2017 at the Hammond Barn

[rob love]

Geeezuz Bob, take care of yourself. Were you to exit this earth, I would have to suffer the rest of my days knowing I still owe you for your help last fall.

Glad to hear you are on the mend.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Bob,

I hope you are feeling better in the meantime....and you soon have the energy again to work on the hobby again.

Please take care!

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

......recovering slowly. I have started working on my roof rebuild slowly under the careful supervision of Grant and Rob.

Usually hit the wall after 4 or 5 hours but I am getting better and with the nice weather, if the rain ever stops, will continue to improve.

It's hard to get the OD green out of your blood!!!!!!!

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

We have recovered two more CMPs parts trucks in the last few weeks.

One a 1942 C60s ..... the other a 24 march1942 F15a.......both ran hard and parked wet years ago BUT still offers some good parts.

Will first deal with the cab 13 F15a.......with a dash mounted tag fo F15a -ATT-2 which we have translated to Anti-Tank Tractor .....possibly used a 6 pounder.

In the process of salvaging parts we have made the following discovery on the cargo box construction......... the box is similar to a 2C1 box but it has been build/assembled very differently.

Remember this is early.....March 24th 1942 and the rysted floor plates show evidence of having been made from "dot and dash" floor plate......and so are the cab floor. Having the 1942 cab floor in a cab 13 is unusual for us...... may indicate a very early cab 13 Ford liquidating what was left of old stock.

The cargo box also has some strange peculiarity in its construction.
The top boxed edge of the side panels and headboard are made of two bent/folded parts than welded together. see attached diagram and photograph.

More to follow has I work out the bugs in my new ACDsee software...........

[Bob Carriere]

I have some pictures of the unique features of this cargo box. Assuming that the cargo box is original to the manufacture of the truck..... March 24th 1942..... it could be an early version..... yet to be refined or simplify for efficient production.

Now for the pics..


Does any one knows what is the proper designation for this odd cargo box...... is an early model of the 2C1 or the later all welded "J" box????

[Jordan Baker]

Great find on the early F15a.

I thought I had seen this style of box before an indeed I did. The following pictures are enlargements from The Factory Photos CD. The box is on a C15a

[Jordan Baker]

As for your cross section of the top channel. When I had mine made up at the shop they were trying to figure out how the original was done too. The first and second bend would be easy. The 3rd bend is the hard one since the first two bend would now want to close down onto the die. What the shop figures was done is the third bend was made until the first two closed down on the die, then the panel was placed into a form in a another press brake and then pressed down. One my sample you could make out the third bend wasn't as tight of a radius as the first two.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

I have some pictures of the unique features of this cargo box. Assuming that the cargo box is original to the manufacture of the truck..... March 24th 1942..... it could be an early version..... yet to be refined or simplify for efficient production.

Now for the pics..

Regarding your question about the final fold going in on itself. Quite a puzzler. The only thing I can come up with is a solid bar inserted front to back and someone hammering the last bend into place.

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Bruce.

I believe that the time pressure on war time production would have eliminated most hand hammering. I believe that a flat die hydraulic press must have finished the last bend and quickly welded the boxed section shut...... that would partly explain the uneven bend radius reported by Jordan.

From what I have read on war time production, a lot of sub-assemblies were done in small shops pressed into war time production....... good being moved in large wooden bins or open top 45 gallon drums. Parts produced in large quantities by shops making only one or only a few sub components. Hooks for the tarps, hinge straps, pre bent partly welded fender well boxes, sub-assemblies of tail gates such as hooks, hinges, etc..... all to be joined (welded) together in a central plant. Spot welds were rarely dressed up like we would do today and unevenly spaced.

Very few small shops would have the means of doing the larger components like the head board of a cargo box or the long narrow drop sides of the cab 11/12 2B1 box.

Over time the design and assembly was modified to its most simple mode of manufacturing keeping in mind what could be done cheaply and as fast as possible.