Identification of F15 2WD?

[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]

Doesnt look like much - but brother! time just slips away... getting there though.

Sag on the RHF had been remedied Definitely was the springs. Replacement springs from Max's pulled apart cleaned then repacked, blasted and painted. Replaced the shackle bushes, old ones badly flogged out.

Below photo's show before and after.

Four rims - removed ancient D&D tyres (I did one, which took me a week) then took the other three to tyre dealer who had them off in half an hour and charged me 20 bucks.

There is no point being a tight arse when doing one of these trucks.

Fitted new tyres - these are the ones Bob Carrier and Harry Moon put me onto from Wallace Wade. Thanks again Jack for organisiing the logistics.

Popped on the rims beautifully!!!

Anyway - some pictures

[Ganmain Tony]

Im going to have a look at the manual myself, but one observation Howard and I made today is the track width on the front axle is greater than the rear axle.

Anyone wish to comment??

Fuel tank finally top coated and on.

Spring hangers now sitting correctly - directly up and down - wonder what that'll do to caster angle and the steering of the truck?

Now that the rest of the front suspension is tight - we've just noticed the play in the king pins - they will have to be done.

Anyone had to replace them?

[hrpearce]

Looking good Tony

[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]

Again many thanks Mike...always great to tap into fountains of hard won knowledge.

Mr Keith Webb also assisted me at length to come to this conclusion..

Hopefully be able to post more progress soon..

[Mike Cecil]

Happy to help, Tony.

Keefy, of course, is a fountain of hard won CMP knowledge: toooo many years taking pics and making observations. Needless to say, our wives despair when we get together: too many 'nuts and bolts' in the conversation for their liking!! We, on the other hand, have a great time!

Mike C

[Ganmain Tony]

Diagnosis was correct with a sagging right front spring being the cause of the Chassis lean.

Went out to Hillston on the weekend to consult with the great fountain of Ford knowledge, John Mackie.

We came away with a lot more questions than answers however...it seems that every different model of Ford of the era had a spring of different length and width.

Firstly, here are the specs from the repair workshop manual.

Second photo shows Khaki 2wd spring and Rusty 4wd spring. As you can see from specifications it cant be used as it is not wide enough.

Third photo shows why I cant use passenger side spring either...

Third and Fourth photo confirms widths of springs