New to the MLU community

Jim Davis · #1 19-02-09, 00:27

Hi everyone, I've been looking through the wealth of info in these forums for a little while now and thought it was about time I intorduced myself.
I'm James, I'm 21 and my dad and I are slowly restoring an F60 Blitz. Last year was the first time we went to Corowa to see the vehciles on parade and at the airport (despite the fact we only live 20km away we usally missed the date). Seeing all the great blitzes, carriers, jeeps etc gave Dad inspiration and we obtained the 3 remnants of Blitzs that have been in the front paddock of our neighbours farm (for the last 30 years) by trading a McCormick W-4 tractor for them (as you do).

So, that was in April last, year, and in the time since we've been obtaining documentation and learning all we can about them while slowly restoring one using parts from all three. I don't have the details with me currently but I believe we ended up with two Cab13 F60Ls and possibly a F15 monkey face. All 3 have had the frame cut back to the rear wheels and have had winches fitted very crudely mid frame, we believe they were used in timber country before being bought for the farm. Strangely the newest engine (1945) was in the monkey face while the two others had (from memory) 1941 and 1942 engines going by the "divers helmet" and the stamp at the rear of the engine.

At this point in time we have the best frame and cabin from a F60, diferentials, engine, and most moving parts from the monkey face, gearbox bits from all three, and part of the cabin from the other F60. It's turning into a bit of a hybrid of models , ratios, sizes of parts etc.

Anyway, I've wasted enough space typing, here are some photos of the two F60s, in the background of one you can see the monkey face at the shed. I thought I some more digital photos but I don't, I'll have to scan in some others at some point. The monkey face was the only one that was almost "drivable" but was really more weld than blitz, with pieces of railway steel welded all through the frame and on the front.

As a note, I believe the unit symbol on the F60 may be that of the 1st Armoured Car Squadron, sent to Japan at the end of the war. I'm not sure though.

NORTH-SHORE(CANADA) · #2 19-02-09, 00:37

Welcome on board

BCBlitz · #3 19-02-09, 04:22

Hello James

Welcome to the Blitz nuthouse !, I just got my first F15A and I will post about it soon but the snow is too deep and its not home yet but like you cannot wait to putter with it !

I think its the one most important thing to keep own and restore to the best of out finacial ability these trucks for others to see and learn about, Ive seen alot of old trucks but these are so ugly they are cute ( if a truck can be cute ) so we all are doing a great thing saving them.

Thanks for the post, as always we would all love to see more pics and read about your progress ......

have fun !

Terry
MLU / BCBlitz

Ryan · #4 19-02-09, 08:10

Welcome Jim.
As your probably well aware, you'll find a wealth of knowledge and friendly help on MLU.
Ryan

Richard Coutts-Smith · #5 19-02-09, 08:33

Welcome aboard Jim,
You can't be too far from me here at Barny, be nice to have a another Blitz on the road in the area. There is only two other runners around here that I can think of.
Rich

aj.lec · #6 19-02-09, 09:40

Welcome James

Wish you all the best of luck with your projects
Just a quick warning that these old girls (cmp) are an addiciton
They are a bit like peanuts in the fact it is hard to have just one or even 3

lynx42 · #7 19-02-09, 11:17

Welcome to the Mad House, James. As others have said, you now have the start of an addiction. There is hardly a person on MLU with only one vehicle. (Is there anyone with only one?)
Please make yourselves known to the KVE members and don't forget the MLU group photo.
•SATURDAY 12.30pm:
All members of MLU Forum (Maple Leaf Up Forum) to meet for a group photo in front of the vehicle display at Corowa Airport.

If you pre-book, even without a vehicle it will be worth your while. You will recieve a discount on the Saturday Dinner, a memento for your vehicle and much, much more.

106 vehicles have entered sofar as at today. Many more too come.
Regards Rick

Ryan · #8 19-02-09, 12:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynx42

If you pre-book, even without a vehicle it will be worth your while. You will recieve a discount on the Saturday Dinner, a memento for your vehicle and much, much more.
Regards Rick

I didn't know that. I thought you had to have a vehicle. Cool.

