Unusual looking truck

Little Jo · #1 13-08-11, 01:43

Hi All

Whilst scouting around my neighbourhood I noticed this unusual looking truck behind a cyclone fence. I can honestly say I have not seen one like it before. It is a left hand drive Ford. It is complete from what I can see and here appears to have some green colour paint. I was wondering if it may have been a military vehicle at some time. It is ugly which makes it interesting and it is for sale. Anyone out there in MLU world who knows anything about this type of Ford truck and if used by the military.

Cheers

Tony

Alex Blair (RIP) · #2 13-08-11, 02:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little Jo

Hi All

Whilst scouting around my neighbourhood I noticed this unusual looking truck behind a cyclone fence. I can honestly say I have not seen one like it before. It is a left hand drive Ford. It is complete from what I can see and here appears to have some green colour paint. I was wondering if it may have been a military vehicle at some time. It is ugly which makes it interesting and it is for sale. Anyone out there in MLU world who knows anything about this type of Ford truck and if used by the military.

Cheers

Tony

Tony..
What you have there is a 1948-50 F5 or F 6 Ford C.O.E. ...a real beauty too..looks complete for chrome parts .It is post war but the military did use them too..
It would be nice fixed up and painted Fire engine red with black Fenders and hood..(wings and bonnets)..
And all the chrome redone..Give it to the wife to pick up Vegemite and beer at the store...
Show her how much you think of her..
Big love...Big truck..
Here is another one here..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisp...ol-592717@N20/

Think of pulling into the car show with little Jo on the back..
Does this give you ideas..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugo90/...ol-592717@N20/

Or maybe something like this..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theonly...ol-592717@N20/

Little Jo · #3 13-08-11, 03:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

Tony..
What you have there is a 1948-50 F5 or F 6 Ford C.O.E. ...a real beauty too..looks complete for chrome parts .It is post war but the military did use them too..
It would be nice fixed up and painted Fire engine red with black Fenders and hood..(wings and bonnets)..
And all the chrome redone..Give it to the wife to pick up Vegemite and beer at the store...
Show her how much you think of her..
Big love...Big truck..
Here is another one here..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisp...ol-592717@N20/

Think of pulling into the car show with little Jo on the back..
Does this give you ideas..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugo90/...ol-592717@N20/

Or maybe something like this..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theonly...ol-592717@N20/

Alex

Thanks for the information and great photos. The guy wants $7,500.00 for it, but "She who must be obeyed" would not approve the deal. I have only just purchased a WW2 Jeep trailer to go behind my restored 1942 MB Willys Jeep. some of your photos did set me dreaming as I could see in my dreams the truck restored with the Jeep and trailer on the back.

But alas it won't happen. Joyes of marrying an accountant.

Cheers

Tony

Mike Kelly · #4 13-08-11, 03:32

Highly likely to be a import . Why on earth would anyone do that when so many local commercials are still out there

?

rob love · #5 13-08-11, 04:10

It is an earlier model of the ex-DND C500 firetruck I recently purchased. Info on it is in this thread: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=16932

Yours

Mine

Little Jo · #6 13-08-11, 04:26

Hi Guys

Mike: Yes mate I agree, but is ugly and ugly can be beautiful. If I add a truck then it would be a Blitz.

Rob: I read your purchase with interest and I think it does lean towards a fire truck set up.

Cheers

Tony

Ryan · #7 13-08-11, 04:34

I think this was on ebay very recently. The price sounds familiar too.

Alex Blair (RIP) · #8 13-08-11, 13:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Highly likely to be a import . Why on earth would anyone do that when so many local commercials are still out there

?

Mike..
In '48 when that was a new truck ,Australia probably had not engined up commercial truck production,and trucks like the Ford Cab over were rolling off America's production lines like popcorn..
a switchover from full bore wartime Fords to full bore civilian trucks and they probably exported them all over the world to country's recovering from war time austerity..
Cheaper and faster to import them than to wait in line for your truck..
My guess anyway.

Alex Blair (RIP) · #9 13-08-11, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little Jo

Alex

Thanks for the information and great photos. The guy wants $7,500.00 for it, but "She who must be obeyed" would not approve the deal. I have only just purchased a WW2 Jeep trailer to go behind my restored 1942 MB Willys Jeep. some of your photos did set me dreaming as I could see in my dreams the truck restored with the Jeep and trailer on the back.

But alas it won't happen. Joyes of marrying an accountant.

