Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

That piece of chassis also had both cross members that engine bolt to (of course), so I COULD redo the F15 chassis back to original if so inclined. I'm not really!

Yes, I understand perfectly now. Sounds like there's a lot more damage to that F15 chassis than I realized. With chopped rails and virtually no usable crossmembers, there's not a lot to work with! Plus you'd have to find some F15 front hubs, which is a tall order in iteslf, and that's assuming the stub axles haven't been modified as well. It also needs a rear axle, and F15 ones are slightly different from 4x4 models.

It's good to strive for originality, but there's a critical mass of damage and alterations and missing parts beyond which you lose interest in trying to rectify everything. I'd go the extra yards for a FGT chassis because they're rare, but unless you specifically want an F15, there's no real point here.

I've also just remembered that you have some very nice 11.00 x 20 tyres...which look so much better than 16s IMO. Plus they look best with intermediate wheelbase IMO - I've always considered the medium wheelbase with 20" tyres to have the most aesthetically pleasing proportions.

Thanks for your reply BTW Tony, I can see now where the project is going. Under the circumstances I'd take exactly the same approach as you. In fact I already did! My first resto was F60L shortened to F60S, and it came up a treat (see pics).

As you can see the rear crossmember was cactus, and the gusset plates had been torched through when the chassis rails were docked (why was this so commonly done?!! ) I think the rear crossmember on my first blitz (the bent and plated chassis) was salvageable, but not the gusset plates, and I never got around to finding some more. Apart from that, all I had to do was move everything forward 24", and remove the extra F60L crossmember (the rearmost bifurcated one, which lies 24" behind the front one, to fill the extra F60L length).

As an interesting aside - I retained the F60L two-piece tailshaft set up, which saved me having to find an F60S tailshaft (which runs directly from transfer case to diff). IIRC, I was able to use a spare front drive shaft, which conveniently proved to be exactly the required length. I could be wrong, but I don't recall getting the F60L one shortened. Anyway it was a good move I reckon, which bought me a little extra ground clearance.

In your case Tony, if you can't get hold of an original rear crossmember, I'm sure you could get one bent up from flat quite easily. Maybe chop out a section of the damaged F15 one for them to work off. Likewise the gusset plates - if you don't have any for a pattern I can send you some pics and dimensions.

Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing it shaping up as an F60S, or thereabouts. Having seen the work to date I'm sure it will be an exceedingly tidy job, and very hard to pick as non-original. And I certainly wouldn't worry about the sunshine roof being non-original (which we don't seem to know for sure anyway).

Cheers