How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jason Linders]

Hi Jacques ,
yes its leather and its 3mm thick
and it is only aswide as the log book pouch and square

hope this helps

Jason

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for that information.

It should be a straight forward fabrication once I find the correct press stud snaps.
Looks like another trip to the haberdashery shop with, or without, my wife.

It would be a cheaper trip without!

Cheers,

[Jason Linders]

Hi Jacques,
Let me know how you get on as we may have the correct ones,
as my wife has a new industrial sawing machine and has heavy duty snap clips
becouse my wife makes swags and pig dog collars and canvas gear for shooting and my military vehicles .

Thanks
Jason

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for that offer of the press stud snap clips.
Will see what Spotlight has this week and let you know if I have no luck.
Just thought too, my local bikie leather shop may have them. They made my Blitz .303 rifle holder leather pads for me. Might get them to make it for me and I can rivet it on.

One quick question: How far down is the bottom edge of the flap from the center of the press studs? I'm guessing only about an inch?

Cheers,

Jacques

[Mike K]

hi Jacques

I did have a few of those log book holders at one time, I think somebody had a big heap of them and a few of us grabbed some , probably back in the 1970's or 80's.

Anyway I always thought the cover was canvas I am not at issue with Jason's suggestion as he might have a complete original holder .

Do you have a log book ? They were around , Hudsons stores in Bourke st , used to sell them as note books for 50 cents I did buy some of the carrier log books from them .

[Jason Linders]

Hi Mike

do you have any images of the log books as i would like to find one
and my holder is still original and fitted to my FGT , mine is leather, but that doesn't
mean that some were not made from canvas or changed to canvas as they rotted or fell apart .

Thanks

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike and Jason,

Me too, for a photo. No, I don't have a logbook yet.

I'm thinking the same thing regarding material for the flap being either Jason.

It's a bit like the rubber and canvas gearstick boots.

I saw a photo of a logbook holder once on the web and darn if I can find it again. I admit I am not the greatest at searching this forum so maybe it was even here.

Cheers,

[Mike K]

The log books were printed for carriers and motorcycles and the softskins .

They were all the same size..and format , just had the different titles . I think I have a carrier one somewhere . A few of the VMVC members bought them when Hudsons stores had heaps of them , they sold them as notebooks . I believe Hudsons also had NOS carrier steering wheels and other gems too. Ah the memories

We didn't think they were anything special at the time , 1976 .

[Euan McDonald]

The holder I have has a green leather flap.

[Jacques Reed]

I have an Australian built Holden Body Works general service body mounted on my F-15A chassis. It had previously been on a F-15 chassis.

I have noted something strange about the channels on the body that rest on the chassis. For some apparent reason they have been recessed, at great effort, into the transverse floor cross members.

Was this a modification during production or another "Dodgey Bros" one by a civilian owner? Were the bodies slightly different between the F-15 and the F-15A?

I also note those channels have three welded on steel plates with rubber pads between them and the chassis rails. I am of the understanding that old truck bodies are always mounted on wooden battens along the entire length of the body and chassis to uniformly spread out the load.

If they are "Dodgey" ones I can replace them with some original uncut ones if required, but I don't want to go to that trouble if I don't have to. You can see on the photo of another Holden body floor that the channels are mounted on top of the transverse cross members.

Noted this recently when trying to reattach the fuel lines to the tanks. There was no room between the tank and body to swing the spanner to tighten the flare nuts which made me think the body was mounted too low on the chassis.

My gut feeling is they are "Dodgey" ones but hope I am wrong to save some work.

Any information gratefully received.

Cheers

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

I am of the understanding that old truck bodies are always mounted on wooden battens along the entire length of the body and chassis to uniformly spread out the load.

Not sure about the Australian-built bodies, but as far as I know all the British and Canadian bodies had wooden longitudinal sills.

See 15-cwt GS body: 2H1 composite wood and steel for some detail drawings and photos.

The all-steel 2C1 body on my F15A has U-shaped steel channels as longitudinal sills with wooden inserts which rest on the top of the frame rails.

[Jacques Reed]

Thanks Hanno,

Remember seeing that link. A mate of mine has a beautifully restored 1938 civilian Ford stake side truck and it's body sits on wooden sills so it must have been common body mounting practice.

