restoration White 666 Prime Mover (well, more like 2 x 333s….)

In early June this year an irrepressible Roy Baker went to look at some bones - reputedly some of the skeleton of a long-deceased WHITE 666, 'purely from an interest point of view you understand'. Of course, Roy. :whistle:

Not sure what went wrong exactly, but three of us tried yet failed to suppress his enthusiasm on the drive home. Maybe we overdid the 'downside of it' thing a bit.

Anyway the result was a foregone conclusion, so hopefully once Antony gets new points and condenser fitted to his laptop we can delight in some scenes of metal butchery and artistry!

Having seen what Roy achieved with the wreck of the Autocar he totally rebuilt in a year, look forward to seeing the White this time next year. A quote from Roy, "I can weld cobwebs together" !

This man is a true hero :-D

I spent a very nice day with Roy looking at his Autocar in Paris a few years ago, and then being one of the team that recovered a lot of old wreckage from that yard including said Autocar, so i think in a couple of months its will be a rolling chassis at least.

It makes my Autocar restoration efforts look like a simple afternoons jolly, I look forward to the future blow by blow restoration pictures, very well done - mad - but very well done... :nut:

I don't get it really; a quite good example of White 666 was scrapped not so long back. Was offered around including through these pages.

I don't get it really; a quite good example of White 666 was scrapped not so long back. Was offered around including through these pages.

Ah, but Roy wanted a challenge !

Good job Roy is fully conversant with CAD (cardboard aided design) a lot of it'll be needed!

I don't get it really; a quite good example of White 666 was scrapped not so long back. Was offered around including through these pages.

The other truck wasn't scrapped - as I understand it, it was sold on along with this one as a donor, which was then re-sold to Roy.

- MG

A truck has to have been used as a spares donor and scrapped at least twice, cut/decomposed into a few bits and have been on fire and forgotten about before Roy will even consider taking it on....

If this is the one you are thinking got scrapped it got saved and this is the donor one

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?44014-1943-White-666-Prime-Mover

Have a picture of them loaded up somewhere

I think im right in thinking the chassis on this one was better than the more complete one (only this one is in half!)

Nice to hear they are both being restored

Seems I am mistaken about the fate of White in the link but when I enquired some time later looking for possible parts for myself; the guy told me it had all been scrapped and/or burnt no mistake.

Does look a bit more like a Lego kit than a truck.

I was the last ditch buyer on these two. Couldn't bear to see them go to scrap, so offered to buy if no one else wanted them.

I was interested to see where they had gone and progress that has been made.

The 666 had never really appeared on my radar but when I started looking up pics of restored vehicles realised they have a brutal look that I found quite attractive and have since found myself wishing I had bought them.

Oh well, good luck to Roy and whoever had the other one and look forward to seeing them at a show soon.

Richard

Loving the captions. Good work chaps :-)

I was the last ditch buyer on these two. Couldn't bear to see them go to scrap, so offered to buy if no one else wanted them.

I was interested to see where they had gone and progress that has been made.

The 666 had never really appeared on my radar but when I started looking up pics of restored vehicles realised they have a brutal look that I found quite attractive and have since found myself wishing I had bought them.

Oh well, good luck to Roy and whoever had the other one and look forward to seeing them at a show soon.

Richard

I am the owner of the other white aiming to restore it but it is not currently top of the list have some other stuff to do first so maybe roy will beat me to to it having delivered the parts on monday afternoon and it getting joined back together by wednesday

Do you need any Wheel Rims? £10.00 each if you want them 22" Collect from Dunsfold Good luck with the rebuild.

Do you need any Wheel Rims? £10.00 each if you want them 22" Collect from Dunsfold Good luck with the rebuild.

22" tyres seem to be unobtainable so am going with 20" as used on the bridge trucks thanks for the offer

Roy sitting in Roger's White, just trying to get an idea how all those bits might fit together!

As soon as the jigsaw was delivered, Roy wasted no time in getting the two parts of the chassis lined up and welded together. Antony was cameraman that day as well as assisting in the operation, but unfortunately his laptop caught a bug and ended up in intensive care before he had a chance to share his images. We don't yet know if the photos can be retrieved - meanwhile the story needs to catch up with events.

