Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

Both Mike and I found no evidence of any modification to the chassis length. No join, no non standard welding, nothing. That is very curious. Mike enquired about what sort of rear body I was contemplating. I'm still not 100% sure, but had given thought to a turntable, based on the 115" wheelbase it is now. In the absence of any visible mods, is it possible the chassis may actually BE one of those tractors???

Tony,

I do not have a clear picture at hand, but the Ford chassis in particular has a clear taper from the mid-section running to the front and from the mid-section running to the rear.

If the chassis was shortened by sectioning, there would be evidence of welding which you say there is not.

I have seen another option to shorten a F60L with 158" wb. chassis: on this they moved the rear axle forwards and lobbed off the remainder of the chassis. This requires no "cutting and shutting" and does not leave any visible mods, other than that the chassis looses much (if not most) of the tapering to the rear end.

So by measuring the frame side rail height at appropriate places you should be able to determine is this a genuine 115" wb chassis - see what we did on Chevrolet chassis in the thread Chev CMP chassis views.

HTH,
Hanno

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Hanno and Tony,

Great afternoon talking 'green stuff' Tony, thank you!

First, I should say I'm not familiar with the finer points of the 115 inch WB chassis, so both Tony and I were working from that point on Wednesday.

What I observed was:
(1) no weld marks to indicate a 'cut and weld' shortening of the chassis, and no bolt holes to indicate that the spring hangers had simply been moved forward. Without knowing the finer points, it certainly looked like an original uncut chassis to me.
(2) no chassis number on the top of the right hand chassis rail, as per Ford Australia practice. The absence of a chassis number in that position is a pretty good indication that the truck was not assembled in Australia from imported and local components.
(3) the cab that came with the truck is an Australian assembled cab: both the rear and roof sections are Aust manufactured, and the floor is 1/4 inch Aust chequer plate, ie a 'standard' Aussie assembled Ford cab.
(4) the 115 inch wheel base seems too much of a coincidence for a farmer-shortened chassis.

So I'll be very interested in comparing images of Tony's chassis rails with those of an original 115 inch WB chassis, so if someone has one, some side images would be appreciated by both Tony and me, to do a comparison.

Mike

[Private_collector]

Taper at rear of the chassis starts roughly 2/3 to 3/4 back from the front spring hanger of rear spring. As it is, the top of rear spring hanger sits closer to top of rail, because of the amount of taper present. If the rear axle was located even further back originally, both front and rear hangers would be attached to an even shallower height of chassis, if taper continued. It would have been much further back too. As Mike has said, there is no visible set of holes that matches those of a former spring hanger location. If I'm right (will check today), the rear axle, if chassis was originally longer, must have been further back than the full lenght of the spring, or another set of holes would be evident....wouldn't it?

[cliff]

here is a Chassis diagram labelled as being the F60T. Note trailer brake hose to rear.

Hopefully this will help

[cliff]

Tony what are the series of holes in the top Chassis rail over the rear axle for?

I believe the Australian fifth wheel setup had a series of bolts along the edges of the mounting plate rather then the 'U' bolt setup of the Canadian F60T.

If these are what the holes are for then maybe it is an F60T but fitted with an Aussie fifth wheel?

[Private_collector]

I have no idea what those holes are for, Cliff.

In fact, the more I learn about this vehicle, the more I am aware that I don't know.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Tony,

Can you make detail pictures and do some measurements as per the Chev chassis views thread listed above? That would help a lot in determining the exact type.

Did you ever come across any part numbers stamped on the chassis rails?

Hanno