Ford FAT No.9 Restoration

[hrpearce]

Welcome Phillip, I'm looking forward to future posts and pictures.

[Tony Wheeler]

Welcome to MLU Phillip and thanks for the pics, great to see another FGT9 project commencing and I look forward to lots more pics as you progress! There's a handful of FGT9s around Australia awaiting restoration, including my own ARN 133172, or what's left of it! Do you have a chassis for your project?
Cheers, Tony.

TONY4409 - Copy.jpg

[Phillip]

Thanks Tony and Robert. I've followed this forum for a while and it appears to be a great community and supportive community, so thanks once again.

You can't see it in the photos but the ARN of this No.9 is 134881.

The body came into my hands having been de-skinned and some of the rusted bar work replaced and sitting on a good -semi restored FAT chassis and new 12 x 20 MRF's.

It was going to be rebuilt as a chev, but why would you do that (cue comments on Ford Vs Chev) - it has Ford doors for a start!

It has taken me a while to find where to start and some good reference images for items like the rear crew doors, floor plates. Thanks to Euan for assistance in this respect.

[Phillip]

I managed to get started on this project just before the end of financial year so will bring this thread up to date on progress so far.

Working out the order to do this in has been a challenge. The B pillars are welded to 1/4 inch plate joining the front cab to the Australian made body, but you need to have the pillars in place and the spacing right so that both set of doors fit properly. But you can't have the pillars in place without the floor plates..............

1. Removed old cab (origin unknown) and chev window frame for Ford donor truck cab sitting on new cab mounts.
2. Using highly specialised tools (crow bar and sledge hammer) aligned rear body to cab.
3. Pursuaded the hugs and kisses to help me lift the roof back on.
4. Whilst doing the dishes, made a mental note to build a gantry crane.
5. Cut 1/4 plate to make floor plates;
6. Cut up a set of front doors to make the crew door inner skins.
7. Set spacing for new B and C pillars with skins and make minor adjustments to body and cab spacing.
7. Weld in new c channel between rear body and cab to join the two together.

Next: Weld the two side 1/4" plates into place/ Finish both crew doors/ Complete and weld B and C pillars into place.

Stay tuned..................

[Keith Webb]

Great to see your progress Phillip!

If you need any more detail shots I can possibly assist with images of my No9 which is close to yours in it's ARN - 134855.

Incidentally for some reason I had yours listed as 133181 when Wayne had it - body number 147 - my one is 131. The individual FGT body numbers were stamped into the lower rear door sill.

[Phillip]

Hi Keith,

Body number is confirmed as 147. The stamping is faint and has proven difficult to photograph (tried chalking etc) but you can clearly make out:

29.Q.F.A.T.
147 ->

Thanks, I'll take you up on the offer of photos in due course. I'm a fair way off but still have not worked out how the timber all fits into the rear section.

[Phillip]

I managed to get out of the house and down to the shed on Monday night for a little de-stress and relaxation in the form of assembling the offside crew door.

The inner skin of the original door was almost non-existent but from the scraps that I have, I worked out that they had used a cut down standard door inner skin. A new inner was made from a spare drivers door so to start the original outer skin of the standard door was removed by grinding the spot welds off around the seam (a "fun" job) and the hinge end lopped off.

A filling piece was bent up and welded into the corner where the wheel arch starts and another piece welded along its length to the same angle as the original to create a new edge where it hinges on the 'B' pillar.

The inside plates that hold the window curtain brackets were removed and the door was then stripped of rust and given a coat of killrust grey (because it was handy).

In doing this I noted that all the doors have never had a coat of paint on the inside and can only put this down to war time economy.

The brackets for the window curtains are not in the same place as the normal doors and so new holes were drilled and and the inner threaded plates welded into place along with a stengthening plate that runs down the full length of hinge side.

The original outer skin is all one piece with no welds so I had a new outer skin made by a local (and tolerant) sheet metal fabricator, using the original for a pattern.

The slot for the door handle was cut out with the angle grinder and a dremel (what did I ever do without this wonderful little tool) and an original piece of bar welded into place to hold the tinplate cover.

The new/ old inner skin was fitted to the new outer skin and the edges folded over using the tried and trusted method of a flat surface and a heavy hammer to lock the two halves together.

Hinges were screwed into the new door and the new 'B' pillar has been tacked into place pending completion of the other side.