Here is the chassis after becoming one again and with a repaired grille:

The cab started out in two pieces - just a couple of small tender areas to tidy up before they could be joined…

Sadly Roy has had 'flu for the last 3 days so the restoration wasn't completed on schedule. Normal service will resume shortly...

- MG

666 March update:

It appears the main reason Roy's restoration has been held back is the continuing dire shortage of 8 wheel tipper drivers and HGV mechanics in Suffolk (don't even mention the demands of the farm). After his old mobile phone went on the blink Roy was able to make some good progress on the cab - but only because the transport company were unable to contact him to request his presence. His big mistake came in obtaining a new phone (he said he only got it so he could take photos of the restoration….) as he immediately became available again!

Once the chassis was in one piece, the cab became Roy's priority as he is keen to get it in position on the 666 chassis in order to better assess the space available for an engine. He has obtained a DAF engine with a dubious history but is confident it can be persuaded to run and will do the job, so long as there is enough room.

Still no photos of the chassis unification - I think we should now officially log them as MIA during Antony's epic battle with Windows 8.

Now the technical difficulties of lifting photos from Roy's new phone onto my laptop have been overcome, update photos should be forthcoming on a more regular basis.

Here is the critical piece of the cab jigsaw - the stretcher between front and rear door pillars. the cab side has some complex curves and anyone looking at the complete cab would have little idea of the work involved in getting it to look right.

The next 3 pics give an idea what was involved in rebuilding the cab - door skins (much of the frame too), new pressed panels for rear inner cab skin, some of the worse pieces of rust which were cut out. Note the state of Roy's high viz coat - he had already been banned from wearing it in the Red Lodge Truck Stop, and just before I arrived to transfer the photos it had caught alight and melted (when Philip shouted at him 'you're on fire', Roy initially took this as a compliment to his dexterity with the angle grinder).

Ventilators have been rebuilt, door locks replicated, the roof panel is due to have a reinforcing strip inserted to maintain shape as it has buckled in places and either sits 'down' or 'up' (don't forget it was last seen blazing fiercely in Band of Brothers). The work so far on the cab almost defies description - so much was either missing or rotten - but the views below show progress made to date with the first coat of filler applied and cut back.

A correct pattern winch has been sourced (it was sitting only 5 miles away).

A few more pics of cab work and chassis:

Roy has obtained a decent body from an M-Series truck, it may need shortening a little but should look very respectable. The winch will sit across the top of the chassis between cab and body.

Rear bumperettes are missing - a pair from a scrap WLF are being measured up for compatibility, they look the same.

Work is underway on replacement engine side panels, but the RADIATOR COWLING and BONNET are not present and will be difficult to replicate. If anyone has any leads on these items, Roy will be pleased to hear from you!

An update:

The DAF engine is now coupled up via a clutch to an Autocar U-7144T gearbox. the box is an army rebuild, ex Italian Army stock - if its wooden crate had survived better there may have been less corrosion inside the box but the gears cleaned up reasonably well.

The clutch cover which came with the DAF had 3 rows of fierce springs which were never going to move without power assist, so rather than try removing one complete set of springs Roy found a diaphragm type cover from a Leyland DAF which, although a bit smaller, works well.

This lot now sits in the White chassis on new mounts - made up before the gearbox choice was finalised. One unforeseen problem was that the Autocar box is quite short, causing the shifter mechanism to foul the cab's front floor plate. With mounts modified the engine is now back as far as possible, bringing the shifter arm into the cab.

Note the wild array of levers alongside the box - high/low, front axle drive, winch PTO, and something else (winch brake?). The White handbrake lever is shown in off position - unusually you push it forward to apply!

Half of the prop shaft between gearbox and transfer box was missing. After a long search Roy found the right half of an old Foden prop which had identical splines, yoke flange and tube length - another tick off the long list.

Work has continued on the cab - even small items like this glove box lid take a fair bit of time to make from scratch.

Everything on the White is big - kind of DT980 size, the steering drag link is shown alongside that of a Studebaker 6x4 for comparison.

The chequer plate used on tank decks and running boards is quite unusual - no chance of finding anything like it now?