half bumpers had chain wrapped around them to pulll something and were all twisted. I could find a regular bumper without the "paper clips". I found some steel rod same diameter as the Marine rod and then heated it and bent it around a heavy wall pipe to the correct shape. Then surface welded it on the bumper in the correct place and angle using the winch half bumpers as a pattern. After sand blasting and paint you couldn't tell the original from the modified. I then heated the winch half bumpers and banged them straighter. I eventually sold them to somebody who was putting together a Marine Corp winch model. He was real happy. My bumper guards around the rear had the solid block all hacked to pieces. I took the good one and mangled one in to a metal fabricator and he cut a new block and welded it in for $20 total. See what your local metal smiths can do for you if you show them your good one. The attaching loops can be found from multiple MV sellers and on Ebay. However watch Ebay because some of the loops are way over priced. I wouldn't pay ore than $5 each plus shipping.

 

[zout]

Ok ole fart - how bout some pics of the rest of the M43 - I know ya had more bullets in the camera than 6.

My 43 will be here the end of the month to start a new project and I really would like to see the rest of yours besides the rear bumper - show the good stuff.

 

[Oldfart]

Wow your rear cross member looks like it was hit and caved in. What happened?

Actually, the cross member is OK, that bent piece is the mounting extension for the taillight. I would guess that got torqued when they tore the lift shackle bracket off (probably trying to tow something with it.)

We have the ability to fabricate quite a bit in our farm shop. My son got tired of the hand powered tubing and strap bender and went to a hydraulic powered unit that does a nice job on lighter stuff. I took a hard look at the existing bracket and it is all made from plate or sheet material with small bends in some of the strap. Unless we can find a bracket pretty cheap, I think we will make our own. We have larger drill press (5/8 chuck) plus morris taper for larger bits and a vertical mill for more precise work. It looks like the harder part will be to fabricate the block for the shackle and only because it is thicker plate.

My own M37 was WOW when I got it years ago. I kept looking for a winch set up that I could afford and all I could find was torn up winch bumpers. I finally bought a pile of Braden LU4 winch parts from the Texarkana Depot and put a winch together from that. I decided I did not want the flimsy winch bumpers so I used a non winch bumper and wind from the top not the bottom. I planned to make a deuce style cable skid, but I never got around to it.

 

[Oldfart]

Ok ole fart - how bout some pics of the rest of the M43 - I know ya had more bullets in the camera than 6.

My 43 will be here the end of the month to start a new project and I really would like to see the rest of yours besides the rear bumper - show the good stuff.

Odd that you should mention bullets. I do have a few more photos I took today pluss some of my daughter installing her batteries a couple of days ago. There will be more when she starts the engine swap. However, it is her M43 and she will be doing the bulk of the work as well as reporting on her progress, including all the details (she has scored some stretchers and medical boxes already.)

Having said that it is up to her to post about her truck, I will leak the other photos I took today.

 

[zout]

I can greatly appreciate the distinction as the M43 being hers and also what she may or not want to report on as progress.

Very cool anyhow and hopefully she can appreciate a lot of members here (including myself) look forward to seeing one come alive again.

Thanks for the post - not to say your camera could not accidentally caputure a pic once in a while if she happens to slack off.

Hopefully she does not remove the bullet holes getting rid of history.

 

[Oldfart]

I am assured the holes are a part of the vehicles history and will remain. I think she plans on the darker green O.D. of Korea into Viet Nam rather than the later lighter green, but she tells me the camo is going away. Rest assured I have a camera at the ready. If she is twisting wrenches, then someone else has to take the photos. The inner shell did not get penetrated so I would assume the slugs are somewhere in the bottom of the wall. The rear door hole stops against the other door, but there is no slug so someone probably dug it out or it fell out. The holes are at least two different calibers and I am curious as to which calibers. It looks like a right rear firing position and I can imagine a rapid exit, but who knows?

 

[Ghostdriver]

OK, OK, I'll get on it. In the meantime, yes, there are bullet holes of two different calibers in the ambulance box. Most of them are oblique, like the truck was going away. Since the truck is not completely shot up, I don't think it was used for target practice (which would be sacrilege anyway). There is a stainless steel Marine Corps placard on the dash, and somebody's name scratched in the window frame above the dash.

 

[Ghostdriver]

Pictures of my girl. The paint job sucks, but she has great bones. The box has the surgical lamp (not shown) and all four beds. We got some stretchers this week. The stainless placard is on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. If anyone has any idea of how I could use those numbers to research this truck, I would appreciate it. The name on the window frame is Ralph somebody. I can't quite make out the last name, but I'll work on it in better light.

I believe (I have been told) that I will start the motor swap tomorrow.

 

[98taco3]

Im getting a bed off of a truck up in fort collins one of these weekends. Let me get a closer look at it and see if it was a marine truck. I seem to remember the lifting eyes on the front bumper but i could be a bit foggy a year later. If theres one on there ill snag it for ya!

 

[Ghostdriver]

Here are some pictures from pulling the front clip today. We blew about 50 lbs of mouse poop out of it so it wouldn't get in the shop. Don't know if the dash picture shows it well, but the inside is dark OD - almost forest green. I'll try to match that for the exterior. The chain by the gearshift can be looped around and padlocked as an anti-theft device. To remove the front clip, there are three bolts on the rear of each wheel well (among others - there are fourteen total, as I recall). One is 3/4, and the other two are 9/16, I think. I'll have more pictures that show the wiring that needs to be disconnected and some other bolt locations later.

 

[Ghostdriver]

There are four bolts underneath the engine, on the belly shroud for the fan. The two that are safety-wired together are in the center, and there are two more, one on each side that connect to the splash plates. Except for the crud that tried to fall in my eyes, they didn't give me any trouble.

 

[Ghostdriver]

About a half dozen wires run from the front of the clip to the firewall on each side. They are held to the inside of the wheel wells with tension clips that hold each sealed wire connector. The connectors are a push-turn-pull type. Some of them were pretty cranky. We undid the connections that were closest to the front and tagged the wires. There are also loops further back that hold wire bundles.

 

[Ghostdriver]

After all the bolts and wires were undone, the clip was lifted off the truck. There are tabs by the cab that the fenders slip on to, we had to lever them off to loosen the clip so it could be pulled off.

Many thanks to Oldfart for his expertise, feeding me tools, a little extra muscle, taking the pictures, and keeping me company. Thanks also to Danny Boy the tractor for the heavy lifting.

This took about 3 hours including the short tow to the shop, looking for tools, and letting the tractor warm up.

 

[98taco3]

looking great! The colorado crew is going to have more than a handful of m37 variants here very soon! A convoy in parades is in order!

 

[Oldfart]

short video of impact wrenching

 

[Danger Ranger]

I can't seem to get it to work...is it just my computer, or is someone else having the same problem?

Project looks great by the way!!!

 

[Oldfart]

Click on the link at the top. I can't get it to open in the picture frame either, but if you click on the link above the picture frame it comes up.