Its infectious

[motto (RIP)]

I will try and get some pictures up Tony but I really do struggle with this IT stuff and at times wish I had a very large catapult outside the back door that I could happily use to hurl this infuriating device down the paddock and out of sight. I can't even find where you shovel the coal into it!!
To make matters worse my photo collection is in total dis-array and as we are in the throes of serious renovations on the house (which by the way I should be working on) they are mostly in amongst a huge pile of boxes and stripey bags in the garage.
In the meantime. There was a documentary produced on the ANZAC Tour titled 'Driving to D-Day', that went to air in Australia and I think NZ on the History Channel on the 6th of June last. There is a web site to do with this doco and in the photo file is a picture of my truck taken in Mulhouse France. Mulhouse is well known as the home of the French national car museum which includes the Schlumff collection and also of the national railway museum, neither of which rates a mention but are world class displays.
I and my Chev are well known to some of the regular forum contributors and when the Chev went unrecognised as happened in a previous thread where it was pictured in Alice Springs I was somewhat puzzled. In that thread the cab was mis-identified by someone as being a Holden built one when it is in fact American. The mistake was understandable because of a reflection that made it look like it had quarter vent windows. At that time I didn't know how to post, only look, so couldn't correct but I thought that someone who knew the truck would have at least identified the owner.
The only way I know how to put information in a post is to type it so will close this and find the 'Driving to D-Day' website and put it in another post.
David

[motto (RIP)]

Here 'tis.
www.drivingtod-day.com.au

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by motto

I will try and get some pictures up Tony but I really do struggle with this IT stuff and at times wish I had a very large catapult outside the back door that I could happily use to hurl this infuriating device down the paddock and out of sight. I can't even find where you shovel the coal into it!!

Hi Dave,

To help you out, here are a couple of photos of your Chev, one on the MVT campsite in Normandy and the other taken outside my workshop in England.
I have seen your Chev at Corowa several times, as well as on the Alice to Darwin convoy and again on the Ghan Track, and to see it in Normandy and then turn up outside my home, was quite something.......my neighbour was impressed!

regards, Richard

[motto (RIP)]

Test photo. Brass band on board ANZAC Day 2008. Photo taken at intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne, April 25th 2008 whilst waiting to move off. My 90 year old father Ray, a WW2 veteran, in the passenger seat.
David

[Keith Webb]

Nice image David.
What did your dad do during the war?

Originally Posted by motto

Test photo. Brass band on board ANZAC Day 2008. Photo taken at intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne, April 25th 2008 whilst waiting to move off. My 90 year old father Ray, a WW2 veteran, in the passenger seat.
David

[motto (RIP)]

Thanks Keith, Dad was with 7th Battalion Signals as a Don R. They were rushed up to the Northern Territory after the Japs bombed Darwin but Dad had too close a look at the back of a 1/2 Ton Dodge command car that overtook him on a dirt road then stopped on the road in the cloud of dust it was throwing up. He still suffers from his injuries to this day.
His memory is still sharp. He clearly recalls travelling south on a stripped out B25 Mitchell that the Americans were using on the milk run, he lost his breakfast on the flight.
When he sufficiently recovered from his injuries he was manpowered into essential work and was a welder helping to build those 6'x6'x6' pontoons with checker plate on one side that were used among other things to build floating jetties. The place also built unpowered steel hulled watercraft called 'lighters'.
Dad's name is on a memorial to those who served in the forces that is in a park just outside his back fence where he lives in Mildura. He still sees his few remaining service friends at the RSL regularly and attends the ANZAC Day ceremonies each year. This year he attended even though he had spent a sleepless night in hospital under observation due to a bad fall the day before, he's 91. I really don't think they make them like that any more.
David

[Ganmain Tony]

Thanks for sharing this David about your father. Sounds like a tough fellah!

I see your computer skills are on a steep but successful learning curve. These are great photos, I really enjoyed having a look at them. Thanks also Richard for your couple of snaps as well.

Plugging away with the master cylinder out of the old Chev. The compensating port was clogged full of crap. Got it cleaned up however.

Seeing the pictures of the completed trucks gives me a lift. Did yours originally come with the 18inch wheels David? If so, love to hear your experiences switching it over to the 20's.

[motto (RIP)]

Yes Tony, I've taken some baby steps in the right direction with mouse and keyboard but Maggie and I should have had a family so as there were some grand children around to help me along.
My truck always had 20" wheels and I have not seen many that don't. The first time I saw a L/L Chev with 18" wheels I was very surprised as I had only ever seen them on 20's and I had seen quite a few by that time. The TM's for the trucks that I have only show 20's and one of them has a strip of paper across the cover that is printed in red ink and says among other things.
SPECIAL NOTICE. The 160" wheelbase CHEVROLET TRUCKS imported by the Commonwealth Government for essential civilian users are equiped with:- HEAVY 10" x 5/16" FRAME REINFORCEMENTS, AUXILIARY SPRINGS, 7" WHEELS, 7-7.50 x 20 TYRES AND HAVE AN ALLOWABLE GROSS WEIGHT OF 14,300 lbs.
It goes on to give tare weights for Chassis and cab and trucks with platform,dropside or stakeside bodies.
Don't be taken in by these trucks only having five studs for the front wheels, There is a plate under the wheel nuts that obscures five of the holes in the wheel.
This leads me on to another mystery. The 30 cwt version of these trucks with the 9' tray used a heavier front axle and I mean heavier in every way including king pins and wheel bearings. Bearings are barrel rollers instead of the bicycle type cup and cones on the larger/heavier truck. It appears to be the same axle as under the 4x2 Blitz but narrower in the track.Figure that one out.
There used to be a fellow that drove a L/L Chev around Melbourne up untill about fifteen years ago collecting waste paper. Earlier in his career he had worked for Regent Motors the GM Holden agents and he told me that when the had both light and heavy trucks in the workshop they would swap the front axles over and not tell the owners. Hard to believe but that's what he told me and he was quite matter of fact about it.
There's an awful lot we don't know about these trucks.
You may have noticed Tony that I started a thread so as not to hijack yours. Keep up the good work.
David