Operation Medi-Betty: Kendelrios 1967 M725

[kendelrio]

So! A few weeks ago I was taking rhe M715 to a local car show and an older gentleman literally flagged me down in the middle of the road.

It turns out he has (had?) a 1967 M725 and wanted to chat. As we are talking he tells me his knees are too bad to drive it any more, and he was lookimg to sell it.

He told me it had a SB 350 in it and the people who did it wired the engine for 12v but left the rest of the truck 24 and he was having a battery drain issue on his 24v side.

I offered to look at it for him, so he sent me pictures right before I went offshore....

You guys know where this is going....

So! Anyway, today I went and recovered my new to me 1967 M725 Ambulance, named "Medi-Betty".

Here she is!

The pics he sent:

(You can see the double alternator setup!)

Pics from the recovery (my constant MV buddy Mike was with me, of course!)

 

[kendelrio]

At the shop

And of course we had to wash her, so we drove her to the car wash...

More to come.

 

[marchplumber]

Holy Moly!!! Sir....you are seriously in need of a "compound".....LOL

CONGRATS

 

[antennaclimber]

The addiction continues.
Looks good!!

 

[Bulldogger]

Rescued another. She looks great!

 

[Joe Bertram]

Looks like a great addition to your collection Ken

 

[Guyfang]

Clean lookin set of new wheels!

 

[kendelrio]

Well, she's picked up an unofficial name now.....

My lady @IRIS_Always has dubbed her "Beluga" due to her resemblance to the Beluga whale...

 

[marchplumber]

Well, she's picked up an unofficial name now.....

My lady @IRIS_Always has dubbed her "Beluga" due to her resemblance to the Beluga whale...

View attachment 957271

Uhmmmm, where's the Red Cross?

 

[67Beast]

Looking great, will make a great addition to your growing collection. Let me know when you need markings for it.

 

[kendelrio]

Progress yesterday:

Finishing converting the old girl to 12v as it's ultimately going to be a gift for my daughter and I dont want her to have to fight a 24v system and 12v stuff is easier to find.

First I had to figure out power to the 24v side as the previous owner was running 12 and 24.

I took wire 468 from the 24v generator and ran it to the battery and got weak headlights, which was a start

Then it was a trip to the parts house for headlights and connectors.

I decided that I would save as much of the wiring harness as possible, so if in the future someone wanted to go back to 24v, they wouldn't be looking at a hack job, so i decided to use the wires from the headlights to make the connections.

Original wiring:

Testing high/low:

Finished connection:

And we have bright lights again!

More as it happens

 

[NDT]

Suggest you convert to LED headlights otherwise the circuit breaker in the 3 lever switch will be close to maxed out on 12 volts.

 

[kendelrio]

Suggest you convert to LED headlights otherwise the circuit breaker in the 3 lever switch will be close to maxed out on 12 volts.

Gotcha. Right now its running off of a civvy switch.

 

[kendelrio]

Ok... I haven't updated in a while, but between work, the two jeeps at the museum and the M725, I have been BUSY!

So... wiring...

I ordered 14 rolls of various colored 16ga wire and built a harness. It actually wasn't as difficult as I thought. The hardest part was figuring out the old turn signal wiring, but once I got that figured out, it was off to the races. I got the harness built

Then came lights. I swapped to 12v LEDs

And of course had my trusty assistant with me..

Then the gauges wired in (I had to change some to civvy gauges as the military ones were inoperable).

Got the marker/blinker and tail lights working:

Then I made a trip to the parts truck as the hood in the 725 had been fire damaged and repaired with some sort of compound and in the process there was body filler all over the spot for the hood light which would have required herculean efforts to remove...

The "new" hood:

I then cleaned and painted it with some extra paint i had from the HMMWV, thinking it would be ok.... it was not....

We cleaned the heck out of the truck. First was a bath with Krud Kutter, then Dawn dish soap, the a good rinse with clean water.

More to come.

 

[Guyfang]

You and your hired hand are simply smoking!

 

[kendelrio]

You and your hired hand are simply smoking!

Thank you!

 

[kendelrio]

Next was paint. I took a chip of original paint to Lowes and had it color matched and got busy rolling/spraying

Then, while waiting for the paint masks from @67Beast I decided to mask out and paint the body crosses.

I still had a day or two waiting for the mail to run, so me being me..... I added some lights!

More to come!

 

[kendelrio]

Then the paint masks arrived. Word of advice: to get good crisp lines, when you apply the mask, paint your base coat over it, let it dry, then paint your color on.

Also, a caduceus paint mask is a PITA with all the detail, but worth it!

The hood numbers are the original numbers assigned by the Army in 1967. Thanks again to @67Beast and hos databank! The unit and truck numbers are my daughters unit and truck from her time in the Army.

More to come!

 

[M813rc]

That is looking outstanding!

Great to see the youngling taking such an interest in working on the trucks.

67Beast's masks are very high quality.

Cheers

 

[kendelrio]

The details in the caduceus is amazing

And here she is in her glory....

I painted and added the fuel cans this morning and am waiting for my straps from @Valence to arrive.

Then its adjusting timing and some other small things, things I'll call her done!

Here's a glamor shot I've submitted fpr MVotM