How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

I have an Australian built Holden Body Works general service body mounted on my F-15A chassis. It had previously been on a F-15 chassis.

I have noted something strange about the channels on the body that rest on the chassis. For some apparent reason they have been recessed, at great effort, into the transverse floor cross members.

Was this a modification during production or another "Dodgey Bros" one by a civilian owner? Were the bodies slightly different between the F-15 and the F-15A?

I also note those channels have three welded on steel plates with rubber pads between them and the chassis rails. I am of the understanding that old truck bodies are always mounted on wooden battens along the entire length of the body and chassis to uniformly spread out the load.

If they are "Dodgey" ones I can replace them with some original uncut ones if required, but I don't want to go to that trouble if I don't have to. You can see on the photo of another Holden body floor that the channels are mounted on top of the transverse cross members.

Noted this recently when trying to reattach the fuel lines to the tanks. There was no room between the tank and body to swing the spanner to tighten the flare nuts which made me think the body was mounted too low on the chassis.

My gut feeling is they are "Dodgey" ones but hope I am wrong to save some work.

Any information gratefully received.

Cheers

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

I am of the understanding that old truck bodies are always mounted on wooden battens along the entire length of the body and chassis to uniformly spread out the load.

Not sure about the Australian-built bodies, but as far as I know all the British and Canadian bodies had wooden longitudinal sills.

See 15-cwt GS body: 2H1 composite wood and steel for some detail drawings and photos.

The all-steel 2C1 body on my F15A has U-shaped steel channels as longitudinal sills with wooden inserts which rest on the top of the frame rails.

[Jacques Reed]

Thanks Hanno,

Remember seeing that link. A mate of mine has a beautifully restored 1938 civilian Ford stake side truck and it's body sits on wooden sills so it must have been common body mounting practice.

Don't think steel pads with insertion rubber underneath is a period correct body mounting procedure but hopefully someone in Australia can shed some light on it and the recessed channel.

Cheers,

[hrpearce]

Picture under my body.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the photo looks like the sills are only about 1" thick which is the same size that my mates Ford stake side body sits on.

Now if I can only find why someone went to the trouble to recess those channels into the transverse cross members I would be really happy. If not original, recessing them seems like a lot of work for no apparent reason.

Bet as sure as I would cut out those channels on mine and weld my other channels on top of those cross members someone would find that there was a wartime modification to lower the floor, or the center of gravity, or some other reason.

Think I'll wait and won't do anything too hasty, not that I do it the best of times!

Cheers,