Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Keith Webb]

Once again, thanks for the reply and information.

Glad to assist.

[Private_collector]

It took hours, and I had to put a tarpaulin over, so paint (and I) didn't cook too quickly, but it's finally painted. In hindsight, the painting was the easy bit. Getting a freshly painted, heavy, truck part into the workshop again without damaging the paint, THAT was the hard part. Managed to do it with help from my son. He should be helping too, we spent 90 minutes and a lot of money at a Ford dealer on Friday, buying his first car. He owes me until approximately 2045!

Frame now resting on the trolley again, ready to start assembling parts. That will wait until next weekend. Grease paper laid on the beams of trolley stops the paint from sticking!

Instead of doing all the cleaning up then moving onto welding the rear panel, I decided to finish painting the floor plates and several other bits. Unless I damage them somehow, I can brush paint the bolt heads holding plates to frame, and I won't need to spray anything inside the workshop. The dust gets everywhere!

On my two weeks off, I hope to get the nose panel repaired (some dents need beating) and doors sandblasted. Maybe even get the doors painted. Windscreen frame won't need much sorting and should be finished and attached soon.

I don't know why my camera is taking worse quality photos every time I use it. Perhaps the heat is cooking it. I know it's cooking me!!!

[Private_collector]

Folks,

I am curretly looking to buy the following small items:

x Window adjusting slides and full set of the hardware that locks the slides in place.

x Mates side grab handle that goes on the floor.
x Gear shift pattern plate & the other information plates (Lube, cooling & 4WD warning).
x Rifle holder wooden bases x2.

x Good quality (or easily repaired) steering wheel.

If you have any of these for a reasonable cost, let me know please.

[Keith Webb]

x Gear shift pattern plate & the other information plates (Lube, cooling & 4WD warning).

You won't need one of those for the F15 - they didn't bother fitting one although the engine cover has the holes for it. The gearshift plate is also unique to the F15 - is not as long as it is missing the front axle engage part.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

x Mates side grab handle that goes on the floor.

The "oh shoot" or "jezus handle"?

I got mine from Brian Asbury. He's on this forum, look him up.

[Phil Waterman]

The floor handle on the passenger side needs a cup holder, that way you could stick your beer in the holder and grab the handle when the driver howlers "watch this."

Lots of people have asked me what that handle was for, they learn fast once you go off road. Sort of a toss up which is better holding on to the handle as the passenger or having the seat belt bring you up short.

If you don't find one howler and I'll take some pictures and post the measurements for it. I've got an extra but its on the wrong side of the world.

Cheers Phil

[Private_collector]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

You won't need one of those for the F15 - they didn't bother fitting one although the engine cover has the holes for it. The gearshift plate is also unique to the F15 - is not as long as it is missing the front axle engage part.

No, not for F15, this is required for F60. Albeit, shortened F60.

Addit: I wondered why you thought it was F15.....then I noticed that while my thread was originally titled "Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild", it has somehow become "Ford F15 Blitz.....". This I don't get! I didn't believe I made this change, so I have no idea what happened.

Any moderator like to offer an understanding of how this has occured??

[Private_collector]

Thanks for the photos offer. It may be a good idea, if thats not putting you to much trouble. I have two really good contacts within 4 hours of me, but both have just laughed at my enquiry (politely). These are apparently getting scarce often chucked out by post military owners. It has been said that the rattling of the thing against the floor was considered annoying and it served no use to the driver! Personally, I would have thought any rattling of the handle would have been drowned out by any number of other noises/rattles/squeaks/whines/clunks.....or swearing!

[cliff]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

No, not for F15, this is required for F60. Albeit, shortened F60.


Any moderator like to offer an understanding of how this has occured??

Not guilty and I have no idea why it has changed....if it has that is!

[Private_collector]

Well yeah.....it has. compare the first page title showing just under the MLU logo, then goto others after that.

Also when I look at the first page from this computer, without refreshing cache, it reads as should be. BUT if I refresh, it then changes to the F15 version.
Must be Friday..............I could never get the hang of Fridays!

I don git it!



You must be super observant Cliff. I had only just finished sending you a PM asking about this & I see you already found the post for yourself.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

No, not for F15, this is required for F60. Albeit, shortened F60.

