Morris CDSW 6x4 Bofors Tractor

Ivor Ramsden · #1 16-08-10, 18:39

This gem is my new restoration project for the Manx Aviation and Military Museum. Part of the museum is the regimental museum of the 15th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (TA), who used CDSWs in England, Eritrea and North Africa as the light ack-ack unit of the 7th Armoured Division. I help to run the museum which is a charity run by volunteers and I'm providing my time for restoring the vehicle free of charge. My last MV restoration was a Morris C9/B SP Bofors which is now in the museum.

Mechanically the vehicle seems to be very good, with an incredibly sweet zero-miled engine. However the bodywork, although new, will have to be started again from scratch as it's completely wrong. I've collected a number of photos including some excellent factory shots from the Tank Museum so I've got a good idea what I'm up against but I need all the help I can get with this because I don't want to get it wrong.

Does anybody know if a vehicle exists with its original LAA tractor body? All of the restored vehicles seem to be inaccurate to some extent.

I've got a driver's handbook but I don't have a workshop manual or parts book for the CDSW. The CS8 manual is useful but it doesn't cover the 5-speed box, the winch or the back axles. Has anybody got a CDSW manual or a parts book that they could copy for me?

I'll be doing a restoration blog on the Historic Military Vehicles Forum if you're interested.

Please tell us everything you know about CDSWs!

Keith Brooker · #2 16-08-10, 20:09

Hi Ivor,
Here are the books you want to get, can you give me a PM and i see what i can do. I have added the Breakdown Lorry shows the packing of stores.
You did a Great job on the C9/B SP Morris

Mike Kelly · #3 17-08-10, 03:22

I spotted that for sale in one of those UK mags we get here .... I noted the incorrect body on it when I spotted the advert ... Why doesn't stuff like that turn up for sale over here... GEES ....

Ivor Ramsden · #4 19-08-10, 21:15

Here's a photo of a 41 Battery CDSW that I was given by a former member of the 15LAA Regt today. Lovely! I think this will be the colour scheme that I'll be finishing the vehicle in. The question is - what are the colours? The vehicle had just returned from the campaign in Eritrea and I've got no definite information on colour schemes in that campaign. Any ideas, anyone?

Rick W · #5 20-08-10, 22:36

There was a CDSW for sale on MILWEB, needed a lot of work though, think its still for sale.

Ivor Ramsden · #6 26-09-10, 20:11

Thanks to Keith in post number 2 above I've got hold of a parts book for the CDSW which is going to be very useful. It's dated July 1940 and covers the very last CDSW sanction fror 620 Bofors tractors. That in itself is of help, because it helps to date our CDSW which is from the second-to-last batch, sanction number 1753. I now know that ours must date from early 1940 at the latest, and more likely from 1939. The tractor doesn't have a contract number plate anywhere which would help to date it. I found the original census number for the C9/B with perseverance and help from a fellow-HMVF member, so with a bit of luck I might be able to do the same for the CDSW.

The sanction number system is a bit of a mystery to me - it seems to be a Morris in-house batch number. Can anybody explain it or even better, link numbers with dates?

I've spent a couple of hours this afternoon scratching about in the corner of a remote field where a Morris-Commercial C4/WT was buried in about 1970. There's a big mound from which poke many bits of metal but I haven't found any evidence of the Morris yet - mainly because I wasn't prepared for the overgrowth of brambles, gorse, nettles and other prickly or stinging things. Next time I'll find it. After 40 years of burial I don't know what will remain but it's got to be worth a look. After I've found it there's an amphibious Jeep buried somewhere else on the Island so that will be the next military vehicle archaeology project.

I'm still looking for any CDSW parts. Has anybody got a spare Lucas SF4 fuse box?

Ivor Ramsden · #7 11-12-10, 13:33

Thanks to Mike in Oz (post no.3 above) I've now got a lot more information on the early Morrises.
The CDSW is hiding under a sheet whilst I get its restoration shed cleared. Restoration will begin in the new year and I'll start a new thread in the restoration section then.

Thanks again, Mike, you're a star!

Alex van de Wetering · #8 08-05-21, 14:33

Ivor,

I totally missed this thread in 2010, but just found it while searching the forum for something else. Did you ever get round to restoring the CDSW? I remember your resto thread of the Morris C9 on HMVF, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Alex