CMP ID and Abbreviations?

[john piercey]

Chris,i thought it may be just an Aussie thing,cheers John

[aj.lec]

Do you have any reference books ?

Clive laws latest "Drive to victory" is available at servicepub https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...42059868,d.dGo

Also "Canadas fighting vehicles" by W A Gregg (no longer in print)

These are good ones to have

I have 2 copies of Canadas fighting vehicles left for sale if required

[Howard]

John,
It won't be long and you'll be all over it and lecturing those that gather around your truck at a car club meeting.
Of course, ask here if there is something you don't understand, and you'll find that on this forum you won't be ridiculed. (Well, not until we get to know each other better.)
The general rules of this forum are "Ask Questions" and "Post Photos"
Cheers
H

[john piercey]

Hi Guys,Andrew what would you want for a copy of that book?
Howard ,yeah i dont have a CMP only the Humber FV 1600 at the moment but due to the seemingly never ending amount of CMPs that crop up around the place it will prob only be a matter of time before some poor old decrepit one follows me home cheers .
John

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by john piercey

due to the seemingly never ending amount of CMPs that crop up around the place it will prob only be a matter of time before some poor old decrepit one follows me home

If CMPs are that plentiful in your area, I suggest you take your time and choose one that is in as good shape as possible with as many of the little fiddly bit remaining as possible. It is surprising how much time, money and frustration you will save if all parts are present and in reasonable condition to start with. That's unless your enjoyment comes from finding or manufacturing parts that have either failed or been lost by the previous owners.

[john piercey]

Hi Grant, im probably making it sound like that there is one every street corner, not quite but they do come up for sale quite regularly,so we must have had thousands at some stage ,they would be the most prolific ex army vehicle (WW2 vintage) still around in unrestored but still being used condition (others would probably argue different).
I dont know how to post it here but Gumtree- western Australia has one on there now for $1200 under Ford blitz CMPV,this is pretty typical of what keeps cropping up in Aust,usually like this with crane type appendages attached.I have seen numerous vehicles in this configuration and cond with no doors,glass etc and generally still just running on 3 or 5 cylinders (testament to the toughness of these old bangers).
Only thing that puts me off a lot of them is the fact that most have had large chunks of angle iron etc welded to their chassis or even shortened to facilitate the fitting of said appendages,which may not go down that well with our Road Transport licencing authorities if ever one got round to being restored and attempted to go back on the road again.
Yes i agree Grant the more complete and unmolested vehicle is the better choice but they are the rarer, harder to find ones which when they do come up command better prices,Aussie farmers and small town engineering firms in earlier times seemed to cut up / modify what was cheap and plentiful, but who cared back then! ,but i will keep my eyes open for that " barn find" hopefully that may crop up.
Cheers John

[Jacques Reed]

Hi John,

Yes, original unmolested vehicles are extremely rare in Australian. In 25 years associated with these vehicles I have only seen a very few come up for sale. Our Canadian cousins seem to have a lot more original trucks but then they have more of the corrosion issues in their climate. Some of ours found inland are quite sunburnt but with sound steel.

I was told many years ago that after the war the government did not want surplus vehicles competing with the car factories getting back to civilian production. For that reason many bodies were removed before being auctioned off and the vehicles were sold as cab-chassis only. Any vehicle that still had a body attached probably saw post-war service and avoided the earlier cull when finally sold off in the fifties or sixties.

Perhaps someone on the forum who likes to dig into the archives can confirm if this was government policy or just a story that was passed on to me. It does seem plausible based on the lack of original bodies and the abundance of home made cranes, and tray trucks. If farmers removed the bodies after the war I would think there would be some lying around at clearing sales- they never throw anything away, and I have never seen any at a sale.

Still, there are a lot of myths out there so perhaps that was just another one.

Cheers,