Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Both Mike and I found no evidence of any modification to the chassis length. No join, no non standard welding, nothing. That is very curious. Mike enquired about what sort of rear body I was contemplating. I'm still not 100% sure, but had given thought to a turntable, based on the 115" wheelbase it is now. In the absence of any visible mods, is it possible the chassis may actually BE one of those tractors???

Tony,

I do not have a clear picture at hand, but the Ford chassis in particular has a clear taper from the mid-section running to the front and from the mid-section running to the rear.

If the chassis was shortened by sectioning, there would be evidence of welding which you say there is not.

I have seen another option to shorten a F60L with 158" wb. chassis: on this they moved the rear axle forwards and lobbed off the remainder of the chassis. This requires no "cutting and shutting" and does not leave any visible mods, other than that the chassis looses much (if not most) of the tapering to the rear end.

So by measuring the frame side rail height at appropriate places you should be able to determine is this a genuine 115" wb chassis - see what we did on Chevrolet chassis in the thread Chev CMP chassis views.

HTH,
Hanno