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My truck have a special story, one of around 1,100-1,200 (not sure about this..could altso be 400..on this shipment.) trucks going on two ships from USA to Finland in april 1940, due to bad weather or guided by a Royal Navy convoy, the ships ended up in Bergen, west coast Norway april 8th....the day before Germany occupied Norway.(State of Finland bought about 4,400 Ford m. 40 truck and truck chassis from United States in year 1940. Large number (about 1,100 - 1,200 or so?) of those Ford trucks were captured by the Germans when they invaded Norway in 1940 and were taken in German use. Germany later compensated the Ford trucks taken to their own use in Norway by delivering French trucks (mainly Citroen T45) to Finland.
Some 2,500 trucks were delivered to Finland via Norwegian harbours before German invasion and last shipments that had not yet reached Norway were re-routed via Petsamo harbour. Sweden was apparently also having pretty serious shortage of trucks at the time, so Finland sold about 1,000 of the new Ford m.40 trucks to Sweden.)
The ships was sent to Stavanger ,and unloaded ,(its altso possible some where unloaded in Bergen,i have seen some pics)......all the trucks was then used by the German occupants in the war, my truck was used by German Luftwaffe (luftgaukommando norwegen) Stabsoffizier der Kraftfahrtruppen in Norway during ww2.(i have the original German papers)
My grand dad Nils Veka started with his own truck business in 1935, with a new Chevrolet ,and later an older Chevrolet 1931...
both trucks was taken by the germans in 1940, but he got the 31 model back since he normally was doing maintenance on the local roads . who altso gained the Germans.The 35 truck was used for snowplowing the german made airstrip in Voss during the war...i dont know what happen to that truck later...
ln late 1945 /early 1946 the old Chevrolet was sold to the local bakery, and he went to Bergen and bought himself a 1940 Ford truck....it was cheap, and in bad condition after hard use the 5 years before...
.but he got the truck the 60 miles back home to his hometown Voss, a bit up in the west coast mountains ,where i am altso born and raised..and fixed it up.used it for many years.......
lucky me, i found some registration papers and some other papers regarding the truck in my grandpas house long time after he passed away in 1984.
I pulled the truck out of the woods in 2003......it was looking terrible.....
i was living near Oslo in the eastern part of Norway at this time...i went home but could not get the truck of my mind..
i got it out from the woods and stored the truck for some years...start collecting parts..and i altso managed to find a donor truck with a cab possible to save.....altso an ex German used truck.....the ball start to roll....in 2012 i had moved back home to Voss and got a restoration place in the local American Car Club building....so parallel to other projects im still working on the truck.
hoping for paint this winter.......this was the short story...i have a lot of details😀
im going to post some pics from the last years of restoration...my goal has always been to use most of the original parts from the wood wreckage...but Ebuy , good competent friends and some good peoples in Dakota and some other places in USA have supported me a lot finding parts for my project, and im thankful for that.
sorry...i hope you are able to understand my written english😀. And i`m not used to loading up pictures on forums...but i will give it a shot😬
Nils
more pictures are coming ........ Where all started😀 only stupids starts on projects like this.😂😂
The bed was nothing left of....and the dump mechanism( ladder type..driven by gears trough shaft from PTO..Norwegian made.)was rusted.luckly i have got a nice used bed and dump mechanism from a friend.
The bumper was made of my grandpa,he used it for the snowplow....i will refabricate it...i think😀
December 2019.....cab welded up ,tinned/leaded (learning by doing) and ready for some bondo and later epoxy primer....(a little testing here on the running boards...brushed on some epoxy primer) (not norwegian snow camo )
The frame is stripped,and i switched over the rear axel and springs from donor truck,now ready for sandblasting...got a local shop for this job..got it back blasted and primed.....Yes its my lovely 61 cadillac😁
One of the very few pictures i have from the past...my family and some friends on a sunday picnic in 1948....my dad in the stroller😀Astrid, the girl on the cab corner is now 86 years old.
Back from blasting and priming.
Ready for some paint.
Nice and shiny....i used some kind of polyurethane paint...seems that it can stand tough handling quite good.
