1942 Seagrave Fire Engine
Originally purchased by the city
of San Diego, this engine was a product of the
war years.
About
1975 the '42 was purchased by the California City Fire Department from
the San Diego City Fire Department. San Diego had used it for many years
as a reserve rig and California City intended to do the same. The '42 served
in that capacity until about 1983. Shortly before its retirement it pumped
its last big fire and was then sold to Bob Clayton. Clayton ran a fire
extinguisher business. He later sold the engine to the Lancaster Rotary
club as a parade vehicle. In 1995 the old Seagrave was found languishing
in a storage yard.
The
hose-bed was shortened with a wooden bulkhead and two benches were added
for riders. Although originally equiped with a "Squirrel-tail" suction,
the factory delivery photos also show the suction trays pictured here on
the left side of the vehicle. The hose reel ends are brass, but they were
painted at the factory, as was almost all of the brass on the vehicle.
Its
paint was badly weathered from sitting unprotected in the sun, wind and
rain. The gasoline in the tank had turned into something akin to kerosine
and it took a couple of days work to get the engine to start. The corner
of the "Sweetheart" grill shows in this photo but not enough to see the
heart shaped namesake feature.
The
powerplant is a 906 cubic inch Seagrave V-12. It has redundant ignition
systems. On the right side of the 
engine
is a twin-rotor distributor that fires half of the 24 spark plugs. On the
left side of the engine are twin magnetos that fire the remaining 12 plugs.
They are currently lacking plug wires as shown in the picture. The plugs
were originally seated on the top of the head where the paired stop-plugs
are now. One of San Diego's chief's discovered that moving the plugs down
to the level of the valve inspection/adjustment ports would give better
ignition and mileage. They remain in that location today.
Carburetion
is achieved through a MONSTER single-barrel unit mounted atop an intake
manifold reminiscent of the USS Nimitz. Its primitive, but it NEVER refuses
to start. Just in case it ever does, the vehicle is equipped for hand-cranking.
(Macho men ONLY!!)
The
doors were stripped off by San Diego as a result of door failure during
cornering. The doors provided false security so the Fire Chief ordered
them removed. In their place were either pipes like this or split-pipe-and-panel
devices similar to this. Both the pump panel and the "pressure regulator"
are shown here.
The
gauges in the center dash panel are in pretty good shape and all the original
switches are there. A patch of the original paint can be seen to the right
of the dash panel.
Soda-acid extinguishers like this were original equipment in 1942. They
remained in use state-wide almost as long as this Seagrave did.
The vehicle was delivered in "San Diego Red", but was
later repainted to something close to "L.A. County Red". The original color
was a deeper, darker red. Some of it shows through in places. Although
the original paint code is known, the DuPont company is unable to match
it back to a known formula. The local auto paint store has done a color
match that will be used for restoration.
LINKS: Post Clean-Up Photos
About
1975 the '42 was purchased by the California City Fire Department from
the San Diego City Fire Department. San Diego had used it for many years
as a reserve rig and California City intended to do the same. The '42 served
in that capacity until about 1983. Shortly before its retirement it pumped
its last big fire and was then sold to Bob Clayton. Clayton ran a fire
extinguisher business. He later sold the engine to the Lancaster Rotary
club as a parade vehicle. In 1995 the old Seagrave was found languishing
in a storage yard.
