Ford FAT No.9 Restoration

[Phillip]

Well this is my first foray into an online community so here it goes.

After a hiatus due to all the usual things, kids, work, absence of shed. e.g. life in general, I've finally commenced the restoration of 'Arty' my Ford FAT No.9.

I'll keep this post short to see how this all goes, hopefully I've attached the photos from when this was collected from a farm many years ago (and for those who my recognise this, yes it used to belong to Wayne Henderson)

[hrpearce]

Welcome Phillip, I'm looking forward to future posts and pictures.

[Tony Wheeler]

Welcome to MLU Phillip and thanks for the pics, great to see another FGT9 project commencing and I look forward to lots more pics as you progress! There's a handful of FGT9s around Australia awaiting restoration, including my own ARN 133172, or what's left of it! Do you have a chassis for your project?
Cheers, Tony.

[Phillip]

Thanks Tony and Robert. I've followed this forum for a while and it appears to be a great community and supportive community, so thanks once again.

You can't see it in the photos but the ARN of this No.9 is 134881.

The body came into my hands having been de-skinned and some of the rusted bar work replaced and sitting on a good -semi restored FAT chassis and new 12 x 20 MRF's.

It was going to be rebuilt as a chev, but why would you do that (cue comments on Ford Vs Chev) - it has Ford doors for a start!

It has taken me a while to find where to start and some good reference images for items like the rear crew doors, floor plates. Thanks to Euan for assistance in this respect.

[Phillip]

I managed to get started on this project just before the end of financial year so will bring this thread up to date on progress so far.

Working out the order to do this in has been a challenge. The B pillars are welded to 1/4 inch plate joining the front cab to the Australian made body, but you need to have the pillars in place and the spacing right so that both set of doors fit properly. But you can't have the pillars in place without the floor plates..............

1. Removed old cab (origin unknown) and chev window frame for Ford donor truck cab sitting on new cab mounts.
2. Using highly specialised tools (crow bar and sledge hammer) aligned rear body to cab.
3. Pursuaded the hugs and kisses to help me lift the roof back on.
4. Whilst doing the dishes, made a mental note to build a gantry crane.
5. Cut 1/4 plate to make floor plates;
6. Cut up a set of front doors to make the crew door inner skins.
7. Set spacing for new B and C pillars with skins and make minor adjustments to body and cab spacing.
7. Weld in new c channel between rear body and cab to join the two together.

Next: Weld the two side 1/4" plates into place/ Finish both crew doors/ Complete and weld B and C pillars into place.

Stay tuned..................

[Keith Webb]

Great to see your progress Phillip!

If you need any more detail shots I can possibly assist with images of my No9 which is close to yours in it's ARN - 134855.

Incidentally for some reason I had yours listed as 133181 when Wayne had it - body number 147 - my one is 131. The individual FGT body numbers were stamped into the lower rear door sill.

[Phillip]

Hi Keith,

Body number is confirmed as 147. The stamping is faint and has proven difficult to photograph (tried chalking etc) but you can clearly make out:

29.Q.F.A.T.
147 ->

Thanks, I'll take you up on the offer of photos in due course. I'm a fair way off but still have not worked out how the timber all fits into the rear section.

[Phillip]

I managed to get out of the house and down to the shed on Monday night for a little de-stress and relaxation in the form of assembling the offside crew door.

The inner skin of the original door was almost non-existent but from the scraps that I have, I worked out that they had used a cut down standard door inner skin. A new inner was made from a spare drivers door so to start the original outer skin of the standard door was removed by grinding the spot welds off around the seam (a "fun" job) and the hinge end lopped off.

A filling piece was bent up and welded into the corner where the wheel arch starts and another piece welded along its length to the same angle as the original to create a new edge where it hinges on the 'B' pillar.

The inside plates that hold the window curtain brackets were removed and the door was then stripped of rust and given a coat of killrust grey (because it was handy).

In doing this I noted that all the doors have never had a coat of paint on the inside and can only put this down to war time economy.

The brackets for the window curtains are not in the same place as the normal doors and so new holes were drilled and and the inner threaded plates welded into place along with a stengthening plate that runs down the full length of hinge side.

The original outer skin is all one piece with no welds so I had a new outer skin made by a local (and tolerant) sheet metal fabricator, using the original for a pattern.

The slot for the door handle was cut out with the angle grinder and a dremel (what did I ever do without this wonderful little tool) and an original piece of bar welded into place to hold the tinplate cover.

The new/ old inner skin was fitted to the new outer skin and the edges folded over using the tried and trusted method of a flat surface and a heavy hammer to lock the two halves together.

Hinges were screwed into the new door and the new 'B' pillar has been tacked into place pending completion of the other side.

[Keith Webb]

Wonderful work Phillip, the passenger side second door also has an open top box added to it for the first aid kit.

[Phillip]

Cheers Keith,

I salvaged the original first aid box holder of the door, the door was completely rusted out all around it but the holder itself was in excellent condition.

Does anyone have a photo of the First Aid Box that goes in the holder?

[Euan McDonald]

Hi Phil,
About time we saw progress!
I have been looking for years for the correct first aid tin and one turned up at Corowa a couple of years ago but another MLU'er snuffled it from under my nose.
I did however get a pic.

[Phillip]

Thanks Euan,

Yes it has been a long time coming, but worth the wait (I hope). Its taken a while to get life settled down but the time has been well spent.

I appreciate the photos, how often have we picked things up and putty them down not knowing what they were?

Regards

[Phillip]

Slow progress this week. Both B pillars are now complete and are shown next to the originals (or what was left of them).

