This partial, frame-off restoration project took nearly two years to complete.  One of the interesting challenges was rebuilding the very rare American LaFrance, Type 38, six cylinder t-head motor.  Texas Fire Museum had to manufacture many of the parts in order to complete this restoration project.  As examples, many of the internal motor parts had to be fabricated as well as the standard size chemical basket being modified in order to fit between the fuel tank and seat.  Since this was one of the items missing, the entire bracket assembly and chemical tank plumbing had to be remanufactured utilizing original factory photos.  Utilizing the original lid, the battery box was also remanufactured here at the museum using exact standards.

Every little detail was authentically restored such as the grey chassis paint inside the frame channels and the leather upholstered seat duplicated from the original pattern.  At the customer’s wishes, several exceptions were made to this authentic restoration.  These include the following:  the oak hose bed wood was varnished with a clear coat.  Originally, the wood was painted using flat chassis black paint.  Because the original ladders were missing, we had to remanufacture new ladders that are similar to the original standards.  Originally, the ladders were made from Northeastern Pine and Maple wood.  Here at TFM, we use Cypress for the stanchions and soft Maple for the ladder rungs.

This American LaFrance Type 48 model is extremely rare.  There were only around 30 manufactured originally, and today less than four are known to exist.  What makes this model so unique is the “below frame” mounted, rotary gear fire pump.  This particular type of fire engine was a bigger brother to many of the smaller 4 cylinder powered engines.  According to our records, this nearly “one-of-a-kind” engine is the only one authentically restored to exact standards today.

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