How To: C15 restoration in the UK

[Hanno Spoelstra]

John Corden and James Gosling have embarked on a C15 restoration project. You can follow their progress on HMVF:

Restoration of Dismantled C15:
James Gosling and I have bought a dismantled C15 truck, it was dismantled 30 years ago and put into storage by three brothers in Kent.
A recent change in their circumstances resulted in the loss of its storage and it being placed on MILWEB.
As we have worked on and rebuilt several Canadian vehicles, we decided to try and save the old Chev. It's quite a risk buying boxes of parts but we could see that the parts had been carefully stored, also both have a stock of spares and took the plunge. Time will tell what has been lost over the years......
Our plan is to completely rebuild it over future months. I aim to keep a blog on HMVF to record the process.
Here are some photos of some of the C15 parts in "kit form".
https://hmvf.co.uk/topic/44219-c15-c...rolet-rebuild/

[Robert Bergeron]

Good luck and Godspeed guys !

[cordenj]

Thanks Hanno

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by cordenj

Thanks Hanno

An interesting project, so I shared it on here too.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

John wrote:

We believe the truck was built in 1943 as part of the 6050 contract for the British Army. It has several unusual holes in the cab that we suspect were for Artic modifications, but perhaps were never actually installed.

I will post separately on the thread about the engine, but believe its serial number matches those known to exist under the 6050 contract.

We don't think it went to Norwegian Army, but stayed in UK after the war.

We may find more evidence as we work on the panels, but from what we were told this is its history:

- 1943: built in Canada

-43/44: Shipped to UK on Atlantic Convoys

-44: British Army

-Early 1950's??: Cast from army and went into civilian use in UK

- Ended up in scrapyard at Pease Pottage, West Sussex with small rear recovery crane fitted

- Rescued and saved by an MV collector. We do not know if was road registered then, but there is no sign of registration now and we will register it this year.

- Purchased in 1990s by the three brothers who then dismantled it, intending to fully restore it.

- 2021: saved again...

Using the “counting heads method”, the C15s delivered under Contract S/M 6050 were built during August-November 1943 - see this thread http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...962#post268962 with known chassis and engine serial numbers.