Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Private_collector]

Still working on the chassis. Nothing worthy of photographing today. All photos shown now are old ones.

I Removed the front cross member....carefully, and made the 'new' one ready to go on.

rear chassis box 3.jpg rear chassis box 1.jpg
Then tidied one of the chassis rails at the very back , where previous owner/s had done some bodgy work by modifying the rear 14in of each rail.............by turning them into a fully enclosed bux section for that length. Couldn't tell you why. I'm absolutely stumped. Why would someone vandalise a perfectly good truck chassis by doing this to it!

It took several hours of very careful, almost surgical grinding (contradiction of terms?) to undo all that shanagans! Next weekend I buy another bunch of cutting & grinding wheels, and do the other side. Better buy a set of ear muffs too. I presently have a ringing in the ears that resembles the old ABC TV test panel. The sound that was left when they switched off transmission late at night. Ah, the good old days!
rear chassis box 2.jpg
The pointless mod included adding a piece of steel plate on outside of each rail, at rear. This piece of plate extends roughly 12in, and is brought to a taper towards the front of the piece. In fact the taper looks like a boats bow. I would understand doing this if there was some diabolical damage to the rails that needed drastic work to repair, but far from damaged, the rails are PERFECT. At least at that part anyway. There is some VERY minor repair work needed to the passenger side rail, where there is a crack on the underside, eminating from a bolt hole. This had already been 'fixed' but I will grind the weld out of the area and the engineers will fix this properly!

As a parting gesture, nearly a gallon of degreaser was sprayed on the front 3/4 of the chassis, in several applications, with a hearty water blasting between the coats. Now very little grime buildup anywhere on the chassis. The sandblaster (Shane) will be very greatful for this, as will I, because the more I get off, the better the blasting job will be.

You don't make a friend if you send something for blasting coated in excess (or any) grease, oil, rust scale or caked on and time hardened dirt. They won't put in the extra hours needed to remove this with the grit, so you will get the part back beautifully primed......... ............with the gunk still in places that were too hard to reach thoroughly.

Alternatively, you will get an immaculate part back, with a $$$ bill that would send you broke in one foul swoop!