Ford and Chevy Blitzs

Gday Carl
My bet is they were both built in seperate plants with the same plans..

This is probably as good an info site as any ....

http://www.mapleleafup.net/vehicles/softskin/index.html

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Gday again
There are a couple of them on the side of the road in Traralgon . I don't know if they are for sale , or just there to rust away .

Do a google search on "Canadian Military Pattern Vehicles" . There is tons of interestring information out there ...

I remember picking up a brand new Studebaker 6 x 6 from the army vehicle pool at Milperra in the early 60's, the build date on the dashboard said 1942 and it had less than 200 genuine miles on the speedo.
The army still had heaps of WW 2 vehicles in storage at that time 1962.
Waste not want not.

rr

The Ford blitz had split diffs, whereas the Chev had standard banjo diff housing. Both companies built their own model and there were many variations.

When I was a kid, in Mount Isa, we would go bush in an old blitz but we could not afford fuel. So we would head for Camooweal then face back towards Isa and stop the next vehicle and con a couple of gallons of petrol to get home - then head on out - this went on all weekend until we finished the trip. Everyone would help us young blokes then. I still get a pang of conscience but only occasionally. Everyone knew us and were aware of our antics for sure.

Perhaps this confession will ease the guilt!

One other memorable time we ran out of oil and did a couple of big end bearings, dropped the sump, made bearings from a leather belt, took some oil from gearbox, transfer box and both diffs, and drove home. That is a long story made short.

There is one of these for sale in a car yard in Perth (Welshpool I think) next to Jaram bull bars

Carl,

Understand that the blitz were built in either Chev or Ford factories, to military requirements, and as someone above posted, there were lots of variations.

My late father drove both types in north Qld, and New Guinea, during the war, and if he had a choice, he preferred the Chev, because it was slightly lower geared, and pulled through sand better. Also, as mentioned the Chev was a straight six, and the Ford a side valve V8.

As a just out of high school teenager, I worked with a bloke in Megalong Valley, the late Bert Carlon, cutting mill timber, and mine props. Bert had a Ford Blitz, and he took it many places that were seemingly impossible to get out of. If there'd been rain about, he would fit chains to rear wheels, to assit traction. Also, a mid mounted winch was invaluable to get logs from difficult situations, and load logs onto the jinker.

There's few about, but they're rough & slow, and I'd imagine parts would be difficult to access. Took the photo at Old Mulka Ruins, on Birdsville track in June this year.

Image Could Not Be Found



Bob

This thread brought back some memories from too long ago.
I remember when I was just a young tacker a guy was cutting logs in the bush down the road from our place and he had two Blitzs. One had a crane on the back for lifting the logs and the other had a log jinker (semi trailer) that he loaded them on to. I noticed the engines made different noises even though the vehicles looked the same, so being a nosey little bugger I asked him about them. He showed me the engines and even though I wasn't sure at the time what I was looking at I am pretty sure one had a in line 6 and the other a V8.
No idea if they were standard or not though.

ob

The in line 6 in the chevs was the the same 155 engine that the landcruisers had until aug 1974. I know of plenty of blitz's still running including old Bert's as mentioned previously. It is still in Megalong Valley and is just past the megalong Valley farm on the RHS. There is a bloke in Calliope that has about 20 of them all different ones including ambulances. There is also a collection in Springsure. I don't ever recall seeing a working ford v8 version though.