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Well, it has been almost two years now and I have been working off and on restoring one of my M35A2’s. I am almost done with it, just need to put the winch cable on it, a little more stenciling, etc.
Still need to work on the troop seats, but that will be a little bit later in 2014.
I have always wanted to restore a Vehicle, so I picked a 1969 M35A2 from the 116[SUP]th[/SUP] Idaho National Guard. I decided to restore it back to the color it was in 1969, in honor of the Vietnam vets. Thank you!
I did not do a full restoration. I did some upgrades. I added a remote brake fluid reservoir, spin on filters, and a coolant filter, put bed liner in the bed and on the cab floorboard.
I started taking the truck apart and I quickly realized I was running out of space. I had parts all over the place. As I got things done I would sandblast and paint the parts I was going to need for the next install. I would hang them in my barn and all over to let them dry and the paint get hard. Castle Bravo from S/S came over one day and walked in to my barn and said “it looks like a Deuce exploded in here”.
I replaced the front and rear wiring harness. The harness I got was for a truck that used the start relay and my truck did not have one, so I had to add a relay, that was not hard, just had to make a mount for it and make some wire jumpers. I also replaced/rebuilt the wheel cylinders, hoses, brake shoes, front axle boots. I rebuilt a winch from my parts truck and added it to the truck as part for the restore. I adjusted the valves on the motor, flushed the engine and radiator. I learned a lot of valuable information about the M35A2 during this restore.
As you can see I did not pull the motor, transmission, transfer case and axles. If I do a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] truck I think I will pull them, it will make it much easier to sandblast and paint the frame.
The work was a labor of love, but it was a lot of work. I do not like painting and there were a lot parts to paint! I painted all the bolts before I put them on, that was painful. Next time I will paint the parts, and then after the truck is together with the bolts I will paint the truck again with all the bolts getting painted then. That is how the factory did it, I think.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the frame up restore…
The before and start.
Still need to work on the troop seats, but that will be a little bit later in 2014.
I have always wanted to restore a Vehicle, so I picked a 1969 M35A2 from the 116[SUP]th[/SUP] Idaho National Guard. I decided to restore it back to the color it was in 1969, in honor of the Vietnam vets. Thank you!
I did not do a full restoration. I did some upgrades. I added a remote brake fluid reservoir, spin on filters, and a coolant filter, put bed liner in the bed and on the cab floorboard.
I started taking the truck apart and I quickly realized I was running out of space. I had parts all over the place. As I got things done I would sandblast and paint the parts I was going to need for the next install. I would hang them in my barn and all over to let them dry and the paint get hard. Castle Bravo from S/S came over one day and walked in to my barn and said “it looks like a Deuce exploded in here”.
I replaced the front and rear wiring harness. The harness I got was for a truck that used the start relay and my truck did not have one, so I had to add a relay, that was not hard, just had to make a mount for it and make some wire jumpers. I also replaced/rebuilt the wheel cylinders, hoses, brake shoes, front axle boots. I rebuilt a winch from my parts truck and added it to the truck as part for the restore. I adjusted the valves on the motor, flushed the engine and radiator. I learned a lot of valuable information about the M35A2 during this restore.
As you can see I did not pull the motor, transmission, transfer case and axles. If I do a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] truck I think I will pull them, it will make it much easier to sandblast and paint the frame.
The work was a labor of love, but it was a lot of work. I do not like painting and there were a lot parts to paint! I painted all the bolts before I put them on, that was painful. Next time I will paint the parts, and then after the truck is together with the bolts I will paint the truck again with all the bolts getting painted then. That is how the factory did it, I think.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the frame up restore…
The before and start.
![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]"){kind=icon}
