Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Dinty

I remember many years ago watching an American TV production about 2 characters, they drove a GMC COE type truck, I tried google but couldn't find it.
There was one similar at the 'Kurri Nostalgia' festival this year, cheers Dennis

G'day Dinty,

There was a show that was named after the nickname for the GMC COE called "Cannonball"

Is this the show you remember Dinty? Here is a YouTube clip of it ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSLoZzJ-7kc It seems to be part 1 & 2 of episode one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK_3hXBIAX4 It screened in 1958 ... Before my time Here is what Wikipedia mentions about the series Accessed 28th of June 2014 from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_%28series%29

Here are a couple of links of Lindsey Crawford's 1954 GMC COE. The first one talks about the restoration of the truck. Part 2 features it motoring stately down the highway within inside shots of the cabin in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtG6c2TdAts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnBE-cKePOQ

Here is a YouTube clip of someone working through the gears. Rileydog362's notes state that it has a Detroit 6 cylinder inline 2 cycle diesel engine - transmission is 10 speed road ranger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geLkrg1HFTk Rileydog362 features numerous clips of his truck in action.

All clips accessed off YouTube on 28th of June 2014. One sweet sounding engine!

Kind Regards
Lionel

[cliff]

there is a 1939 Ford Cab Over cab and chassis for sale at the Hot Rod place near the Bruce highway end of Brisbane Road Tony. It looks neat and rare as hens teeth I think.

[Private_collector]

Hello Cliff,

Yeah, I have seen that COE cab. Does look worthy of a restoration. I have seen a photo of it in Restored Cars magazine, when it was for sale at a swap meet. I know it was sold, so I guess it was bought by our local rev head, Paul (the Gympie shop owner). Figuring he bought it for resale, he would be working on the stock market principle.......buy low, sell high. He does get some interesting vehicles there. I an actually curious about how much that cab is. Might give him a call through the week, if curiousity gets the better of me. If I remember correctly, the one in Gympie has a shorter snout that the ones Lynn posted photos of.

There is something very attractive about COE vehicles. The Ford ones are nice, but at the risk of dooming the world to kaos, I do believe the Chevrolet ones catch my eye more. Saw a photo of one which was a petrol tanker, and loved em ever since.

While i'm thinking of it, those modern 5th wheeler type trailers that you see elderly folk galavanting aroun in, do you need a special licence for those? Guess what I really want to understand is, at what point does a vehicle become an articulated truck which you need a truck licence for? I would give serious thought to making the CMP into an articulated vehicle if there was any way around needing another licence to drive it.

Lapped in more valves this afternoon, after cleaning up the workshop. Went into town this morning for bolts to attach the engine to newly purchased stand. Only found Grade 5 bolts, so it's not attached until I can find some G8s. From memory, they are 3/8". Not very sturdy looking when you are holding a heavy engine to a stand with only 4 of the damn things. Still, they must do the job, I guess. Typical, I have stacks of G5 bolts, but when I want a few G8s nobody has em!

[hrpearce]

Tony once the gross vehicle mass exceeds 4.5 ton you need a higher class licence.

[Private_collector]

So as long as the trailer is made entirely of carbon fibre, with aluminium wheels and thin walled tyres inflated with helium......I should be OK. Unless I put on any weight myself!

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Hello Cliff,

Yeah, I have seen that COE cab. Does look worthy of a restoration. I have seen a photo of it in Restored Cars magazine, when I was for sale at a swap meet.

While i'm thinking of it, those modern 5th wheeler type trailers that you see elderly folk galavanting around in, do you need a special licence for those? Guess what I really want to understand is, at what point does a vehicle become an articulated truck which you need a truck licence for? I would give serious thought to making the CMP into an articulated vehicle if there was any way around needing another licence to drive it.

(1st paragraph)Did you get any offers?? (haha!)

But seriously in answer to the next paragraph.

