Ford 8cwt vehicles Page 1

Nigel Dawe's F8 FFW

Related page: Review of driver training film featuring an F8

Colin McGregor Stevens also has some great pictures on his site. And more pics here.
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I'm Nigel Dawe located just south of Oxford, England, and I am the very proud owner of a fully restored 1940 Ford F8 FFW. It was restored some ten years ago by a friend of mine who I bought it from about 18 months ago. I was browsing and noticed Don Dingwall's F8. Mine was in a similar condition, a scrapyard wreck. Mine is an 11 cab without vents, must be pretty early ? Sadly, it is totally without any serial numbers, even on the frame. I am trying to find out how many F8's are left, any ideas ? It has the wrong front bumper fitted at the moment, but I am replacing it and the bumper brackets for the original type. I've had the brackets made, the towing eye type, and am fitting a four inch deep channel bumper as per original parts book. I would be happy for you to show it on your site, perhaps next to Don Dingwall's find.

She runs like a bird, is very quiet and doesn't get hot, inside or under the hood, and boy, is she quick, cruises at "Jeep" speeds rather than CMP speeds, at VERY light throttle. I daren't open her up though, not on wartime tyres ! Just bought two Dunlop Trakgrip's, never been fitted, brand new although at least fifty years old and in absolutely perfect condition, dry stored for all those years. £40 the pair ! Rear rubber is Firestone, also wartime ('41, made in Canada) and very good though very slight cracking on sidewalls, but nothing serious. I worked in the tyre industry many years ago and I am happy to run them. Usually cruise at about 30/35 mph and get 15 mpg easy. It caused a stir at Beltring in 2000, but that was before I bought her. I won't take her there, too bloody far. I'm 6' 2" tall and middle aged and don't fit in 11 cabs too well for long journeys !

As

As originally found.

These early CMPs did not have the vents on either side of the grille.

Don Dingwall's F8

Don comments: "These photos were taken in my back yard, all 5 acres of it."

"The photos of the unassembled truck are from the first weekend of August 2001, the day I bought it and brought it home. The photos of the assembled cab/chassis with the Firestone rubber mounted were taken in September when I moved it under proper shelter. It is in this condition today, as it's 100 yards from my house, and it's getting cold out there.... Where did you acquire the truck? - The truck was acquired from Marc Montgomery of Montreal. I'm located west of Ottawa, Ontario. The trip was quick and painless, as I have a brother in law who races cars (...this was also apparent while wheeling down the passing lane of Hwy 417 at 120 + KPH...with the trailer and CMP in tow....), and is fully kitted out with a good Chev truck and a very nice trailer for such work, including winch etc. We left Ottawa at about 7 AM and were back by 3 PM."

"Right now it is really only a cab chassis combo. It needs new seats, new interior engine doghouse (the old one is rusted out), engine needs to be wired up, fuel tanks need to be installed (however I don't know which variant the truck is, so I may just add both to the frame, as two sets of frame mounted fuel tank brackets were included). Missing many little details such as door handles, headlights, Ford badge etc. It did come with a large pile of old and spare parts, many of which have already come in handy. There's an extra diveshaft, rifle clamps, two steering racks, extra bumper, steering wheel, many engine parts, extra battery boxes, two good fuel tanks, a set of almost-new Firestone tires on rims Bofors rims to replace the three good and one bad ones on the truck, most of the pieces for the interior cab sheetmetal over the engine (all in fairly good shape and not much rust at all) and a rat's nest wiring harness.
Much cosmetic work needs to be done. There are currently a layer of yellow and red paint on top of the original KD (some of the original paint is very clean and new-looking), and there is a small amount of thru-rust on the fenders. But the exterior engine sheet metal is in excellent shape.

It has a new cab floor, but the rear wall and roof need to be reskinned or repaired due to rust. The doors are quite rough, but a friend who has done such work said that he's seen worse metal restored. The engine was rebuilt three years ago, and the entire frame has been blasted and repainted, as have the axles and all running gear. Brakes have also been redone.

Big parts of the total job already done! So I will be concentrating on the cab obviously. The vehicle came with no cargo box, however it did include a tailgate from a wireless box, still with it's working fold-down step."

"I'd like to have the cab sandblasted and repainted by next year (2003). Running as well by that time hopefully.

I haven't been able to determine it's original configuration as yet, and will begin the search for the box in earnest when the cab is done and it is running again. But I don't beleive the boxes for this vehcile will be easy to find, so I may have to take either the long or the short version--providing I can even find one, or have one fabricated. "