Pretty ? maybe not ...   Give me a couple of years........

Early in 2001 I had cleared out some space in the garage, but I still couldn't move for Dodge bits both down on the working floor and up in the parts department. The WC 36 Carryall had come with a complete spare chassis and a load of front end sheetmetal, and the VC 3 had come with a spare hard cab. I had thought of assembling all the loose bits but I was short of an engine and drivetrain plus a set of axles.

Note dropped rear crossmember with bumperettes, unique to military T112 chassis and requiring a side mount for the spare wheel which would otherwise be under the rear chassis. This chassis, 81104183, was actually delivered December 1941 under a WC 36 Carryall, but it is identical to the pickup chassis except for the spare wheel mount holes. Sag is caused by having that stupid skinny space-saver on the front left hub.

The solution to the problem appeared in an e-mail exchange with Paul Davidson, near Tamworth in England. Paul had bought a half ton van to customise it, and the running gear and drivetrain was all to be sold off. The van turned out to be late 1941 and only a hundred chassis or so different from my two, so money changed hands and all the spare kit was duly fetched. The engine and drivetrain went in the WC 36, avoiding an expensive rebuild of the original engine, and the axles were duly grafted onto the spare WC 36 chassis as the basis for 'Lazarus'

It's probably cheating, making up a vehicle from parts, but the WC 36 and WC 38 chassis are identical apart from the four holes to mount the spare wheel carrier (on chassis for the WC 38 and in the body floor for the WC 36) Even the cab is pretty much right, except as a VC cab it has one extra wiper motor mount (the T 112 family get by on just one wiper) and I'll have to mount cowl lights and a screen wind-out mechanism on it.

A little light weld repair work anyone ? If this looks like fun you should see the roof of the cab which was very severly out of shape indeed. You can see a shot of the loose cab on the back of the VC 3 page in the 'as delivered' shot.

Since the best ( and I use the word loosely) of the T112 sheetmetal went on the Carryall, I have a lot of work to do on what's left for the pickup. The nose, front wings, and inner wing panels will all fix, as will 3/4 of the engine cover. The jury is still out on one of the running boards but I'll know better when I've had a bash at it. I have one spare rear wing for it, but I think I may end up buying all the pickup bed panels and a set of rear wings too.

16" wheels are being sourced in the US (thanks Mike !) and the spare engine from the Carryall probably will end up in this chassis. My pile of NOS parts will provide door locks and winder mechanisms plus some other bits.

The WC 36 Carryall has a fair pile of work to do on it yet, I'm not sure if I'll start on Lazarus or the TD 20 pickup afterwards, but it'll keep me off the street.

 

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