Chev C8 in Australia

[Tony Smith]

A Chev C8 12 Cab has been rescued from an uncertain fate. While not a brilliant specimen, the rarity of these little beasts saved this one.



The original tyres still HAD good tread before 60 years of sunlight got to them. I think a visit to This thread is in order.



There were no data plates to be found giving a serial number, but some of the instruction plates are still there



The only possible identifying number to be found was the engine number (seems to be the original) which was R1977950. Odd, I thought Chev numbers were PR... or TR....
David Hayward, any clues here?

[Tony Smith]

As we have discussed in other threads before, Chev C8's and C15's tend to draw components from Civvy commercial vehicles much more than other CMP's.
Here we see the rear Chev Torque Tube diff (and some genuine Chev chassis rust).



The diff is sourced from the Chev 1/2 ton truck:



While the instrument panel has been replaced by something equally vintage but civvy, the rest of the Cab interior remains fairly complete and unmodified:



The inside of the left rear corner of the cab has these brackets remaining. The is one in the upper part of the wall that appears to be for a maintenence manual or logbook, but what are the lower ones for?
The wedge shaped one looks like the type used for blades of shovels, but this would only fit a small garden trowel.
Is the felt-padded block with webbing strap a Rifle retainer?

[Tony Smith]

Mike Kelly mentioned in a thread once that there were'nt too many C8s supplied to Aust (tried searching for C8, too small a word!). Mike, do you still have your example? Dubbo museum had one and it was recently sold. There is another at the Milne Bay Museum in Toowoomba, and Tim Vibert's one went to Wanaka NZ.
How many are remaining?

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

R1977950

I think it could only be a 1939 Model Canadian car 216 engine, rhd of course, perhaps out of a Holden Chevy! Might be worth some $$$ to a '39 owner somewhere around the world. The casting date code and the blocks casting code will confirm.

I believe that these are ex-Canadian C.8, F.8 and C.15/F.15 trucks assembled in the UK and then sold to the British, acquired under BM/2V83.WS6 (D) or BM/2783.WS6(D) and shipped out to the Mid-East, for allocation to forceds out there. They were then allcoatd Census Numbers in the local Z 417 etc series, e.g.
Z 4177535, and then of course transferred to the AIF in due course. They were then repatriated to Australia subsequently.

Phew!

[Nick Bullock]

Hi Tony
Its always good to see another C8, so thanks for the posting, I notice that the tin worm has been at your chassis, I have a spare here in Yorkshire if you have access to a jiffy bag of sufficient capacity. Yours for the taking, its destined to be cut up shortly. my wife says its been there 'just in case' for long enough!
kind regards
nick

[aj.lec]

the one in dubbo was a ford
dont know where it ended up it was presold before auction

[Max Hedges]

Tony I picked up a ford 12 cab years ago and it had headlights like the ones on the c8. The ones I have here still have traces of light stone colour paint on them as if they were fitted during the war years.
Max

[Colin Foulkes]

Look to me to be out of a 1934 Chev car, one of those ordinary civilian things.

Col.

[grant fincher]

Hi Tony

Is this the Chev at Wanaka you mentioned earlier in this thread? I was in Wanaka a few months ago and took these photos.

Grant Fincher

[Mike K]

Hi Tony ,

A topic on C8's .... where is Cletrac , his puter must be out of action .

Another one has surfaced . That makes about 15 I know of in Oz .

The Wanaka C8 was found behind a petrol station at Lakes Entrance , East Gippsland in 1985 . Ian Ledwidge bought it and did a swap with Tim Vibert who restored it , he sold it to Rod Donkin of Wagga, he sold it to NZ . It has a Duple body tub on it , made in England .

The Dubbo C8 , I first laid eyes on in 1977 when it was at Shepparton in Vic. It sold for around 10K , before the Dubbo auction , it was not restored . It was in a bush fire unit up on the Murray river before Barry Ryan got it in the early-mid 1970's. It also has a Duple body on it .

