Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

Private_collector · #1 29-06-14, 11:27

Hello Cliff,

Yeah, I have seen that COE cab. Does look worthy of a restoration. I have seen a photo of it in Restored Cars magazine, when it was for sale at a swap meet. I know it was sold, so I guess it was bought by our local rev head, Paul (the Gympie shop owner). Figuring he bought it for resale, he would be working on the stock market principle.......buy low, sell high.

He does get some interesting vehicles there. I an actually curious about how much that cab is. Might give him a call through the week, if curiousity gets the better of me. If I remember correctly, the one in Gympie has a shorter snout that the ones Lynn posted photos of.

There is something very attractive about COE vehicles. The Ford ones are nice, but at the risk of dooming the world to kaos, I do believe the Chevrolet ones catch my eye more. Saw a photo of one which was a petrol tanker, and loved em ever since.

While i'm thinking of it, those modern 5th wheeler type trailers that you see elderly folk galavanting aroun in, do you need a special licence for those? Guess what I really want to understand is, at what point does a vehicle become an articulated truck which you need a truck licence for? I would give serious thought to making the CMP into an articulated vehicle if there was any way around needing another licence to drive it.

Lapped in more valves this afternoon, after cleaning up the workshop. Went into town this morning for bolts to attach the engine to newly purchased stand. Only found Grade 5 bolts, so it's not attached until I can find some G8s. From memory, they are 3/8". Not very sturdy looking when you are holding a heavy engine to a stand with only 4 of the damn things. Still, they must do the job, I guess. Typical, I have stacks of G5 bolts, but when I want a few G8s nobody has em!

hrpearce · #2 29-06-14, 12:31

Tony once the gross vehicle mass exceeds 4.5 ton you need a higher class licence.

Private_collector · #3 29-06-14, 12:57

So as long as the trailer is made entirely of carbon fibre, with aluminium wheels and thin walled tyres inflated with helium......I should be OK. Unless I put on any weight myself!

lynx42 · #4 30-06-14, 01:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Hello Cliff,

Yeah, I have seen that COE cab. Does look worthy of a restoration. I have seen a photo of it in Restored Cars magazine, when I was for sale at a swap meet.

While i'm thinking of it, those modern 5th wheeler type trailers that you see elderly folk galavanting around in, do you need a special licence for those? Guess what I really want to understand is, at what point does a vehicle become an articulated truck which you need a truck licence for? I would give serious thought to making the CMP into an articulated vehicle if there was any way around needing another licence to drive it.

(1st paragraph)Did you get any offers?? (haha!)

But seriously in answer to the next paragraph.

A vehicle towing a trailer or being classified as an articulated vehicle is wholly assessed by the placement of the towing pin. A Semi-trailer or articulated vehicle has the towing pin IN FRONT of the centre of the back axle or the centre of the combinations of axles. The trailer tow pin is BEHIND the axle and providing the rig does not go over the 4.5 tonnes GVM no combination license is required. Have a look at the placement on the next 5th wheeler you see.

Regards Rick.

Private_collector · #5 01-07-14, 10:54

No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

Lionelgee · #6 01-07-14, 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Private_collector

No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

Hello Tony,

Could you please confirm what had "no offers because it was in poor condition"?

I must have missed something!

Kind Regards
Lionel

Lionelgee · #7 06-07-14, 13:54

Originally Posted by Private_collector View Post
No Rick, no offers. Probably because condition was poor. Many parts were worn to the point of needing full reconditioning. Just not worth the effort required to return to good running condition.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello Tony,

Could you please confirm what had "no offers because it was in poor condition"?

I must have missed something!

Kind Regards
Lionel

G'day Tony,

Just wondering if you went back through your thread and found the message I sent you earlier? I have included it above this one.

You may have replied earlier and it might have been one of your disappearing messages!

Kind Regards
Lionel

David Dunlop · #8 01-07-14, 13:58

Wow! Those COE photos sure bring back memories!

Back in the 1950's the local Winnipeg Transit Company used to run a fleet of wreckers for their buses and the wreckers were all COE cab and chassis rigs (make unknown), with the same Holmes Wrecker Twin Boom bodies on them as the wartime Diamond T's used to run. As a kid, I was always fascinated by the look of the cabs and all the tools and kit stowed on the bodies. They were painted orange and banana cream.

A local creamery around the same time (Crescent Creamery) also used to have a fleet of delivery trucks in Winnipeg for home delivery of dairy products, and they were all COE vehicles. I ran across several surviving rigs in the 1970's in a surplus yard north of Winnipeg, full of M38 jeep canvas. You could still read the Crescent Creamery logo on the sides of the bodies with their catch phrase: "You can whip our cream, but you can't beat our butter!".

David

Sorry for putting this mainline thread on a temporary siding.

