It is fun in the sense that no one has done the early WB trucks in the US as far as I know, only the 41-43 models which reside in California... In the UK there are at least two of these early trucks reproduced, as the only one original survivor resides in the Imperial War Museum... I am trying to be as historically accurate as I can, but there are limitations. In terms of many parts (a lot has to be fabricated/finding used ones has proven very costly ) and even tires... Original wartime sizes are not available and one has to compromise...
Indeed, for such a small group of men they sure caused quite a bit of havoc against the Italian and German armies in Northern Africa...One great advantage was that many years earlier men such as Ralph Bagnold had traveled the desert with a small expedition and mapped many parts of the terrain, knowledge that was worth its weight in gold during the war... They were never expected to appear in many places and there they were, always harassing and disrupting the enemy convoys and destroying valuable supplies and fuel...
As for the trucks, initially they were purchased straight out of the GM dealerships in Alexandria and converted quickly but there were some units that came from the Indian Army as well... Out of nothing and very quickly they had to come up with trucks big enough to carry the weapons and supplies needed, but not too heavy as to be a problem in terms of weight or fuel consumption... That is why the (Ford) 4x4 units were tested but not utilized because they were impractical...
Now regarding possibly mucking up a nice truck, everything that I am doing can be reversed... I still have the original Budd wheels, the fenders would have to replaced and the rest of the truck will not be cut up... I have decided to keep the original cab after finding that there are no 1.5 ton open express trucks anywhere, especially 39-40 years... Despite wanting to present a small tribute to the men of the LRDP/LRDG group by doing this truck, I am all for preservation... I have kept the original 216, 6 volt system, saved every original W1 marked bolt I could keep,etc... So, I hope that I can be forgiven by the purists for doing this... My biggest let down, parts availability/prices and some vendors... I will just leave that there...
In terms of other support, I appreciate the words of encouragement by all members here, and I will try to post updates as quickly as I can. Still, I don't want to get off topic, but if anyone knows of someone that can help with good used parts it would be appreciated. Thank you.
