bulldogmack407
Member
So a friend of mine went to buy a snowplow from a guy he found online, while at the guys farm he saw what turned out to be a 1945 Case VAI-W tug. My friend took a picture and called me, he even negotiated a price with the guy before I even committed to buying it! An aircraft tug isn't necessarily something I typically would buy but being ex military and extremely unique I couldnt pass it up. The next day we went and picked it up, this thing is HEAVYYYYYYYY and the rear fenders are SOLID cast iron! The engine was stuck but the previous owner said it was running when parked and he kept it inside his MASSIVE shop for the last 5 years. He said he put Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders to hopefully unstick them. A handshake along with $300 and she was sitting in front of my shop. I filled the cylinders with a mix of 50% ATF and 50% acetone, let it soak for a few hours then started to work the flywheel teeth with a pry bar. After slowly working her over a few times put the starter back in with some fresh fuel and she roared alive! Surprisingly runs GREAT for not cleaning the carb or anything! So now the questions, how do I confirm the year of this thing? The serial tag that is supposed to be on the dash is missing. There is a tag on the hood that says USN and has a few numbers so it looks to have been used by the navy, is there any way to somehow trace this number to find its origin? On some spots the yellow paint is wore off and it appears to have OD green paint under it, I know this isnt the primer because I can see the primer layer as well. Is it possible it was OD green before yellow? If so I would like to restore it back to OD green.
