OZM29C

I fitted a new sheet of metal to the sponson and duplicated what was done on the passenger side. I plug welded the hat channels in place.

Patrick, thanks for the compliments. Please keep in mind that this was an 'Econo' job so I did not go to the extra effort that you have done with your T24 Hull. I was only replacing the corroded lower sections. Anyway here is more of the story ; The skinning of the sponsons effectively wrote them off as being unrepairable due to corrosion. The following photos highlight how bad the corrosion was under the skin of sheet metal.

Time to right the hull, remove the skin, tip it on its side and start work on the drivers side.

As the telemarketers would say, But wait there's more!

The lower hull was a boys own adventure to repair. BTW the silver paint was just brushed on to stop the bare metal corroding until the hull is sandblasted

More work on the sponson and I also moved to the hull bottom

Then on to adding the hardware to the sponson. The battery tray is not OEM, I just made it ti fit a standard SUV N70 battery.

I bent up a new sponson and fitted it into the hull.

Then onto getting the passenger side prepared to accept the new sponson

Then I had to remove all superfluous sheet metal and start to 'De-skin' the hull. There was a Pandoras box of corrosion to be found under the skin

The first job was to get it into my shed and tip the hull on its side.

I referenced a weasel hull that was 'Skinned' in another thread so here is the story of this T24's hull repairs. This weasel is owned by a friend of mine and I did an 'Econo' job on the hull repairs for him. In the end the final repairs turned out a lot better than I expected. The material I chose to use was 1.5mm Zinc annealed mild steel sheet. No spot welding, just plug welds. Here are some before shots of the hull. It was in a sad state to begin with. This weasel came from Daryl Besinger https://www.dlbensinger.com/ back in 2000 Note the early Hull number UST-24-50

Patrick, BZ on your efforts to rein in the corrosion and panel damage. 👍👍 Just an observation here is that I have noticed that the sides of the T24 hull appear to be a lot straighter out of the factory as compared to an M29C ???? I repaired a T24 hull that had (at a guess) in the past been through a post war rebuild programme and the solution to repair damage and corrosion to that side was to 'Skin' it.

Jim, I don't think I have sent you this one in the past. This weasel is located here in Oz. No hull tag, but Letterkenny ORD plate. This weasel was recovered from Antarctica.

I have got only the two photos of USN weasels but unfortunately they are postwar. I will post them anyway for reference.

Just got home from a 1500km round trip to pick up my track aprons and front float tank. My panel beater offsider has worked his magic on them and now they look a million dollars. Next job is to rub them down and get some OD on them.

When I rebuilt my weasel T84 transmission I incorporated a few modifications that I hope will help to extend the life of this transmission. I fitted high capacity bearings front and rear. I substituted the pilot rollers between the main drive gear and the main shaft with a bronze floating bush. I fitted an oil seal to the front bearing retainer cap in lieu of the cork seal and then fitted viton o rings retained by nylon collars to the selector shafts. I posted previously about using a generic metric seal for the transmission output shaft. I was unable to source a weasel cluster gear so I have fitted a standard MB/GPW Jeep cluster gear. I machined a thicker thrust washer to compensate for the difference in the overall length between the two cluster gears. The Weasel cluster gear is the longer of the two. I also fitted new synchro blocking rings and a selector shaft detent ball assembly. The true test of my work will come later this year. Cheers. JW

Jesse, this company over your way has a large inventory of springs to search through. https://www.centuryspring.com/

Jim's advice is absolutely spot on, my photo shows the 'USA' uncovered on my weasel hull using the location dimensions provided by Jim 👍👍

Dan, rather than the 3M product, why not use the OEM Alumilastic that is readily available over your way?

Dan, I am not an authority on what shade of OD paint a weasel rolled off the production line with but here are some happy snaps of the Gillespie version of OD. There may be a paint code on the can that your paint store can use?????

Interesting to see that it was fitted with the Engine heater kit. There is a trailer load of weasel jewellery that can be removed from that Hull. I did the same thing to an Amphibious Jeep many years ago and I remember that an Axe and Oxy/Acetylene cutting torch made the parts removal job easy. Shame that weasel has already been cannibalised as I am cruising Alaska next year and I was trying to work out how I could get this weasel back onboard without attracting too much attention😀😀 😀

I was outbid on Fleabay years ago for a set of these return roller plates pictured below. I have not seen these plates come up again for sale. Was this a modification that was planned but not implemented due to the War ending? Can anyone share any info on this mod?

The retainers are indeed different. First photo shows the surfshield hold down. Note the 90 degree bend and the second link photo shows a seat hold down, straight shaft; https://www.ebay.com/itm/SEAT-BACK-HOLD-DOWN-M29-M29C-WEASEL-NOS-REPLACEMENT/233002853403?hash=item36400d641b:g:h58AAOSw8Etdi3RT