M Kerkvliet
04-03-2007, 11:55 AM
Authors note... Like the re-flueing thread, this material is copied from another project I am involved with, so some of the time references may not make sense. I will build this thread over the next few days.
The big Avery was originally restored in the late 1980's by Jim Briden., the late Norman Pross, and is nephew Mark Pedersen. I am sure there were others involved in a huge way, but I have not been told of them yet. I think Noren and Hartley Ellingson may have had a hand in it too. I was invited to the crew about 5 years ago, so I am still learning!
When the engine was restored, the cab was built from the ground up. There was no prints to go from, only pictures. I am told that a man by the name of Don Bradley. from Forsythe, MT was the best source as to how the cab was to be built. Mark Pedersen, who will be pictured later in this thread, built the original cab back then (he was 23 years old then!)
The years and the wrong choice of lumber caught up with the cab over the years. Maple was the choice of wood to build the cab, but after a few years it started to rot. It is thought that the hardwood supplier sold them "sugar maple"... and that is what caused this condition. The engine is always stored inside! After the show the engine was loaded on a semi for the trip to Fargo. Mark Pedersen was drafted to build the new cab... who better! Mark asked me to help him, and I agreed, so the two of us went to work tearing it down. Jim cut up some Ash in his sawmill, and later took it home to cut and plane it closer to the dimension we needed. We decided not to use Maple again! I took a TON of pictures. There were none taken the first time it was built, and we wanted to be sure we knew how to get it back together!
I will build this thread over the next week or so, like I did with the boiler thread, so I have time to figure out which pictures to use, and get them re-sized.
The first picture (below) is the first day of the tear down after we got the tin roof and the left "window" off of the cab. Where the Maple was sound, we could not pull the nails out that held the steel to the wood frame. The nails in the window panel were 1" on center (see lower fender panel), and we had to drill the heads off of the nails so as not to damage the steel which we re-used.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%201.jpg
Below shows what was happening to the Maple. It got worse year after year and we started to wonder when it was going to fall off! This is the back left corner, where the cab bolts to the water tank.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%202.jpg
Below... right front corner, more of the same rot!
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%203.jpg
I have no idea what is growing here (below), but we didn't want it there! You can see the detail of some of the joints we had to duplicate.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%204.jpg
Looks pretty tough now, but over the course of the next 4 weekends it looks like new again! Mark is a perfectionist when it comes to projects like this, so there were no shortcuts taken!
This work was done in January 2005, prior to the boiler work we did this winter. The cab stayed on the engine just fine, and even covered some 500 miles on a semi between shows, so it was a success!
To be continued...
The big Avery was originally restored in the late 1980's by Jim Briden., the late Norman Pross, and is nephew Mark Pedersen. I am sure there were others involved in a huge way, but I have not been told of them yet. I think Noren and Hartley Ellingson may have had a hand in it too. I was invited to the crew about 5 years ago, so I am still learning!
When the engine was restored, the cab was built from the ground up. There was no prints to go from, only pictures. I am told that a man by the name of Don Bradley. from Forsythe, MT was the best source as to how the cab was to be built. Mark Pedersen, who will be pictured later in this thread, built the original cab back then (he was 23 years old then!)
The years and the wrong choice of lumber caught up with the cab over the years. Maple was the choice of wood to build the cab, but after a few years it started to rot. It is thought that the hardwood supplier sold them "sugar maple"... and that is what caused this condition. The engine is always stored inside! After the show the engine was loaded on a semi for the trip to Fargo. Mark Pedersen was drafted to build the new cab... who better! Mark asked me to help him, and I agreed, so the two of us went to work tearing it down. Jim cut up some Ash in his sawmill, and later took it home to cut and plane it closer to the dimension we needed. We decided not to use Maple again! I took a TON of pictures. There were none taken the first time it was built, and we wanted to be sure we knew how to get it back together!
I will build this thread over the next week or so, like I did with the boiler thread, so I have time to figure out which pictures to use, and get them re-sized.
The first picture (below) is the first day of the tear down after we got the tin roof and the left "window" off of the cab. Where the Maple was sound, we could not pull the nails out that held the steel to the wood frame. The nails in the window panel were 1" on center (see lower fender panel), and we had to drill the heads off of the nails so as not to damage the steel which we re-used.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%201.jpg
Below shows what was happening to the Maple. It got worse year after year and we started to wonder when it was going to fall off! This is the back left corner, where the cab bolts to the water tank.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%202.jpg
Below... right front corner, more of the same rot!
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%203.jpg
I have no idea what is growing here (below), but we didn't want it there! You can see the detail of some of the joints we had to duplicate.
http://www.98dodge.com/images/avery%20cab%204.jpg
Looks pretty tough now, but over the course of the next 4 weekends it looks like new again! Mark is a perfectionist when it comes to projects like this, so there were no shortcuts taken!
This work was done in January 2005, prior to the boiler work we did this winter. The cab stayed on the engine just fine, and even covered some 500 miles on a semi between shows, so it was a success!
To be continued...