Another C60L Restoration

[Mike Cecil]

Couple of point to note:

The canvas side curtain bag looks like it is for a Ford (used pegs, not a bar) and for late pattern Australian side curtains for de-mountable '44 pattern doors. Check the depth of the bag (front to back) and see if the top closes with a set of side curtains with the longer door mounts for the steel doors. The small pocket on the front is for the driver's handbook, etc. Fords with standard cabs with steel doors did not use side curtain bags: they used wooden floor mounts and a rotating bar mounted about half way up the back panel in the centre.

As indicated in Mike's posted images, the Aust CMP Machinery trucks came in something like 20 different configurations of machinery and purpose. Each type was suffixed with a different letter, so a 'Truck, 3 ton, Machinery (Aust)' would have a letter suffix, such as 'Truck 3 ton Machinery, K, (Aust)' indicating a certain combination of tools, machinery, and benches (so, more than just the fixed machinery). So, if you are going to equip the vehicle with machinery, etc, then you'll need to choose which configuration you want to build (unless the machinery body has some obvious pointers as to what it was originally?)

The steel log book holder originally had a shaped, leather top flap closure.

The wide back seat, as Keith pointed out, is a late pattern Australian seat and common to both Ford and Chev (but 'invented' by GM-H at Woodville). More comfortable than the standard, but the term is, of course, relative!! Comfort and long distance Blitz driving are like combining 'military' and 'intelligence'!

The body was a nice find. Was it 'local', maybe Elphinstone? I think I recognise it! These were generally built at the GM-H Special Body Plant at Fisherman's Bend, Melbourne. This plant afixed a large brass plate to the lower wooden coaming on the rear, but they are mostly long gone. The bodies were migrated forward to 2-1/2 ton Studebaker US-6 6x6, then later to the 5-ton International F1 6x6 (often mistakenly called a 'Mk.5').

Nice truck. Will look good, and you are not wasting any time, that's for sure!

Mike