Cab. 13 - early/late style dashboard use?

[Bob Carriere]

....some in the same junk yard side by each...... two many examples to be just the occasional dash changes......

[Phil Waterman]

I wonder if some of the strange things many of us have seen over the years concerning mix of early and later parts could just be the result of somebody using the parts they had at hand.

This could have been at the time of original assembly in Canada, parts shortages during assembly being made up out of spare parts system instead of stopping the assembly line.

Overseas assembled vehicles again what parts do you have at hand if they were some of the fully knocked down vehicle vs single crate.

War time rebuilds trucks and parts not necessarily meeting up again after individual trucks are rebuilt.

Repair of vehicles from salvaged parts.

Seventy plus years later there are very few if any "original" CMPs left out there for us to look at and compare. Even my own HUP which started off as a very complete vehicle in 1978 when I got it, now has parts which I have change and replaced over the years. Talking just about the instrument panel I know it has had the speedo change 4 times, and several of the switches replaced over the years.

Cheers Phil

[Maurice Donckers]

First cabs had nothing under the head lamps , but had the ford logo on the grill , second 13 cabs had only Ford under the headlight , No badge anymore , third version had Ford Canada under headlight . from my recordings of surviving wrecks , the cabs with the badge on the grill seem to have the rectangular dash cluster.

[Keith Webb]

The only difference here was the Ford badge on the grille was retained on all Cab 13s to the end of production. Occasionally it was the V8 version of the badge too.

Originally Posted by Maurice Donckers

First cabs had nothing under the head lamps , but had the ford logo on the grill , second 13 cabs had only Ford under the headlight , No badge anymore , third version had Ford Canada under headlight . from my recordings of surviving wrecks , the cabs with the badge on the grill seem to have the rectangular dash cluster.

[Tony Wheeler]

Very occasionally we find early dash on late production F60S, invariably in combination with 1943 -FORD- front shell. This concurrence of seemingly unrelated parts may be explained by different wiring loom. Thus if the late type dashboard and gauge assembly is temporarily unavailable in production, the early type dashboard assembly must be used, which in turn compels the use of earlier type front shell assembly, because the wiring loom is pre-assembled to these. In other words, as Phil suggests, it's done to avoid stopping the assembly line. I can't think of any other reason for this practice.

Interestingly the same combination of early dash and front shell is found on most if not all post-war assembled F60L with coach built cabs. This to my mind suggests deliberate use of commercial type dashboard on these civilian vehicles.

I'll dig up some photos to illustrate this practice.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

Very occasionally we find early dash on late production F60S, invariably in combination with 1943 -FORD- front shell.

Here's an example from late '44. Front shell is 1943 (bonnet was still attached before I broke it off to photograph).

TONY4022.JPG TONY4016.JPG TONY4021.JPG TONY4015.JPG TONY4014.JPG

[Frantisek Nachlinger]

Thank you all for your replies. I will také pics of our Fords and send them here ASAP
Frankie

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Maurice Donckers

First cabs had nothing under the head lamps , but had the ford logo on the grill , second 13 cabs had only Ford under the headlight , No badge anymore , third version had Ford Canada under headlight . from my recordings of surviving wrecks , the cabs with the badge on the grill seem to have the rectangular dash cluster.

To confirm "the cabs with the badge on the grill seem to have the rectangular dash cluster": my Jan 1943 F15A has the badge on the grill, no stamping under the headlights and a rectangular (civilian) dash.