[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

Sometimes when you have been searching for info for a long time it just drops in your lap. The following is a case in point.

I have looked for original dimensions of the bows for a Holden Body Works 15 CWT GS body for my Ford F-15A. Found a few photos of them over the years but was unsure of their originality or the quality was too poor for estimating or scaling sizes. Have seen some with a crank in them where they fit the body and perhaps they are also genuine but a variation. Will stick with these anyway.

On a Facebook group I follow the original photo of a Chev C15-A was posted recently taken from the militaryimages.net website. Probably an archive photo also. It is a wartime photo so leaves no doubt in my mind to the accurate representation of the bows. My GS body is identical to the one in the photo.

On MLU a while ago an original drawing of a 3 ton Australian GS body was posted. It specified 1" gas pipe for the bows. It also showed an outside radius at the bends of 6". A bit of an assumption but I assumed the same 6" outside radius would be used on the smaller body hoops. The scaling was consistent with that size radius which was reassuring. The radiator brush guard is also 1" pipe but heavier Schedule 80. The OD is the same however and a spare one fits well in my holders.

1" pipe schedule 40 is 1.314" OD. That fits in perfectly with the space at the original holders on my body. Knowing the inside distance between the side of the bows, 83" and the distance from the top of the sides to the bottom of the sides, 25-1/2" it was relatively easy to scale up the dimensions. The length of the lines shown are specified at the time of drawing. A bit of reverse model making!

So hopefully this is accurate. At least it is better than the dodgy 3/4" pipe bows that came with the truck. Always happy to accept better info if it comes to hand.

Hope this is of some interest.