C15A resto

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by harrygrey382

But otherwise it'll just be a vehicle I can use and enjoy and won't go much beyond what I've got, and definitely plan on painting it civilian colours. I like to think it as a worker not just a looker

Good on you Harry and welcome aboard!!!

You raise a couple of great points...

Good for you with the civilian colours. A lot of these trucks did more work in their civilian clothes than in their military service years so why not honour the massive contribution they had in civvy life?

Our heritage is not just confined to the war years. A lot of brave (or mad) blokes used Blitzes to snig logs, fight fires and cart just about anything you can name on the back of these old beasts... usually by working out legal load mass, then multiplying it by four.

The other point is you can get so caught up in a resto with all the details...you can potentially fall into the trap of never finishing it and worse...never driving it, or more to the point...never having fun with it as a truck on the road.

THANKS for posting, good luck with it, cant wait to see more pictures or even a bit of you tube film...

[harrygrey382]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Hi Harry in that photo the accelarator wasn't hooked up so I was using my left foot on the linkage end.
My blitz was a worker up till a year ago but now I have started to restore it a little closer to original as I am enjoying car club outings.
Mine still has the original unrestored engine although the carby is not standard.
Enjoy your blitz, I have a lot of fun with mine and have met a lot of people including vetrins, since I started driving it in parades in town.

Lovely looking truck, even your throttle set up would be better than what I've got - you have to lean over and use your hand on the carby... Non standard carby too, it's off a 202 holden but works well

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

.... the maiden trip.....

Something about the wind in your face....

Don't despair 8 years is nothing......

Bob

yep, it's a good feeling. Yours looks very a comprehensive rebuild. What are the curved mud guard style supports for? Are they original? I don't remember them on mine

Originally Posted by Ganmain Tony

Good on you Harry and welcome aboard!!!

You raise a couple of great points...

Good for you with the civilian colours. A lot of these trucks did more work in their civilian clothes than in their military service years so why not honour the massive contribution they had in civvy life?

Our heritage is not just confined to the war years. A lot of brave (or mad) blokes used Blitzes to snig logs, fight fires and cart just about anything you can name on the back of these old beasts... usually by working out legal load mass, then multiplying it by four.

The other point is you can get so caught up in a resto with all the details...you can potentially fall into the trap of never finishing it and worse...never driving it, or more to the point...never having fun with it as a truck on the road.

THANKS for posting, good luck with it, cant wait to see more pictures or even a bit of you tube film...

Thanks Tony, and I totally agree - I'm far more interested in their civilian use, which as you said often included some really perverse working conditions and loads for them. And I agree it's best just to get it moving and not get bogged in the details, certainly when you have a lot of other things going on anyway.

If I was attempting a full on perfect original military spec rebuild there is no way it'd be finished in my lifetime (I'm 28). Also, there a large number (comparatively) of seemingly perfect mil-spec rebuilds that are very impressive. But I love to see them in civilian get up and only know of one ever as a restored civil spec one. I do plan on rego-ing it eventually but for the moment it'll be a farm truck, but kept in good nick.

I am planning on doing a video of it, but I might try and sort out the rad and mounts first.

[harrygrey382]

well life moves on and the blitz sat fairly untouched for quite a while. Currently batching for six more weeks so giving it another go (amongst several hundred other projects).

Brakes are still binding a bit, so I intend to pull a couple of drums off and see what's going on (this threadf has the details- http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=22690). But talking to my uncle he reckons it always felt like they were binding even with them all in their non-working unconnected state. Driving it around a bit and feeling the drums it actually feels like only two are sticky (two warm, two cold)...

Anyway, that aside she's going OK. I managed to seal the water pump up - pulled it off and pulled it apart. Found a lot of flaky rust and one surface of the rubber seal in there had its work cut out sealing on the ultra rough surface. I did this a few months ago so can't remember exactly but I think I RTV siliconed the rubber to the rotor and the fibrous washer - which still seemed healthy and its corresponding sealing surface in the housing was good. Also bought a NOS thermostat and fitted a holden temp gauge. Put it all back together and the pump doesn't leak! Well only where I sealed it back on to the block have to redo that silicone but no worries there. Sits between 75-80*C, hopefully not much higher in the summer either...

Also fitted an alloy (yuck) tray that the scrappy was about to clean up so I can use it about the property a bit. It's very temporary but makes me feel better having a tray on it for the moment. Just need to top coat the floor, bolt it in then fit a seat! That's make driving it a much nicer experience. Then a muffler, battery box, TC selector and fuel tank, probably in that order. And the paint job I did on the cab frame has failed - tiny spots of rust have appeared from underneath the top coat (two coats of Wattle Killrust top coat over WKR grey primer after having sand blasted it). The thought of having to pull it off, strip it back and start again almost makes me want to give up, maybe I could get away with sanding the offending areas then priming and top coating? Just don't have the time for an 100% perfect paint job

Power is good (considering the sticky brakes) but it has a bit of a flat spot down low, motor was rebuilt (specs checked by a rebuilder) including the head so I'm assuming all that's good. Could it be timing? Might advance it a bit and see what happens. When accelerating for low revs in gear it almost dies then blows the (loose) air filter lid up against the nut then picks up...



Hmm can't work how to embed a video. Here's the link - not a great one and very short - turns out holding the phone and trying to do anything on the blitz is harder than I though... https://youtu.be/u6RTVliYIxA