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Just a little follow-up on what I've been up to with my latest toy
Been collecting various parts for my vehicle: reflectors, bumper lift shackles, rear-view mirror, jerrycan brackets. Needed to replace the muffler and tailpipe, nice big hole in the muffler made it sound a little bit "hawg" like. All the tailpipe / muffler brackets needed to be replaced. Pulled one of the broken clamps off the old tailpipe and was amazed to see the unworn surface of the pipe underneath. The exposed portion of the pipe was noticably smaller than where it was covered up. Now that's some erosion (and probably the original pipe that came on the truck!).
Now the juicy stuff... been doing some spot sanding in various areas to try and "unearth" any original markings. Truck is currently black, and one of the previous owners was a chiminey sweep: "Dean Shepards Sootbusters! The chiminey sweep with character". Definately must have got him noticed!
Underneath the black paint was a fairly uniform coat of a desert tan color. Marked on the cab doors is the following:
"CONTRACTOR VEHICLE"
"OPERATED BY"
"N.A.A. INC - ROCKETDYNE"
"SANTA SUSANA FACILITY"
"CHATSWORTH, CALIF"
Now that's some neat stuff! N.A.A. Inc is North American Aviation, Inc., manufacturer of such things as the P-51 Mustang and B-25 Mitchell. Rocketdyne was a engine division they formed after the war to reverse engineer the V2 rocket. They later did things like the Saturn J-1 engines and nuclear engineering. Santa Susana is a local (Los Angeles basin) facility set-up in the hills after the war to conduct nuclear and rocket related engineering. In fact, what is said to be the worst atomic reactor accident in the US occured at Rocketdynes Santa Susana Sodium Reactor Experiment. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susa ... Laboratory
I haven't done anymore sanding to see whats underneath that (original USAF markings), but to a aerospace nut like myself that is a really fascinating find! My rig is actually a local!
Sorry for being so long winded... it's practice for when I eventually get into writing
!Russ
FAA Airman *Pending*
Proud son of Rose and Wes
