Jesse Browning Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) After. Edited September 21, 2021 by Jesse Browning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Browning Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) Weasel number 2. Before. Edited September 21, 2021 by Jesse Browning Edit pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Browning Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 During Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Browning Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 After. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 Here are the photos showing how I repaired my rear float tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 29 June 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 1 July 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 3 July 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 Random photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 Painting after bead blasting and panel beating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M29C3284 Posted September 26, 2021 Share Posted September 26, 2021 Big thanks to both @Jesse Browning and @OZM29C for posting all these pictures, they will really help me out when I'm going to tackle my tanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Hi all! I have some great news to share, we found and acquired Weasel floaters! (see pictures) They have some rust in the usual places, but the frame is solid. They still have the original coat of OD, and some seemingly original markings are still visible. (anyone who can tell me what they mean? USMC number etc?) The floaters came of a crooked weasel hull which was too far gone for us to use for anything. Thus we only bought the floaters. I personally hate to separate original parts, so in order to live with myself i will paint the original Reg. number of the hull on the inside of the floaters. This will ensure that they will keep their identity. We intend to restore the floaters to a waterproof- factory condition, in order to be bolted to our weasel. We will need pretty much all of the parts for both tanks, but hey, the floaters are there! We a museum close by where we can measure parts to make designs. Due to storage constraints the front floater will be mounted "permanently" with the waterproofing compound between connections. While the rear tank will be mounted and dismounted for each display. This means that it will not be mounted waterproof. Though, we do intend to make the weasel hull water worthy. So that if we ever get the chance to enter the water safely with a tether and gazillions of bilgepumps, we can do it... It would just take some preparation. Thus, in some time, expect more pictures if we start the restoration.... and eventually our weasel will float again! Hope everyone is doing fine, stay safe! Regards from the Netherlands! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tipton Posted January 20, 2023 Author Share Posted January 20, 2023 Congrats @Pips_Blaauw! Nice score. I too hate discarding anything, but there are hulls that are too far gone to save except for bits and pieces. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) In my previous post, I showed the unrestored floaters that we have aquired. The next obstacle now is restoring them and sourcing parts. We have been busy: (see pictures). We have been working on the rudders, we were lucky to be able to get the shape and general measurements from a Weasel at our local war museum. Same goes for the capstan (it only the capstan head for now...) It was created in CAD, and 3d printed, primed, etc... It is not completely correct, but it is already more than we had counted on. The rest of the rudder parts will be made as close as we can get it, but it wont exactly look like the original. Furthermore we have been working on front side panels, we have the measurements pretty exact, but we will need to fit them with the front floater mounted to be sure... We also have to find a way to recreate the curled band on top... next up; the side skirts! Curious to know what you think! Regards! Edited February 21, 2023 by Pips_Blaauw Forgot to add the side skirt project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 @Pips_Blaauw Good effort👍 Rudder arms look to be too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 2 hours ago, OZM29C said: @Pips_Blaauw Good effort👍 Rudder arms look to be too long. Thanks! And thanks for the great pictures to!! They certainly are of good use. And you are correct about the arm length. We let them as long as we could, since we do don't have the mechanism finalized yet. Once we can mount the rudders on the floater, we will cut the arms to the exact length that they need to be. Measuring the arm was of no use, since ours will be slightly different from the original... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 27 minutes ago, Pips_Blaauw said: Thanks! And thanks for the great pictures to!! They certainly are of good use. And you are correct about the arm length. We let them as long as we could, since we do don't have the mechanism finalized yet. Once we can mount the rudders on the floater, we will cut the arms to the exact length that they need to be. Measuring the arm was of no use, since ours will be slightly different from the original... @Pips_Blaauw 👍Feel free to ask me for dimensions. With my floater weasel at home I can grab a tape measure and check measurements for you. Here is some more reference information. Cheers Rudder Pin as Measured.