Private_collector · #9 06-07-14, 10:22

Thursday, my latest shipment of parts arrived from the USA. Small things mostly like temperature senders, oil pressure sender, thermostats, several springs, assorted bolt sets, bendix spring & associated hardware, and some minor electrical pieces including temp cross over wires, etc, etc...
Engine on stand 1.jpg
Got the engine off my trolley and placed it on the stand I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had initially considered it to be sitting too high, and had concerns about stability, but it has worked out well. Any lower and I would quickly brew a bad back! Still remains stable too. Incidentally, the engine doesn't really hang down like it looks in the photo. Just an artifact of the angle I took photo from.
Freshly honed cylinder wall.jpg
First actual engine work was to hone the cylinder walls. They only got 7 passes of the 320 grit hone, over 4-5 seconds. As a fellow member suggested, I did some practice runs on the old engine block. Had some difficulty in finding a bore which was not rusted to the extent that it may have damaged the honing tool. After a number of test runs I cleaned the hone well and moved onto the good block. For lubrication I used light air tool oil. Had a good quantity on hand, and would submerge the honing tool into the oil and pull it out while it revolved, attached to the cordless drill. I'm pleased with the finished result. Cleanup was interesting. Very strange feeling to soap up such an expensive piece of bare metal, no matter what the reason, it just doesn't feel right. Came up nicely, and after a thorough drying, copious amounts of oil added, again.
First complete valve sets.jpg
Next job was to lap the remaining valves. That was fairly quick, so I installed the cam temporarily and kicked off with the adjustment of lifters. Decision between solid and adjustable lifters was made for me, because the cam I am using has been ground for.......'street' use.

Adjusting the Johnson lifters is a PIG of a job. I am minus several portions of skin as a testament to that fact. No swear words were uttered, although they were thought! Even with the correct lifter adjustment tools, and a 7/16 open ended spanner I ground considerably thinner than originally intended, still a painfully slow process. After I had taken the above photo, I did one more set to completion. That brought the total finished so far to 5 sets. I hope to christ they don't re-adjust themselves during operation. Not aware of any instances of this occuring, and certainly don't wish to be the first. Thought about putting a dob of threadlocker on each. Don't know that would be a good idea. Does that stuff still work in the heat of an engines internals?

I do believe I am getting quicker / better at doing the lifter adjusting, so the remaining 12 sets shouldn't take anywhere near the time I piddled away this afternoon.

Private_collector · #10 06-07-14, 13:25

After the post about engine work, I wrote another 2 times. Both those were regarding a maintenence manual I had bought. Now I see both those posts have disappeared. Also, the second of the missing posts was after another page was created. Now the new page (page 47) has gone too.

Whats goin on here fellas????

Is somebody playing silly buggers?

Moderators, I would to know whats happened

Keith Webb · #11 06-07-14, 13:37

Nobody playing silly buggers this end Tony - perhaps Hanno has a clue about why these went missing.

I've been enjoying your progress!

Hanno Spoelstra · #12 06-07-14, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Private_collector

After the post about engine work, I wrote another 2 times. Both those were regarding a maintenence manual I had bought. Now I see both those posts have disappeared. Also, the second of the missing posts was after another page was created. Now the new page (page 47) has gone too.

Whats goin on here fellas????

Is somebody playing silly buggers?

Moderators, I would to know whats happened

Hi Tony,

First I merged your posts on the Fox manual and deleted one picture which you had attached inadvertently. I then thought to split it off to its own thread in the armour section, so chances increase you will get an answer. From experience I know chances are slim to getting an answer when it is buried in a thread on another subject. All in a day's work of the general housekeeping duties of a volunteer moderator

Regard,
Hanno

Tony Wheeler · #13 06-07-14, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Decision between solid and adjustable lifters was made for me, because the cam I am using has been ground for.......'street' use.

Adjusting the Johnson lifters is a PIG of a job. I am minus several portions of skin as a testament to that fact.

Tony, do you have specs on the street grind? I'm interested to see what they're using these days. It's a good idea IMO, the stock cam is way too conservative.

I've noticed all the flathead gurus mention difficulties adjusting lifters, mainly to do with the gadgets that stop the lifter turning. They recommend drilling a 3/16" hole into the bore and using a pin punch instead.

Nice job on the bores BTW, and very interesting to see. That's the other advantage of rebuilding the motor yourself - we all get to see!

Private_collector · #14 07-07-14, 05:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

Tony, do you have specs on the street grind? I'm interested to see what they're using these days. It's a good idea IMO, the stock cam is way too conservative.

I've noticed all the flathead gurus mention difficulties adjusting lifters, mainly to do with the gadgets that stop the lifter turning. They recommend drilling a 3/16" hole into the bore and using a pin punch instead.

Hi Tony,

Don't have the specs anymore. It was listed with the cam when for sale on ebay, but I didn't bother to write them down after I compared that with some data on an American hot rod website. May have been Vanpelt or something similar. I do remember thinking it was still fairly mild. It not so, I wouldn't have dared to fit it. All the extra horsepower would have scared me.

Those lifter adjusting tools are not what I would have designed, thats for sure. Was thinking of something similar to the variably adjustable tool for locking discs onto an angle grinder....only smaller. There MUST be something better on the market, but I have not yet seen it. Possibly it will appear once I have finished all the adjustment. Quite often the way, you know!