Finally a CMP of my own

[Bob Carriere]

Sorry to hear you got bitten by the CMP bug.

If your top is like all others or at least 99% of them.... you have rust just above the angle iron...probably some serious perforation...... this is a design flaw. The bottom half of your rear wall may have the same rust issue. CMP were not design to last rust free for 75 years.

Finding a good roof and rear wall without that rust is the holy grail!!!!

The rear wall is easier to repair if you totally reskin with possibly newly bent angle iron as the original maybe severely pitted.

Doing the top half of the roof is more complex. The difficult part is being able to do a precise butt joint between the existing sheet metal and the new skin strip.....both side of the weld will be quite visible so a lot of care and grinding is usually required.

I am at the contemplation stage for my roof...first I am lucky to have one.... and it is bumpy and rusty. I will be cutting the bottom 8 or 9 inches...about midway through the rear window and wrapping a new skin around to each side pillar ( which is partly wood on the cab 11) By cutting through the middle of the window opening I am saving about 24+ inches of delicate welding. Now a good body man probably can do it in 15 minutes but I am not a good body man.

I am gradually building a jig around the existing roof so that when I cut I can get the new section welded on with some semblance of accuracy. Most of the bumps are partially worked out and I still have a bunch of bolt holes that need filling.

If any one knows of a good roof MLU is the place to find it.

How about some pictures of your Ford....... and the rust areas!!!!

On the rim/tire size..... I believe Harry Moon from BC ran 20 inchers for a while on a C15a..... should slightly improve top speed.....may tax the brakes a bit more....... and NDT are notorious on wet roads particularly with high inflation pressure and with the stiffer sidewall of the 11:00x20 tires....but the 20 do fill in the fender wells nicely and looks matcho!!!!

Keep us posted of your trials and tribulations.

Bob C

[Jordan Baker]

Welcome.

There are a few of us who are in and or near Ft Erie who are restoring CMP's. Mostly Chevy CMP's but still CMP's

As Bob says a solid roof is hard to find these days and some body work will be needed. I rebuilt my roof, it was a lot of work but I enjoyed doing it and learned a whole lot about working with thin metal.