RAS1

Yes, Old Rusty is a letterkenny rebuild. I saw a tag somewhere on it that mentioned the rebuild, and it has been "skinned", which I assume they did to all of the letterkenny rebuilds? or maybe just on rust buckets? Here is my picture I used for machine gun reference (note the nice front seat, the surf shield), and yes, the more guns, the more likely it makes the film! 🙂

Now I'm in a jam. I have 2 weasels to restore! I need to take my original weasel back apart, and do a real restoration on it. But I have to decide if old rusty will become another floater, or turn him into a snow weasel. So I'm now on the hunt for more floater parts. The weasel disease has taken hold, and I'm feeling green (and a bit white and black depending on my mood) 🙂 Dave

I'm up early the next morning (maybe 4 hours of sleep) and got to the movie set. We sat and waited for 3 hours until the director saw the weasel and loved it (he has a weasel) and it was in! The WWII film is called "Come Out Fighting" and is about the first Black tanker division. I am still on set currently, film should be wrapping up this week.

Old rusty was great, as it had almost all of the parts on it for a floater, and was almost 100% original. The tracks are awesome! When I bought it from the museum, they told me their sherman tank was going in a WWII film in rockford, being shot the next day... I had an idea. Get my floater finished and "weasel" my way in the movie. I had 2 days. So, basically a non-stop work-a-thon, I transferred over the floater parts, did a quick paint job, some basic repairs, and got it ready to go on the trailer at 2am on the second night. It is done, buttoned up, I start it up and pull out of the garage. CLANK CLANK CLANK. Then, the engine sputters and dies. Not a great start. The track was banging into these spring-loaded metal pieces inside the water diverters. Not sure if it was due to loose tracks, or the design, but off they came. 3 bolts each, I broke 2. Next, on to the engine. The fuel was not getting to the filter, so I checked the tank (I was using an old boat tank). the pickup tube fell off in the tank. Re-install a new pickup tube and I'm back in action! Loaded successfully on the trailer, ready to film!

For the next three weeks, I spent my nights working on the weasel (I called "operation Jingle Bells"). The wife was not pleased, but understood my new love! With the help of some really good guys here on the forum, I was able to get her back up and running. Laundry list of failures... head bolt snapped off, burned points, wrong coil, bad fuel system, no oil in final drive, etc.... This satisfied my need to have the weasel back, however, back in the 80's my Dad bought a set of float tanks to mount to our weasel. We never mounted them, and I always wanted to have a floater! The forum was right, the only way to do it was buy a floater that is mostly complete. I searched and found a great candidate only 2 hours from my house. Old rusty (someone left it outside with the drain plugs installed. Not a good idea). A member on here mentioned it, Jesse. He helped me tremendously, and even gave me a pile of free weasel parts. What a great guy!

Out of the blue, about a month ago (june 2021), the owner of the weasel came into my store in rockford. He came in to see me with the specific goal of selling his weasel. The owner was a guy I knew from when I was a kid, and he said he was available pretty much anytime to see it. It probably didn't help me on the price negotiation when I asked to see it that afternoon....But he was very fair, and a very nice guy, and knew it was going to a good home. The first thing I did when I saw it was touch the taillight I remember sandblasting and restoring when I was 10 years old. The weasel looked decent, but panels were off, parts jammed in the back of it, and more rust than I remember. Also that great smelling canvas top was long gone, rotted away, only a box of hardware left to taunt me. I tried sniffing the hardware, but no luck, it did not smell like the canvas top 🙂 The tracks look a bit more tired as well, some grousers need welding, some are bent, and many road pads have since decided to detach themselves from the grousers. The previous owner included 2 spare engines, and some other great parts. After we struck a deal, I paid for it, and the following week I put it on my trailer. The weasel had not been run since 2003. And it was living 10 miles from my house all those years! This is weasel when I arrived home! My little boy now gets to experience the weasel! My dad gets to visit with his old weasel again after 30 years, I dont think he was as excited to see it as I was!

