Wireless Van C15 Australian

[Mike K]

I believe they lined the wireless body inside with Canite, it is some type of board material made from sugar cane pulp .

Canite is still available !

Not a easy task to find a decent wireless van project now, most of the decent remaining vans have already been found and restored. As time goes on, the chances of finding a decent unrestored example are diminishing fast. Used to be a rough body down the back of Dinger's yard, don't know if it is still there.

Back in 1977 I bought a C15 wireless van that had the body chopped off behind the cab. Think it was $20 or something like that !

[Rod Salter]

5 Years roll on
Then a chance reading of a post about wireless boxes on Facebook, and some contact investigations led me to a reasonably good chopped off wireless box.
My wife and I do another one hour each way, road trip with a trailer to get it.
A good day away, Looking at his collection and a nice morning tea with him and his wife

The box is pretty good, some dents in the roof where a chain had been tied too short when it was lifted at sometime or tied down to transport.
A short little rust along the lower edge in one section, 3 sections of window shutters, Two very rusty tool boxes with the two water/fuel can brackets and both guards, also a set of steps.

I got straight into sorting and seeing how to put it all together.

The hatch door, direction finder bracket, and 3 window shutters from the 1st rusted box and from the 2nd box - 3 window shutters and a good insulator
Some of these window shutters had a sections of sheet metal (overkill) welded to them

[Rod Salter]

Now on to something I believe I am very good at “pulling things to pieces”

I stripped the upper cabs from both of the drivers cab floors and selected the most complete floor
Then from the cab roof/rear walls I have selected the the square top section, the lower section of the back of the rounded top cab and its hatch, and some of the sides panels to the door opening
I have to unpick quite a few spot welds and a lot of pieces to fabricate, especially the storage boxes over the drivers cab

[Rod Salter]

I tipped the box on its side to examine underneath.
I also tipped the cab floor on it's side too

Under the box the support chassis rails are bent upwards at the front ends and a cross member is dented
Under the drivers cab floor the support chassis sections were gone

Where to get more?
Some of you might want to look away or scroll down now!

[Rod Salter]

I tipped the first rusty box over too, and selected sections of the support chassis rails.
I cut them off with a plasma cutter and grinder.
The porta-power was a big help as it would spring apart when enough cutting was done

In hindsight I did that wrong, it took forever and there was a quicker easy way I thought of later

[Rod Salter]

While the good box was on it's side I carefully marked, photographed, and removed the internal roof strips and sheets of ply
A fresh rats nest fell down showering dust
Most of the canite is in good condition
I removed the external brackets, the insulator and fittings from the roof

I have a heavy section of steel sheet to beat all the dents flat and hopefully round out the top corners
Also flatten the edge where the box was chopped off

[Rod Salter]

I dismantled the drivers cab roof/back wall
I am using the top section with the flat storage box area still on it
I have cut the bottom off and the sides from the rear wall with the rounded top corner
The spot welds were difficult . I eventually got them all into pieces

The tool boxes will need some work too

Before it all gets to big to handle I will get it all off to be sandblasted and primed