Vietnam tribute Truck

[jeffhuey1n]

Post #5

Brakes are done for now. I can get her out of the barn to start doing some sanding. Sometime between here and there have to get me a set of inner front hub zippered seals. After that, as near as I can tell most of the mechanics are done. now it's time for the cosmetics. As far as a primer for when i clean out the rust spots, what will work with the mil spec paint types? For the most part i've always used rustoleum with rust inhibitors. Will it work with say Gilispie?

 

[willy]

Do have or know where to get a Seebee emblem
I am a former seebee and wouldlike to paint that enblem onmy A3

 

[jeffhuey1n]

I don't know of a confirmed source, however, i may know someone who does. I'll ask him and if he's Ok with it, I'll send you the info (or he will).

 

[hndrsonj]

Do have or know where to get a Seebee emblem
I am a former seebee and wouldlike to paint that enblem onmy A3

seabee trucks Here you go.

 

[hndrsonj]

Guess the page with the contact info would help: index

 

[jeffhuey1n]

Post #6

Hi, everything is on hold. Money sit is too tight for wants vs. have to haves. I'll keep tinkering and fixing little things but the truck won't be anywhere near ready this year. If money sit changes, I'll start up again.

For what its worth, the truck will be wearing the markings of 1st Battalion, 69th Armor, 4th Infantry Division (see attached). If someone has a particular company/platoon/squad and or truck number you want on it, let me know. It'll wear these markings for the duration unless/until I find out which Armored Regiment my family members came from. Those markings will be going on ASAP, I can do that; I'll post pics when its done. The truck overall will look like crap (paint wise) until things resolve (see pics).

I'm saving every penny right now to take care of some other issues (mainly parts, registrations and maybe a trailer) but will not forget this project. One question needs an answer, if I show up with the truck and it has the correct markings but the wrong paint scheme, will you Vietnam guys take it as being disrespectful? I am trying to get it set up inside and out to look period correct; at least that won't cost anything. The suggestions on cab contents and photo album will accompany the truck whenever it leaves my "motor pool", that is as soon as I can find a couple boxes of C's for the glove box as well as the approrpiate reading material. Yard sale season is here, hope to find these items dirt cheap, I'll keep my fingers crossed. As far as cargo; in work. One of the things that are no cost, just turn everyday stuff into period correct materials.

More to come at some time in the future. Sorry for the delay, it will get done.

Jeff

After rereading this whinny ***ed post, I got irritated. I'm not going to delete it like it should be, instead it'll be here if /when I get whinny again. Sorry for my **** poor attitude, sometimes stuff get's difficult. That's the time to walk away from the key board and find something contructive to do.

 

[WarrenD]

Just wondering why you want to waste your time (and money) putting markings on when you know you'll be sanding them off to re-paint? For myself, I held off on the markings until the end.

 

[jeffhuey1n]

Just wondering why you want to waste your time (and money) putting markings on when you know you'll be sanding them off to re-paint? For myself, I held off on the markings until the end.

Good question. Difficult answer... For years, (12 to be exact) since I've been in Laramie County, the local community has annually been the fortunate recipient of World War II re-enactments and displays. They have been outstanding productions and if anyone is in Cheyenne for Frontier Days, keep your eyes open for Fort D.A. Russel days over at F.E. Warren AFB. I, personally have seen nothing done for the Korean or Vietnam Vets. Same goes for the Cold War. The current conflicts Vets are getting plenty of positive support so I believe everyone is paying tribute to them daily. Call me freeking weird, I'm getting used to it. It's time for folks to say thank you to the forgotten and ignored generations. With my very limited resources, I going to try and pay tribute to these people. I have plenty of paint, just not the correct color for Korea and Vietnam trucks. I can't go down to wally world and pick up a case of semi gloss OD green in the correct color. It comes down to this: do the best I can with what I have and hope I can do right by them. I have a can of white paint. If it's supposed to be yellow, I can work that into the budget. Expensive parts..for that matter, any parts will have to wait till I get some kind of income that allows for the extras. If I can get the trucks to an event and they will be received and appreciated by those to which they're a tribute to, I'll get them there. Letters can be sanded and replaced really easy. I have the metal lettering kit so no big deal.

The Korean War will have the M-211 someday as their tribute. One of my M-35 trucks is already finished in desert tan (sand) and dedicated to my Marine unit, HMH 769, Mag 42, NAS Alameda. The last M-35 will be a tribute to those I served with in the Air Force who gave their lives in service to this country. The M-1009 is going to be the easiest..it's my Cold War truck. Having served through the last 10 years of the Cold War, it's the easiest of all.

