How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Hi Jacques,

The gauge of the steel disc appears to have varied, (along with the diameter), with what I believe to have been original discs in 16#, 18# and 20# being observed by me over the years. All were simple, raw edged discs without any pressing like the later discs fixed to Land Rovers etc, or rolled edge.

Bridge discs were not supplied in the CMP inventory of parts from Canada, but were part of the local production. The disc was never fitted to the headlamp 'socket' of Australian-assembled/manufactured CMPs, as the Aust Army requirement was always for two functional headlamps.

The bridge weight for a 15cwt CMP varied with the vehicle type. For GS 4x4 CMP vehicles, the sign was '4', being the maximum gross laden weight rounded to even tons. For CMP signals office & office CMP trucks in 4x4, the bridge weight was '5'.

The MVFS specification goes a step further, stating '3' for unladen and '4' for laden for the CMP 15-cwt GS 4x4, and for 4x2 six seater utilities, the bridge sign was '4' unladen and '5' laden. Of course, the unladen spec is irrelevant to the marking of the bridge plate, which by necessity has to reflect the gross laden weight.

Hope that all makes sense.

Mike

Thanks again Mike,

And my great thanks goes to Tony Baker who kindly sent me the attached bridge classification disk. With all that is happening in his life health wise, the effort is even more appreciated as he has enough things on his plate than bothering about passing on a bit of old steel to a fellow collector.

As Mike said, they were locally produced so there were variations in diameter and steel gauge but as I am sure this is 100% original it is worth noting its dimensions. I am in no doubt there are other variations.

It is exactly 7-1/2" diameter with 5" BC of the mounting holes which are 3/16" diameter. This one is made from 16 gauge steel which is in keeping with other items on the truck made of 16 gauge steel such as the tool box and tyre chain boxes.

Of interest, after I soaked it in phosphoric acid to clean up the rust stains, the disk was entirely painted in camouflage light earth colour, even over the number. A bit of light wet sanding on what looks like a Ishihara test for colour blindness shows a number "6" under the light earth. The number is exactly 4" high. It is almost a shame to remove the original paint and number as I need to change it to a 4 according to Mikes info. for my F-15A. I also noted it was originally painted yellow on both sides.

Hope this is of some interest to fellow Australian CMP truck restorers.

Cheers,