Addit: I wondered why you thought it was F15.....then I noticed that while my thread was originally titled "Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild", it has somehow become "Ford F15 Blitz.....". This I don't get! I didn't believe I made this change, so I have no idea what happened.

Any moderator like to offer an understanding of how this has occured??

Tony,

One of the moderators added the "F15" to the title. I have now changed it back to what it was.

Behind the scenes moderators do a lot of work to keep the forum readable. Moving threads to appropriate forums, splitting (this thread) or merging them, deleting quotes of complete postings, adding pictures, merging postings, deleting inappropriate language etc., etc.

And if you have any questions or requests, we are just a PM away.

Carry on now

Regards,
Hanno

[Keith Webb]

Interesting... I didn't change anything either... I knew you had a F60S but somehow thought there was a F15 too!

Originally Posted by Private_collector

No, not for F15, this is required for F60. Albeit, shortened F60.

Addit: I wondered why you thought it was F15.....then I noticed that while my thread was originally titled "Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild", it has somehow become "Ford F15 Blitz.....". This I don't get! I didn't believe I made this change, so I have no idea what happened.

Any moderator like to offer an understanding of how this has occured??

[cliff]

see Tony I knew Hanno would fix it for you

[Private_collector]

Hanno,
God bless ya, thanks


Cliff,

Originally Posted by cliff

Not guilty and I have no idea why it has changed....if it has that is!

OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH...in me that is!

[Private_collector]

Just for laughs, anyone care to hazard a guess at the cost of these few bolts?

They are:
5/16 x 1" bolts G8 x 25
5/16 x 3/4" bolts G8 x 25
5/16 nuts G8 x 30
5/16 spring washers G8 x 60
5/16 flat washers HT x 60
5/16 SS nuts x 20
5/16 SS slot screw x 20
M8 SS spring washer x 20

Here's a little hint, The five little packets cost $1.00 between them.
And I have to dock the slot screw bolts for correct length!










Price was actually:
*@#%@#$%^
OTGT$110AUERBG
GTRVRVRFVF#@

I go to Beenleigh tomorrow (>200km away) to pick up the first of two trailer axles I need to put under the chassis for sandblasting. It was about time for a day road trip anyway. A second axle has turned up here in Gympie, and is a freebie.
Weather forcast for tonight/tomorrow suggests somewhere between 100 and 200mm of rain. That is approx 8" in foreign measure. Hope they got the prediction wrong! So far tonight......no rain at all.

[cliff]

Tony you are doing a fantastic job on the old girl. I too cannot for the life of me understand why nuts & bolts are so expensive here in Queensland more so if you say 'Galvanised' or 'Stainless'.

Cheers

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by cliff

I too cannot for the life of me understand why nuts & bolts are so expensive here in Queensland more so if you say 'Galvanised' or 'Stainless'.

Maybe it's because Queenslanders are all screwed up?!?

[cliff]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Maybe it's because Queenslanders are all screwed up?!?

Only because of our useless polititians Hanno

[Grant Bowker]

Even whirlpools in toilets turn the wrong way in Queensland (and the rest of the southern hemisphere).

[Private_collector]

Toilets water may circle opposite way, but they still work undeterred!

Don't start me on politics. I fully believe that in decades to come, boy scouts will be singing songs around the campfire about Australia's world class political stupidity. If I delve into this in detail there will surely be comments for moderators to remove!!!!

Finally, for the record, we're not screwed up.......we're screwed DOWN thankyou very much Southern hemisphere, remember!



P.S: Regarding my recent sarcastic comment about bureau of meteorology prediction of 100-200mm rainfall. At this location there was 20mm, 45min south they had almost 350mm within several hours. Flash flooding covered the main highway in numerous locations, the township of Pomona had up to 2mt (6ft) of water through some homes and now the water is converging on Mary River, Gympie. One of the two main bridges in Gympie went under water yesterday afternoon, with a peak of approx 16mt expected this morning. That equates to really minor flooding but there is a feeling of 'here we go again'. I would have written deja vu, but don't know how to spell it.

