Another project done

This Air Force tug has been in the shop for way too long but I finally got it wrapped up. It was one day away from the scrap yard when the collector I fixed it up for rescued it. It is a 1943
Clarktor 6 model 33. It's first home was a base in Texas. After it was retired it somehow ended up close to Sioux City Ia. That is all we know about it. The engine is a Chrysler 250 flathead. The heavy 3/8" thick front grille guard was bent up somewhat and the dashboard was leaning forward a twitch. It looks to me like it hit something really hard and the driver flew into the steering wheel, pushing the dash and radiator ahead. A neighbor helped me lay the grille guard under the drawbar of a 20,000 pound tractor and we jacked down on it to get it decently straight. The back of the tractor was almost off the ground before the grille guard started straightening. Anyway, it is done now and will be living in the military building at the Albert City Threshing Show.

Partly disassembled. At this point I wasn't sure how far I was going to go with the project.


Coming back to the shop after a power washing. This thing is heavy. heavier than it looks. The rear fender assemble all one heavy cast iron chunk.



Stripped down.


The finished product. I got the pictures out of sync

The firewall before it was stripped down


The firewall after it was spruced up. The gauges are used gauges out of a military vehicle but they are not out of tug. Nobody will know the difference. The key switch and light switch combination is new. A couple of the contacts inside the switch did not line up right so part of the guts out of the old switch are in the new switch.

The engine after paint, assembled and ready to run

Great job! Looks great. Nice to
see it saved

Awesome work! That's a cool rig! I like
the odd balls and different stuff......

Nice work, all my projects seem to take longer and longer. I now know what the old timers meant when they said my get up and go,
got up and went haha. You did very well on the tug. Some of those I remember from the Air Force, were yellow, and seemed to
scoot along pretty fast on the flightline. gobble

I forgot to mention the running boards. The running boards were gone so I had a machine shop make new ones going by a pattern I made. They are 1/4 thick. I suspect the originals were 5/16 or even 3/8. This thing was built to be heavy and nearly indestructible.

(quoted from post at 18:15:10 04/01/21) Nice work, all my projects seem to take longer and longer. I now know what the old timers meant when they said my get up and go,
got up and went haha. You did very well on the tug. Some of those I remember from the Air Force, were yellow, and seemed to
scoot along pretty fast on the flightline. gobble

Click to expand...

Tom there was yellow paint under the white in some places. Maybe it was originally yellow? The engine is a replacement done by the military. Maybe that explains why the engine was OD color. If I have my facts right the original engine was 217? cu. but all replacement engines were 250 cubes. I havent driven it much but I estimate it might do 25 MPH.

Fantastic job on that ! Wow !

Good job. Glad you saved it. When it ends up in the scrap yard that's the end of almost an 80 year old piece of military history. The Navy tugs were
yellow, probably to be seen on the flight line. Stan

Nice job. Neat project, fixerupper.

Looks good. Nice job saving it.

Just curious if you kept track of how many
hours you had in it. It just amazes me
sometimes how many hours I end up with in a project like that when I'm doing them
for someone else and keeping track. My
own stuff I never really know....

Good save!

Well done!

They are a really neat machine. They were yellow when used by Air Force. I bought a nicely restored one at a Mecum Auction several years ago
and at a show it will attract more interest than most tractors.

Karl has some neat stuff in that building.

great job and when I see the new key/light sw combo I need to know the source so I could
get one for my 1927 Pontiac car as it is the same and defective? Could you give me the
source please

Well done, sir. Outstanding.

Boler I will give him a buzz about the switch and get back to you.

That switch resembles the switch on a Model T Ford, might check one of T suppliers.

great thanks

that is a really nice outcome for a unique machine. Wouldn't it be neat to see what damage it did to the thing it hit?

Nice job, I like it. A rugged little machine. What engine? A Continental?

thats nut i have the same one not 60 miles from you. some day ill restore it.(LOL) looking foward seeing it at albert city. keep up the good
work.

(quoted from post at 05:02:19 04/02/21) great thanks

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Boler I called him and asked him about the switch. He said he found it at a swap meet. A model T was also mentioned and it does seem to look like a Model T switch. It points to the right for high beam and left for low beam. In translation it actually means dim and dimmer!

Bob does your tug have the running boards? I patterned these running boards from looking at pictures. If yours does have running boards how thick are they? Im just curious. The engine is a Chrysler.

Nice