[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

5 hours ago, Jesse Browning said:

Great project. Always make sure to wear a respirator.

Thank you Jesse.  Agreed - I try to wear them anytime I am doing much of anything - always while grinding.  I usually wear a better one when I am not going back and forth between welding and grinding.

 

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

 

[New to forum]

Welcome aboard!  Hopefully the only abuse you get is drilling out all of those rivets!  Keep those posts and pictures coming - everyone with original tracks has these issues so it is great to see the tools and techniques people are using to repair them.

Also, I added a "track" tag to your post.  If anyone clicks a tag in the header of your post, it will automatically open up a window with all of the posts, pictures and articles relating, in this case, to tracks.  This will be extremely helpful as the site grows.  PBT

[New to forum]

The M29C looks fantastic.  How do you guys like it with the floats versus without them?

[New to forum]

Nice work Jesse and thanks for sharing.  Looks like it is coming along nicely!

Patrick

[Welcome]

Thanks James!  Happy to have you here!😀

[WTB Spotlight]

Send a note to brian.asbury02@gmail.com

He may be able to help you out. 

Patrick

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

 

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

 

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

Work Day 1

I started cutting out metal on the more damaged right side of the hull.  One of the first decisions that I had to make was how much metal to cut out.  The floors were pretty solid along the right side, but were very damaged at the inner edge of the hull where the floor makes the corner into the running gear tunnel and on the outer edge where the floor meets the side of the hull.  There was also damage under the hat channels.  The 45 degree gusset on the corner of the hull side and floor was also significantly damaged. 

After a couple of nights thinking on it, I decided to replace the majority of the floor on the right side .  My rationale:

1.  The corner between the floor and the side of the hull had been cut away/rusted away already.  I was very concerned about getting a nice, uniform and clean edge if I patched metal in.  I decided that a brake bent piece of continuous steel would look best.

2.  Patching the 45 degree gusset is possible, but was going to be hard to finish nicely.  I was also worried about corrosion protection and getting the already present rust stopped along the entire gusset.

3.  I was pretty sure that there was a lot of hidden rust underneath the hat channel that supports the corner between the floor and the tunnel.

4.  I could have replaced the outer floor/hull side edge/corner and then replaced the inner floor/tunnel corner in two separate operations.  The positive of doing this was that it would be easier to keep everything aligned.  The downside is two more nearly 10 foot welds to work on, plus some difficult access issues to do any hammer/dolly work and smooth out the joints.

I contemplated drilling out all of the spot welds for the side gusset and then decided against it.  There are so many of them that I decided to just cut along the top edge and replace approximately 4 inches of the side hull.  Like most of these decisions, this was a compromise between preserving as much metal as I could and being a little efficient. Either way, I have a 10 foot long seam that needs to disappear - not easy and not impossible.  I decided I would rather spend the time making the seam invisible on both sides rather than drilling out spot welds to save 2 inches of original steel.

I did cut the metal away in sections.  In retrospect, I could have made two long cuts and saved time and a bunch of cutting wheels.  In truth, I was a little hesitant and not fully committed to replacing the entire floor until all the metal had dropped to the floor. 

 

[Tips on Using This Site]

I studied quite a few different forum offerings before settling on this one.  It looks a little different than what most of us are used to, but has a lot of great features and should prove to be a great platform over time.

1.  Tags:

When you go to post a new topic, you are required to add a tag.  You can add as many tags as you want.  Please try to help others by carefully selecting the topics covered in your post.

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2.  Reputation:

This feature takes the "Like" concept from other social media platform and gives every user a rating based on the number of times their posts get a like.  You lose points if you post something that someone doesn't like.  This isn't a popularity contest, but it has the potential to help new members quickly sort through and identify helpful and knowledgeable folks and maybe offers a little incentive to keep mouths clamped firmly shut if there is nothing positive to add.  Time will tell.

Please be generous with your comments and your likes where deserved.

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You can post your pictures in your posts or create your own gallery at the gallery tab.  Kindly tag your pictures too.

