FGT Restoration

[rob love]

I thought I would share some shots and document the restoration of my Ford Artillery tractor. There are no data plates, but between the commercial gauges and the wheel flanges, as well as a lot of bonding straps, I am going to guess this one is a 1944 vintage truck. The engine is a running 8BA. I may keep that engine, although I will move the dipstick to a more suitable location, and install the truck type water pumps.


As is typical of so many tractors, this one had been converted into a tow truck and had a lot of hard use. The frame has been repaired, patched, fishplated, and cracked and welded again and again. This is the problem when people try to weld a boom onto a relatively light frame. My intent is to replace the frame with a 15cwt frame. I purchased a suitable cab and chassis 15 cwt a few years ago for this project.

Here are some photos of the truck as it is, along with the rear body which will be used.

[rob love]

Below are some shots of the condition of the frame and brackets on the tractor. This frame is not restorable.

[rob love]

I have stripped down the 15cwt frame, and found the side rails to be nearly identical to the tractor. The metal thickness is the same, and many of the rear cross-members are the same, although a few have to be re-located to different positions and some added.

I have two main issues with this frame. Someone had modified the crossmember over the transfer case, and also elongated the holes at the hitch and drilled a number of different holes in the last foot of the frame for dump body hinges. I have drilled the various rivets on the brackets and punched them through with a hammer and a punch. I will likely drill the holes to just under 7/16, ream them to size, and install grade five 7/16 UNF bolts with suitable length shanks into the holes. Locknuts will be all metallic feature as opposed to nylon. These were the method the military used with frames like the MLVW.

One consideration is whether to sandblast and paint the frame before installing the brackets, or after. Doing it before will get a lot more paint into the project, but will leave a few thousandths of an inch of soft material where I bolt on the cross-members. In the big picture, I don't think it will matter, as long as the nuts are re-torqued after a few years.



For the hitch area, because the tractor has the hitch that sits between the frame rails, and the 15cwt had the hitch below the frame, I am going to cut off the last foot of frame on the tractor and graft them in place of the back foot of the 15cwt frame. Besides welding them, there is a very large and heavy plate for the rear roller fairlead that will keep everything together.

[rob love]

Just wanted to mention that we are fairly rust free here in Manitoba. If there are certain frame brackets anyone needs off the 15cwt that I will have extra, please ask. I will put up some photos of what is spare a little further in the thread.



At this point I am disassembling the tractor. I have removed what I could from the rear frame, as well as removed the rear axle and springs. The overload spring packs have some bent leaves from the harsh duty the boom subjected them to. I will salvage some new leaves from either the 15cwt springs, or else from some spare MLVW spring packs that I have. I am now just removing the cab floor and will remove the remainder of the drive-train after that. I did notice this cab had a lot of bonding straps...many more than I am used to seeing on any vehicle.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Rob,

this will be an exciting project to follow. The frame on my C8 was bad (cracked, welded, beefed up, cracked etc.), but probably not as bad as yours!

I know the subject of the actual difference between 15cwt and FAT chassis has come up on the forum before; so it's interesting to see the hands-on differences you'll find along the way.

Well done on finding an original body!

p.s. would that be the original chassis number painted on the door???

Alex

[rob love]

Pretty sure the number is meaningless. It would have likely had a domestic number on it. I will carefully strip the door with the CAA and see what I can find.

At this point, aside from the hitch difference, I would say the frame rails are identical. All the holes are there for the winch, the various crossmembers, and even the winch guide. There is one hole on the rear crossmember that has to be enlarged for a cable guide, but the frame itself seems identical aside from the hitch area.

The toughest part is going to be to salvage some of the frame gussets near the winch. A lot of them have been welded over to the point that I don't even see the rivets anymore.

Notable is that the crossmember from the 15cwt that was behind the transfer case had to be moved up about a foot, and there needs to be a pair of spacers underneath as the frame gets wider. I was able to salvage those from the tractor frame. All the frame holes were there.

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by rob love

I did notice this cab had a lot of bonding straps...many more than I am used to seeing on any vehicle.

Fitted For Wireless? It's usually done as an interference suppression measure.

Chris.

[rob love]

That is what I figure, but there are multiple bonding straps going from the frame up to the cab floor into 2 different spots just 6" apart. Then another one from the frame forward maybe a foot or so going from the frame to the floor again. Opposite side of the truck has the same thing again. There was even a bonding trap to the door from the pillar, and short ones from the floor to the firewall frame.



I have unhooked the floor to frame ones as I want to lift the remainder of the cab off tonight. I just have to make sure everything is off. I was working on removing the steering box last night when it got too dark to work.