67Beast
Well-known member
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- Location
- Silver Lake Sand Dunes MI.
This past march, I picked up a very nice clean un-restored, un-molested 1967 M725 from a fellow who bought it surplus over 20 years ago. Really nice older gentelman who finally realized that he would never have the time to do a restoration on it. So I got it for a great price. It had sat for a few years, but some fresh gas and batteries and we were able to get it running and loaded on the trailer for the ride home. The story from the owner was that it was one of several that were stationed with the Army's detachment at Selfridge Air Base for its whole life. In the early 80's they auctioned off the fleet of them except for this one which was kept and used by the maintenance guys at the Air Bases golf course until it was sold at a surplus auction in the early 90's. The owner was a big surplus auction follower and bought and sold all kinds of surplus items over the years. He bought it with the plans to restore it and keep it with the rest of the military vehicles he had. He finally made the decision that he would never have the time to get it done so he put it up for sale. It was stored inside it's whole life except for the last 4 or 5 years since he moved out to the family farm. He was relieved when I showed him my restoration book of trucks I've done and I even left him several of the pics out of it so he could show his family what the old 725 has to look forward too. He even got a little teary eyed as I pulled out with it, running his hand over the fender flares as I pulled away. I promised to send him updated pictures of it as I move along with it. As I explored through it I found a few neat things hiding in the bins in the back, including a really cool Dec. 1970 TRANSPORTATION OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED field manual. Also a helmet liner, new seat covers, sand bags, tent stakes, all the tow shackles and pins, bumper support brackets, battery tiedows, the special spark plug wire removal tool and a lot of dust and dirt that has accumulated for the last 45 years.
Fast forward to yesterday, I was able to start painting the M725. Being that it has been almost 5 years since I last had to paint one of my trucks it took a little bit to find my settings and to get the paint flowing smoothly. 80+ and sunny didn't help with the settings as I normally paint in the fall or winter, So a little fine tuning of the mixture to get the paint to lay smooth was required. The roof was by far the hardest to paint as trying to hold the gun and not drag the hose across the previous coats while balancing at the top of a ladder. I can't wait until I get to paint the cross back up top. That should be fun. Plus I didn't paint the wheels yet as I plan on waiting until I get a new set of tires and then do it all at the same time. But she is finally all back to her original 24087 green color. Next will be to get the small parts cleaned up and painted while I wait for the paint to cure before I paint the crosses back on. Plus I'm going to have all new glass cut, and I'll install them with all new rubbers as the 45 year old rubber was so hard it just crumbled when I took the glass out.
Fast forward to yesterday, I was able to start painting the M725. Being that it has been almost 5 years since I last had to paint one of my trucks it took a little bit to find my settings and to get the paint flowing smoothly. 80+ and sunny didn't help with the settings as I normally paint in the fall or winter, So a little fine tuning of the mixture to get the paint to lay smooth was required. The roof was by far the hardest to paint as trying to hold the gun and not drag the hose across the previous coats while balancing at the top of a ladder. I can't wait until I get to paint the cross back up top. That should be fun. Plus I didn't paint the wheels yet as I plan on waiting until I get a new set of tires and then do it all at the same time. But she is finally all back to her original 24087 green color. Next will be to get the small parts cleaned up and painted while I wait for the paint to cure before I paint the crosses back on. Plus I'm going to have all new glass cut, and I'll install them with all new rubbers as the 45 year old rubber was so hard it just crumbled when I took the glass out.