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted February 23, 2023 Share Posted February 23, 2023 On 2/22/2023 at 12:53 AM, OZM29C said: @Pips_Blaauw 👍Feel free to ask me for dimensions. With my floater weasel at home I can grab a tape measure and check measurements for you. Here is some more reference information. Cheers Rudder Pin as Measured.pdf 77.32 kB · 4 downloads Thanks so much! Thats a great help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted March 5, 2023 Share Posted March 5, 2023 A little update on the floater accessories project...We have been busy on the weekends... The steering tiller frame and tiller itself were made using measurements taken from a museum Weasel... It turned out almost perfectly! The steering tiller "pully" (as I call it) was made from a bicycle brake hub (very Dutch)... furthermore the steering bracket for the rear-right rudder was made. It's a copy of an original left one we bought years ago. We also bought a rough side skirt some time ago, in the hopes of restoring it. We tried our best to preserve it, but it just stays rusting away... Sandblasting would leave nothing behind, which is why we took the measurements to create 2 new ones. The mounting hardware was made, after which we started on the first skirt. It's made from a 1mm (0,039 inches) steel sheet, with the endcaps being 1.5mm (0,059 inches) thick (not made yet, next week's project)... The skirt is built up from 2 halves, cut out of 1.5 meters (4,92 feet) long sheets which, after bending, were welded together. We also built in some support, to keep the skirt from splitting in 2 while driving. Would be very awkward... The original curled band at the bottom is bent around a thick steel wire. We were able to reuse this wire in the new first skirt. The second skirt will receive the original front and rear endcaps, saving as much of the original as possible... That's pretty much it for this update! Hope to show some more stuff next week... The floaters will arrive in a few weeks too... ps; Don't judge my welding 🙂 ... Never done it before, so learning as we go. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tipton Posted March 6, 2023 Author Share Posted March 6, 2023 Looks awesome! One little step at a time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 New update on the side skirts project... They are done! Ready to be painted OD! Also, I worked on the steering tiller some more, it now closely resembles the real thing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted May 21, 2023 Share Posted May 21, 2023 Lots has happened since the last update... We got the floaters home, and started working on the front tank first. We figured that it was the worst, so just get that over with... The weird shaped armour pieces from the front floater was able to be freed, only 2 of the many bolts broke, and even the tread was able to be freed after... Serious quality that Studebaker stuff. The rest was worthy of salvaging for reuse. As can be seen, the floater was in quite rough shape, most of the bottom was missing or rotten... however due to the fact that the armour pieces were still good and the fact that all of you have supplied us with lots of pictures, we were able to deduce measurements, angles and fitments.... We reused everything we could like to original square "weld-on bolts". Even when fitting the new sheet metal we followed the original dents as much as possible... The remaining inside bits are still in pretty good condition, we probably wont even touch that. After almost a month, some sheetmetal, and many trips to the Praxis ...We got it 90% done! Still more to learn and do, but we have the rear floater left for that... If there is any interest I could do a photo dump in a separate topic... Let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted May 21, 2023 Share Posted May 21, 2023 @Pips_Blaauw Looking good. Well done👍 Can I ask what the recesses are for. Please see the attached photo. This area is normally smooth. See second photo. Thanks to a fellow weasel owner, I was able to secure a few tubes of Alumilastic to seal my tank. Great stuff and its OEM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pips_Blaauw Posted May 22, 2023 Share Posted May 22, 2023 7 hours ago, OZM29C said: @Pips_Blaauw Looking good. Well done👍 Can I ask what the recesses are for. Please see the attached photo. This area is normally smooth. See second photo. Thanks to a fellow weasel owner, I was able to secure a few tubes of Alumilastic to seal my tank. Great stuff and its OEM. It seems we miscalculated a bit while creating that surface. We only needed a few millimeters more, and due to the existing construction we decided to enlarge those areas. A shame, but it will be covered up... Great info on the compound! I will start looking for it here 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted May 22, 2023 Share Posted May 22, 2023 @Pips_Blaauw We all make 'Errors of Judgement'. 😁 Don't forget to make allowance for the under guard plate that attaches to the tank. The attached photos tell the story on how I made my plate. The OEM plate was originally part of the front float tank. The front tank is much easier to manoeuvre around with a separate guard plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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