Ford P/U - Project

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hello James,

That picture comes from here: http://www.mapleleafup.net/vehicles/softskin/15cwt.html. Reportedly, it is an original canvas cover but I cannot confirm the original colour. It could well be faded khaki/green, as I think it is too dark for sand. Canvas came in sand, khaki and brown, depending on the colour of the truck - see http://www.mapleleafup.nl/cmpvehicles/paint.html.

Pre- or early war vehicles seem to have (also) been fitted with sand coloured canvas, as demonstrated by the extremely comprehensively restored Morris-Commercial CS8 15-cwt truck from 1936/1936: http://www.milweb.net/webvert/a2712/91520. You could ask the owner, Rory Ballard, for more info.

In general, when war broke out, lots of effort was put in proper camouflage. So pre-war gloss painted vehicles with sand canvas were quickly painted in appropriate camouflage to blend in with the surroundings where the vehicles were used - see http://www.mafva.net/other%20pages/starmer%20camo.htm.

HTH,
Hanno

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[James Y]

Starting up this thread again. Making progress, also changing build direction. I have decided I will stray from the original WOC1 direction by keeping the full metal cab. Insperation is coming from the Dodge T212 that used a full cab but still the 8 cwt body.

[James Y]

Brought the truck in and started disassembly, removed the cab and front end, down to bare frame, replaced a couple of the cross members. A great thing about these 40 trucks is the amount of parts that are avaliable, virtually every part original or reproduction can still be had. Makes a restoration relatively straight forward.

Warning!! Purists look away!

I also want the truck to be easily driven on a daily basis, part of the appeal of these trucks is the Hot Rod community that is very inventive, I am putting a Borg and Warner 5 speed T5 transmission behind the flathead.

The HAMB forum, has a lot of information and really unique enginnnering solutions.

Link to https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...T5+TORQUE+TUBE

I wanted to keep the Banjo rear end and torque tube so I have been following the build out on the HAMB, hopefully the link works.

[Paul Singleton]

A friend of mine built a hot rod a couple of years ago and used a 1946 Ford rear axle with an automatic transmission. He bought a kit to convert the banjo rear axle to an open driveshaft. I think the kit came from Speedway Automotive. This may be an option for you also.

[James Y]

Thx Paul, I wanted to keep the torque tube configuration.

I was able to pick-up a built flathead motor from a fellow in Quebec and was able to arrange shipping from Quebec to Alberta. He packed it very carefully and it arrived unscathed. I was more than happy with the motor, it should be be a real intresting combination.

[James Y]

I followed the directions on the HAMB link adapting a T5 to the torque tube, it was a lot of work finding the 2 transmissions first, then I had to find a new transmission case as the one I was planning to use was damaged. I did find a NOS case on Ebay that worked. It was my first time taking on a manual transmission rebuild but crossing my fingers I put all the pieces in correctly.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by James Y

I followed the directions on the HAMB link adapting a T5 to the torque tube,...

James, do you have a link to that thread, please?