[cliff]

Yes we have distant water views from our place now as water has covered the sports fields just down from us but it is no where near the height of last year when we had waterfront water views

We got 20mm of rain but just south of us got 300mm (1 foot) overnight so this accounts for the moderate flooding

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Tony

Here are some photos of the passenger hold down handle. I have photographed three of them and measured them none of them are the same. I'll do a cad drawing. But here are the photos.

[Private_collector]

Cheers Phil,

Awfully decent of you!

These photos will do just great. I'm pleased they are all different

I start reassembling the cab interior and flooring, in about an hour. Have to travel into town for 4 bolts, the size of which I had overlooked when ordering last week.

Hoping to post some meaningful photos tonight!

Clouds are gathering again, but my work this week is all inside the workshop.

Thanks again,

[Bob Carriere]

On the "holy ****" handle differences.

I suspect that such a non critrical part may have been produced in numerous small shops.... maybe different contracts....all from the same specs....... but all slightly different in the jig they used to bend the handles. Steel barrels full of small stuff was then collected and sent to assembly areas...... those were the last days of the once flourishing "cottage industry" ........

When I was a kid growing up in downtown Hull almost every small steel fabricating shop ....... wrought iron fences and veranda railing was trendy back then........ had bunches of old 45 gallon drum filled with left over production parts all the same that they had made and never got delivered....some had small weird brackets, rings, corner brackets, etc......

May explain why the factory pictures of the CMP battery box shows regular nuts for fasteners on the top cover but later in service battery boxes have a variety of fastener of at least 2 or 3 different design.

My grandmother did contract sewing at home....... she would get huge rolls of single, double and triple braids to make Lance Corporal, Corporal and Sergeants stripes sewn to a felt backing. Some old gents delivered the raw material and at the same time pick up the finished products..... she did them in army green and airforce blue........ and was paid cash and probably at a very low rate. Such was the war effort.

Bob

[Private_collector]

Well, the day started with promise.

The dashboard was attached.

The two vertical bars that the engine hatch clip into were attached,

and cab rear frame mount assembled & bolted into place.

And thats where the progress ends, because when I had finished bolting the two larger floor plates I took a good look & wasn't pleased with the screw head bolts I had selected. The exact size I needed was no longer available, and the ones I chose were slightly larger. They still fit OK but don't look quite right.
So tomorrow, I buy 60+ of those bolts in next size down. I had one of these laying around and tried it for fit, it fits well. It fit well several weeks ago too, but I decided against them because they didn't fill all of the recess in the floor plates.

The ones I tried today were a tiny bit larger than the holes, and sat about 0.5 to 1.0mm above the floor plate surface. I thought I could live with this......but now that I have seen them installed............I can't stand the sight of them.

To add insult to injury, there would not be more than two holes bored with the same depth of recess, and the most shallow holes seem to be where it would look the most obvious. Some look bad enough to trip over getting into the cab. Tomorrow they all come back out and new (slightly smaller) ones go in. I don't expect to get this all done tomorrow. I am picking my sons new car up at 1000hrs, and will be returning to town later, to surprise him with said car when he walks out of school. He knows we have been looking, but doesn't know we have bought one. Rebuilding the Flathead V8 will have to wait until next year, now.

I also expect that the bolt shop will have 'just run out' of the size I want. Hope for the best but expect the worst. That way nothing surprises you!
No, I take that back.......I DID get a startling surprise today when one of the neighbours dogs came to visit without announcing itself and scared the hell out of me when it sneaked into the workshop and jumped up for a pat.

I must go to the markets this Sunday and buy a couple of rabbit traps. They should work a treat on a fox terrier

I'm kidding of course. One trap should suffice!

[T Creighton]

Hi Tony,
I like the ongoing story and attention to detail. Keep it up.
The bolts you need for the floor are 1/4"x1"BSW CSK. I used 304 stainless.
I will also put up a sketch of the rifle butt holder when I get a minute to spare. I need to make a couple as well for myself.
I will pm you on a different subject.
Regards,
Terry

[Private_collector]

Firstly let me apologise for lack of photos today. Yesterday morning I started marking the dents and rustouts on the rear cab panel. I needed to replate three areas. Two where holes had been cut for something to go through, and one along the bottom edge where rust holes couldn't be welded up without blowing the hole bigger and bigger, as a consequence of poor metal surrounding the holes. These were the easy part. The difficulty arose with rust scale between the angle iron frame and panel steel that had caused a bulging effect. I considered cutting out these sections and replating, but knew that if I started doing this I would have to follow through with every place this has happened. That would mean virtually cutting off most of the lower 30-35mm. My metalworking skills don't extend to this sort of job. As Dirty Harry once said, "A mans got to know his limitations", and I do!