Don't think steel pads with insertion rubber underneath is a period correct body mounting procedure but hopefully someone in Australia can shed some light on it and the recessed channel.

Cheers,

[hrpearce]

Picture under my body.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the photo looks like the sills are only about 1" thick which is the same size that my mates Ford stake side body sits on.

Now if I can only find why someone went to the trouble to recess those channels into the transverse cross members I would be really happy. If not original, recessing them seems like a lot of work for no apparent reason.

Bet as sure as I would cut out those channels on mine and weld my other channels on top of those cross members someone would find that there was a wartime modification to lower the floor, or the center of gravity, or some other reason.

Think I'll wait and won't do anything too hasty, not that I do it the best of times!

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Three months ago I started repainting my truck in a more accurate KG-J before winter set in. I had repainted the dash board and when I reinstalled the switch plates in it they looked a bit shabby by comparison. Even though they are still in a reasonable condition I thought it might be a good time to reproduce the graphics on a decal and put them on a spare set of plates I have. It would be a good wintertime project.

I had made decals before using Microsoft Paint so thought I could knock them out in a couple of days. After scanning my set of originals, and another light switch plate to get a couple of missing words, I set to work.
After completing the graphics I realized MS Paint had a few shortcomings and in the course of trying to correct them came upon paint.net. It is basically a freeware graphics editor developed from MS Paint but with a lot more capabilities. Rather than persevere with MS Paint I decided to start over again this time using the switch plate scans in the paint.net program. I am a big fan of it now and it wasn’t too hard to get a reasonable grasp of it having some experience with Paint. A couple more days work and then the decal graphics were done- again.

I test printed the graphics on my son’s monochrome laser printer instead of my inkjet printer as it needs to be printed in black only, and inkjet printer decals need a clear acrylic coating to prevent the ink from running when soaking the decal in water. This requirement is eliminated with a laser printed decal. Was quite impressed with the results even on plain A4 paper. He has been encouraging me to get a laser printer for a while, especially from the operating costs side. Suitably impressed, I went out and bought a new Brother monochrome laser printer for about the price of 6 new inkjet cartridges a few days later.

I obtained the A4 laser decal paper and was ready to print them. But first, a few more tests using plain A4 on my new printer. Here’s where I started pulling my hair out! When I put more than one image on a page the images shrank about 4%. I tried scaling the image but then the closest registration I could obtain between the switch holes was out by 1mm.

If I printed individual images on each A4 sheet the plates were printed full size with perfect registration, but it would be a waste of decal paper. I also noticed a fuzzy sawtooth edge on all the graphics and lettering on the laser printer images when viewed through a magnifying glass but not when it was printed it on my inkjet printer. What’s going on? A few more hours on the internet learning everything I could about decals, printers, file types, plug-ins, etc. Anyway, I could extend this post by a lot more but will save the reader a lot of computer geek-speak anguish.

Suffice to say, as a last resort, I contacted the Brother Help Centre last week and they informed me that I had to make one obscure change to the printer settings that I never saw in the manual, or if I did, I didn’t understand what it was. Bingo! Multiple clear, sharp, full size, perfect registration decals on one A4 sheet. I am always loathe to blame the equipment before exhausting every avenue but in this case I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had contacted them first. Still, I learnt a lot of other interesting stuff along the way so nothing was lost.

The spare switch plates were cleaned of all old paint and rust, then primed, spray puttied, and wet sanded, then primed again to provide a very smooth surface for the decals. Most off-the-shelf grey paints were too dark so I looked at hobby paints. Surprisingly, after comparing many colours, Testor’s Model Master, Canada Voodoo Grey, was the closest match- how appropriate for a CMP! Being a gloss paint it is also the best type surface for applying decals so that was another plus. A couple coats of that paint with an airbrush, then the decals, and a coat of clear satin acrylic to protect the decals completed the project. The decaled plates are to the left of the plates I scanned to produce the decals in the first photo and the plates I used for decaling are the ones in the right photo.

In all, a satisfying way to pass some time when the weather was not shed friendly.

Hope this is of interest to fellow MLU members.

Cheers

[Keith Webb]

Very impressive work Jacques! Now to find someone to correctly replicate the other zinc plates for gearshift, front axle, lubrication and cooling system, and of course the winch for FGTs.

