I got myself a bit of a restoration project and I thought it being a milsurp would interest some of you. So what I have here is a CMP (Canadian Military pattern) truck produced by Ford Canada sometime between 1942 and 1945 and the story of how we came to own it is pretty simple. Basically one of my dad’s coworkers had a ww2 army truck sitting in the brush off one of his fields and he asked if we were interested it in. So we asked for some pictures to start and upon examining the pictures it turned out to be to my pleasant surprise a CMP truck. Pretty well then and there I knew I had to get it not only because of the history and the cool factor but because it’s just a unique looking truck. After that the next step was to go out and take a look at it just to get a general idea of what needs to be done and see if it’s worth restoring or just leaving it to continue rusting. So we get out there and see that it’s in rough shape not terrible by any means but it definitely needs some major body work on the cab and a couple places where it’s started to rust through as well as having to fab a bunch of parts that are either missing or a too far gone. I also see that the motor will need a complete overhaul seeing that it’s missing the carb and looks like something has been living in it. After we were done giving it a good once over he gives us a price and let’s just say it was one of those offers you could not refuse and after shaking hands we left. A couple weeks had passed before we actually went and picked it up, in that time we were prepping for the move and getting my other restoration project (a 1965 Kaiser jeep m35a2) ready to be the tow vehicle. So we get out there and with surprisingly little issue other than the fact that it’s probably been sitting there for at least 2 decades load it on to the trailer and set out. That’s basically how I came to possess a CMP. Since that time I’ve done some general research about the truck and this is what I’ve found out. So It’s a Canadian military pattern truck made by ford with the cab 13 design which puts its production sometime between 1942 and 1945. The cab 13 design basically turned it form a somewhat normal looking cab to what it looks like now. The changes included sloping the windshield inwards to avoid possible glare that would tip off aircraft. Apparently they made the cab roomier which I guess if you were of average size and build at the time would seem so and not 6’2”. There were also some other minor changes that occurred with the cab 13. Also as an interesting side note the cab 13 is a completely Canadian design. In my research I also found out that this particular truck was designated by Ford as a F15A model, which basically means it’s a 3/4ton 4x4, ford also produced an f15 which was just a 4x2. I also found that it’s powered by a ford flathead 239 v8 producing a whopping 95 horsepower at 3000 RPM. Other than that it’s right hand drive, has an incredibly odd pedal setup with the clutch on the left, brake on the right, and the throttle right in the middle. It also runs on a 6v system has a 101” wheel base and has 9.00x16 tires I also noticed while doing to initial look it still had the wooden but sockets where the driver and passenger would have been able to clip in their No4's while in transit. That being said now it’s just a matter of waiting for the snow to melt to begin teardown and finding parts. I foresee the part about finding parts being the most difficult seeing as the only place so far that I have seen selling CMP parts is in Holland so it should be a fun and interesting adventure.
Front end
Inside of Cab
Inside of cab/dash
Rear of cab passenger side
Passenger side view of engine/engine bay
The beast loaded up and ready to go being pulled with another one of my restoration projects a 1965 Kaiser Jeep M35A2
Front end
Inside of Cab
Inside of cab/dash
Rear of cab passenger side
Passenger side view of engine/engine bay
The beast loaded up and ready to go being pulled with another one of my restoration projects a 1965 Kaiser Jeep M35A2
