Identification of F15 2WD?

[Michael Hughes]

Hi Tony & Clevo
I was thinking about the webbing in between the cab & frame . It could be a mixture of Stockholm tar & Linseed oil that the webbing was soaked into. I use Stockholm tar as a thread anti seize on track bolts on earth moving equipment it is brilliant if there is no heat ( Dad & I did a set of tracks on an excavator that did a bit of work in salt water 10 years later give or take we were able to undo the track bolts )
Stockholm tar is old school pushed aside by the new products.It is brilliant to protect threads if there is not a lot of heat ie not for use on engines. But good for body & chassis bolts.
It is what I will be using all over the cab 12 when it starts to go together Sooner than later I hope

[Ganmain Tony]

About time for a very quick update..on the little F15.

Finally got the right paint match in terms of colour.

Before anyone says... "that's not khaki no3" I can assure you this colour has been painstakingly matched to an original sample from the truck that was not exposed to fading.

So it is spot on. What I am a bit ticked off about is the semi gloss finish 'cause we also worked on getting a flat to matt finish. The spec's sent to the paint maker specified that 20% flattening agent was required. Anyway I'll work on that.

Couple of weld repairs were done and then blasted, undercoated and painted. All done by Tasman Grit in Wagga. I simply dont have the facilities to sand blast and when it is done you've got to get the paint on quick smart.. so they have done that as well.

Great to have some progress which can be seen. Never ceases to amaze me just how well these trucks come up..

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Tony

"So it is spot on. What I am a bit ticked off about is the semi gloss finish 'cause we also worked on getting a flat to matt finish. The spec's sent to the paint maker specified that 20% flattening agent was required. Anyway I'll work on that."

Whose paint did you use?
Did you add any hardener or other additive other than the flatten-er?
Did you get all the mixture numbers so it can be reproduced?

Reason I ask is did a similar process on my HUP and the finial coat just did not flatten the way I wanted. The problems in my case are technique and adding hardener to Enamel.

Cheers Phil

[hrpearce]

Looking good Tony, how about a couple of shots of the finished shed

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Looking good Tony, how about a couple of shots of the finished shed

I will Robert - stay tuned..

[Mike Cecil]

Tony,

I've come very late to this thread, but....

"Before anyone says... "that's not khaki no3" I can assure you this colour has been painstakingly matched to an original sample from the truck that was not exposed to fading.

So we can assume you used a sample from a position between panels? This does not take into account that the individual parts were not 'overpainted' in Australia, but the truck was overpainted with KG3 and the disruptive colour after assembly in Australia by the contractor. The paint sandwiched between panels is generally not a good indicator of the exterior vehicle colour in Australia.

Given the date of production of the vehicle, and the ARN, can I ask:

What pattern the flooring is, and the thickness of the floor inside the cab?

Does the roof have a roof hatch? If so, is it welded or bolted in?

Does the cab lower rear panel have a 'w' or an inverted 'u' shaped strenthening rib? Is there a small disc welded to the rib located on the left side?

Were the cab roof to cab rear panel bolts Whitworth (ie not UNC sized heads)

Does the engine number also appear stamped on the upper right hand chassis member, adjacent to the front cross member, or is this area blank?

My F15s were always fun to drive. The last one had an up-rated diff centre which gave it respectable road speed, too.

Regards

Mike C

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Tony,


My F15s were always fun to drive. The last one had an up-rated diff centre which gave it respectable road speed, too.

Regards

Mike C

G'day Mike,

I guess that it was a White Scout Car diff you used. I remember Albert Bowden doing a couple of conversions using White Scout Car diffs.

I need one now as I found out the hard way that you have to put oil in the diff if it leaks a bit. I had the White on display in a museum and as there was no oil on the floor when I picked it up I didn't think to check the oil level before driving it 150km. home. I made it home but soon found out a few days later that the pinion bearing had collapsed from lack of oil. Some of the rollers from the bearings had actually gone between the pinion and the diff centre.

Wanted 1 White Scout Car Diff.

Regards Rick.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by lynx42

G'day Mike,

I guess that it was a White Scout Car diff you used. I remember Albert Bowden doing a couple of conversions using White Scout Car diffs.

I need one now as I found out the hard way that you have to put oil in the diff if it leaks a bit. I had the White on display in a museum and as there was no oil on the floor when I picked it up I didn't think to check the oil level before driving it 150km. home. I made it home but soon found out a few days later that the pinion bearing had collapsed from lack of oil. Some of the rollers from the bearings had actually gone between the pinion and the diff centre.

Wanted 1 White Scout Car Diff.

Rick, I saw an ad for a White Scour car diff on a Dutch website the other day, but it's gone now. For reference: seller wanted EUR 150 for it.

H.

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Tony,

I've come very late to this thread, but....