I still have some of the original NOS publications and manufacturer's plates for Fords if anyone is in need of a set.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Keith,

Thanks, it was a good project even if more labour intensive than I originally thought. I have been lucky finding those other plates in fairly reasonable condition either originally on my truck or some donor trucks.

I got a Publications plate from you a while back and perhaps you could help me with some info?

My late war round gauge panel doesn't have any holes for those Publications and Manufacturers plate. But a Ford gauge panel has the 4 holes for them on the top of the panel. I don't want to start drilling extraneous holes in the round gauge panel- I usually want to weld up those type holes!

I have seen a photo somewhere of those plates on the door and seem to remember a driver's side door? I once had with 4 holes in it I think for them.

Did late war Australian cabs such as mine have them located on the driver's side door and if so, what was the position of the holes?

Cheers,

[Keith Webb]

Australian built trucks did not use the door for the plates. You sometimes find Ford RH doors drilled for them - I had a F60L like that but that I think mostly likely indicates the door has come from a Canadian imported F15 - the ones with the 2C1 bodies.

The other fairly common place to find these plates was the engine cover - I have seen quite a few like that.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for that info re publications plates. Perhaps someone has a photo of where it is located on an engine cover on an Australian Ford CMP. My two covers only have the shift pattern and lubrication plates attached.

Attached is a photo of the switch plate reattached to the repainted dashboard.

I had some decal paper left over so have run off a couple more sets of the decals if anyone is interested.

Cheers,

[Private_collector]

Im interested!

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Thanks.

I just noticed something verrry interesting also, as Arte Johnson playing a German soldier used to say in "Laugh In" for us baby boomers who remember it.

Comparing the early brass light switch plate with my later steel switch plate I noticed the early ones will only switch on the designated light as compared to the later ones that switch on combinations of lights at two of the switches: Tail and Side" and "Tail Side & Head".

This sure makes wiring simpler for earlier trucks as almost any automotive single pole single throw (SPST) toggle switch could do the job.

The later version requires the special switches that can only be described as triple pole, single throw with common input side. The outputs terminals are all isolated from each other in order to allow the lighting combinations to occur. If they were not isolated from each other, any switch would turn on all lights!

No doubt others have noticed this but I though it might make interesting reading.

Cheers,

[Private_collector]

I didn't know that, Jacques.

Mine are the brass plates. At least, the ones on the green truck are, for now.
I piled heaps of paint layers on, and when dry, shot a black coat over, to then sand back to just the low spots. It worked, but I didnt like the green finish, so I stripped it all off.

Re Laugh In, I do remember that one. Very hippie if I recall correctly. The names, Rohan and Martin came to mind when you mentioned that show.

One of my favorite 'age defining' jokes is:

Q. Who has the worst problem with thrush.
A. The Man from UNCLE!
Actually it was T.H.R.U.S.H & U.N.C.L.E. but why ruin the joke.

Always wanted an engineers hat, like Casey Jones. Never got one.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

I had some decal paper left over so have run off a couple more sets of the decals if anyone is interested.

Jacques, I am.

Cheers,
Hanno

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Hanno,

Please check your PM box.

I am thinking I better buy some more decal paper!

Cheers,

Jacques

[Euan McDonald]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

With winter approaching here in Oz time to think about ticking off those pesky little restoration jobs that can be done in the comfort of the house and not in the shed on a cold Melbourne day.

First up is the log book holder cover flap.
Can anyone confirm what material was used on the cover? Was it canvas, or leather, or even vinyl perhaps?

Also the shape of it would be helpful such as square or rounded corners.

Hopefully the press snaps won't be too hard to match up.

Amazing what you find in unexpected places. Last year while cleaning out my late Father-in-Law's garden shed I found a vegemite jar containing some copper rivets as shown in the photo. Cut to the right length, they will be identical to those used to secure the flap to the back of the holder.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me on this.

Cheers,

Found this doc and thought it my be of interest.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Euan,

Thanks for that info. Confirms mine was in about the right place as per attached photos. There is a flat bracket spot welded to the back of the holder. It was butt welded to the lower cabin rear frame at the door and lap welded to the lower cab sheet metal on the other side. Mine is about 7" off the deck based on the original welded areas. Maybe close enough was good enough then?

