Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Private_collector]

Tony: I was giving serious consideration to sourcing metal tube radiator pipes UNTIL you mentioned the price! Bugger me, that's the cost of my first car....ish. Have a look at this s/s kit from Macs:

http://macsautoparts.com/early-v8-fo...0R3CHL1140489/

It's polished within an inch of it's life, but nothing a sandblaster wouldn't remove ASAP. The kit is for 42-48, and may be a better option than getting some made?

Todays debarcle
Thanks to bad weather, today was a let down. No painting could be done. Rained off & on all bloody day, with not even a patch of clear sky to apply a quick couple of coats and rush the parts inside again.......while laughing maniacally They will wait until better opportunity presents.
Mud flap frames ready to cover.jpg
Instead, I worked on the front mudflaps, and now have them ready for the upholsterers. The guys had a great & clever way to ensure the canvas layer over the upper plate stays in place and doesn't twist while tightening bolts to mudguard. Simple really, make all the holes a tight fit for an eyelet (think thats what it's called) to be tapped into place once the canvas is finished. In the above photo, you can see one of the eyelets that will be used, along with the two original door check-straps. I'm hoping the upholsterers will be able to find a good substitute for these hard, old ones.

Between rain squawls, I got a little further with the front end disassembly.
Front hub driver side 1.jpg Front brake shoes 1.jpg
Took driver side hub off. Easy enough! Took out the brake shoes. Easy enough! Notice my brake shoes don't have the lining along the entire length of the shoe? Why is that?!?! The ebay ones are getting more and more attractive.

I REALLY wasn't expecting the the major problem that I came across next.
Driver side back plate welded on 1.jpg
Some berk has welded the brake backing plate to the steering body, in two places! Great welding. They really should be congratulated for that. Pity they chose to showcase their abilities on MY TRUCK! This discovery puts a HUGE barrier to the way I intended to work on these parts. I really can't sandblast backing plate safely while it is still attached to the other part. And if I don't get it off, painting the two parts together will be a nightmare too. To remove the 2x welds, I will need to buy a special air tool that can take burr bits, and spend christ knows how long removing the weld. The good news is that wheel bearing and cup look to be OK, and may not require replacing. Guess i'll sleep on the weld issue.
Pintle test fit 1.jpg
Finally, I got to prepare the pintle parts for paint, and made a trial fit to make sure the bolts would sit correctly. After removing a little metal on the spring set where pintle bolts pass by, everything lines up well.

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Tony:

Took driver side hub off. Easy enough! Took out the brake shoes. Easy enough! Notice my brake shoes don't have the lining along the entire length of the shoe? Why is that?!?! The ebay ones are getting more and more attractive.

Tony,

On almost all drum brakes with the wheel cylinder at the top the leading (front) shoe always has a larger lining on it. The trailing (rear) shoe always has a smaller lining on it. The front shoe provides most of the braking force when going forward. The drag between the drum and linings tends to apply more force to the front shoe and less to the rear shoe when going forward.
In reverse, less speed is achieved which means less braking force is required so the rear shoe has a smaller lining. If the linings were the same area as the front ones you would get "reverse whiplash" when you touched the brakes driving in reverse.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

As per attached photos the name "Raybestos" on the inside of the linings says it all. It can also be seen faintly in the genuine Ford lining

I decided to remove the linings as per a previous post before I moved them on.
A 34 C degree day is not the best time to be wearing a spray painting mask while doing this but if I stick them back in storage they will remain there for another few years until I get a roundtuit.

Interestingly the used linings which appear grey in colour are the ones shown here so they don't have to be green to contain asbestos.

Cheers,

[Private_collector]

Don't they look enormous by themselves.

A friend of mine who passed away some months ago, had a great stack of these in a heap under his house. All unused, and perfect in every way, with exception of being asbestos.

Raybestos are the brand of my wheel cylinders. As with most things, cheaper to buy from other side of the planet, as opposed to local suppliers.

I was fortunate enough to get a piece of NOS door-check strap, to replace my hard old originals.

