Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Private_collector]

I had ordered a pair of brake & clutch pedals (Ford) through ebay on Tuesday. They arrived this afternoon, and are a perfect fit!
Initially, I was unsure what style the rubber should be, but saw two vehicles last weekend that still had their originals, albeit badly decomposed and dried rubber. Both matched the pads I have bought.
Pedal pads 1.jpg Pedal pads 2.jpg
These cost me $12AUD each, and both were shipped from interstate Australia for $9AUD. So for $33 I now have perfect pedals.

I'll be spending this evening modifying (cutting) a length of rubber windscreen seal that will be installed on the driver side. Didn't get a chance to do anything today, but should have the window frame sanded, reprimed, and possibly even painted tomorrow. Having said that, weather forcasts foretell heavy thinderstorms over weekend, so these plans may change.

[Private_collector]

Driver side frame primed 1.jpg Driver side frame ready for top coat 1.jpg
Windscreen frame for driver side is now ready for painting. Sanded the putty yesterday afternoon, and reprimed a single light coat for protection from elements until painting gets done.
Wiper motor driver side primed.jpg
I had forgotten what a pain it was removing all the paint from wiper motor body. It was original military dark green color, but had to come off as areas were flaking from 70 years of aging. Painting over this, even if I could have sanded edges, would be a very poor decision. For all painted surfaces, my preference is to remove ALL previous paint, no matter how sound it first looks. Some very unusual things can (and do) occur days, weeks, months and even years after finished. Painting is easy, preparation is a pain in the sphincter!
Hand brake lever primed.jpg
Hand brake lever assembly has been stripped, cleaned out and primed, to be painted with the windscreen frame. The lever assembly is a mox of parts from two vehicles. Some of those parts came from last weekends pilgramage to CMP wreck mecca.

The new windscreen rubber is now ready. It was created on Saturday night, by modifying an over the counter piece of Ll shaped seal, removing one of the two 'sides', making it an L shape instead. the long side of the 'L' goes on the outside, with butly mastic sealing the inner edge. Gives quite a neat look, but I would remove it in a heart-beat if I could get my hands on some of the original fibre seal. Now that I know what original jointing for screen glass looked like, i'm not surprised the glass channels rusted heavily. I expect the fibrous, almost cardboard, original screen seal would hold moisture very nicely, brining on the oxidising process+++. Still, as the original item, I would prefer it, but have never seen any!

I am hoping to get the parts painting done today, but that may not happen if weather does not change. There has been light rain all through the night, and lots of lightning. If not too much rain, it's a good day for mowing. Very little rain has fallen in many weeks and now is best chance to avoid the cloud of dust normally associated with mowing over dry ground.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Tony

How or what method are you going to use to protect the inside of the windscreen frame to prevent this happening again?



As the frames always seem to rust out or suffer frost expansion if you live in cold climates wonder what you were or are going to do. I've poured paint through mine but I'm think pumping them full of some cosmoline like substance. Though my trucks live indoors most of the time they do get out in the rain enough to have water get into the frames.

Any thoughts?

As always I enjoy watching your progress and problem solving.

Cheers Phil

[Private_collector]

Hey Phil,

Once the two pieces of frame are together, I spray a rustproofing compound such as Tectyl or Fisholine, in through one of the sliding hinge holes. I don't go overboard with it though, because depending which you use, it can slosh around and seep out. I tilt the frame around, so that the fluid reaches all areas, then angle frame in such as way as to allow excess to drain out.

If in any doubt that frame may require welding in future, don't even consider rustproofing. I'm lucky in this part of the world, we don't get snow, rarely get frosts, truck lives undercover and always will. I wont be taking truck out in poor weather for a number of reasons, includingpreventing corrosion. That said, it is gonna get cought out in rain some time!

Don't know what types of spray rustproofing you have there, but one of the best penetrating I believe, is Fisholine, a relatively thin compound that gets in seams, crevices etc, and the manufcaturers state it can stop rusting if completely covering the rusted area. I first used this stuff when I was painting classic & vintage cars in 1980s. Back then, Fisholine, as name suggests, had a horrible & almost overpowering fishy smell. Since then, the manufacturers have 'deodorised' the smell away........almost! Fisholine remains fluid consistency for ages, hence the excellent penetration. Tectyl by comparisn, has no offensive odour, is more viscous (spelling?) and forms a skimming surface within hours or days, depending on temp etc. The thicker consistency of Tectyl has created problems when it has been accidentaly sprayed into door window sliding tracks, mechanisms of same, or blocks the drainage channels to doors and such.

I will be spraying Fisholine into the doors of my truck, a bit further down the track. I can virtually guarantee it wont interfere with the window glass or winder mechanism.

[Private_collector]

Just a quick posting to say I visited the engineering works this morning, and they are part way through the job.

Both replacement sections to rear of the rails are fabricated and tacked in place, fish plates are bolted on, and two of the three minor crack repairs are completed. Well, actually there are two cracks & one area requiring patch repair. That one spot is on the transmission cross-member where someone had cut a jaggedy hole.

Things are on track for me gettting it back this Saturday!!!!!!

I have $10 that i'll bet I can't get a hire trailer for this Saturday.

[Private_collector]

As they specialise in large truck repairs & body fabrication, I enquired about purchasing a suitable turntable when inspecting my chassis repair progress at the engineering works this morning. I meant to ask about this last week but didn't get an opportunity. My timing is as good as always, because there WERE some tired (read as 'stuffed') units up the back of the yard until a little while ago, at which time they were removed and sent for scrap! Lucky me!
Because they often come across turntables in need of replacement (read again as 'stuffed'), they will have more at some point in the future, and I have asked to be contacted once something suitable turns up. Cost will be negligable on such items. I have no intentions to ever use the vehicle to tow a trailer rig so an old one won't be an issue for me. In fact I would have the damn thing permanently disabled, to avoid having to register as a prime mover, and require an articulated licence. For now, I just wait. I'm used to that. Don't like it, but used to it.

[Private_collector]

Hand brake lever finished 1.jpg Hand brake lever finished 2.jpg Hand brake lever finished 3.jpg
That hand brake lever came up fairly good.
Certainly a little better than when you saw it last, I hope. Finished it while doing the windscreen frame painting, to make mixing the paint worthwhile.
Yet another part to store carefully until needed in months/years.

I reassembled the driver side windscreen this evening. Hmmmm, it's OK I guess, but not perfect. Temporarily installed the outer seal and cut the corners, ready to glue tomorrow afternoon. It's funny to see so many restored vehicles which don't have the outer seal parts joined together, just all sitting there seperately. All for the want of a 'bees' of super glue. Just leave a slight bit more length than minimum. The rubber may shrink over time. From my experiments, the glue wouldn't break though. I did a test on a scrap piece before I did passenger side, and flexed the joint back & forth for a couple of days, until I got sick of that and pulled the bits apart. Glue remained, rubber broke apart.

I have booked the car transporter trailer for 0800hrs Saturday A.M, so I am going to get the chassis, one way or another. Not losing my rental money! It better be ready for me, or.........."Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when i'm angry"