Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Private_collector]

Absolutely, David! Despite the sudden storm and no door tops, it was still fairly warm and dry inside the cab. Wouldn't have wanted much heavier though, or we might have got damp. The rubber window surrounds don't seal entirely and water was being pushed through, from the pressure built up by driving straight into the wind. Not surprising when you consider the great speeds these vehicles can get up to! When I get my other cab, I plan to use the window frames of it and use fresh rubber seals of another type, which are readily available at the local foam & rubber shop. I put the same rubber on window frames of the green truck. They seal much better and are considerably more flexible. I think the age of ones on the grey truck have made them stiff. Also the entire frames on 'grey' were manufactured from scratch, so they won't take the other type of rubber anyway, or I would put that on immediately.

I have been waiting for the cooler weather for such a long time. Might now get some well overdue jobs done.

As a foot note; It always amuses me, when going from driving the truck to driving my little Micra, it feels like a rocket ship to the moon, by comparison. Only by comparison, you understand. That tiny thing wouldn't pull a greasy sausage off a plate.

[Private_collector]

Well, my plan to get the pistons & rods into the flathead block came to nothing when I had difficulty removing the rod bolts. The SCAT rods have 12 sided ARP bolt heads. Tried hard, but came close to damaging one of the bolts because I only have six sided sockets and no soft vice jaws to hold them in while doing the job. Decided to bundle them and take to the engine rebuilding shop in Gympie. The guys there will do the job in minutes, and they will treat them carefully, while using the right tools. I did put the pistons and rods together beforehand, so achieved something planned, I guess. When they come back, it will be full steam ahead and they should be into the block this coming weekend.
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Had to make a steering wheel puller. The wheel in the grey truck required a lot of care to restore to original condition. Wait, I take that back. The once barely discernible grooves around the top surface are now gone completely, so not that original now. Bloody lot cleaner than before though! I will give the wheel a second going over with finer grade glass paper I will buy tomorrow. Used 240 grit first, then 600 grit, and next one will be 1000 grit. Burnishing cream will bring the final sand to a very nice finish. With any luck I will still be able to hold it while driving. The degree of shine seen, is after polishing with Brasso, which doesn't work all that well. Brasso stinks too, and as a result of doing the polishing on lounge room floor while Mrs B watches TV, I am not very popular. The lounge room has an aroma akin to old cats urine. You can read that both as old whizz, or whizz from an old cat. The smell would be the same, terrible! Yuck. My snoz will be running for days.

[Bob Carriere]

Almost looks like a picture from a sales catalogue ...... I always believed that they needed to be repainted to look good......never crossed my mind that they could be sanded and polished.

...and where did you gain your expertise in "old cat whiz???"

Bob C.

[Private_collector]

G' Day Bob,

If there's no significant damage or cracks that need to be filled, a thorough sanding with progressively finer wet & dry sandpaper should bring a steering wheel up nicely. Note: I did need to sand to a degree that removed the ridges. Some folks may find that unacceptable. I had no problem doing that, personally. Someone with more patience than me might be able to fold the sandpaper doubled and run it through the groove to get a good finish without losing the detail, but man, you would REALLY need to want originality.

Oh, and the feline Urine? Simple, had a neighbour who seemed to be the pied piper of geriatric cats. Anti-social things they were. Give me a friendly old labrador, any day!

[Bob Carriere]

I am allowed to pull your leg as I have over a dozen cats...... and they love to snoop around the canvass Winter shelters looking for food and the only patch of dirt that is not frozen over during the Winter.

Keeps the field mice away from chewing the wiring and seat stuffing but come Spring you can really tell where they have been!!!!!!!

I need to fill a few cracks on my early cab 11 wheel but will probably shorten the restoration process by using a semi gloss POR coating.

Love to read your thread and follow your progress.

Bob C

[Private_collector]

He, he. No probs Bob!

I like cats.......but I couldn't eat a whole one.

At least everyone gets a drumstick.

[Private_collector]

The long weekend, as it turned out, afforded me no additional time to work on the CMP.
Saturday was entirely consumed between hours spent in the morning, searching for a new daily driver, and locating a blockage in a septic tank at the mother-in-laws farm, in the afternoon. Finding the block was one thing, clearing it was another story all together, but fixed it by nightfall. I will NEVER enjoy gravy again. The smell of a freshly opened septic tank is an insult to the olfactory system that will outlast religion. I can still smell it now.

Sunday was dedicated to a nice drive to the beach. Far too cold and windy to actually enjoy the beach, but at least we got to see it and bring back memories of when it was warmer.

Today, I was determined, would be 'truck day'. I got my piston/rod sets back from the engine rebuild shop on Friday, and they did a rather good job. When I did initial assembly of oil pump to pickup I managed to strip a thread. Didn't know why, at the time, but the engine shop guys tell me it was because another bolt hole which intersected the one that stripped caused mangling of the thread I damaged. Apparently it was going to happen regardless. Thank you very much, Melling manufacturing folks.

As mentioned previously, due to the extra girth of the rod big ends (literally) I had to sink the pistons from the crank case side. This was not a bad idea anyway, because the relief between cylinder and valves meant that there would be a length of ring not compressed by the installation tool. The first piston I installed went in without a problem, and just as I was thinking things would go smoothly, I hit a major problem. Imagine my surprise when I tried to put the second piston in, only to discover that the additional metal that strengthened the crank bearing bosses made it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for the piston to be dropped in from that side. Typical! The piston would have needed to go in at a 10-15 degree angle, and that wouldn't have been good! I took a closer look, and saw that every second piston would encounter this same issue. Bloody French! In light of the above, I now had 4 pistons which had to be seperated from their rod, put in from above, pushed through until the rod pin was clear, and attach the rod from below, paying VERY close attention to checking locking clips and compressing the bottom piston ring (now out of the cylinder again) prior to sliding the piston into the cylinder properly. Quite a sod of a job, I can tell you! Got em all done by tea time though. Those pistons are quite difficult to slide up & down by hand, despite lashings of assembly grease.
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Very nearly carried on to put the crank back in, but thought better of it with light and motivation failing. Because of how the pistons & rods now sit, I will need the arms of an Indian god to keep em all out of the way of the crank, as I lower it in. I have a cunning plan for that little glimpse of hades. If my approach doesn't work, I'll wait until my Son comes home in a fortnights time. That will give me one person to mind each bank of rods, while I lower the crank into place. Sounds easy, don't it? Fingers will be scarred, tempers will be raised, words will be said.