Everything that I can do has to be done with stuff on hand. Either that or traded for. For example, the inner hub seals are the rubber type, are completely rotted and cost too much for me to buy. I do have 4 of the rubber ones (new, only one opened to verify I can't make them fit without removing a lot of heavy metal). I'd trade all 4 of them to someone for a set of the new zipper ones. Without those being replaced, driving is not worth the risk of damaging the joint. If someone wants to make the trade, please PM me. USPS shipping's still pretty cheap.

So, simple answer, easy to paint letters and numbers on, easy to sand the paint off. Tough questions are: Will our Vietnam Vets take this truck in the condition it's in and the intent for which it's meant as a positive tribute to their service? Or, am I wasting my time and effort to a project that will be an insult to their/your service? PM your comments to me is fine. I value your inputs. If it's negative, I'll put the project on the back burner and work with what I have on the others. When funds become available, I'll restart the project.

And by the way, I talk too much.

Semper Fi.

Jeff

 

[jeffhuey1n]

Finally something positive to add. A local collector generously donated some things to get the truck cab more in touch with the time period. That brings me to a question: did the trucks then have two single seats or did they have a single seat and the flat, pain in the backside 1/2 bench seat? I think that there's supposed to be just the drivers seat with the shock absorber; that makes it possible to have the bench for a gunner to stand on (if the mount was installed).

My truck has two single seats. If this isn't correct, I can do an easy fix by swapping the seat out with another truck (probably the AF truck).

Could any interested Vietnam Vets drop me a note on this? Also, got the C rats for the glove box as well as a 4 cig pack for decoration. Going to use a Nat geo for a Magazine to go into the glove box...I'll try and find an appropriately dated one with good pictures.

Last note. Truck will not be shown until the correct paint is applied. The slence has been deafening. If it can't be done right, it will have to wait till it can. In the mean time, the paint manufacturer has stated that the primer I use works with the paint top coat so once the AF truck is done I'll at least get the rust and rough spots taken care of. It'll be ready then once I get some paint.

 

[jeffhuey1n]

After researching the seat issue, I couldn't find any proof that there were two drivers type seats ever used during the war. Since this appears to be the case, out goes the single seat and in goes the gunners seat. Difficult job to put it simple. In order to get them out, I had to lighten the load. The gunners seat in the AF truck came apart pretty easy, the bolts weren't too rusted and were resusable. It came apart is three managable sectons; seat back, bottom ad frame. The drivers seat on the other hand...not so easy. The frame came off as did the cushions and seat rails failrly easy; bolts and hardware all reusable. The base was a stone cold *****. I'm now the proud owner of a couple new scars and I got that heavy ***** out. Basically, I rolled it out onto my knee (first scar, right arm) and stumble dumped it onto the ground, fortunatly the ground was very soft, no damage to the seat. Hand trucked the seat to the shop and set it on a creeper to get it over to the passenger side of the AF truck. So I didn't lose anything all small parts went in jars and the gunners seat was piecemeal carried out to the Tribute truck. I'm not going to install it right now since the cab needs some detail work. AF truck is now the proud owner of two drivers seats (getting base in earned me the second scar). I don't know what they put adjusters on those seats. None of mine work. After the dissasemble of this seat, I learned and now know what to do to get all my drivers seat rails functioning again. Just takes a lot of cleaning (steel brush is best but it still was nasty in there). Applied some GP grease after words and now it's good to go. Of course now I have to do the real drivers seat cause it's don't move on either the Tribute truck or the AF truck.

So, even though things are tight, work goes on. Just like a helicopter, something always needs fixing.

 

[jeffhuey1n]

I've printed all the pictures you've posted as well as some others I've found. I'll be putting them in the scrap book I found. FYI, the scrap book is made of some kind of wood from the orient. on it's cover is a picture of Japan and Korea. No. it's not a Vietnam specific scrap book; it is one from that time frame. I suspect that someone went to Japan on leave, maybe they were stationed in Japan or Korea...just don't know. But, it's a nice album to show off your pictures. See photo of the cover. The pages are black paper and are separated by some kind of semitransparant film..maybe rice paper?

 

[jeffhuey1n]

Got the correct mirror mounts yesterday, Thanks Jim! Took the West coast off, came off easy, and after hours of looking, found the correct sized bolts to install the old school mount. Unless I'm missing something, there's only one mirror mount on the old style (drivers side)? Anyway, once i get the mirror functional and installed, I'll post a picture.

Little by little, she's coming together. I'll be looking for those old school turn signal lights next....i wonder if the M-211's are the same? Back to the books!

