Wireless Van C15 Australian

[Rod Salter]

Where the blitz obsession started

I had been regularly driving past a paddock with a line up of old blitz trucks on my way to and from my old farm

One random hot Sunday afternoon my wife and I called around to ask if I could have a look at the trucks

We were met at the door by 'Beryl' a lovely lady who invited us in for a drink and a cup of tea

I looked at the trucks and photographed them

One had an almost gone plate that read “Wireless”

I always wanted a van for my radios

They were not for sale as her husband had passed and her brother-in-law now owned them and he was not well

In a way, at the time, I sort of wished I had not seen the wireless chassis at all

[Rod Salter]

The wireless truck as found

[Rod Salter]

more photos

[Rod Salter]

Years past and we occasionally dropped by for a chat

In the meanwhile I did a trade for a ford with a crane attached, it needed some parts

Then we were told the brother in law had passed, and her son was to tidy up the paddock and maybe sell off some of the trucks.
We visited at an arranged time to look over and discuss the trucks
Time moved on and eventually he and I came to an arrangement to buy 3 trucks, - the wireless cab/chassis and 2 relics of fords.
On the day of my brother-in-law and I picking them up I bought another long chev cab/chassis, in a hurry, while the crane was there

[Rod Salter]

Home at last

[David Dunlop]

Nice recovery, Rod.


David

[Rod Salter]

Thanks David, I should get back to posting about the radios and field phones

After the excitement cooled down, I had an engine-less C15 A with the remains of a drivers cab that had been chopped from a wireless van, half the floor was chopped out too, it had a strange front axle with a draw-bar attached. Rust everywhere, particularly the bottom of the rear of the cab.
The top of the cab was still squared where the storage boxes would have been. But no hatch door, no dash.
The remaining windscreen has three bullet holes!
From the clues of the drawbar and the blocks of wood, I would say the chassis had a huge steel bin attached to take grain from the paddocks

[Rod Salter]

The sad cab

[Rod Salter]

The second long chev was discovered to be also the remains of a wireless truck, the cab chopped off and the chassis cut and extended to a long truck. The drivers section of floor and nose were in reasonable condition as was the bottom of the cab rear. But the top of the cab had been beaten into a rounded shape. It had a hatch door, 2 seats, 2 windscreens, an engine cover and the remains of the dash. The only pieces of dash being useful, will be the ignition switch and the little labels for three switches. It has a “START” button


Neither had doors, steering boxes, motors or gear/transfer boxes. The long chassis had no rear diff centre or axles
I also bought an assortment of loose wheels

I had no actual wireless box.

I lifted off both the cabs [neither was attached/lucky they didn't blow off] and removed the strange front axle from the C15 chassis, replacing that with the front axle from the extended chassis, making it 4wd.

[Rod Salter]

The cab was beaten into a rounded top, extra rear windows, the speaking tubes chopped and flattened
On the plus side
It has a hatch door, 2 good windscreens and an engine cover, 2 seats and a good nose section
The floor is in good order
The lower section of the cab rear is also quite good

This cab/chassis saga will be in my other topic of Chevs C60 and C15 in due course

[Rod Salter]

Then in 2017 my forever since I was a kid, sore bad back --- “blew out”
Two prolapsed discs!
The pain was excruciating and I couldn't pee
Some weeks in hospital, two panadol four hourly (if I asked)
Catheter removed, I was wheeled out, to go home and end that pain
My sister grabbed me and took me (dry vomiting) one hours drive to a chiropractor on a late Saturday afternoon
I think I almost screamed like a girl at a Micheal Jackson concert each time she touched me
At least she got me to dribble some pee
Months of bed ridden (on mind altering drugs) and multiple trips to chiro and remedial massage, I began to walk with a walker first then two crutches, eventually two walking sticks
I lost a lot of weight, then blew up to the heaviest I had ever been
All our savings were gone
I won't ever go back to that hospital and I won't suffer that pain again
How my wife put up with me I'll never know

The blitzes and everything else were on permanent hold

It is now 2023 and I survived, I am 71
I am still visiting the chiro and remedial massage each month
Some days I need a walking stick, It has left me with a weak left leg
It has taken a big mental effort to loose the weight and go out to do anything
Back then I never though I would be, at present doing long days, while it is cool/cold to try to catch up

Some people have had worse medical issues

Much more exciting truck saga to come - watch this space cheers rod

[Rod Salter]

Time rushes past, then
A visit from a fellow blitz enthusiast who gave me some ford parts and a nice day, resulted in a later phone call, that a pair of blitz, one with a radio box was for sale in a nearby town.
A road trip and negotiations, bought me the 2 trucks
Another call to my brother-in-law with his truck.

The C15 s were mostly complete, rusty of course. One was running and could be driven into position to load.
A few days later I had the second truck running also, after finding a radiator of sorts.
I am given to understand it was in the 1974 clearing sale of the Brisbane city council. The tires being stamped BCC. Also it possibly was the service truck for the city's trams.

