i wonder if anyone on this forum knows these WW2 trucks.   i have known of one of the two now in my frozen yard since i was a kid. The khaki-coloured one was sitting in an abandoned yard fairly near to where we lived and we used to play war in it as kids.  I believe it had been acquired surplus by a couple of commercial fishermen to haul fish on the pretty much non- existent roads from some of the outlying lakes around here but stopped being used probably in the 60's (not sure why other than it has a broken top leaf and also must have been a very rough riding old beast.  it went to a boneyard after that but the guy who had it didn't want to see it get crushed so when he closed up shop and crushed most of the stuff (heartbreak for us for sure) he moved it out to his farm here it sat for another 40 years. As a legion member i was talking to a few of the guys about that it was now the last WW2 vet in this area and should be saved. None of them wanted to tackle it but they gave me their blessing. I asked the owner (who had never wanted to sell it) if he would allow me to buy it for a possible display at the legion and he said on that basis i could have it, free. So this summer we took it home back to the neighbourhood.  It is  fairly complete  other than missing the box it probably came with, one gas tank the passenger seat and one of the wheels so I was on the lookout for a another parts one.

It was Ford built so it has the flathead. They were also built by GM along a standard pattern with the major difference being the GM ones used the straight six 216.  The engines were right in between the seats sort of like a forward control truck. i have heard the GM ones were favoured as the flathead V8 was wide enough to really constrict room for the pedals and was awkward to drive if you had big feet or had big army boots. Any way i heard of one that had been hacked into a bone yard tow truck that was sitting in Maymount Sask so my brother and I  went to see if it was useful.  Very rough indeed but it was also a Ford built and has almost all the pieces I really need so we snapped it up and hauled it home early this month, just before the cold weather.  

We also stopped in to see Dave Mischuk from the TV show and had a nice lunch and visit.  He is such a nice guy he didn't even say anything bad about the pile on the trailer.

Anyway now now I have two and want to find out more about them.  I have managed to get a copy of the maintenance manual but it is for a GM one. close enough I hope.

i understand they were made by the thousands and were considered very valuable in the war so I hope to give this old unit the respect it deserves. 

I'd appreciate it it if any of you guys have any info, memories or leads.  Thanks!