The rear axle and rear springs is a actually from the 1939/40 civvy 1 ton truck with 4.55-1 ratio . There are a few C8's around , another one lives near Drouin , not far from here .

Pictured is 1941 C8 with census nr. Z4544183 , taken at Yea in 1980 . I ended up buying this for parts . The camo pattern is still just visible on the cab roof . My cab 11 has a loose piston pin , it rattles away at idle ,apparently a common thing on the 216 engine .

The only F8 I know of in OZ is or was owned by the well known collector at Cambelltown ,NSW . He rang me some years back enquiring about 900-13 tyres for it . That is the only definate F8 I know of here .

Mike

[Mike K]

Another C8 was used by a Garage at Jerilderie NSW in the 1950's , It ended up going to the Mansfield district in Victoria , it has still to be found . The GM dealer at Wangaratta had one too . They seem to be popular as Garage /petrol station runabouts as Bill Drew said they had one in the early 1950's as well , in their Garage business . Not much use on the open road with that diff ratio and little wheels .

Mike

Nicks truck pictured .

[Mike K]

Murray's C8 in Perth, West . Aust. Is he still around ? we haven't heard from him for years . This would be a ex 1st Aust. Arm division vehicle ?

Mike

[Nick Bullock]

Hi mike
that picture goes back some time, I imagine taken by Ian Richardson while he was rebuiling his C8, heres an earlier view of the same truck as found in I think about 1980, still with the markings of its original postwar user. The story was that the garage that received the truck never really used it because it wasn't big enough to convert to a tow truck. They applied to the MOS for a 15cwt and got this... so it saw little use. Interestingly the data plate for this vehicle was wrong, it was for a FAT and not a C8.. so maybe they were just going by the numbers, apparently you had to accept the allocated vehicle, it must have been some sort of essential user scheme.
Awful picture though, I have no scanner at the moment.
kind regards
nick

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by aj.lec
the one in dubbo was a ford
dont know where it ended up it was presold before auction

Picture of the Dubbo C8:

[Tony Smith]

The 13 WD rims for the rear were supplied with the vehicle, but not the spacer/adapter to convert from the Chev 6 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern to the WD bolt pattern. The truck is now on CHev commercial wheels, but will probably receive a pair of Toyota Landcruiser wheels to roll on.

What does the spacer/adapter look like, and would anyone have a pair spare?

[Nick Bullock]

Hi Tony
I believe that I have one drum, spacer and wheel rim for the C8 but again you'll need a teleporter!

kind regards

nick
yorkshire
england

[cletrac (RIP)]

Herer's the hubs and adapters off my C8. The one on the right is the rear wheel adapter. The front ones are the whole hub and not just an adapter. To use the 6 on 5 1/2 wheels on the front you'd have to install a half ton spindlle. I think the king pins are the same.
The problem with civvy wheels would be to get them positioned at the right width for the truck. The adapters are about 3" wide so if you remove them the track width is 6" less. If I was doing this I'd get some machinery rims that use the 7 rib 11x15" tires. These are the same profile as the military tires and are only 1 or 2 inches more diameter. Then I'd cut the centres out and weld in centres off a 6 bolt Chev with the rim offset outwards as far as I could get it. You'd end up with the right shaped tire sitting in the right place and you'd pick up a couple of mph to boot. You could also groove the tires at right angles to the ribs if you wanted the tread.
As for the headlights didn't one of those pictures of the CMP Umbauwagen have the same thing? Maybe there was a supply issue at one time?

[MurrayC]

Hello Mike and all.

My Chev C8 is outside due to lack of roof space and is all wrapped up for the winter. The plan is to have it on the road by the end of the year.
The photo below is a composit showing it as rescued from a farm in the wheatbelt many years ago where it was being used as a trailer ( the motor was stuffed). When Bob Dimer, the original owner, and I rubbed back various places, we found the number Z4548484 painted twice on a door, a red over blue 46 on a front mudguard and above it a mailed fist. Unless corrected, I'm assuming that, after it came to West Oz from North Aftica, it belonged to the 108th Anti-Tank Regiment, a componant of the Ist Aust. Armoured division and was sold off here when the unit was disbanded
The motor is the original, and has been rebuilt along with the electrics and brakes and shouldn't take that much to finish.

