How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for your kind thoughts.

I never met you but I think I may have visited your place two years ago to see a CJ-2A Jeep you had for sale which your wife kindly showed me. Hope I have the right person?

Just another project to be put on hold for the time being. A 1946 CJ-2A was dad's first car after the war and the first vehicle I ever drove (at 12 years of age)

Lot of sentimental ties to that type of vehicle so maybe somewhere in the future I will restore one. Probably have to be a US import job though, not a lot in Aus.

Wife also "suggests" I finish the Ford "Blitz" first which is not such a bad thing. Eventually I'll get there.

Cheers,

[Tim Lovelock]

Dear Jacques,

I'm very sorry to hear of your son-in-laws accident. Remain positive medicine has come a long way in our short life times, as a paramedic for 18 years I know of no other place in Victoria which could offer better care to your son-in-law.
All the best, reading the posts above it is nice to know there is a fraternity of others that can offer support in this time, cheers.
Tim

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your kind thoughts and words of encouragement. We are remaining as positive as we can be. We hear lots of stories from people who knew someone in similar situations and remarkable improvements in their mobility have occurred with time.

We have been overwhelmed with the support the family has been given. From a benefit day held at their local pony club to people volunteering to look after the horses, everyone wants to pitch in.

Their good neighbor has leant me his hydraulic wood splitter and that's my weekend project to split a pile a wood that arrived on the day of the accident.
Most has been split small enough for a guy to manhandle but not small enough for a 5 month onward pregnant woman to handle. With chilly Kilmore winters approaching the stove will be burning 24/7 shortly.

We never gave the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) much thought until two weeks ago but now we realize how important it is. These things affect the whole family and should have been in place years ago. You would see stories on television and think that can't happen to us- but it does.

Although I am not a big fan of Julia Gillard at least the NDIS will be a decent lasting legacy of her time in power should she lose the next election which looks almost certain.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

As I previously mentioned, truck restoration is on hold due to our son-in-laws serious injury but in quieter moments I will add things to this thread which may be of use to fellow restorers. At this stage there is no progress to report after three weeks unfortunately but we are remaining positive.

Here is the first one:

Making small cotter pins used in Ford "crab" distributors:

I found these tiny pins almost impossible to find or else exorbitantly priced due to postage and handling. At one model engineering supply house they worked out to $5 each with the P & H.

I found a few methods on the net on how to make them by model engineers but most involved using a milling machine or a Unimat machine which I don't have.

Borrowing some ideas from them I used a mounted stone in my drill press and ground a piece of tie wire to a "D" cross section then bent it around a small jewelers screwdriver shank to the shape of a cotter pin. Probably all up it took half an hour to make them.

I used and old pipe flange mounted on the drill press table but only to prevent damage to the table if things went wrong. With care, the edge of the table could be used if it is a round table with a machined edge. As shown, I clamped the wire to the flange, set the drill speed to maximum and lightly brought the wire against the stone and rotated the table about 30 degrees with a bit of drag set on the table clamp. A few light passes is better than one heavy pass. A bit of a rub with emery on the sides to tidy it up and you cant distinguish it from an original.

Hope you find this interesting and/or useful.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

As I mentioned previously, posted here are the plans for the wooden rifle butt socket that attaches to the floorboard behind the seats of a Ford CMP.

I was lucky enough to have one original in VG shape in order to make a pattern for the second one. Photo shows the original one. Usually these are long rotted away.

A mate of mine who is a keen woodworker made the second one one up for me many years ago.
He advised me that it was impossible to rout out the socket in one piece with the slope on the bottom, cannot rout to an acute angle, hence the use of a wedge piece. We used our best estimate of how it was done without having to destroy the original to find out.

Hope this is of some good use to fellow restorers.

For those that have followed this thread just an update that today it is 6 weeks since my son-in-law's accident. He is still in hospital and unfortunately there has been very little progress so far. We remain positive, however, as that is all we can do.

[Private_collector]

Jacques,

I had these made locally, about a year ago.
rifle cups 5.jpg rifle cups 2.jpg rifle cups finished 1.jpg
One of the chaps that volunteers at the Gympie Woodworks Museum made them for me. He got the sloping floor almost perfect. Quite remarkable, considering he did all the inside work with a chisel!

My only criticism would be that they were too good. So good that I couldn't bare to paint them, out of respect for the craftsman.

If my memory serves me correctly, I thought it was Phil W. that sent me the plans. If not, my apologies to the actual supplier. The pair that were made for me cost $50.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

I must admit I agonized over painting versus oiling/varnishing mine also when I had the replica made. As the original was painted, I went with painting them both.

I am not positive but I believe it is made from Blackbutt which is quite appropriate in view of its use.
My mate who made it for me comes from northern NSW where it is common.

The attached shows the replica and the unpainted underside. It is a lovely grain and a pity to hide it but I did! Yours look great Au-natural too!

Cheers