How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[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

[Private_collector]

Those do look nice too!

I had wondered if the base inside bottoms could be routed if one end was raised up to match the degree of slope. Then it dawned on me that the sides would no longer be exactly vertical, and the routing would not work. What would work is if the base was crafted as a seperate piece, then positioned with small panel nails. There are a couple of ways this can be done. Either make the bottom exactly sized to fit inside dimensions and nail across, or make to have the raised base with a lower outer section so that you turn the whole thing over and nail vertically. Doing it the second way would allow the base to be slightly oversized in width, and then lightly sanded back to correct profile.

I have a couple of the metal alternatives to the wood blocks. They are highly corroded, but will make good patterns, should the need arise in future. They are two different sizes. One is considerably larger than required for a SMLE. A number of months ago I had the fortune to have a brief play with a BREN, and it struck me that the larger metal block would have been roughly the size of the BREN butt. The truck I cut these off had a 'gallows' bracket still attached (which I also kept), and the piece I was particularly wanting, a 'sunshine roof'. Could that part be for a BREN, I wonder.

[Jacques Reed]

In a very early post I mentioned how my Ford Sidevalve V8 had a problem with Chinese made studs purchased from a well-known American supplier stripping. These studs barely extended to the top of the nuts so there was not full thread engagement with the nuts hence the stripping.

In fairness, they were the correct length and I noted many of the original studs barely reached the top of the nuts. Maybe just better grade steel in those days?

My engine builder wound up using later 8BA head bolts, which did the job, but just did not look right on a wartime engine. I've read pages of info, pro and con, of studs vs bolts and good arguments can be made for either but I just like the looks of studs and nuts on those earlier engines.

I have just obtained at the Bendigo Swap a set of studs which are slightly longer and therefore the threads on the studs go all the way through, and slightly above, the top of the nut. This should ensure no stripping.

I had teed up with Michael Davidson of Flathead Fever, a well known Ford Flathead racer and parts supplier to bring them over from Adelaide to Bendigo. I try now to see first before buying whenever I can. He has them made in Adelaide so it also helps keep the local economy going.

There are two sizes 2.50" and 3.125" and they come with all nuts and ground washers. They are actually meant for 8BA's with alloy heads but should work a treat on my C69A block.

If you have the original cast iron oil filter bracket on the head then you need 3 more studs 3.50" long. Surprisingly the Chinese made ones did not strip as they went well above the top of the nuts on the bracket so they are still being used.

I asked him what stud thread sealer does he use in the block and surprising he said the best sealer is Holden (GM) stud sealer. He's built dozens of racing motors and never had a problem he says. Sounds like good advice to me!

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

I have a couple of the metal alternatives to the wood blocks. They are highly corroded, but will make good patterns, should the need arise in future. They are two different sizes. One is considerably larger than required for a SMLE. A number of months ago I had the fortune to have a brief play with a BREN, and it struck me that the larger metal block would have been roughly the size of the BREN butt. The truck I cut these off had a 'gallows' bracket still attached (which I also kept), and the piece I was particularly wanting, a 'sunshine roof'. Could that part be for a BREN, I wonder.

I have been sorting through some of my bits and pieces and rediscovered these two items.
Just wondering if they were for a Bren or LAAMG as the vehicle I removed them from had the LAAMG gallows bracket on the side of the cabin. They were both behind the passenger side seat while the driver's side had a regular wooden butt socket and standard .303 rifle holder behind it.

The metal butt holder had the remains of split rivets in the 16 holes which held what looked like thick felt to protect the rifle butt. Size is 170mm long x 70mm wide x 62mm deep.

I cleaned up the steel butt socket mainly as a pattern. The steel was quite wasted with a few holes in it. Looks better in the picture than in real life. Bit like E-dating sites!

Any info from Blitz armaments experts will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,