Finishing frame painting....now awaiting some years on stands inside in a restoration place i rent from the local American car club of Voss. From here i will work on engine, suspention ,brakes,steering and so on....and a lot of welding.....have to buy myself a welding machine...
my old Volvo is altso 32 years now,i have had it for 19 years...
Tim !.....I was so happy to catch the fenders from you, i think it was the once in a lifetime chance. Christmas eve for me, got packages from Tim in the states😉 NOS fenders ......
Here is my «donortruck» ....the cab is rotten in the floor. Got to order sheetmetal .The fenders and runningboards is altso in poor condition after over 50 years in the Norwegian woods
i have to tell that when i drain the rear axel oil off...the oil was still clear and nice.
«Orginal» holder for the German mauser rifle...
Bringing the cab in to the shop for dissasembly and check for what needed of sheetmetal . The doors was in bad condition so for saving a lot of time i got two "new" doors from my supplyer Dick in Dunseith North Dakota.....
The truck was placed on stands in the shop, started with the brakes.Honed the wheel cylinders and change all the rubber packnings.
Together with the main brakepump.
Cleaned up all the wheel bearings and inspected them......fantastic Quality ...looks allmost brand new after over 50 years....would only regrease them and put them back...would last for another 70 years....
Could not find new brake lining for the shoes on the rear Axle.....a friend of my Boss have a brake shop in mid Norway so he helped me put on new lining....they are kind of glued/vulked on...not riveted..
Got the rims sandblasted and painted.
New tires from the Norwegian army surplus store....they was made for the old GMC trucks we got from the American marshall plan after the war😊made in Norway by Viking gummi(rubber )factory...now history😭
New tires
Found a new grill on ebay......shiped from Colorado.... Hard to find part in Europe . Need some work but rust free.
The grill ribs was often crushed by the snowplow, when the plow hit some obstacle or things hidden in the snow, ill guess the driver would jump in his seat and woke up a bit when hitting something
Thanks Tim...
I have a lot of pictures to post.........sitting on an oilrig in the North Sea.....in quiet times i play Christmas music and reading truck and car forums on the internett..Going home in 4 days.can almost hear the chopper.....
Had to change king pins due to heavy slack....changed the bushings to....i went to the local vocational mechanical school ,that i had attended to myself like 30 years ago.....asking one of the teachers if i could borrow an adjustable reamer....he seems happy for asking...nowadays nobody doing this reaming anymore he told me....
Perfect fit.
Brand new u-joints too😊😊😊😊
There was a few broken leaf springs in the front leafpackages.....got some from the original packages....
Could not quite figure out how to press the new shackle bolts in to the leafspring without destroying them.(bolts) ...this 40 mod bolts was a pain in the neck...
After destroying two bolts , I ended up with using shackles from a 1942 model....dont tell anybody😂 I made new brass bushings,and new rear spring bolts.. It all ended good,im happy...
Making new rear springbolts......
New delivery from USA.....expensive but good.....from Northern classic trucks i think....floor, cab corners.... Excellent Quality .
The original motor was beyond repair, i worked a while for the Norwegian Air Force museum..(Voluntary.).and one day came over this guy......stationary engine.
..used to run a Ext.power generator for the F-104 starfighter plane in the 60s.
Had to change a valve guide and a valve...paint it original green like in 1940....and altso change the cam....i would like to think there is difference in cam profiles for vehicle and stationary engines.
New brake hoses and new brake lines all the way. just have to remember to adjust and bleed the brakes before take off
New waterpumps.,motorcraft spark plugs and wire.
I altso mounted a modern alu distributor...and the alternator is from a fork lift....going to made some «camouflage» for the alternator.
.....and altso a mini starter..i have good experience with those ..update to 12Volts... My hope is to use the truck as often as i can....mabe not in wintertime though.....
The motor purrs like a cat and i just love the sound.......
Allmost ready for the biggest part of the restoration....the cab.😬😭
wonder what this young soldier was thinking....he was one of the lucky one.....there was about 360 000 german soldiers in Norway
during WW2....the Norwegian resistance was hard but most of the soldiers had a quiet and peacefull duty, some was sent to eastern front in the end of the war,but many of them fell in love with the Norwegian nature ,skiing and wildlife and come visit the country again after the war...and we still have a lot of german tourists here...
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