[Tony Wheeler]

Hi Tony,

As promised here are some pics of the original rear crossmember. First one is on my FGT but they're identical on all models. As you can see the tips of the chassis rails have been torched off. They should extend about 13 1/2 inches past the crossmember.

I'd say the only useful hole is the one with the grommet, for the wiring to the diff light and the tail light/brake light pair. The corresponding hole on the opposite site appears to be superfluous, because there's no wiring inside the LH chassis rail on blitzes, only in the RH chassis rail.

The 5 hole pattern in the centre appears to be completely superfluous, I've never seen anything fitted there. Possibly intended for some kind of shackle originally but never used. I'm not sure what the 2 little holes are for, if anything.

I hadn't noticed before but you're right about the different size holes in the large chassis plates. It turns out the small holes are for rivets, and they go towards the front of the vehicle. The large holes are for bolts, and they go towards the back. The bolts are there to hold the cast iron pintle hook mounts onto the chassis, as seen in the second pic (the bolts themselves are in shadow so you can't see the heads). As you can see there are 3 more bolts of the same size on the side.

Hopefully you can pick up a complete pintle hook assy eventually. That would complete the "blitz look" perfectly, as seen in the third pic of my F60L. And it may come in handy for towing 25 pdrs down the main street of Gympie!

The other two large holes in each plate are for pigtail hooks, as seen in the third pic.

It's good that you've got a chassis mob doing the work. Amongst other things they can check to see if the previous owner got the spring hangers square, so you won't be crabbing down the road sideways!

Good luck with it all, looking forward to seeing the results. Let me know if you need any more measurements/pics etc.

Cheers,
Tony