The next Project an ASMH

[Mullaney]

An update on the progress on the m62. Went back in today, it's been a hot minute took some time off for Thanksgiving. Spent two weeks out in the desert, it was glorious! The old mirrors were flippity floppity and you couldn't see anything out of them so a few weeks ago I dug some out of a pile of mirrors we have and had Craig squirt some paint on them. Got those mounted. I fixed the bridge plate. And I was able to show some love to the crane operator Dash with all the data plates. Came out pretty good!

The old data plates were riveted on the dash so I had to use a chisel to cut them off. The back sides of some of them were oxidized pretty bad. Had to use a flap wheel to knock the corrosion off and then used 400 on an orbital sander and sanded both sides of the data plates. Funny after sanding you could almost read them!

After sanding and cleaning them, gave them a coat of self-etching primer and let that dry. I held the new decals up to the clean painted plates but didn't like the gray primer around the edges so I ended up spraying them silver on one side and then afixing the decals.

After the silver paint dried, sprayed a little bit of Windex on the tags and centered the decals. They came out very nice thank you very much Tim

The replacement tags I made for the control levers didn't look right without a border around them when next to the newly refreshed data tags. I just masked them off and use the same silver paint to give them a border. Next step is to mount them with screws instead of rivets. And by the way they weren't pop rivets they were the kind you got to smack to make them expand. National Guard, what can I say!View attachment 937023View attachment 937024View attachment 937025View attachment 937026View attachment 937027View attachment 937028View attachment 937029View attachment 937030View attachment 937031View attachment 937032View attachment 937033View attachment 937034

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Wow Will... That looks fantastic!
Took a lot of effort on your part, but it looks really good.


Tim

 

[BLK HMMWV]

Look at you go.!!
You have come a long way since the paint by # set I got for you last Christmas.
Seriously that looks very Good.
Nice Job. Did you put some clear coat or something on them to keep the sun from taking it's toll on them. Sadly everything sits outside.

 

[WillWagner]

I think since the decals are vinyl, no clear over them. I am afraid that the paint might eat the vinyl. I would then need to start over, don't wanna do that. We will just make a cover for the operators compartment so that the controls are covered and out of the sun.

Made a few more changes, but no pics. Mounted the Oxy/Acet tanks. I will get a pic of that plus the acetylene tank. It has a 1942 date stamp.

It is almost ready to go out for display. We plan on moving the V100 to the spot where this was, the tug is there now, and putting this in the aisle, roped off, so people can do a 360 of it.

A bit of good news, the Army is scheduled to remove 3 vehicles, I think, or is it two and some mortars? I don't remember. I do know that an M75 and an M42 will be leaving at our request and will be freeing up some room in the display area.

We have a couple of artillary pieces that are in their transport configs. I would like to get one set up in firing configuration, maybe throw some shell casings around the piece. That is for another thread!

There is also another interactive display that BLK HMMWV worked hard on that need some assembly and a mount made up. Again, for another post!

 

[NDT]

Checking in guys, any chance the Eaton fire can make it down to the museum? We are watching this with disbelief.

 

[WillWagner]

Checking in guys, any chance the Eaton fire can make it down to the museum? We are watching this with disbelief.

No, thankfully, we are good except for alot of bad smoke and ash. I was there today to load out a piece that needed to leave, and I gotta say, I live 18-20 miles NE of the compound, and the smoke was horrible.

There is at least one member here that was within 2 blocks of the main part of the fire. He and his are fine, got evac orders and was able to come home after some time. All is well as of right now. The area north of him that is a very big Christmas light display for the area, has been going on as long as I can remember, that is gone. 1950"s ranch style houses, most there longer than the "celebrities'" that have been effected by the fires in Pacific Palisade's. We are 30-40 miles from those. I have been to his place and helped him get things in order

The Eaton fire is what we are close to. I do know 10 or so people that have lost their homes up in the Altadena area, apx 10 miles north west of the Museum.

As for me/us/family, we have lots of power outages, I, thankfully, only lost power for 18 or so hours, lost water service for just a bit. My son, 1/2 mile from me, lost power for 36 hours.

