Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Tony Wheeler]

Hi Tony,
Your large fishplates were posted today. Unfortunately I don't have the little brackets for the top. Evidently they didn't come with the pintle hook assy I bought. I must have been imagining them.

However it looks like you have a pair on your F15 chassis, judging by pic 1 below. You could pinch those ones, although it would probably be less work to copy them and leave that crossmember undisturbed.

You'll note on your F15 chassis that the rivets holding the rear spring hangers also hold the little top brackets in place. It's the same on all CMPs, even though the F15 springhanger itself is different from 4x4 models. This will give you the correct position for your rear crossmember.

Depending where the previous owner drilled the spring hanger holes, you may not have enough chassis rail sticking out past the rear crossmember. Correct length is 13 1/2 inches from the rear edge of the spring hanger to the tip of the chassis rail (measured at the lower edge of the rail).

This is more than just a cosmetic consideration - if you ever want to fit a pintle hook you'll need enough chassis rail sticking out (see pic 2). You can get by with as little as 7 inches (no wonder my girlfriend left me ) if you're prepared to butt the pintle hook mount hard up against the rear spring hanger. Personally I'd prefer to drill new spring hanger holes to get the full 13 1/2 inches, for the sake of appearance. I imagine your chassis repair mob could do a good job, and maybe even rivet everything instead of using bolts.

Good luck with it all Tony, I look forward to seeing the result.

Cheers