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I am nearing completion on another WWII Ford truck for the German side. It will be used to haul an anti-tank gun. Here are some pics.
The problem is that as I stated the truck is almost ready. I do have a minor oil leak. It is a rebuilt motor 59AB with 42-46 rotating assemblies and there is oil leaking from a small breather? on the front of the oil pan. I have other flatheads but they don't have this feature. Also looking at the VanPelt Sales exploded drawings of oil pans none seem to match the one on my truck. Mine must predate the 49-53 time period. The engine rebuilder was no help. My mechanic assures me there is no blowby and that the breather cap on the top of the manifold is clean and working correctly. Can anyone tell me why oil might be shooting out this opening or if I even need this on the oil pan. I took some pics.
The fixture has a drop of oil hanging from it so that is the culprit. Leaks after it warms up. Any ideas for a fix or a reason for the leak? - Mike
Thanks Stella. Was looking at your 47' project. That's a one-ton? I like the wheels.
So... I think my mechanic and I made some progress on this today. Checking my receipts I ordered a gasket set for the rebuild of the engine which came with an oil pan gasket and then checking the picture of that product (Speedway) it shows a gasket that would go on the 49-53 engine. VanPelt does have an exploded drawing of the correct pan if you look at how to rebuild an engine under the oil pan section and so looking further, MAC's offers an oil pan gasket set with the correct cutout for this oil air breather contraption. I think once we pull the pan we'll see that we have no gasket material where there should be some material. Laborious but I think this will solve it.
Oh, here is a before picture (almost - the wheels had been cleaned up a bit in this pic) My brother and I got this one from North Dakota as a parts truck for another 41' but just couldn't leave it alone.
Very nice looking truck.
but you need 6 lug wheels and a straight six instead of the v-8 to be "more correct"
Thats ok though, you've done a very nice job with it. keep up the good work
Read down the page. The Germans built them with 4 and 8-cylinder engines. But I'm open to source links. The easiest way to tell it's not a German build however is the split windshield. The Germans used a single piece windshield. But this is a war capture. That is, it was American built and captured in the low countries or Greece. Anyway that's how I justify it. Also, I was critiqued once about the twin wipers as the inspector at an event felt that I should have left just one wiper as on American trucks, but there is photo evidence of American built war capture Ford's of that era sporting two wipers and those had to be an adaptation that the German motor pool folks decided was needed. At least that's what I think. As for the wheel pattern, all the photos I've seen also show 5-lug wheels as shown on the 38' truck pictures. But thanks for the info and your interest. Show me some sources that support your view and I'll gladly concede the point however.
Nice job on the truck ! Now I don't know anything about the Ford trucks the german's used in WWII but I find it interesting to find them on both sides of the fight. You might already know this but here is a little known fact:
"Hitler admired Henry Ford"
Henry Ford is well known as being one of the fathers of the American auto industry, he is less well known as being a raging anti-semite. Henry Ford used his influence and money to publish a series of newspaper articles chronicling "the jewish menace".
So on a personal note I think less of Henry Ford for that.
But it doesn't change the fact that I do love Ford trucks.
Yep that is not a 41'. I'd say 42' or later and built for the American military. Definitely six-hole lug nut wheels though. Would not work as is for a German build unless some changes were made to cab and wheels not to mention the wipers are above the windshield. That looks like it would have taken some money to bring back to life. My thinking is you shouldn't feel too bad for rolling it over.
Very nice. We're working on one at the moment. Just finished the engine rebuild, got new tires, and are working on the body work of the cab now. We have a 20mm Flak 38 in the back. Need to work on our bed though to make it appropriate. It's close, but still uses US techniques to mount it.
It had been "restored" before, but the metal had a lot of cancer and the engine could have run better. Decided to do things the right way.
Cool truck! Bet you don't get any "flack" from the neighbors. Where do you get your tires? To get the tread pattern I wanted I had to use Chinese made tires on my 1.5 ton.
I think we were able to use the tires that were on it when we purchased it. At first we just painted it up and put the Flak 38 in the back. Then we decided it needed a better carburetor, so naturally we completely rebuilt the engine, took the truck down to the frame, rebuilt everything we could pull off, and worked to fix every bit of metal cancer on the body and fit a new interior. If it weren't for that pesky carburetor.....
Now we're trying to convince ourselves to not turn it into a half-track. Might start with a new donor vehicle for that.
Panzergruppesud - I think your truck would actually look better w/o the 20mm. Once you remove it I suppose it will just sit around and take up space so I'd be happy to take the 20mm off your hands.
Nice looking truck though the way it is. Impressive collection at your site. My only quibble is that it's my understanding that soft-skinned vehicles did not display the Balkan Cross. That was reserved for armor. I suppose its tough to reverse - requiring repainting something - however since you represent museum interests(?) I would imagine that is going to change. Looks like you bought some stuff from the Indianapolis auction too, no?
Panzergruppesud - I think your truck would actually look better w/o the 20mm. Once you remove it I suppose it will just sit around and take up space so I'd be happy to take the 20mm off your hands.
Nice looking truck though the way it is. Impressive collection at your site. My only quibble is that it's my understanding that soft-skinned vehicles did not display the Balkan Cross. That was reserved for armor. I suppose its tough to reverse - requiring repainting something - however since you represent museum interests(?) I would imagine that is going to change. Looks like you bought some stuff from the Indianapolis auction too, no?
Ha, I'll let the guys know and we'll crate it up and ship it. You'll need some ATF approval, though!
Yeah, a lot of those are vinyl that we threw on for play. They're impermanent. It's a private collection that is now bordering on a full-blown museum. Some of our stuff has purposely been given the "Rat Patrol" vibe. Especially the Ford CMP painted up North Africa and paired with a dual MG42 mount. Practical? Nah. Cool looking? Oh yeah. This Ford, the Borgward, and all of our American stuff is as by-the-book as possible. The big FBW 5tonner is legit, save the crosses. The big Borgward B2000 is a post-war truck with little-to-no historical significance, so we tossed some vinyl crosses on it and gave it our own camo job. It is, in my opinion, one of the cooler vehicles.
Was that the auction with the stuff from the Auburn museum? We bought a Borgward from it, only to find that it wasn't at all what we thought we were getting. Our rare piece turned out to be VERY rare. A lot of stuff comes in from here and there in the States and a lot from overseas. We're filling up what we though would be a too-big warehouse.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
Now I don't know anything about the Ford trucks the german's used in WWII but I find it interesting to find them on both sides of the fight. You might already know this but here is a little known fact: 