We had the weasel finished for about 5 years, I was around 12 years old. I had great times restoring it, driving it, I even wanted to take it to school for show and tell. (Dad said no to that one, school was not very military friendly (10 years after vietnam)). My Dad needed to stock up his surplus store, and had very little money to do it, so he traded the weasel to a surplus store owner in Woodstock, IL that closed down for the remainder of the store's inventory. That wasn't a fun memory. So, I kept an eye on Weasel. It went through a few owners, and I heard about it from a friend around 2010. I was told the engine blew, and it had been parked. I asked many times over the years to have the owner contact me, but never heard back. In 2015 I started my own surplus store in Rockford, IL. Over the next 5 years, I transformed it into more than a surplus store, more like a museum and a store with many interesting displays and collectibles on the walls...

I have no pictures of the actual restoration of the weasel, just a few we took after it was done. This is one of our first test runs after paint and track rebuilding. This is my dad running the weasel at Union, IL at the reenactment they used to hold on memorial day.

My weasel adventure started 35 years ago. My dad owned an army surplus store, and was interested in getting a tracked vehicle. The weasel was the smallest track you could get, so that was picked. He located the blue weasel you see in the picture below, that is me in the driver's seat and my brother in back on the weasel the day we bought it. My dad actually bought 2 at the same place, same time, the blue one ended up being ours, the other weasel was traded to a mechanic friend of ours to help restore the blue weasel, as my dad also had a full time police job at the time, and he did not have a garage or time to restore himself. Right after this picture was taken, we tried to load it up on our trailer. The track snapped the second we attempted to load it. The first lesson on weasels was learned. I worked with my dad and the mechanic restoring the weasel, many many months of drilling track rivets, sandblasting lights and hardware, much more, but this was a long time ago..

because of this forum, you helped me track down steve on G503. I among others emailed him, he took his bracket off and has reproductions being re-made. Thanks Patrick for the great forum! Dave

Thanks for the info! I thought they looked similar to Lars tracks. I will make a separate entry on my weasel adventures. Needless to say, patrick was right. Somehow weasels seem to multiply....its never good enough to have just 1. I took the advice of many posts on here, if you want a floater, it's better to buy a complete unit rather than piecing 1 together. Dave

Hi! I have this track, it is belted, with reasonably heavy duty grousers . Can I have input on what they are and how they last? Anyone know if they had rubber road pads? (I dont really see any) Thanks! Dave

Yes. I thought it would be cool to mock up something...

Looks great. I am 15 years too late! I will keep my eyes peeled! Dave

Does anyone have a part number or model number or picture of the detonator handle for the weasel? Thanks Dave

At some point someone had those castings done. We just need to find out who.

The best part of shows or having my military vehicle at my store on display is to give a kid permission to sit in it. The look of awe, the stare, it's great. Hope all is ready for November. I cant believe they give you plates for your weasel. Not in my state (Illinois) no title, no tires = no way. Do you know how cool it would be to go through the drive through in a weasel? Dave

I have had weasel pox since I was 10. I have had it under control until this year. I already know how this disease works. 🙂

Looks great! Did you reproduce the ign. Switch decal? I would like to buy one or get the file. Dave

Looking great! What a difference the paint makes. 3 days and 1 year of prep work! Dave

Genius and thanks for the unbelievable drawing. This wtb ad should get moved to awesome spark plug ideas!

Very nice! I love your engine! You could eat off that machine. Where do I find the circle spark plug wire bracket, or are they just not out there. thanks, Dave

Awesome advice! Great! Now I just need to figure where exactly it all goes! Dave

Hmmm. Yes. But. I love the compass. It could be a field modification 😀😀😀. I think it is a super cool accessory. I am interested in factory but I dont mind stretching a bit for this one! Ty Dave

Thanks Jesse! Is it the 1/4" thick? Dave