I've always wondered what manner of warmonger was clanking around with our moniker. But until recently, the M-4 General Sherman medium tank and I had never crossed paths. Brock Yates is the man who changed all that. He negotiated a quick ride in it as a pleasant diversion from the crap tables, and he enjoyed the experience so much that he briefly considered calling the local army recruiter for an appointment. Clyne has enjoyed a few joy rides himself—including one foray during which he inadvertently stood this ton behemoth on its nose—so he wasn't at all surprised by my telephone call requesting a turn in the driver's seat.
We arranged an appointment. When the day arrives, George Lepp, the photographer assigned to the project, gets the experience off to a good start by draining a thousand quarters from an Imperial Palace slot machine. Richie Clyne greets us warmly anyway, gives us a quick tour of the collection, and sends us to the restoration shops to meet Joe Dickie, the man in charge of making museum pieces out of decrepit hulks. Joe is to be my tank commander and driving instructor.
While an assistant gasses and lubes the General for a test run, Joe ushers me through the various departments that erase the ravages of time in the preparation of cars and trucks for the city's premier auto museum. I find that the last V Cadillac purchased by W. Fields is next in line for a complete tear-down and build-up. A worker is applying the finishing touches to a royal-blue-and-gold Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The shop holds five to ten machines in various states of restoration, and an adjoining warehouse contains another twenty or thirty pieces invarious states of disrepair.
We wander around a World War I Renault tank, a pair of custom-bodied K Mercedes, an experimental Chrysler hardtop convertible built in the early forties, and a lifetime supply of teardrop headlamps. Need an engine for your Sherman tank or a fender for your Wills Sainte Claire?
Eleven skilled craftsmen are on the payroll, and all the stripping, cleaning, machining, mechanical assembly, woodwork, painting, and upholstery are done under one roof.
The shop handles everything but plating in-house. Joe Dickie is the boss and also the master panel beater, whose occasional job it is to hand-hammer a new fender or door skin from a flat sheet of metal. Charles Lindsay, the resident upholsterer, proudly spits tacks the same way his guild did 60 years ago, and he staunchly refuses to stuff the seats he refurbishes with anything but authentic cotton batting. But this is not the time to revel in overstuffed seats and polished brass.
We adjourn to the driveway, where the Sherman tank waits with all the spit and polish of a Dempster-Dumpster. Although our test tank hasn't exactly been through a war, it's one long restoration project away from being a pristine, low-mileage cream puff ready for the front row of the Imperial Palace collection. Its rubber track pads are chunked and badly in need of a manicure, its olive-drab paint job is duller than dishwater, and one of its hatches is frozen in the open position. There will be no need to be gentle with the equipment today, for this is one Sherman that's rough and ready to butt heads with all corners.
You couldn't hurt it with a hand grenade. Joe drops through an open manhole at the front corner of the sloping hull and cranks the mighty engine to life.
Eight huge gasoline-burning cylinders in a degree V-block cough a cloud of blue-white smoke out the back and rattle the air with sounds that make you think aircraft more than semi truck. As a matter of fact, the Sherman's Ford-built cubic-inch prime mover was originally conceived as a V aircraft engine; it was demoted to ground-pounder duty when its vibration characteristics were deemed unacceptable for the heavens.
When the Sherman tank arrived at the Museum in December , its engine was completely rusted and it was painted in a color appropriate to the Korean War era rather than World War II. Restoration work began in late October , when the tank received a running Ford GAA engine and a new paint job. The tank was restored with the markings of an actual vehicle which served with D company, 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division.
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