My C-30 w/Holmes wrecker adventure

[jhe.1973]

Hello Everyone,

A few days ago I was thrilled to get on this forum to share in all the great information from so many helpful members!

Here is my 69 C-30 wrecker that I bought in 1997 to be a forklift for my R&D machine/welding/fab shop and soon to be my daily driver:



Here's how in 2011 I removed a roof section from the shop entry to make room for a shipping container. The last shot shows me just after winching the container in from the alley (by myself) the day before I rollered into it's final position. More to follow in a few minutes ......

[lil hoodlum]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing photos of your old workhorse putting in work. She sure does seem to come in handy!

[jhe.1973]

Thanks for the welcome lil hoodlum,

Workhorse it has been for sure! Happy to share photos too.

Later that same year after I obtained the container, I bought a 4450 pound shaper and here I have just lifted it from the U-haul trailer before moving it into the shop. I cheated and removed the 265 pound vice and swivel base so it's a lightweight 4185 pounds:

[D.B]

Welcome and you absolutely have a workhorse of a truck. Keep us posted if you work on the C30 or use it like it was built to do. Don't forget to include pics. We all like pics.

[sixty8HDC30]

Sweet wreaker! I love the big trucks that actually work. I plan to eventually use my 68 c30 as a daily driver, still needs some work but it'll get there one day.

[truckster]

Welcome!

She looks nice, but I can't see her face...

[jhe.1973]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for viewing my thread and for your welcomes!

Here are a couple of front views that I took this AM. My backyard is super crowded and I am backed up against the solid gates to the alley in order to get these views.





I'll be posting plenty of photos. I have been going all year on this truck and took tons of shots as I went.

[1970cstblazer]

What a solid rig! I love the day 2 paint scheme.

[toms68cst]

Damn, that's a sweet ride!

[Sheepdip]

Nice truck...paint er red and call it "Towmater"
My eyes went straight to those tow hooks on the front!

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by Sheepdip

Nice truck...paint er red and call it "Towmater"
My eyes went straight to those tow hooks on the front!

I believe we might be on the same wave length!

Visible in a few of the photos are some of the places where the paint/bondo is falling off. I brushed these spots with Rustoleum primer just to stop the rust from continuing. I figured with a few more spots of this brownish color I can hide the truck in a herd of cattle and it will blend right in, never to be seen again!



About the tow hooks ............ they came off of a dump truck that I bought to replace the frame on this truck. Turned out only the front of that frame was usable so I grafted the two together for the wrecker. This photo was during that project. The finished chassis is in the foreground and the old tow truck front section is the one near the cab:

[jhe.1973]

This view was taken this last summer under the cab where the two frames are joined. Plus a close up of the reinforcements to the top and bottom flanges of the channels. The spider web is just one of the many black widow webs all around our place.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

I've been spending every spare minute today (while helping take care of our 3 year old granddaughter) on organizing and preparing my photos for uploading to the forum. Still have lots to do cuz it involves 4 external hard drives, 2 laptops and my phone .....whew!! Glad to finally be doing it though cuz it's WAY overdue.

Any how, came across this inside shot of my routing of the wiring cable I am using and it shows the inside of the welded splice:



That's it for now cuz it's after midnight here and our bundle of joy won't let us sleep in!

................................................

[Sheepdip]

Originally Posted by jhe.1973

Any how, came across this inside shot of my routing of the wiring cable I am using and it shows the inside of the welded splice:

Attachment 2407478

Well..... someone can weld.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Sheepdip,

Thanks for viewing this thread!

I started learning to arc weld when I was 13 years old. My father bought one of these from an ad in Science & Mechanics magazine:



Poorest excuse for a welder but I didn't know better. I actually got to be pretty good with it on steel less than 1/8 inch thick. When I got to use a friend's 220 volt 'buzz box' I thought I had gone to heaven.

Now I almost exclusively use a 300 amp AC/DC TIG machine which is how I joined these frame halves.

So (64 years later) I guess I've learned a few things.

[Sheepdip]

Originally Posted by jhe.1973

Hi Sheepdip,

Thanks for viewing this thread!

I started learning to arc weld when I was 13 years old. My father bought one of these from an ad in Science & Mechanics magazine:

Attachment 2407601
When I got to use a friend's 220 volt 'buzz box' I thought I had gone to heaven
So (64 years later) I guess I've learned a few things.

Yep...it's all about amperage and duty cycle, not to mention time under the hood.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Before I go any further with this thread I should start at the beginning.