This afternoon, I spent a leisurely two hours, laying the first application of filler to the curve on passenger end. This part received a lot of my attention yesterday with hammer and dolly. Someone had torn a hole through the area and despite a quite good weld job, there was much work & time needed to get the area to an acceptable state, where minimal filler was needed.

I HATE PANELBEATING, I REALLY hate panelbeating. And I hate sanding filler WORSE than that! Thats why I tried to have the metal as straight as could be, to minimise how much filler I had to use (and then sand). The result achieved on the end done so far, looks promising, providing I have succeeded in preserving the little vertical groove approx 1in in from the panels end. A coat of primer tomorrow will answer this issue, one way or the other.

I don't want to prolong this job one second further that I have to, and hope to have all repair work finished tomorrow. Body filler sanding is definately an OUTSIDE job. There was so much dust on me, I looked whiter than Michael Jacksons face. What, too soon? I was far too contaminated to touch the camera, hence NO photos. I will take photos tomorrow morning, before I kick-on with the rest of the repair work.

The bolts ordered for floor plates have not yet arrived, so no joy there. Tomorrow won't be as hot as today............apparently it'll be hotter, so that will be nice for working outside, applying filler before it goes 'off' in the moments after application. I could move into the workshop for this bit, but I am rather messy with the filler, and manage to drop the stuff all over the place. Suffering the sun and heat is my penance for being a sloppy pig!

My small angle grinder went west today, just as I was needing it for roughing up surfaces for body filler. This slowed things down considerably. Had to resort to scouring the metal by hand with 36 grit sanding disk.

Jeezus, I HATE panelbeating!

P.S: Terry, did you get my reply message?

[Private_collector]

Panelbeating finished.

Had intended to get primer on today, but I took ill suddenly and had to stop work for the day. I was just about to start spraying too.

It is my plan to spray a light coat of stone guard onto the inside of this panel, in the areas which are marked in black (last photo). This should hide all the little irregularities left from the dent repairs. Even if I could apply filler to the inside as well, it would be a nightmare to do. Besides.......I HATE PANELBEATING!!!
Attachment 47531
Oh, I nearly forgot! I have bought rubber strip to make the 'anti squeak' between cab frame & rear panel. This will be a little job slipped in while waiting for primer / spray putty to dry. A set of circle hole punches arrived for this job, just yesterday!

[Bob Carriere]

Tony .... you are doing such a good and nice job that the truck will not look factory fresh anymore.

Don't know how particular the 1940 crew was at Holden but the Oshawa made trucks had a lot of flaws..... some of the spot welding divots can be seen at 10 paces..... they had one purpose to get them out and running and they sure did.

My old truck lasted 72 years without any rust proofing or any of the modern paints...... and like many others sweated bullets to restore to better than factory.... if a weld is not perfect we grind and weld again..... they had no such luxuries during the war.......

So with all our care and modern chemicals, paint, sealers..... do you think our vehicles will last another 100 years.....???

I enjoy following your progress ......... we are all perfectionists in our own way.

Keep it green

Bob

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

It is my plan to spray a light coat of stone guard onto the inside of this panel, in the areas which are marked in black (last photo). This should hide all the little irregularities left from the dent repairs. Even if I could apply filler to the inside as well, it would be a nightmare to do. Besides.......I HATE PANELBEATING!!

Tony, you are to be commended on the work you carry out on your CMP. You are the owner and spend all the effort and money so you have the final say.

But I would like to re-iterate what Bob said: don't overdo it! The truck you're working on was a tool, not a showpiece. I you want to capture and preserve it's essence and use it to show your country and family heritage, don't overdo it.....

I am not bashing you, just giving my opinion. I am enjoying this thread as it is very instructive and enjoyable.

Regards,
Hanno