How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

I have an Australian built Holden Body Works general service body mounted on my F-15A chassis. It had previously been on a F-15 chassis.

I have noted something strange about the channels on the body that rest on the chassis. For some apparent reason they have been recessed, at great effort, into the transverse floor cross members.

Was this a modification during production or another "Dodgey Bros" one by a civilian owner? Were the bodies slightly different between the F-15 and the F-15A?

I also note those channels have three welded on steel plates with rubber pads between them and the chassis rails. I am of the understanding that old truck bodies are always mounted on wooden battens along the entire length of the body and chassis to uniformly spread out the load.

If they are "Dodgey" ones I can replace them with some original uncut ones if required, but I don't want to go to that trouble if I don't have to. You can see on the photo of another Holden body floor that the channels are mounted on top of the transverse cross members.

Noted this recently when trying to reattach the fuel lines to the tanks. There was no room between the tank and body to swing the spanner to tighten the flare nuts which made me think the body was mounted too low on the chassis.

My gut feeling is they are "Dodgey" ones but hope I am wrong to save some work.

Any information gratefully received.

Cheers