This truck showed up in the Truck Trader magazine in July of 1997. I wasn't necessarily looking for a wrecker but it seemed reasonably priced and looked worth it.

Within a first couple of weeks I was jacking the truck up and noticed the frame flexing at a crack on top of the frame right behind the front crossmember on the passenger side. Cleaning off the area, it became clear that someone had done one very poor weld after another trying to stop the cracking. Plus whoever did the last one covered the welds (I use the term loosely) with plastic filler to hide the evidence.

My plan had been to use this truck as I have been but also to restore it to super condition to pull a travel trailer once we retired. Soooo, I watched the ads for another C30 of the same wheelbase to become a frame donor.

I found a C30 with an 8 or 10 foot dump bed but the front frame horns were bent to the left from a collision (no big deal). It was REALLY cheap so I bought it.

When I pulled the cab and bed from the dump truck, the top flange of the rear frame on both sides was rusted dangerously thin. The bed rested on 3/4 inch thick plywood strips and everything was caked up with dried mud which probably had never been cleaned off.

Sooo, now I had a good front frame and a good rear ---- they just weren't on the same truck!



Because I intended to use the truck as described, I installed urethane aftermarket cab insulators to replace the very worn out factory ones. I also figured I would try to locate a better cab someday ..... in my spare time.

Spare time never happened and meanwhile the prices for vintage trucks, parts etc. has gone way beyond my reach.

Then at the end of September 2023 I was in a traffic collision totaling the Subaru that was my daily driver. I wasn't hurt but the other driver fled the scene leaving me to come up with another driver.

I had already made a promise to myself never to own ANY late model vehicle that is digitally controlled. I still need to get rid of the 2106 Dodge Grande Caravan once I have this C30 on the road. I've had no problems with it but with so many systems tied together electronically I don't want to own it when it starts to develop electronic issues.

My choice was either to build the Willys wagon with later model running gear (in the photo of the C-30 cab up in the air), or to finish a Dodge dually bus I have that is similar to the old Transvans.

Either one of these projects will require making space in the backyard (which I started doing this past March) while working on the wrecker since October of 2023.

I'm sure that I'm forgetting some details but as I post photos of my progress this past year I'll include anything important.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it !!!

[truckster]

It's a good story and a nice truck.

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by truckster

It's a good story and a nice truck.

Thanks truckster! Sure do like your tag line - it's one of my favorite quotes....

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by sixty8HDC30

....... I plan to eventually use my 68 c30 as a daily driver, still needs some work but it'll get there one day.

So ........... life getting in the way for you too?

[sixty8HDC30]

Originally Posted by jhe.1973

So ........... life getting in the way for you too?

Always... both of the current daily drivers need attention at the moment. one is on jack stands getting the lower control arms replaced and the other one needs the brake booster replaced which I'm gonna finish up tomorrow morning.

Plus the 68 is a big project that I dont have the funds for at the moment. I'd like to get it on the road by thius time next year.

[truckster]

Originally Posted by jhe.1973

Thanks truckster! Sure do like your tag line - it's one of my favorite quotes....

I'm a retired Soldier and a high school teacher...

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Often this wrecker sits for a long time. My standard starting procedure had been to put the battery in from the trickle charger, prime the carb a bit and it would fire almost instantly.

Back in October of 2023 when I went to fire up the truck from one of it's several month vacations, I found the fuel line from the pump to be soft and draped over the lower radiator hose:



So, before I did anything else I needed to make a new line. I decided to go to a steel line with short neoprene hoses rather than another long one as pictured. I learned years ago to not just flare the line and force the hose over the end cuz the sharp steel flare will likely cut into the soft neoprene weakening it.

Using my double flaring tool and a snug fitting spacer I made in a lathe, I could bulge the steel creating a stop with support on each side of the bulge:



The next view shows the shows the finished bulge ready to come out of the flaring tool:



This next shot is of the tube removed from the flaring tool before the spacer is twisted off:



The tube does fit more snugly in the spacer once it is bulged, but it isn't too bad to remove. Next time I may apply a bit of grease to the bore of the spacer to see how that works.

Here is the line bent and installed:



I never tried this before and was so pleased with the result that I thought I would pass it on. The line has been routed a bit differently since doing this but y'all get the idea.

[D.B]

That worked out nicely. Good job on making the hard line.

[Steeveedee]

Just started in on this thread. As mentioned, you really know how to weld! I can do that with my oxy-acetylene rig, but I don't have enough practice with any electrical welding to do much more than make it look like a flock of iron birds were leaving droppings at the weld site. It looks like you'll have her knocked into decent shape soon.