Well you sure learn a lot of useless trivia when doing a restoration. I now know there are at least four types of press studs. After contacting leather workers, saddle makers, shoe repairers, even a press stud distributor no one could match up the female part to my existing male press stud on the holder.
One offered to drill out the old ones- no thanks, and replace them with what he had on the shelf. Anyway after some research I found the type I wanted are called S spring type. After a few wasted efforts trying to get the hole size and not the outside diameter of the studs from sellers who didn't know, care, or understand, I decided they were either 17mm or 15mm press studs and ordered a couple of each on Ebay for the princely sum of $4. Should be here soon from Hong Kong. Sad I can't give the locals the business but I tried.

On another note: I got my chain box lids folded last week. After waiting 9 months for another firm to do the job I told them on the fourth call/visit to forget it. I am fairly patient but not that patient. Found a small firm in another town and got them made overnight. Just have to make the slots for the padlock then take it back to get him to spot weld the piano hinges onto the lids and boxes.
Thanks Ian Fawbert for your kind help with photos and dimensions of an original many months ago.


Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Well, now that I am on my way to finishing off the chain boxes I will now have a place to mount the tail/stop lights.
I thought it would be a good time to revisit the red lenses for those lights.

I have some original ones which I think are made of celluloid but have substantially perished. I remember reading here on the forum that small AA Maglite red filters fit well and do the job. All well if you live in North America but in Aus they are not available individually and with a set of other bits that you must buy works out to over $80. No one seems to want to sell you four red filters and post them from the US unless you spend heaps also.

Back to drawing board, pardon the pun from this old draftsman.
I had tried red Perspex, but again, the Stymied Goddess was casting her spell. The thinnest Perspex available in Australia is 3mm which is bit thicker than original and is a lot lighter shade of red. It fits OK, though, as the internal retainer spring compensates for any thickness of the lens.
I called the Maglite distributor again and found I could buy the D and C size Maglite red filter individually so I bought a couple of them after confirming the diameter.

Using a "MacGyver" jig to hold the filter and a 1" hole saw (with the pilot drill removed!) I was able to get four tail/stop light lenses from the 7/8" diameter plug it creates as per attached photos.
Note the different shades of red: left lens- original, middle lens- Maglite, right lens- 3mm Perspex

Hope this is of some interest and I am sure there are many other ways to get the required red lenses but this may give others some ideas.

Cheers,

[Mike K]

well done Jacques

the boxes look very nice ...yes its not easy finding places to fabricate stuff .

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comments. Actually I only had the lids fabricated. The boxes were originals but highly banged up as per the attached "before" photo. they also had lots of extraneous holes drilled in them over the years but at least the steel was still solid. Still, I wanted to save them if at all possible even though I had drawn up plans to make replicas if straightening wasn't successful.

I welded the holes marked "X" shut then took the boxes to my local metal working genius at Klouis Bumper Straightening Service in Seaford where Lou knocked/pressed out as many ding and creases as humanly possible. He is truly an old fashioned craftsman.

Success!- boxes saved and only the lids had to be replicas.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Australian built trucks did not use the door for the plates. You sometimes find Ford RH doors drilled for them - I had a F60L like that but that I think mostly likely indicates the door has come from a Canadian imported F15 - the ones with the 2C1 bodies.

The other fairly common place to find these plates was the engine cover - I have seen quite a few like that.

Hi Keith et al,

Thanks for that info a while back.

Funny what you find out when you are doing something else.

I just pulled the engine cover on the right side in the attached photos out of storage in preparation for repainting it the correct colour this summer (if it ever arrives). I noticed the two holes in the upper rear part of it and upon checking, the Vehicle Publications plate matched the holes perfectly! I never even noticed them before and there were no matching holes on the left cover.

The other items of interest is that the cover on the right came off a F-15 and has only 4 holes for the engine/shift pattern data plate. The one on the right has 4 holes to accommodate the F15A, 30's, 60's with the transfer case shift pattern and hence a larger plate plus the 4 holes for the F-15 plate. Obviously one size fits all was the intention for that cover. The covers also have the rear lifting handles in different places.

They must have used one heck of a staple gun to drive the staples through the cover for the insulation in the right side one also!

Anyone looking for an original F-15 engine cover now that I won't be using it on my F-15A?

Cheers,