"Before anyone says... "that's not khaki no3" I can assure you this colour has been painstakingly matched to an original sample from the truck that was not exposed to fading.

So we can assume you used a sample from a position between panels? This does not take into account that the individual parts were not 'overpainted' in Australia, but the truck was overpainted with KG3 and the disruptive colour after assembly in Australia by the contractor. The paint sandwiched between panels is generally not a good indicator of the exterior vehicle colour in Australia.

Given the date of production of the vehicle, and the ARN, can I ask:

What pattern the flooring is, and the thickness of the floor inside the cab?

Does the roof have a roof hatch? If so, is it welded or bolted in?

Does the cab lower rear panel have a 'w' or an inverted 'u' shaped strenthening rib? Is there a small disc welded to the rib located on the left side?

Were the cab roof to cab rear panel bolts Whitworth (ie not UNC sized heads)

Does the engine number also appear stamped on the upper right hand chassis member, adjacent to the front cross member, or is this area blank?

My F15s were always fun to drive. The last one had an up-rated diff centre which gave it respectable road speed, too.

Regards

Mike C

I wanted to get the original colour of the truck Mike and that was indeed from samples along the underside of the passenger door. The Master cylinder top access cover and from paint under overlaid coats of paint and from under the mirror arms when I took them off the truck. We had good undisturbed examples.

The finish in my opinion also distorts how the colour looks which is frustrating.

To answer some of your questions and Im stoked youre taking an interest in this project by the way... Ive ducked outside and grabbed some snaps.

It has the inverted U shaped strenthening rib, different to the later Aussie Cabs. It also has the Canadian Floor not the thick Diamond pattern Aussie Floor. No disc, but I know what youre talking about. The light blue back in the photos is the aussie cab. The other one is off mine.

Could not find serial no. on Chassis but thats not to say it isnt there.

I cant remember what the bolts were from the back of the Cab. But I dont remember them being an odd size like whitworth.

Roof Hatch was chopped out & windscreen reversed so dont know how it was attached.

[Mike Cecil]

..... but it's enough, Tony, to fairly confidently say that you have one of the wholly imported early (to Australia) batch of cab 13 Ford Canada F15's (my first truck - ARN 55401 - was one of these, too). Therefore, it was assembled and then overpainted with KG3 from a partially knocked down kit which included a 2C1 body and Canadian type spare wheel carrier. These were a stop-gap measure to tide Army over until local manufacture of parts and local assembly of combination Aust/CDN parts into complete trucks geared up. Army wanted 4x4s, but all that was available at that stage from CND was 4x2.

The roof sounds like it has been 'disturbed' so may not be a good indicator, but should still have the standard slide type 1/2 steel rear 'window' rather than the canvas flap and fittings for same (even if removed, it will be obvious which one was fitted by the holes that are left). Rifle buckets should therefore be timber with rounded ends, held in to the floor by two large screws: often the pair of buckets were retained rather than having the passenger one replaced with a felt-lined steel box for the BREN butt, as per later Aust requirements. Roof to cab back bolts would be std UNC (Aust roof held to Aust back with Whitworth bolts: you'd know if this was the case, as you'd have to rat around looking for a b******y spanner that fitted when you pulled it off!)

There will not be a stamped engine number in the position indicated in my last post: that was purely on Australian Ford-assembled vehicles from parts supplied both from local and imported (CDN) manufacture. It also explains why the engine number was stamped on the gearbox, as per CDN practice.

The roof hatch, if you choose to reinstall it, will be of the CDN type, with shaped wooden fillers between the curve of the roof and the flat of the hatch base. It would have been bolted into place. Hatch is fabricated with an integral single piece 'panic handle'. (Aust Ford hatches were pressed steel, two main parts, a different size and welded into the roof, with a handle base welded to the roof forward of the hatch which mounted two std hardware handles, riveted to the base).

There should not be any holes in the left side of the cab for the gallows-type LAA mount (holes in both the cab rear panel and the roof panel). Again, these came later and were not generally retrofitted to these earlier CDN supplied trucks.

If the above applies to your truck, it supports my contention that this is a wholly CDN 4x2. They are a nice truck, and, as Rick C said, a White crown wheel and pinion fitted into the original diff housing does good things for their road speed.

Best regards

Mike C

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi Tony

"So it is spot on.
Whose paint did you use?
Did you add any hardener or other additive other than the flatten-er?
Did you get all the mixture numbers so it can be reproduced?

Reason I ask is did a similar process on my HUP and the finial coat just did not flatten the way I wanted. The problems in my case are technique and adding hardener to Enamel.

Cheers Phil

Paint specs have been kept by the bloke who did the work putting the formula together. So I can get them off him if you'd like them..not a problem.

I'm just not going to be able to get them for a few weeks.