4.  Signatures **NEW

Signatures are a fun way to let people know who you are, what you care about and also provide relevant links like rebuild threads or a link to your business, social media, etc.  For what it is worth, Joe Dope thought it was a great idea to put a political quote in his signature.  You will find the place to create your own personal signature in the menu on the upper right hand corner (where you see the carrot and your log in name) under "Account Settings."  You can link to other sites, post pictures and more...works just like the rest of this site.  The spacing in the signature block defaults to double spaced..."control return" on your keyboard will give you single spaces.  Email us if you run into any problems and we can try and help you out.

5.  Downloads

It is easy for us to upload files and make them available to forum members.  We plan on having a complete library of Weasel PDF manuals that will be available for download.  If folks have documents they would like to share, you may post them in the Downloads section - they get moderated so you will not see them made available until a moderator approves them. 

One quick note - we do respect copyrights so kindly don't post someone else's work.

6.  Mobile App for iPhone and Android

There will soon be a release of mobile apps for the iPhone and Android - Q1 of 2020.  They are in beta right now but look slick.  Stay tuned.

All for now.

Admin

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

I started the restoration of a 1943 T-24 a couple of weeks ago.  I intend to document the restoration here.

I bought the Weasel from a well-known Weasel collector and friend.  He had stripped the hull, had it sandblasted and was starting repairs when he found a really immaculate T24.  I got most everything with the purchase that I need to restore the vehicle other than tracks, including a second M29 that is ugly but fairly complete. 

There is a lot of rot along the floors - particularly at the edge of the floor and outer sides of the hull.  The previous owner had already cut much of the right side corner of the hull off to repair it.  You can see this in pictures below.  He had cut the left side as well.  There is a pretty good amount of rot along the floor side gusset as well as the in the lower tunnel.  I spent a little while poking around to see what was reasonable to save and then decided to go  deep and just cut everything remotely ugly out and start replacing metal.

Next step - lots more pictures and then a lot of cutting and grinding

 

 

[Reputation]

Greetings:

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Ranks:

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[WTB: 15" T-24 Tracks]

Looking for a preferably complete set of 15" T-24 tracks.  I expect the bands to be broken.  Prefer that the grousers have minimal or no modifications.

Probably US only due to shipping challenges, but may consider overseas.

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Enjoy

 

[Welcome]

Greetings.

 

Since the demise of the Weasel forum, it seems that most of the discussion around Weasel restoration has moved to Facebook. While it is nice that there is a place to find and share with other Weasel enthusiasts, I think the format offered by Facebook leaves a lot to be desired.  Most importantly, posts quickly get buried and while Facebook has search features, I think the "traditional" forum approach is superior.  I personally find it difficult to find information and see that most of these groups end up with the same questions and discussions over and over again.  I also don't like that Facebook's algorithms are more concerned with showing ads than showing relevant information and unless you specifically check out your groups, many posts will not show up on your timeline.

 

So while I think there is a good reason to continue to post and play on groups like the G179 on Facebook, I feel like the Weasel community needs its own active forum to provide important resources to Weasel collectors and restorers.  I created Project Plough.org to serve this purpose.

 

I have been a part of the launch and maintenance of other forums, including the successful N Tractor Club - a site dedicated to the Ford N series tractors (1939-1952).  As forum technology evolved, I also learned that forum administrators don't want to be in the internet security business or the forum support business.  These tasks are increasingly complicated and require full time attention. Fortunately, there are companies that will host forums like this one and they have dedicated staff to watch for internet bad guys and keep things running smoothly.  They aren't perfect, but they are certainly better than I will ever be.  The upside is that this forum is backed up daily.  All of the technical aspects, including security, are managed by the folks who wrote the software.  Importantly, this means that the information that gets shared and created will be here as long as the site is running and in the event that something bad happens, it will be easy to get a working copy of the site back up and running.

 

 A little background on me.  I am the owner of Portrayal Press.  We have been around since about 1980 and the founder, Dennis Spence, was very involved with the creation of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association (Member #1) and also the founding of Military Vehicle Magazine.  I took the business over when he retired and have been trying to ensure that the massive amount of information and manuals that he collected continue to be made available to enthusiasts and restorers.  I also publish a weekly series of videos called ShopTime on YouTube.  I restored a 1943 Willys MB over the last several years and just started a T-24 restoration in January.  I will be posting regularly to this forum to document the T-24 restoration and share the information that I am learning as I do the restoration.

 

Patrick