[Keith Webb]

Some berk has welded the brake backing plate to the steering body, in two places! Great welding.

You may find that berk was a Ford Canada factory welder, or an army one. I'm not sure whether others have found this but a lot of the 4 7/8" front ends I have seen had the backing plates welded just like this. Fortunately my FGT plates have not been welded. Perhaps there is some information in a service bulletin somewhere.

[Private_collector]

Why would they do that?? How does it benefit? I don't get it!
The bolts were there, so it's not that they couldn't use them or stripped any threads. I did a quick look, but I didn't see the same weld on the other side. I will go through the service bulletins book to see what I can find out.

The mud flap frames are now with the upholsterers, and I may have them back by the weekend. I will need them back fast......so they can sit on my shelf for months . I won't have a use for them until the cab is on the truck and guards are attached. Bearing in mind the engine, gearbox and transfer case will be finished before this happens, it may be some time yet.

Last thing I did yesterday was to cut some lengths of metal bar, to be bent into new spring set brackets/clamps. They went to the engineers this afternoon. Apparently their metal folder can't handle the shape they will need to be bent to (54mm base, with 75mm height to each side) because the two folds are so close together. They will have to use oxy-acetyline torch to heat and bend by hand. Just like the old days, except no forge involved.
Door check strap material 1.jpg Door check strap material 2.jpg
This is the piece of check-strap material I was given today. It's wider than the original, and very slightly thiner profile, but I don't care. Exact match for original material has eluded me entirely so far. The thicker strap may actually allow me to add a third hole to the securing points on door & cab frame. If I do that, I will have to make fresh securing plates.

Rains are back again. The flooding has already started. As long as it is all gone by next saturday, I won't mind. Scuttlebut has it that we may get a further 100-300mm rain in next 24hrs. Excellent! Guess it's better than getting whacked by a meteor . Oh, those Russians; As Boney-M would say!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Tony: I was giving serious consideration to sourcing metal tube radiator pipes UNTIL you mentioned the price!

Yes, you'd need to order 20 units to spread the set-up cost, that would bring the unit price down to around $30. I haven't shopped around though so there may be cheaper options.

Some time ago there was a NOS pipe on ebay, with a Buy it Now price of AUD 183 plus shipping from the US!! It kept recycling on my watched items list for about a year until I finally had to delete it!

I had a look at the Macs dress kit at a nearby hot rod shop a while back. It's designed to fit under car bonnets so the bends are close to 90 degrees, as opposed to about 45 degrees on CMP pipes. It would probably fit but it might kink the rubber section.

I'm very interested to know what pipes have been used on other CMP restos. Or does everybody just use full length rubber hose...?

[Private_collector]

Shame about the Macs ones.

I'll just bide my time and see what shows up.

I won those brake shoes on ebay too, by the way.
Sellers sound like very nice folk, and have restored a F15A of their own.

Today is the first time I was flooded OUT from home.
Major piddle down in the early afternoon lead to flash flooding, and although I left work as soon as I found out about the rising waters, we didn't get home in time and had to sit a two flooded causeways while the waters went down again. First one, then the other. Despite all the pleading and begging of emergency services, there are soooo many people who take the risk still.

[hrpearce]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Despite all the pleading and begging of emergency services, there are soooo many people who take the risk still.

Unfortunately there is no law against stupidity

[Private_collector]

Hey Robert,

There is a law against stupidity.

It's the law of natural selection

[Ian Johns]

Here's the old girl (future project) 1943 Cab 13. The front spring bracket is different then yours. It has the extra hook on the bottom. Has anybody have any ideas why?

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Ian Johns

Here's the old girl (future project) 1943 Cab 13. The front spring bracket is different then yours. It has the extra hook on the bottom. Has anybody have any ideas why?

That is a very late production modification, I've only seen a couple like that here in Australia. I would imagine it would have something to do with anchoring a vehicle either for shipping or winching.

Does yours also have a different to standard gearbox cross member? One of those I saw with that type of spring hangar also had a F15 type cross member rather than the one where the gearbox bolts into it.