The wind was strong enough to snap RR crossing arms in half. A mess of trees down, most pine type, go figure. A ton of transformers blew up. A mess of shingles off of roofs.

My son moved into a place and the tree in the front, the house faces south, the way the wind was blowing, and the wind blew a tree over in his front yard that has a 3ft or more diameter trunk...a pine...and that in turn fell onto the lines that power the street lights, concrete light poles, puled the wires from the pole across the street from them and then the pole in front of his house, thankfully, did a slow motion fall into his '16 GMC Denali Yukon XL. Went across the B pillar on the pas side, across the sun roof and onto the DS A pillar. No glass broke, but the roof line is bad. I think it will be totaled. Spent some of yesterday cleaning out the Jeep so his wife and the grandies have transportation while it is at the body shop to see if it it junk or not.

Today, spent time cleaning up, filled 3, 90 gallon green cans with debris.

The wind is picking up again now. They expect Sunday to be like Wednesday.

My generator has not been put away. I have fuel for the car, gen and truck. Have ammo, food, water. If stuff gets ugly, as long as the redwood to the north of me doesn't fall on the house, we will be OK here and the Museum is pretty much in the clear, if anything falls, not too much can get damaged. Craig is a bit stressed, who isn't, but I believe we are going to be fine. The Museum has not lost power or water and the fires are a very long way away.

 

[WillWagner]

On another note, I do have some pics to put up here of some more forward progress, but things have been a bit hectic what with the desert trip with the fam and the weather.

 

[BLK HMMWV]

I think you're talking about me
It's been a crazy few days, that's for sure. I did get a few hours of sleep last night after being up 36 hours. I'm still on my emergency generator going on 3 days.
Suppling power to both neighbors on either side of me. Close to 30 homes effected on my street. I'm in the fire area being called the "Eaton fire"

I'm blessed to have Will as a friend. I do poke a few of his buttons and stir a few pots but it's only because I'm older and wiser, ok because I have more hair than him. Ok More grey hair anyway.

He was kind enough to come move some stuff to a safer area just in case the worst happened.

About 5 hours later I was told to get out. The fire was about 2 blocks away, winds were blowing my way at about 60-80 mph.
Everything was on fire.

I was fortunate to have something to come home to other then a little roof damage I'm golden.

I just found out about 5,000 homes near me are gone.
The police officer trying to keep the looters away is from Hermosa Beach.

He said the national guard will be being deployed in a few hours.
It's a mess but I 'm trying to stay positive.

I set up a charging station on my front porch for everyone to use to charge phones and electronics.
I'm running temp power to my two neighbors on either side of me.

Also Making about 400 plus lbs. of ice a day for all that need it to try and keep any medication or food stuff from spoiling until power is restored.

As I type this, the independent power guys from out of town are trying to string new lines between 3 poles on the side of a hill across the street from me in the dark. No access for bucket trucks from below so they are having to doing it by hand through all the thick vegetation that didn't burn.
Once they are done, they will turn it over to the city guys who might turn it back on if the winds don't pick up again.
Fingers crossed. It just happened, were back on city power!!!!!!!!! WOO HOOOO

I've spent the last few days setting up generators and repairing generators for people that don't exercise them.
PSA if you have a generator exercise it. Don't wait till you need it in an emergency.
If its gas powered, Put fuel stabilizer in it. Date your gas cans, rotate the fuel in them.
Shut off the fuel supply and run it dry don't just shut it off and leave fuel in the carburetor.
Will taught me that. He is good for something you know.
BH

 

[WillWagner]

Yes my friend, I was spreading lies and rumors about you!

Glad things have calmed down for you. My girls live in a complex at the 210 and Los Robles. They are still under evac orders just because of the smoke and ash. Shelby sent a pic of the complex pool, it is black. The inside of their apartments are filled with ash. What a mess!


Here is a pic of the crane operators dash panel after paint and nice decals on the data tags. A BIG thanks to Tim Mullaney for the help on this!

 

[WillWagner]

The tree that pulled the light pole down across the Denali,


The tree at my Daughters complex, one of them.