Patton's training ground for troops that were to be landed in North Africa during Operation Torch was in the Mohave Desert near the town of Desert Center.

Patton, his staff and all the troops were bivouacked in tents, the perimeter of the camp was patrolled 24/7 by armed sentries.

One day a captain asked one of the sentries: "Where would you expect trouble to come from?" The sentry pointed towards the center of the camp.

The captain asked why he was pointing that way. The sentry said: "That's where Patton's tent is, and that's where I expect trouble!"

 

When I first went to Desert Center my brother was working at Kaiser.
I lived in So.cal. at that time and just went to visit him for the week end.

Wow no smog or traffic, a few hrs after a few cold ones my brother said come out side will take a little ride. He had a 70 f250 c/s so he said jump in, I'll show you something you may be interested in. He drover about and 1/8 of a mile and pulled on to a dirt road. He started telling me about G. Patton and sure enough all their was white painted rocks there tents & walk ways were.

I thing, I learned being in the Army is they love to have rocks painted white out lining tent walk way in the company areas..

I could not hardly believe that this was for real and he wasn't BS-ing me..

What a interesting place it was. I loved out there. Born & raised in Los Angeles, I hated traffic so it was easy for me to move out of the LA area of Eagle Rock & Highland Park. And did visit Ben Alexander Ford dealer ship to get parts. And see the bad *** 406 fords then 63 to gruel over the Thunder Bolt 427 bad boy in the show room. The only thing it was missing was it had no radio. For cruising Saturday nights..

Yup I moved out their 2 months later and visited as many old gold & silver mines as I could safely that is .

And after 5 yrs of looking, I did find the one only a tank under ground
bunker as all others had been filled or dozes over..

Also got to know the Raggsdale who ran the only junk yard & tow truck
He picked up any vehicle that was left more then 3 days along the road side and put a lien on it and sell parts or crushed it.



Latch update, I made a run to Pnp today and found late 70's van with pull
hood latch. And their next to it was a 70 f100 so looked it over and tried putting the cable latch into the hood of the 70 f100. No way will it bolt in or even come close with out a lot of reworking the whole bracket or the hood. So back to square one.

That's my story and stickin to it.
orich

 

Hey Rich. On a Dent the latch mounts to the core support. That grabs on to a "L" shaped rod that bolts to the hood. 16900 in Bill's pic. I'm thinkin' bolting a Dent Catch to a Bump Hood. And mounting the Dent cable style latch to a Bump core support. Having two next to each other would help a bunch.

 

Yea Jeff the way it looked is that making a latch bar for the 73-79+ pull cable type on the bumps hood. Make a latch bar type mounted on the hood is maybe way easier then switching the latches around to convert it over.
Orich

 

Keep talking guys, I am all ears on this one... my 'shade tree' fix, to the locking hood, will work, but its not an upgrade by any means.. just a work-around.. Keep this alive Jeff & Orich.. you guys rock..

baja

 

I have often thought that the dual pin latching style from a late 80's early 90's Jeep Cherokee might be an option.

 

Orich, Jeff, any progress on the cable pull hood latch for the bumps?? I hope you guys can solve this, while I am north in the land of plenty parts... keep me in the loop amigos...

baja

 

I'll be heading out tomorrow to the loco 2 PnP see what's there. Bumps are now slow to make it here to this yard, but always a few dents. Most of the time missing parts by the time, I get to them. Or smashed hoods/grilles areas.

Maybe someone who has a donor 73-79 truck has more time & a welder to work on this and figure it out making a adapter bracket if needed.
Orich