1953 xm211 resurection

[Tatertot51804]

Yeah, I told Tatertot the wind blew the G749 sickness from my place to his!

I'm not complaining!

 

[Tatertot51804]

Took advantage of the break in the rain. Wire wheeled and sanded some rust and loose paint off the truck in spots and got the passenger bed side and part of the drivers cab in primer. I am by no means restoring this truck to its former glory. There is just too much rust. I just want it to be mechanically sound and look half way decent. Should have bought more than 2 cans of primer though...

 

[dmetalmiki]

What a fantastic job you are carrying out. That truck will look great any way you do it. Your Way!.

 

[Tatertot51804]

What a fantastic job you are carrying out. That truck will look great any way you do it. Your Way!.

Thanks! The paint seems to be doing pretty decent for going on with a brush. Just need to get more primer.

 

[Tatertot51804]

Picked the cylinder head duplicate from the machine shop today. Had it decked, pressure checked, valves ground, guides knurled and had it cleaned. Nicest part on the whole truck now. I dropped the rest of my oil and coolant lines off to get remade so once I have those back I can finish reassembly.

 

[firefox]

I would go through the fuel tank and parts. Pull the pump and filter screens. here is a link to help
with that: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?151013-Fuel-filter-screens-on-XM211
I would have the tank cleaned and replace the in tank pump with an exterior one as well as an
exterior in line filter. I think Alfa Heaven has the exterior pumps if they are still in business, but you can find other substitutes. There is a spot above the tank where you can mount one.

Go thru the drive train, splines, etc. I found water in the differential on mine. When replacing
wheel bearings there is a little detail that gets overlooked. You need to put a bit of cork in the keyway. There is instructions here on SS somewhere.

When replacing wheel cylinders, there are two per drum.

That's all I can remember for now. I'll add more when I remember. It's been awhile.

Good luck, these are great trucks.

 

[Tatertot51804]

I would go through the fuel tank and parts. Pull the pump and filter screens. here is a link to help
with that: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?151013-Fuel-filter-screens-on-XM211
I would have the tank cleaned and replace the in tank pump with an exterior one as well as an
exterior in line filter. I think Alfa Heaven has the exterior pumps if they are still in business, but you can find other substitutes. There is a spot above the tank where you can mount one.

Go thru the drive train, splines, etc. I found water in the differential on mine. When replacing
wheel bearings there is a little detail that gets overlooked. You need to put a bit of cork in the keyway. There is instructions here on SS somewhere.

When replacing wheel cylinders, there are two per drum.

That's all I can remember for now. I'll add more when I remember. It's been awhile.

Good luck, these are great trucks.

Unfortunately there's not much gas tank left. It's pretty much rotted away. Someone had put an external pump on it at one time. I need to take it apart and clean it to see if it's still good. Current plan is to get it running and try to get it in gear to make sure the Trans will move it. After that I'm going to put it on jack stands and pull all the wheels so I can drain all 3 axles, repack wheel bearings, replace hub seals and re do the brakes. Just saving that part for last until I know the rest is good

 

[Tatertot51804]

Can anyone tell me what the numbers on my truck mean?

RB 17 and 81C R 988 GS

 

[M543A2]

On the bottom of the transmission pan there are two plugs, one labeled oil and the other water. Drain the coolant (water) and remove the front cover on the transmission pan. Carefully clean out any crud that might be in the compartment. A garden hose should work fine, just no high pressure washers. This is the heat exchanger for the transmission working with the same theory as the ones in the bottom tank of the radiator on cars and trucks. Keeping it clean allows the transmission to be properly warmed or cooled by engine coolant. If it is badly silted up it can cause the transmission to run too hot leading to failure.

 

[Tatertot51804]

On the bottom of the transmission pan there are two plugs, one labeled oil and the other water. Drain the coolant (water) and remove the front cover on the transmission pan. Carefully clean out any crud that might be in the compartment. A garden hose should work fine, just no high pressure washers. This is the heat exchanger for the transmission working with the same theory as the ones in the bottom tank of the radiator on cars and trucks. Keeping it clean allows the transmission to be properly warmed or cooled by engine coolant. If it is badly silted up it can cause the transmission to run too hot leading to failure.