Cheers for now,
Murray

[aj.lec]

stand corrected
didnt see that one was gone before i got there i think
only saw this one

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by aj.lec
stand corrected
didnt see that one was gone before i got there i think
only saw this one

Looks to be a F15.

[Mike K]

Hi Murray,

You have re-surfaced out of the wilderness or wheat fields or Karri trees or whatever . Maybe well have a C8 get together one day . Nick is too far away, up in the moors . Darren in QLD you in Perth .

Ian R in Lancashire helped me out heaps . I do have the story of that particular C8 now owned by Nick, written up in Nicks old magazine .


The chassis of the C8 is interesting , they seem to have used the middle crossmember from a 1940 1/2 ton pickup . The same crossmember is used on the C8AX chassis too. I measured all 3 crossmembers of my three vehicles here:

C8
C8AX
1940 15 cwt ute ( or 1/2 ton pickup to others )

All 3 have exactly the same middle crossmember dimensionally , it's the curvy one that is rusted away in Tony's pic. I also have a 1939 Chev 1 ton wreck here and it also has the same crossmember fitted.

A highly modded C8 turned up on Ebay a few years back in NSW .

Here is a pic of Ians truck , would be 12 years ago at least .
Suffering from droopy front guard syndrome .
Mike

[Mike K]

Dennis Deck's C8 in California , USA . He was often enquiring about parts and info .

[Mike K]

This was owned by Andre Gibeault ? of Quebec at one time . Where is it now ?

[Alex van de Wetering]

Great find Tony.

Allthough I am more of the scale-modeling kind, I start to get interested in these 1:1scale 8cwt projects more and more......

Funny to see that the crossmember rotted away completely while other chassis elements still remain. Maybe a result of (too) heavy load and damage to that part?

Alex

[Tony Smith]

Alex, I think it may have more to do with the type of body that was fitted post-war, or the way it was mounted. The rest of the chassis is quite good away from the crossmember, but there is a heavy railway sleeper bolted across the frame just behind the cab. Perhaps there was a similar piece of wood near the rusted out crossmember?

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
Mike Kelly mentioned in a thread once that there were'nt too many C8s supplied to Aust. Dubbo museum had one and it was recently sold. There is another at the Milne Bay Museum in Toowoomba, ......

Pictured below is the C8 Owned by Darren Abbot of the Milne Bay Museum in Toowoomba.

Darren brought it along to the Queensland Military Jeep Club Swap Meet in Canungra, where it was judged best in class for 1/2 ton vehicles. It really is a first class job, and quite probably the best presented C8 in Australia.

I don't think think the rear body is an original Duple (it may be, it just looks too good!), but the quality of work is such that it does resemble a factory job:

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Z 4542694 4544302 TRUCK 8 CWT.4 X 2 PERSONNEL
Z 4544368 4544693 TRUCK 8 CWT. 4 X 2 W/LESS
Z 4544694 4546193 TRUCK 8 CWT. 4 X 2 PERSONNEL
Z 4548XXX 4548XXX TRUCK 8 CWT. 4 X 2

[Mike K]

Looks excellent . Darren was chasing a set of rims for ages , seemed an endless runaround but he won in the end .

I sent him details of the tubular bows . My Morris PU still has the bows there .. by a miracle they survived somehow . The repro Duple body seems as if it passed the Duple factory doors in London just yesterday !

Two restored C8's in OZ now .. where will it end .

Mike

PS In case anyone is wondering .. the tubular bits along each side are for the vets to hang onto , during ANZAC day ?

[Ryan]

She's a rusty one.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Blitz-Chev-C8...QQcmdZViewItem
No connection with seller.

[lynx42]

Ryan,
Keep them coming. You must have your Ebay set up well to locate all these blitz's and bits. Should let Mike Kelly know. Interesting what's in the background as well. Can't tell if it's a Chev or a Ford from those photo's.
Regards Rick