updated pics of my hemtt restoration

[dma251]

I'm not really sure what happened to the 5-ton guy. Last I heard he was using it frequently to tow his HMMWV to Pismo Beach in California to play in the sand dunes. He called me a few times and kept telling me how much he loved driving it around down there pulling the "cute little" superduty's and Chevy 1-tons out of the sand.

He may be lurking around on here, I really don't know.

John Cappa, AKA Twinpinion, Editor of JP magazine bought my M35 Deuce a couple years back and wrote a nice 4 page article in the magazine about his adventure buying it and driving it home to LA. I see pics of it in the mag every once in a while. He pops in here every once in a while.

I have no reason or desire to even consider selling the hemtt. It is completely paid for, and I'm definitely not rich, but I don't need the money from it either, so it will stay mine for the forseeable future.

I tend to get really consumed by the actual tasks of a project, and when the project is done I get restless. I've got a 2nd list of things to do on the hemtt after the general retoration is done, so there will be other little improvements and mods I plan on doing to it as time goes by. I am also getting started on building up another offroad Jeep for me and my son to play with, so when shift over to working on that a lot, I'll just tuck the hemtt away in the garage and play with it when I want to.

Most people wouldn't believe it, but I can actually park the hemtt in the garage, close the door, and it pretty much disappears from sight and mind in my tiny little 1/4 acre lot!

 

[DanMartin]

Amazing as always Damon. I really wish we could have seen that truck at the show, but I know how it is. Guess we'll be driving to Denver in a few years. This is a shoe-in for best-in-show IMO.

Someday soon I'll get up there and have a visit. Maybe those HEMTT seats will be mounted in my deuce by then.

Anyways...please do keep up the great work, and thanks for taking the time to document and share the experience with all of us.

 

[cranetruck]

Had an opportunity to look one over the other day coming through Meadows of Dan here. These things are massive, restoring a HEMTT is not for everyone, that's a given. This one had the armor plates on the cab and was the truck tractor version with a rear mounted winch. The winch was on the dromedary platform and there was a roller at the end of the frame between the ramp sections for wire rope guidance.
No pictures, sorry...

 

[cranetruck]

On the HEMTT I looked at the other day, a fuel filter was located as marked in the image below, does yours have a clear/amber bowl, is it heated and what micron rating do you use? I have the same filter installed on my 8x8 and am curious....
Do you have a better image of this detail?

 

[dma251]

This is the fuel filter that mounts on the spare tire carrier right next to the air dryer. I had this one that came with the truck, and bought another for parts to make one nice one. Not sure on the micro rating, but the filter is a Fleetguard FS-1206.

It has a heater, a water detector, and a flow restriction detection device.

 

[cranetruck]

Thanks, love the details.

 

[dma251]

Today was a busy day....

One word in painting MV's....





.......AIRLESS............

 

[dma251]

more - It's still quite wet here, so that explains the shine. It's already darkened a lot now that I am cleaned up and back in posting these pics. More of the final product tomorrow.

 

[superburban]

Damon,
OH BOY, OH BOY! I love seeing projects come together like this! I am getting all tingly just reading about your build! Great job!

BTW, I'm leaving for Washington (Yakama) tomorrow night, I wish I could talk the wiffle into letting me add on another 3 hours onto our trip, to stop by your place, but I dont think she'd be interested. You wouldn't, by chance, feel like driving the ol' HEMTT to my brother's house in Moxee, would you? No? Well it was worth a shot!

The Other Damon

 

[ida34]

Looks great. Tell us more about your painting rig. What paint did you use? Carc, Gillespie, Rapco?

 

[wsucougarx]

Wow, how and where in the world did you secure that monstrocity?

 

[dma251]

Gillespie paint - sprayed undiluted with a commercial air-less paint sprayer with a 515 tip. It worked great and the friend I had helping me is the shop manager of an industrial paint shop and that is how they paint all their trucks and equipment. They also paint all the masts for the wind turbines around here.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

if you dont mind, whats the model of the sprayer? So we can look up flow rates and such.

 

[dma251]

It's a Graco 390. We used about 5 gallons of primer, and 5 gallons of 383 green. I still need to use another few gallons of green to finish up the bottom, but we ran out so I ordered more and will do it when I do the black and brown.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

thanks for the info.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

These are the specs i found for the Graco Nova 390 sprayer. (cost ~$600)

SPECS:
# Max Tip - .021
# Max psi/bar - 3300/227
# Max gpm/lpm - .47/1.8
# Weight lbs/kg - 30/13.6 Stand
# Motor - 5/8 hp DC

 

[dma251]

Damon,
I'm leaving for Washington (Yakama) tomorrow night, I wish I could talk the wiffle into letting me add on another 3 hours onto our trip, to stop by your place, but I dont think she'd be interested. You wouldn't, by chance, feel like driving the ol' HEMTT to my brother's house in Moxee, would you? No? Well it was worth a shot!

The Other Damon

I can't swing the diesel for a trip down, wish I could. But I will say this -

I know I've said it before, but any of you SS'ers that want to pay me a visit will get a free, all-expenses paid luxury ride in my hemtt. I may even let you work the crane!

Seriously, one of the great joys of owning and loving MV's is meeting people that really SPEAK and UNDERSTAND them. Sure, it's fun to impress people that don't know much about them and think they are "cool", but when you meet someone that speaks your language, and knows and respects these things like we all do - you take the time to share it properly.

My door is always open to any of you guys. 'Cept I'll be counting my silverware with that Jones fella, he's a crafty one..... I turn my back on him and next time I go out to my garage there's a worn out old bread truck in there with an Oshkosh grill on it and OD paint....

 

[OSO]

I just did a quick cover job on my hood . Ground the rust and tried to remove some of the old paint,tried to blend it out somewhat . Wet sanded the brush strokes out went down to shiny metal, had to recoat, started to rain made a temp cover paint dried okay. Bought some Krylon OD Green small spray band . Looks like tiger stripe camo on hood now . Took the old truck to a local car show on Sat .When I pulled in Got a lot of Looks , people loved it ! Giant Tonka Truck. When I parked it I was in a spot away from other cars and trucks ,and it still looked BIG . Alot of other guys wondered how come I didn't have a pilot car ,and wide load signs. Damon I'll bring my 5 ton and you can squirt some paint on it!!! HE HE HE!!! The WORK Damon is always top notch Quality with extra care for the best results!!! Great Work Thanks For Sharing OSO

 

[dma251]

I just realized it's almost time to put my own hemtt on my avatar! I was waiting for it to be painted, but I'llhave to wait another week or two for the rest of the paint to get here and then I'll do the camo and strip all the masking off and take some really fancy pics.

 

[alphadeltaromeo]

Looks fantastic Damon.

On a note about airless...totally agreed. I'm painting the house with a Graco XR9 that I purchased. I was able to get it from ebay for $400 and free shipping. It was a shelf model and didn't have the manual, but brand new. I downloaded the manual from the Graco site. I used the 515 (standard tip) and also sprayed straight from the 5 gallon container. I was amazed at how fast the paint would flow! Mine is 3000 psi and is incredible to use.