Keith Webb · #9 19-02-09, 19:53

Hi James, and let me add my welcome to you too.

Looking at your pictures the first one is a late production vehicle with the spring bumper in front of the bumper bar. The cab 12 in the background also appears to be a F60L, which is what the vast majority were.

As to ratios they will all be the same if they are F60Ls. The cab 12 chassis has a few points of difference to a cab 13 mainly in the cab mounts and pedals.

Never think you're wasting space typing here - we're all vitally interested in this stuff!

I'll be there with my video camera as usual so please come up and say hi.

Keith

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Davis

So, that was in April last, year, and in the time since we've been obtaining documentation and learning all we can about them while slowly restoring one using parts from all three. I don't have the details with me currently but I believe we ended up with two Cab13 F60Ls and possibly a F15 monkey face. All 3 have had the frame cut back to the rear wheels and have had winches fitted very crudely mid frame, we believe they were used in timber country before being bought for the farm. Strangely the newest engine (1945) was in the monkey face while the two others had (from memory) 1941 and 1942 engines going by the "divers helmet" and the stamp at the rear of the engine.

At this point in time we have the best frame and cabin from a F60, diferentials, engine, and most moving parts from the monkey face, gearbox bits from all three, and part of the cabin from the other F60. It's turning into a bit of a hybrid of models , ratios, sizes of parts etc.

Anyway, I've wasted enough space typing, here are some photos of the two F60s, in the background of one you can see the monkey face at the shed. I thought I some more digital photos but I don't, I'll have to scan in some others at some point. The monkey face was the only one that was almost "drivable" but was really more weld than blitz, with pieces of railway steel welded all through the frame and on the front.

Jim Davis · #10 19-02-09, 23:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Coutts-Smith

Welcome aboard Jim,
You can't be too far from me here at Barny, be nice to have a another Blitz on the road in the area. There is only two other runners around here that I can think of.
Rich

We're just down the road at Springhurst, we're on the edge of town so we avoid all the stuff that gets in the papers.

I'll try to post some more photos tonight of the three trucks when we got them and the frame we're working on now.

Thanks for the welcome everyone, we'll probably be at Corowa wandering around in the background somewhere at the airport looking at Blitzes and making lots of "Ahh so thats where that goes"

or "what that does" or "we don't have that" comments. We've been pretty lucky in that we've got almost everything from the three trucks, (apart from the seemingly always missing drivers door) and a few odds and ends.

Jim Davis · #11 20-02-09, 06:53

Here are some more photos from when we first moved the trucks over to our place. The monkey face was definatley shorter than the others, there was only one piece of drive shaft going from the transfer case to the rear dif. We managed to save the rest of the drive system from the others so its all together now.

Jim Davis · #12 20-02-09, 07:06

Here are some others,

Where possible we used all the running gear, diffs, transfer case, gearbox, engine etc out of the monkey faced blitz since it actually still worked. At least one oddity of this is that the front diff has the larger 6" wheel knuckles/steering system, and seems to be of more heavy duty construction.
The Engine ended up that mixture of Ford Blue and army green because thats the colours we found, on all three engines. What colour were the wartime V8s painted when they rolled off the production line? The same colour of the vehicles?

Tony Smith · #13 20-02-09, 07:25

The Monkey Face is a 12 Cab F60S with Winch. The wheelbase should be 134".

And you're cannabalising that to get the others goin'?

aj.lec · #14 20-02-09, 07:28

I was about to say the same thing Tony
The 12 cab is a lot rarer

Jim Davis · #15 20-02-09, 09:24

I'm afraid so. I was of the opinion that we'd ultimately restore all three (in years and years), but no. At the moment its one from three, the rest is going into the shed for another day.

Jan Thompson · #16 20-02-09, 13:14

Welcome Jim. Take a look at the website for Corowa www.corowaswim-in.org We are encouraging people to preregister whether they are bringing a vehicle or not to get a great package. For $10 you will get some great momentos. I already have 120 vehicles on my list and it is growing daily. The latest is a 1978 CVRT Striker.