Cheers

Tony

Tony..
Joys of marrying an accountant...
"The pen is mightier than the sword,,,...
depending on where you stick it..."!

How can she refuse you when you are doing it for her..??
What colour would she like her red truck with black fenders..??
What a beauty..
(Probably you wife too..)

Little Jo · #10 13-08-11, 15:24

Hi Alex

After 46 years of marriage, I have learnt to move slowly, slowly and keep the hints going like water on a rock when it comes to letting the moths out of the wallet and you know what, it works, because it was my wife that actually said, "Go buy the trailer". "If you really need it". boy I hate it when they add that last line.

Cheers

Tony

Bob Moseley (RIP) · #11 14-08-11, 01:10

Hi Tony - I think your next project should be a shed. Don't tell Jo I suggested it though.

Bob

Little Jo · #12 14-08-11, 03:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Moseley

Hi Tony - I think your next project should be a shed. Don't tell Jo I suggested it though.

Bob

Hi Bob

Hell mate, you have been to my place, where do you propose I put the shed, It won't be me that will be suggesting I rip up more of Jo's garden, why do you think I store some of my stuff off site. Harmony is the secret.

Cherers

Tony

Bob Moseley (RIP) · #13 14-08-11, 06:45

WIMP!!

lynx42 · #14 14-08-11, 09:09

I remember, when I was a kid, seeing an International truck with the same type of cabin. They were always refered to as
"Haystacks". There is a restored one in Drouin, Mike, as well.
Another one in Boronia but not restored and in Just Cars magazine, there are a few advertised, but are recent imports.
Rick.

Mike Kelly · #15 14-08-11, 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynx42

but are recent imports.
Rick.

Yes Rick , somebody must have brought in a few of those trucks for some odd reason . Not the usual thing you see like Caddies and Mustangs of which many have been imported recently and are still LHD . A friend of mine into 60's yank cars imported a 1970 caddy convertable , this was years before the LHD rules were relaxed . Cost him $8k to get it converted to RHD, a beaut job too. In Feb. 1988 , I went to Adelaide with him to look at a 1960 Chevy convertable ... a California car , but it was rusted badly in the floors and fitted with a factory 6 cyl. It was $6k at the time , we didn't buy it.It had a new top fitted to it .

Little Jo · #16 14-08-11, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Moseley

WIMP!!

Hi Bob

Hey mate. Definately not me

Cheers

Tony

Dianaa · #17 15-08-11, 09:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

Mike..
In '48 when that was a new truck ,Australia probably had not engined up commercial truck production,and trucks like the Ford Cab over were rolling off America's production lines like popcorn..
a switchover from full bore wartime Fords to full bore civilian trucks and they probably exported them all over the world to country's recovering from war time austerity..
Cheaper and faster to import them than to wait in line for your truck..
My guess anyway.

I would have thought tooling up for production of those COE trucks would be rather simple. The cab and top of the doors have the same pressings as the normal control cab and I rather suspect that the mudguards have similar if not the same outside profile. The biggest tooling issue is the extensive bonnet.

The advantages of the design are that the footwells are not as cramped as in the blitz designs and being so much higher the driver/offsider are away from the engine heat. I seem to remember lots of these style trucks running around Sydney as a kid in the 1960s, all of them RHD.

On the post war production, my great grandfathers transport business which started in the 19th century had so much trouble getting new trucks in the immediate post-war period that they bought crates of CKD F15a and F30 from the war surplus auctions. The trucks were all built up in-house without the front crownwheel and pinion nor the halfshafts and the C&P placed into store as spares for the rear diffs. About this time my dad swapped a ute for one of the F15As to use on his building company. A few years later when he sold the blitz, the buyer wanted the blitz for its off road capability and wasn't to be deterred from the sale even though dad suggested he'd never used the 4WD, my dad didn't have the heart to tell him that there was no diff centre installed.

Mike Kelly · #18 15-08-11, 10:46

You can contact the Ford Discovery centre in Geelong. They have the local production records but I doubt if any LHD COE trucks were assembled locally around 1948 . LHD drive vehicles were banned in Victoria in 1948 because of a spate of accidents involving LHD ex army vehicles, many of which fell into civilian hands from 1945 onwards.

Locally assembled LHD drive vehicles are extremely rare here , and apart from myriad fully imported 1950's and 60's yank tanks from Nth America which became a popular business venture from the 1980's and keeps on going til today , the only LHD locally assembled vehicles you would see are street sweepers or cranes .

Mike