First '52 XM211

[hendersond]

Yep, it is red. Fortunately I put a little flattener in it before I sprayed it. It settles down a lot in a couple weeks. I'm going for that early 70's Civil Defense proud fire department look. -Really!

 

[nattieleather]

That's cool....That will be a differnt look than regular OD military. Restoring it to it's second life after it was retired from the military. That's cool! Nice repair job on the bed! Keep up the good work!

 

[hendersond]

Before the wrecker arrived, I hooked the haywagon up to the deuce and parked it on the road. Had the straps pre-hooked up to the bed. The wrecker arrived and parked at the end of my driveway and I drove up under the wrecker boom, and he lifted and I backed under. Had 4 mounting bolts already set in the bed and it was set in place and done in about 4 minutes!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

<applause>​

 

[Gunfreak25]

It looks brand new! I am putting a firetruck deuce on my to buy list in the future. What do you have planned for the undercarriage/frame? I think the frame, axles, etc would look sweet in black to match the bumper.

 

[hendersond]

Yes, I agree black would be best. I could not wait. Had to combine some of my projects so I just mounted it. One less thing in the yard. Wife put the foot down, "No more trucks until you get some of this crap out of the yard." It was said quite loudly, I must add. I had it coming. Did not realize I had red paint on my elbow and sat on the couch, then Kids were tracking that black coal dust across the living room.

The bed is mounted, haywagon listed on CL, #7 wrecker will go in March to Maccus In Custer SD and I can bring home the M220!

Any way, I was thinking black interior and tinted windows, maybe some black fun fur on the dash and headliner???

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Any way, I was thinking black interior and tinted windows, maybe some black fun fur on the dash and headliner???

When you PIMP YOUR RIDE like that, don't forget to hang a pair of FUZZY DICE from each Wiper Motor

 

[Gunfreak25]

I was actually considering a black interior myself, flat to match the flat od on the truck. I will be installing air conditioning sooner than later and will have no choice but to go with foil back insulation on the firewall, cab back and floors, topped with black vinyl like all 80's Chevy pickups have.

Would you be willing to make a template of the cab floor, firewall and cab back? I think it would be easier to go with a 3 piece interior instead of trying to lay 1 huge roll of vinyl down.
Otherwise, I will be happy to make one for members here. Thought I remember you saying something about installing interior padding on your firetruck.

 

[hendersond]

I will probably just do flat black paint on this one. May carpet the M220 when it gets here.

 

[m1010plowboy]

M211 Pictures

That is so impressive I must beg for more pics of the hood. From the one shot it looks perfect, still has that sweet curve. All of the hoods i've seen had damage.

Beautiful work, please share more photos.

 

[hendersond]

Thanks for the kind words. I whacked on that hood for a long time. I used a curved tire spoon and a 2#hammer on a sand bag. There ended up being a crack on the ceneter ridge where the hood hits the windshield. I welded and ground that one. Got it close, then gave up and took it to my friend at a body shop. Told him no putty, go old school and call it good enough. He did some tapping and shrinking. He had it done in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately there is a 12" run on the passenger side. OK maybe it is a lot longer that 12".

I had 4 bad Wsconsin fenders and was forced to cut them up and weld them together to make a reasonably good pair. They are not done yet, but I painted them to see how they look. I'm happy with the lines and curves. Now I have to trim them to length and patch up the areas in the front. I will repaint the hood when I repaint the fenders.

I just sold the haywagon running gear I used to move the bed around for $350. That is going toward the cost of the title fee, tax, and license plates for the M220. On to the DMV Monday!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

You, Sir, take hobby-level restoration to the craftsmanship of an artist.

Awesome!

 

[m1010plowboy]

Thanks Henderson 'D', usually a camera flash shows imperfections in any paint and that still looks amazing.

Red seems to be the hardest, heaviest paint to lay down, you done good. Oh I must say it, It's just a sexy piece of metal.

We have a hard top to straighten for Gunfreak, hopefully you're around that day.

 

[Gunfreak25]

 

[hendersond]

It is time to make some progress on the M211. '8 and GF got me all fired up today. I went thru all the trucks and parts and made a pile for each truck. Now that I found everything, I may as well get back to assembly. Decided to mount the Garwood Winch back on the truck. The previous owner sold the original one.

First lift with the $100 HF shop crane.

Found an extra set of clevices and mounts.

The bumper will come off again for tweaking and paint, but I needed to see how it looks.

 

[Gunfreak25]

You put a 2nd pair of top shackles on. Writing that one down, looks sweet. Got that down Dave? Next visit I need extra shackle mounts.

Don't new tires make it sexy?!! Don't they? Don't they?

 

[hendersond]

I saw something like that on a M35a3. Thought the second set of mounts would provide me with 4 mounting points for a motorcycle carrier or something like that. I found a set for my other truck too.

Any way the truck drove like a car without the #300 winch on it. We will see how much effort it takes to steer at slow speeds in the morning.

 

[hndrsonj]

Maccus led me down the right path. The new cork airhorn gasket is thicker. Tapping on the housing and tightening the screws made an improvement. I could get the choke off 50% now. I see where the problem is. I took the cork gasket out and replaced it with a silicone bead. I know it is not right, but It runs great now. The silicone will work to move it around the yard. I will have to research the correst fix later this week.
First pic is of the old well imprinted gasket. The new one never had a mark on it and was fuel soaked.

Dan, found the carb manual. It looks like the two main body cover plate gaskets and the air horn to throttle body gasket must be a matched set. If the main body gaskets are cork it will lift the Air horn up and suck air. There is not a shim in the kit. The 885FFG section only is 28 pages I can scan it and email it to you if you want this week. I'll also look, I may have a carb kit. If so, i'll look at what gaskets are in it.

 

[hndrsonj]

Got most of a carb kit (with non cork gaskets). Printed out the pages of the manual. Will be in the mail tomorrow.

 

[hendersond]

Thanks Jim! I really appreciate it.