 

[SMOKEWAGON66]

Im not sure and may be wrong, but from alot of the pics Ive seen of inside the cab of gun trucks in VN, most of them looked like they had no seat on the passenger side, and the space was occupied with ammo cans, and other stuff like that. Might want to ask Driver523...He seems to be one of the best sources on VN guntruck stuff. Im leaving my bench seat in the truck solely for the purose of taking people on rides, even if the truck im building didnt have a pass. seat. Ill figure it out when I get there. Good luck with your build

 

[minigunner64th]

All of the trucks I was familiar with had the full seating in the cab. 3 man crew could all fit in there during monsoon if you were in an area that we considered safe.

 

[SMOKEWAGON66]

All of the trucks I was familiar with had the full seating in the cab. 3 man crew could all fit in there during monsoon if you were in an area that we considered safe.

I stand corrected...I must have seen pics of the oddball trucks without seats then

 

[jeffhuey1n]

I stand corrected...I must have seen pics of the oddball trucks without seats then

Just a guess, I'd say that the trucks in the pics didn't have gun mounts. Either that or they had a really tall gunner. When the seats backs are folded down, they have a steel plate (can't remember what the pattern is called). that gives the gunner a solid platform to stand on and make it possible for most people to reach the gun, which is why I put the bench seat back into the truck. The AF truck gets the other drivers seat...now I'll have a pilot and co-pilots seat. Gonna be a bugger getting the ejection seats just right. Don't want them to shoot too high up! You can bet I'll be putting a red button with the words "Ejection seat, press only in the event of an emergency". I'll have to hook it into the horn circuit...should be fun at car / air shows.

 

[Driver523]

If this is a cargo truck all I can say is that I never seen a cargo with anything cept the proper seats, drivers couldn't get away with too much other then maybe a name on the door armor, you might swap out the shifter knob every day (even having the same truck assigned to you things that came off easy seemed to disappear). The gun trucks were a different story, there were some freedoms extened to the crews, most the gun trucks I seen had the passengers seat removed but I'm sure there were examples of both with and without-----let me know what you need and I'll see if I have any shots of it---I don't have much on inside cargo cabs I don't think-------------

 

[jeffhuey1n]

If this is a cargo truck all I can say is that I never seen a cargo with anything cept the proper seats, drivers couldn't get away with too much other then maybe a name on the door armor, you might swap out the shifter knob every day (even having the same truck assigned to you things that came off easy seemed to disappear). The gun trucks were a different story, there were some freedoms extened to the crews, most the gun trucks I seen had the passengers seat removed but I'm sure there were examples of both with and without-----let me know what you need and I'll see if I have any shots of it---I don't have much on inside cargo cabs I don't think-------------

Any inside photos would be greatly appreciated! I don't have much in the way of those. I did get the photo of the M-16 hanging on the thumb screw. I'm still looing for an M-16A1 as a prop to do the same. My AR's are M-4 style. I don't think you had those, or did you?

You mention two things, armor and shifter knobs. I've seen civilian shifters with a variety of decorations, most were beer taps. Is that an "approved" mod? i can get my hand on one of those...Hams is what i'd choose. As far as the armor, what was used, and how was it mounted? none of the photos show anything that I recognize as armor. Sand bags are shown in at least one shot, which I need to add to my list. Canvas was what was used wasn't it for the sand bags?

Thanks for all the help. This project is going together slowly but it's coming together little by little with yours and all the Vietnam Vets that havesent their comments.

Jeff

 

[emr]

I did not read all posts, i bet paint choice has come up, Arvoe 24087 is the most correct shade as per David Doyle and many others including myself from the years i have under my belt, alot of pics and documentaries later, and studying all the time. and i have to say from personal experience it fades dark , Just like the jungle sun did to the trucks over there, and just like all the trucks in the documentaries,

 

[vtdeucedriver]

Any inside photos would be greatly appreciated! I don't have much in the way of those. I did get the photo of the M-16 hanging on the thumb screw. I'm still looing for an M-16A1 as a prop to do the same. My AR's are M-4 style. I don't think you had those, or did you?

You mention two things, armor and shifter knobs. I've seen civilian shifters with a variety of decorations, most were beer taps. Is that an "approved" mod? i can get my hand on one of those...Hams is what i'd choose. As far as the armor, what was used, and how was it mounted? none of the photos show anything that I recognize as armor. Sand bags are shown in at least one shot, which I need to add to my list. Canvas was what was used wasn't it for the sand bags?

Thanks for all the help. This project is going together slowly but it's coming together little by little with yours and all the Vietnam Vets that havesent their comments.

Jeff

Never seen or heard of a beer tap as a shifter in VN. Now a Hurst T-shift handle....................yes.
Sandbags in VN were burlap.