Bendigo Swap find

[Jacques Reed]

Many people in the military vehicle and Ford sidevalve V8 fraternity may agree there is not a lot of pre-war, wartime, or even 50's vehicles parts at most swap meets in Australia nowadays. From my perspective they now seem to mostly cater for the 70's Holden and other make cars based on the amount of chrome and plastic parts on display.

Occasionally, just the same, there is that one little gem that make attending and walking the kilometers all worth it.

At Bendigo I bought a clapped out Ford CMP truck instrument panel for $2. The gauges were rotted, likewise the switches, but I noticed the switch plates had a green patina on them and upon closer inspection found them to be brass. I thought all switch plates were made of steel but perhaps early wartime they were brass as were many other items including US one cent pieces which went from copper to steel in 1943 for the war effort.

The first photo shows the ignition switch plate as found beside the light switch plate after metal brite treatment. Second photo is both after an hour with the Brasso. Looks like there were remnants of black paint in the low lying areas but at this stage I won't re-enamel them.
Don't think I will use the switch plates on my round gauge panel as tempting as it is, but gee, they sure look nice!

Interestingly the Light switch plate has only 4 holes in it whereas the steel version has 6 mounting holes. The steel instrument panel also only has four mounting holes for the light switch panel.

Picked up a couple of NOS Ford sidevalve ignition conduits and a 1943 POW can so it was a worthwhile trip al in all.



Cheers,