Whoever parked the truck 30 or so years ago removed the water plug from the transmission and the drain from the radiator. It looks to me like the head gasket blew and they parked it with plans to fix it eventually and never go around to it. From what I can see the cooler looks nice and clean through the drain plug hole. The Trans oil looks brand new too but I'm still going to drain it and put new stuff in it because who knows what has settled to the bottom after all these years

 

[SturmTyger380]

I cleaned out my cooler. I took the cover off the front and ran water inside. There was some black gunk in there. I did like a few others have and used an old hack saw blade and slid that up underneath the oil cooler and ran the hose at the same time.

Then drained the transmission oil, cleaned out the metal filters and found a 5 gallon of IH hytrans tractor hydraulic oil to add.

Then you know the story of the smoking starter that I had to rebuild but have not gotten back to the truck.

 

[Tatertot51804]

Got a set of troop seats for free the other day. Only minor repairs are needed. Most of the paint is done. I'm holding off on the front of the truck until I'm done crawling all over the fenders. I also got the stars painted on today. Weather forecast showed now rain. As soon as I finished rolling them on it started to pour. Go figure. Stood in the rain with an umbrella over them for a while..





Also found this inside one of the uprights for the original troop seats I took out. Look to be blanks. Found 6nornso of them crammed in here

 

[USMC 00-08]

You are cleaning that truck up fast. Looks great!! What paint did you use and what is the paint code?

Very cool that you and SturmTyger380 live so close.

 

[Tatertot51804]

You are cleaning that truck up fast. Looks great!! What paint did you use and what is the paint code?

Very cool that you and SturmTyger380 live so close.

I told myself I wasn't going to let this truck take a long time to do. Trying to get done what I can. Still have a long ways to go. I'm using behr exterior latex paint. Kind of wish I hadn't though. Too late to change. I got the paint code off of this site. The color looks good. It just doesn't like to get wet and it keeps raining on me.

 

[USMC 00-08]

I'm using Behr as well. So far I am very happy with it, but I have been careful to not get it wet until dry.



What is the paint doing since it keeps getting wet?

 

[Tatertot51804]

I'm using Behr as well. So far I am very happy with it, but I have been careful to not get it wet until dry.

View attachment 720211

What is the paint doing since it keeps getting wet?

What are you using your apply it? Looks like it went on really well. I'm putting mine on with a brush and roller. It's dry to the touch but when it gets wet it changes colors. It gets really light. I'm painting mine in the driveway where it got dropped off when I bought it so unfortunately I can't keep it dry until it cures. The next 2 days will be the longest it's been wet since I painted it so I hope it doesn't mess it up

 

[USMC 00-08]

I am using this airless sprayer from Harbor Freight with a Graco 315 tip. It works really well. I have not had to thin the paint at all to spray.

https://www.harborfreight.com/airless-paint-sprayer-kit-60600.html

Your paint should be fine if it isn't bubbling up or anything. A few days in the hot spring/summer sun will cure the paint in no time.

 

[Tatertot51804]

I am using this airless sprayer from Harbor Freight with a Graco 315 tip. It works really well. I have not had to thin the paint at all to spray.

https://www.harborfreight.com/airless-paint-sprayer-kit-60600.html

Your paint should be fine if it isn't bubbling up or anything. A few days in the hot spring/summer sun will cure the paint in no time.

I was looking at that one. I think it would be hard for anything to cover up the brush marks at this point. One more gallon of paint should be enough for me to finish the truck.

 

[Tatertot51804]

Picked up a hard top and gas tank from Sturmtyger this week! Hard top has a couple of holes from a light or something I have to weld up but the gas tank appears to be good. Had a couple of previously sealed holes that I resealed. I bought another gallon of paint so I could keep going. Finally about to start on the inside of the cab with paint and metal repair. Still need a cab side for the passenger side. Eventually I'll get to have my oil and coolant lines remade and finish the motor...




Draining 30 gallons of water that got in from the missing top half of the tank.

 

[Tatertot51804]

Finished painting the front of the truck today. Just need to get us army and my numbers painted back. The star is much larger than I'd like to have but that's the size the old one was and it was still visible through the new paint. I pulled the grill and headlights out tonight so I can replace those crusty things and paint it all before re installing. Also got the new gas tank put into place.