The box came from goodness knows where

[Rod Salter]

The wireless box is sad, to say the least, rust and rust, the roof being partially gone, dents galore, the lower sides rusted away, a good framework that was rusted from the floor and the box almost comes loose. It has a roof hatch, 3 window shutters, a broken insulator, a direction finder bracket, some inside vent parts, most of the internal ply is gone.
It would be repairable with a lot of time and welding

So I sat it on the chassis and stored parts in it while other projects took priority.

[Mike Kelly]

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

[Rod Salter]

I have stripped the chassis of all bolts
When I removed the main centre chassis cross member and threw it to the pile of parts,
It flipped over.
There is a stencilled number on the underside!!!!!
There are enough digits to be an ARN, I wonder?
I dash to the computer and look into the AWM books
The number looked like 63864, which is a water truck
However 63861 is a wireless signals truck
I have now wire wheeled some of the surface and I have found the chassis number, it reads 2844400169R. Which is exactly written in the AWM book, with engine number WR3815726

As an interesting side note, in the AWM book ARN 63862 is also a sig van and the chassis number was consecutive 2844400170 engine number WR3815722. Four numbers earlier
And ARN 63860 another sig van chassis no 2844400171 engine number WR3815882 not even close
These three trucks were perhaps parked side by side when the ARN were assigned to them

Unbelievably someone stencilled the ARN under the cross-member of this truck
How exciting!!!!
I have to wonder if I have Irish ancestors

Keith Webb tells me he has never seen that before, although a few times the ARN has been painted on some removable parts

As this truck was engine-less I am using the engine I am rebuilding as posted in the Chev C60 and C15 Thread http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=34289

This engines number is R2784806 I wonder if it an older engine?
If anyone comes across this number I would be thrilled to know to what truck it was fitted

[Rod Salter]

And just to make it harder to pull to pieces one of the handbrake cables is welded in, also some of the ends of the bolts are center punched

[Rod Salter]

There is an extraordinary amount of parts to find, to make a truck
and they all have to be cleaned, soaked or sanded before painting

[Rod Salter]

I put the tin end from the recently bought box onto the old rusty box to weather proof it a bit, so I can at least use it for storage. I will fit some pieces of cement sheet to the window openings and tie sheets of tin on the top

I have put it aside for the time being

The tool boxes will need some repairs too

In the sheds I dug out a few cans and tins to clean up

[Rod Salter]

Meanwhile other projects have priority again
I have decided that the “Posh Shed” (the one with the carpet floor, air conditioning and solar lighting) that its roof leaks too much when it rains [see Topic posts F60 reg.No. 51555]

Therefore I have cleared an area and intend to build a bush shed
So truck disassembly or assembly is on pause again

There were sections of concrete dumped on the creek bank. I managed to drag them back and I am using them to dyna-bolt the shed trusses onto

I borrowed my brother-in-law's bobcat (which didn't go) first 2 flat tyres, and I had to unblock the fuel lines then replace the governor diaphragm in the injector pump. I have managed to glue the top radiator hose to the radiator. There is still an engine oil leak, but I will have to find a way of taking the sump guard off to fix that!

After a lot of work I have two trusses up today by dark (I had to stand on tip toe to get them up)
They are 10feet high

There has been a couple of willy wag tails keeping me company
One bird lets me get as close to about 4 feet before it flits away a little
It must think I am a great provider of insects I disturb
It was only a few minutes after I had the truss up and the bird was perched on it, near the top

[Rod Salter]

I have been building garden sheds screwed to pallets for storage
In between each shed I have put an 8 foot section with roof and rear wall
There will be 5 sheds giving 4 extra storages

In order to put up more garden sheds other “humpy” storages had to be moved
All sorts of engines I have got for projects that never happened.
They were all running when first stored

The newest storage has been made and I shifted the benches and all the parts for the Ford trucks inside out of the weather
I've moved the Ford storage rack onto the piece of concrete near the entry

Even at 7/9 hours a day it seems to take days to get it done all by myself

[Rod Salter]

To put in the next garden shed I have to move all this and there are concrete posts under there too

[Rod Salter]

When I went to assemble the next shed I can't find the roof pieces for it
No problem just get a different shed, simple
But it is not
The next kit has walls 2 inches lower
So I had to pull out the wall I had up and after assembly of the shed, slide it sideways to attach it
Of course it doesn't quite match
Anyway locate and install shelves and start to fill it up with “good handy stuff” I'll probably never use

[Rod Salter]

I have moved some of the wireless truck's parts into the shed
and I relocated the parts for Dad's little Chev into what will be the next storage, so they will have a roof soon

[Rod Salter]

Finally it is starting to look like a shed
and it is half full already
Next
I have to fix the bobcat, and then cart dirt to fill between the slab pieces
Wait for rain to settle the dirt
Search for sheets of trim-deck for the roof
Expecting mid 30s temps this week that will slow me