F15A blitz or not?

[aj.lec]

Is there a ammo box mounted in the passenger side of nose cone ?
Any evidence of a mount on passenger side wheel arch inside ?
Engine chassis number sometimes found on bellhousing of gearbox at the top as well (If it is original gearbox )
Australian Gun tractor don't have the helper springs but easily added on later

[Keith Webb]

The double rear cross member and fairleads marks this as a winch equipped (=FGT) chassis.

As Mike suggested find the chassis number!

[Luke R]

Thanks for all the info guys.
I've come up with conclusion that it started life a FGT then sometime after/during the crane conversion the cab and diffs have been replaced.
There is no sign of a number on the top of the chassis and the side is plated over so ill have to do some cutting/grinding when I get time to see if I have any numbers on the vertical side.

Cheers again
Luke

[Mike Cecil]

Luke,

The Aust Ford CMPs assembled and stamped with their chassis number/engine number locally, have the stamping as previously indicated, so you won't find it stamped on the vertical of the chassis rail. The FGTs certainly fall into this group.

The number is often quite lightly stamped, so some judicious use of wet & dry might show it up. It will be something like the format '3GXXXXF' or similar.

Once you locate the chassis number, I'm pretty sure Keith or I can narrow down an ARN pretty quickly.

Mike

[Keith Webb]

The usual place is adjacent to the RH engine mount but I have also seen the number stamped on the RH vertical face adjacent to the bolts holding the starter solenoid.

[Mike Cecil]

That's a new one on me, Keith, so grind away, Luke, let's see what you can turn up.

Mike

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

The usual place is adjacent to the RH engine mount but I have also seen the number stamped on the RH vertical face adjacent to the bolts holding the starter solenoid.

This was Australian practice, right?

[Mike Cecil]

Yes, Hanno: Ford Motor Company of Australia stamped the original engine number onto the chassis for all models, including CMPs assembled in Australia (but not individual CMP trucks imported from Canada as CKD - they retained their usual CDN method of ID, such as the engine number stamped onto the edge of the gearbox/bell housing).

The usual place was adjacent to the engine cross member on the RHS, on the horizontal part of the chassis rail, but Keith has also seen the number stamped onto the vertical, as mentioned above. Hence, the chassis stamping could only be done at the point where the chassis was on the assembly line and the engine/transmission was assembled onto the chassis, ie at the point of 'mating' of these components.

I don't know if any other Commonwealth countries with Ford assembly lines stamped the number is similar fashion, but it was certainly the case in Oz where a sizable amount of the truck was locally manufactured, not imported.

Mike