A vehicle towing a trailer or being classified as an articulated vehicle is wholly assessed by the placement of the towing pin. A Semi-trailer or articulated vehicle has the towing pin IN FRONT of the centre of the back axle or the centre of the combinations of axles. The trailer tow pin is BEHIND the axle and providing the rig does not go over the 4.5 tonnes GVM no combination license is required. Have a look at the placement on the next 5th wheeler you see.

Regards Rick.

[Private_collector]

No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

Hello Tony,

Could you please confirm what had "no offers because it was in poor condition"? I must have missed something!

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Private_collector View Post
No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello Tony,

Could you please confirm what had "no offers because it was in poor condition"? I must have missed something!

Kind Regards
Lionel

G'day Tony,

Just wondering if you went back through your thread and found the message I sent you earlier? I have included it above this one.

You may have replied earlier and it might have been one of your disappearing messages!

Kind Regards
Lionel

[David Dunlop]

Wow! Those COE photos sure bring back memories!

Back in the 1950's the local Winnipeg Transit Company used to run a fleet of wreckers for their buses and the wreckers were all COE cab and chassis rigs (make unknown), with the same Holmes Wrecker Twin Boom bodies on them as the wartime Diamond T's used to run. As a kid, I was always fascinated by the look of the cabs and all the tools and kit stowed on the bodies. They were painted orange and banana cream.

A local creamery around the same time (Crescent Creamery) also used to have a fleet of delivery trucks in Winnipeg for home delivery of dairy products, and they were all COE vehicles. I ran across several surviving rigs in the 1970's in a surplus yard north of Winnipeg, full of M38 jeep canvas. You could still read the Crescent Creamery logo on the sides of the bodies with their catch phrase: "You can whip our cream, but you can't beat our butter!".

David

Sorry for putting this mainline thread on a temporary siding.

[Private_collector]

Thursday, my latest shipment of parts arrived from the USA. Small things mostly like temperature senders, oil pressure sender, thermostats, several springs, assorted bolt sets, bendix spring & associated hardware, and some minor electrical pieces including temp cross over wires, etc, etc...
Engine on stand 1.jpg
Got the engine off my trolley and placed it on the stand I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had initially considered it to be sitting too high, and had concerns about stability, but it has worked out well. Any lower and I would quickly brew a bad back! Still remains stable too. Incidentally, the engine doesn't really hang down like it looks in the photo. Just an artifact of the angle I took photo from.
Freshly honed cylinder wall.jpg
First actual engine work was to hone the cylinder walls. They only got 7 passes of the 320 grit hone, over 4-5 seconds. As a fellow member suggested, I did some practice runs on the old engine block. Had some difficulty in finding a bore which was not rusted to the extent that it may have damaged the honing tool. After a number of test runs I cleaned the hone well and moved onto the good block. For lubrication I used light air tool oil. Had a good quantity on hand, and would submerge the honing tool into the oil and pull it out while it revolved, attached to the cordless drill. I'm pleased with the finished result. Cleanup was interesting. Very strange feeling to soap up such an expensive piece of bare metal, no matter what the reason, it just doesn't feel right. Came up nicely, and after a thorough drying, copious amounts of oil added, again.
First complete valve sets.jpg
Next job was to lap the remaining valves. That was fairly quick, so I installed the cam temporarily and kicked off with the adjustment of lifters. Decision between solid and adjustable lifters was made for me, because the cam I am using has been ground for.......'street' use. Adjusting the Johnson lifters is a PIG of a job. I am minus several portions of skin as a testament to that fact. No swear words were uttered, although they were thought! Even with the correct lifter adjustment tools, and a 7/16 open ended spanner I ground considerably thinner than originally intended, still a painfully slow process. After I had taken the above photo, I did one more set to completion. That brought the total finished so far to 5 sets. I hope to christ they don't re-adjust themselves during operation. Not aware of any instances of this occuring, and certainly don't wish to be the first. Thought about putting a dob of threadlocker on each. Don't know that would be a good idea. Does that stuff still work in the heat of an engines internals?

I do believe I am getting quicker / better at doing the lifter adjusting, so the remaining 12 sets shouldn't take anywhere near the time I piddled away this afternoon.