WC59 Telephone Maintenance Truck

[Gypsyman]

While searching for parts I ran across what I thought was a WC51 parts truck (minus the windshield of course). The sheet metal looked good so I struck a deal based on just a couple of photos. Turned out to be a WC59 telephone maintenance truck minus the service body. Since so few of these were made what are the odds of ever finding a correct service body for it?

Richard

 

[Wolfen]

Good luck in your search.

 

[snowtrac nome]

i would't rule it out i came across a strange steel tracked trailer with old green paint on it it was manufactured by athey but i couldn't find a data plate. it looked wwII vintage but with no data plate or phone to take a picture i cant id it. the lesson is keep your eyes open there is some really unique stuff still floatin around out there still in use today.

 

[Gypsyman]

For now I'm going to try to find a windshield for it to get the cab closed up and store it. Too rare to use for parts. Might be able to find a telephone body for it some day.

 

[Gypsyman]

Today might be some day. Possible candidate found. It's slightly newer so unfortunately is has paddle latches instead of the period correct straight handles but it looks like the correct body. Does anyone know when paddle latches first appeared in general?

The first is a sample body...

 

[Gypsyman]

Got the WC59 home. Everything looks good as far as the engine goes. Clean oil, good coolant, clean carburetor. This one actually looks like it was a runner when it was parked. Body looks good although there will be holes to fill when the arctic cab is removed.

Now the bad. As I was walking around it I noticed that the rear springs show separation from rust to the point that the spring pack retainers have broken. This made me look closer at the frame itself. I knew that the WC62 and 63 had an outer doubled frame on the rear portion but I had no idea that the smaller trucks had doublers on the inside of the frame. From the outside the frame show no swelling or distortion at all. However, when you look on the inside you see this...

 

[Gypsyman]

In my mind the only way to properly fix this would be to completely disassemble the frame to pull the doubled section, fix and straighten the inner doubler and rebuild the frame from the ground up. While the truck is quite rare I don't know that it is worth this level of repair. Thoughts?

 

[Sgt Jiggins]

Ray Suiter of uglytruckling fame was out in your neck of the woods... there's a decent bunch of vintage PW folks out there still...surely you could find Somebody to pitch in on the effort...

 

[NDT]

I have run into that situation before. When you try to sandblast the rust out, the sand just packs in there and the rust doesn't get abraded away. What I did was beat on the frame with a sledge hammer which tends to pulverize the rust, so you can blow it out. Then I sandblasted with fine sand and beat on it some more to get the remaining sand out. Then I flooded the area with zinc rich primer. Too big of a hassle to remove the doubler with all the rivets.

 

[Gypsyman]

It's bad but it may not be as bad as I first thought. It appears to only be in the straight section of the frame. It slowly gets better as you move forward and appears to stop just before the frame begins to rise at the firewall.

On another note I'm being told that finding a period correct telephone bed with both doors on the passenger side and the old style handles is a fools errand due to the low production numbers. Apparently I just missed one that had been converted to a utility trailer for $300. Damn the luck.

 

[fasttruck]

The bodies shown on the semi-trailer appear to be similar if not identical to the bodies then in use by the Bell System on commercial 1/2 ton chassis up until 1961 when the Bell companies switched to the then new vans.