Max Hedges · #17 20-02-09, 22:24

Tony, the monkey face has the chassie plated so maybe it has been alted at some time
Jim do you have any photos of the monkey face chassie for as far as I know cab12s didn't have the extra plate on the chassie
Jim good to see that you are collecting fords
Max

Jim Davis · #18 20-02-09, 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max Hedges

Tony, the monkey face has the chassie plated so maybe it has been alted at some time
Jim do you have any photos of the monkey face chassie for as far as I know cab12s didn't have the extra plate on the chassie
Jim good to see that you are collecting fords
Max

Yeah Dads a bit of a Ford man so he's happy . I'm just happy I get to work on such old quality things, the engine, the body, running gear, the smell of 50 year old oil etc, its great, they really dont makem like this anymore.
I'll see if I can dig some photos up but dont hold your breath, but yes the chassis is plated, internaly as well as on the outside, you get the impression that it broke its back at some point as it has been crudely reinforced inside the U of the frame rails for most of their length, that or it had a severe beating/strain put on it. The running gear and some front sections of the cab were really the only things intact, the rest was either rusted through or cut and welded together...or both, it was not as nice as it looks.

Keith Webb · #19 21-02-09, 03:07

I'd suggest given it's chopped and plated history it may well be a shortened F60L, poor old thing.

Are there any surviving data plated on it?

Jim Davis · #20 24-02-09, 23:44

No, there are no data plates remaining that we could find. Here are some photos of the underside. On turning it over you can see it is very modified and very damaged. It looks as though some of the spring stoppers and mounts have been bolted straight onto the plate on each side. The winch cross beam is the correct one, but either it has been put in as a modification or reinforced. Considering that there is a big hole cut in the other cross piece I'm guessing its the former. To be honest we haven't paid much attention to the cab 12 chassis as it is in this state, and we've been working on restoring one of the Cab13 f60L trucks, but the cab 12 truck lives on in the running gear of the project.

Keith Webb · #21 24-02-09, 23:49

Yes, looks like it's had a winch kit or one from another vehicle. Trucks factory fitted with the winch (Talking about Fords here) had a double rear cross member and extra fish plates.

Tony Smith · #22 25-02-09, 00:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Trucks factory fitted with the winch (Talking about Fords here) had a double rear cross member and extra fish plates.

And the brackets where the the winch pillow blocks were mounted to were welded into the chassis rails, while Chevs were rivetted. Yours appears to have bolts.

aj.lec · #23 25-02-09, 09:45

Youre right
That is one ugly hatchet job on that chassis

Jim Davis · #24 09-03-09, 01:06

Hi all,

We're now in the process of cleaning up a cab 13 for the project. At the top of the W of the steel frame inside the rear of both cab 13s there is a small round plate with stamped numbers:
The first cab:
290
81
1344

The second Cab:
290
81
3086

Any help as to what these numbers are for would be great.

Tony Smith · #25 09-03-09, 01:28

Look again, the number should be 29Q.

These are body assembly numbers by Ford Aust.

Jim Davis · #26 09-03-09, 04:09

Thanks Tony, yes on closer inspection its a q.

BCBlitz · #27 09-03-09, 05:06

Hey Jim

where did you find these #'s ?, by the engine mount on the RH frame rail on top of the web ?

can you take a pic ?

cliff · #28 09-03-09, 06:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCBlitz

Hey Jim

where did you find these #'s ?, by the engine mount on the RH frame rail on top of the web ?

can you take a pic ?

If you read the post properly these plates with the numbers are inside the cab on Australian Built Ford cabs and it is the building code/number for the cab and not a frame/chassis number.

Tony Smith · #29 09-03-09, 14:39

Pics:

No doubt there are more detail differences, but the 29Q cab is the 1942 model without any stamping below the headlights, the 39Q is the '43 model with "Ford" below the lights, and the 49Q has "Ford Canada".

BCBlitz · #30 09-03-09, 16:10

Thanks Cliff

I wish they would have put the chassis # clearly marked in more than one spot would make this process of finding it easier, others told me where on the frame it is but cannot make my head move into that position to see it short of pulling the front end off, which might happen anyhow one day

well off for a cup of morning Joe