As much of the original parts as possible (grab handles/ rifle clips etc) have been transferred to the new pillars. (The red paint is over flow from an internal coat of primer paint).

The 3/4" holes are a pain - they are used to get to the nuts holding the door hinges but spanners for the nuts are bigger than 3/4" ! Also, once welded in place, anything that drops down is lost at the bottom. Hmmmmmm.

The second photo is the near side crew door inner skin. Ive put this up to show the de-rusting process. 24hours in a caustic soda electrolysis(?) bath turns the rust into a black powder and when hit with the wire brush comes up very shiny. Nice. I'm a convert to this method despite shorting out one battery.

Finally, I've tried a different photo format, hopefully they will be bigger now.

[Phillip]

Sometimes, you feel like you are running around in circles and getting nowhere but then you stand back and you do see progress. Sometimes, when you take that step back you see that a milestone has been passed...

Burning the midnight oil this week has seen both C pillars and the nearside crew door completed. As with the B pillars the original C pillars were completely rusted out and had to be remade from scratch.

With the B pillars tacked into place and both crew doors hung, the C pillars are now tacked into place and the angle iron that forms the top of the window ledge also cut and tacked into place. Finding steel in imperial measurements has been challenging but I found a perfect match for the original angle iron in the form of the double bed out of my darling wife's 1967 Viscount Caravan!

With all pillars now in place and the crew doors hung and swinging, its on the the rear frame work which just requires a few replacement sections welding in before the whole body come off and gets sand blasted.

The quandary at the moment is does the spare wheel holder need shifting to accommodate the 1200 x20 MRF's?

[Phillip]

All the fun bits are finished for now and its into the more mundane task of welding everything together.

• Spare wheel holder had some deep, very deep rust craters that needed to be welded and then dressed flat;
• The very rear off-side piece of angle iron and some more angle was replaced thanks to another piece of the caravan bed.
• The holder for the ground anchors (does anyone know where you can find these) straightened, rust cut out and new piece of plate welded in.
• The body had been unbolted from the chassis and it looked like hay forks were driven through the side and it was simply tipped off - in doing this they had bent a shelf floor and a few bits of angle iron. I did not want to replace them unless I had to, so set about with some heat and a hammer. So I discovered it is not easy to straighten heavy angle iron! Time and heat, then more heat = results.
• Finally, managed to drive out the door hinges for the middle locker so now have all three ready for stripping and repainting. These are good condition and should reveal some of the original colour underneath.

I've hopefully found a mobile sand blaster so all I need now is a few fine days to get the body outside and blasted, ready for re-skinning.

[Phillip]

Work has got in the way for the past month and not much has occurred.

The frame is now all welded together and ready for sand blasting. Not a very exciting job but my welding is improving no end.

I received a new steering wheel from a friend and removed the old one from the donor steering column as it was cracked around the central boss and the outer rim. New steering wheel does not fit - has smaller diameter bush

Retrieved old steering wheel from rubbish pile, picked up trusty multi-tool and cleaned out all the cracks back to the bare metal frame before filling and re-profiling.

Just researching for a suitable paint whilst waiting for the weather to clear-up.

[Mike Kelly]

Originally Posted by Phillip

I received a new steering wheel from a friend and removed the old one from the donor steering column as it was cracked around the central boss and the outer rim. New steering wheel does not fit - has smaller diameter bush

You might try resizing the bush ? If it is a tapered bore you could make a tapered reamer from silver steel . Mike

[Phillip]

Thanks Mike,

I may have to resort to something like this however I'll persevere with the old wheel first.

Regards

[Phillip]

I was planning over summer to get the body outside and sandblasted, however due to the weather, work and family commitments this simply did not occur

The steering wheel is not quite finished, only due to me trying to work out how to re-cut the grooves around the circumference.

Nonetheless I have managed some progress by completing the engine and building a stand for it. I've nearly finished the wiring and should soon be able to start running it up.

[Phillip]

Where has the time gone?

There was hardly a week all summer without some rain, the wettest season on record. Arrrgghhhhh.

Any spare time was taken up with finishing the quarter pounder, however The Ford V8 engine is now up and running, Sounds bewdiful through short open pipes.

I ditched the points and opted for an electronic ignition and matching coil, an incredible difference, starts on first push of the button and there are no wearing parts.

I could not believe my eyes when I found two complete NOS sets of the Ground Anchors in their crates - the anchors are still covered in cosmoline - unbelievable that things still turn up in such unusual places.

[Euan McDonald]

Very nice find on the ground anchors. I'm still looking for a couple of sets of pins. I'll let Wayne find a set for me (hint).

[Niels V]

Wow what a find

[Wayne Henderson]

Hey Euan,
Phil has some!

[Phillip]

Wayne,

To deal directly with Euan would be a significant departure from the normal process, whereby I swap you something, then you swap whatever you got off me with Euan.

Euan, I have 5 spare spikes at I picked up a few months ago, I'll give you a call.

[Wayne Henderson]

Phillip, you forget that I normally swap you something that I no longer need, then later need it back so swap something with Euan for something you need.
I need to buy a train set.

[Euan McDonald]

Wayne, you forgot Phil has already done the trade for his radiator. Can you remind me what you traded for your radiator!

[Wayne Henderson]

my dignity.

[Phillip]

With the LP2a now finished it back to the FGT. I’ve decided to assemble the conglomeration of parts that I have in order to sort them all out, work out which bits I don’t need, which bits I am missing and which bits I have misplaced......

[aj.lec]

Coming along nicely