"Come and get it or it gets scrapped."
For those not familiar with this type of vehicle; the subject of this
article is an:
Australian built
Canadian Military Pattern,
Chevrolet brand (General Motors Australia cab),
C15A (C = Chev, 15 = 15 hundred weight,
A = All wheel drive).
In Australian use they were called "Blitz buggy's"
or in latter years, just "Blitzs", regardless of whether they were of
Canadian manufacture or Australian assembly using some Australian
components.
I had been aware of this vehicle for years, but initially the asking
price was beyond what I was prepared to pay, it was driveable at that
time. Then later on when it was
offered to me at a reduced price, but it was deteriorated and needed more work
than I was interested in doing (brakes etc) to a vehicle that did not fall
into my area of interest.
Eventually the subject came up again, but since I had last examined the
vehicle a third party had sabotaged it in the hope of aquiring it under
his terms, this person is no longer around. On having another look, I found
that the cylinder head complete was missing and so were the 2 rear brake
cylinders. The owner has tried to trace these parts with no success
(although there are plenty available elsewhere).
Then in late October 2000 I was informed that the vehicle was living on
borrowed time and did I want to purchase it? Well, no, I don't desire
to restore a Blitz. It was made clear that I either take the vehicle or
it would be scrapped. So, until such time as someone wants to part with
$750 I am in possession of a Blitz.
Does anyone want a Blitz?
On a Friday morning (no more time left) I organised with a friend to act as Commander
in the Greyhound, grabbed my APC tow bar and around we went to fetch
the Blitz. Blitz's come with 2 "D-rings" riveted to the front bumper,
so the APC tow bar readily connected onto these. Very luckily,
the Blitz was still shod with WW2 issue
runflat tyres, so although they were long past their prime, we could
at least tow the vehicle.
One big hint to anyone having to do this sort of thing with a 2
arm tow bar: try to do so in a location where you can align both
vehicles on a common axis. Unfortunatley we couldn't, and it took much
manoeuvring of the Greyhound which needed to be partially through a
gateway until we could successfully couple up as the pintle hook would
not accept the lunette eye of the tow bar at most of the angles we
tried.
It was then a case of a quiet little drive with an ex-army Blitz
driver steering the Blitz to my yard. Using a 7 ton vehicle to tow
a roughly 2 ton vehicle makes for easy work, especially in 1st gear.
In the 2 photos below you can see the vehicles just before we uncoupled.
In the back of the Blitz is a second set of much larger wheels than
what are correct for this model, but they do fit the hubs.
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Left hand front of tray. You can see where extra sheet metal has been added (it is zinc plated and some paint has peeled off).
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Right hand rear of tray. Same story all round.
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The speedo is there, needs work though! It appears to be quite repairable but has no needle.
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Rusty on the inside, but still usable.
The major points needing attention:
Cylinder head - missing
2 x rear brake cylinders - missing
Australian pattern spare wheel mount - missing.
Tow bar and pintle hook - missing
Some rust in the cab, looks readily repairable.
The horizontal portions of the rear tray are, in my opinion, good for nothing but a pattern. The vertical portions (eg sides, front and tailgate) appear to be usable, although the fixed corners are dodgy.
From what I am told, mechanically, the vehicle should be usable without rebuild, other than the brake system.
Update:As of January 2002 the son of the go-between who organised for me to get the vehicle decided he wanted to restore it, they collected it and last I heard it is in Adelaide.
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