handy1882

Thanks for the heads up!

Just a thought, but instead of making a whole new casting, you could use it as is and make a 'drop down' adapter from the radiator top tank to get the correct level. This is a picture of a Vulcan with that sort of set up (not mine unfortunately!) it doesn't show it very well but you get the idea... http://s938.photobucket.com/user/millington/media/Vulcan/VSW%20Number%2016/Top-11.jpg.html Apologies, I'm not near my lap top at the moment, and iPhone won't let me post pictures just the link.

There's a radiator on the pre war car website: http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad65540.html

I've made some more enquiries, apparently it has already been offered to a museum who are supposed to be picking it up. Its still there at the moment though....

Thanks to everyone for the interest, I have made more enquires and apparently it has already been offered to a museum who are supposed to be picking it up soon.... still there at the moment though.... I will post an update on here as soon as i find out anything.

Many thanks Sean, would be a shame to see it go in the skip. I had another look earlier, there is a bit of damp in the far corner, but I think it's come in through the fan in the roof.. It's around 21' long 8' wide 7'3" high.

Hi all, I have just put a post in the 'Heads up for sale' section about a Missile control trailer/vehicle body that is going for scrap where I work. I'm not sure how to do a link to the post, but thought I would post on here as a heads up in case anyone was interested...

Hi All, Part of the site where I work is being cleared out and there is an interesting vehicle /trailer body that is going to get broken up. It is available and if anyone is interested I can make some more enquiries. It would be collection only though and would have to be done within the next few weeks. I do stress that it is not mine to sell/give away, but I have spoken to the guy in charge of clearing the site and he is happy for it to go to a good home. The plate says it is a MISSILE LAUNCHING COUNTDOWN GROUP TRAILER MOUNTED A/M24A, made by the Douglas aircraft co. in 1962. May look good on a Militant or similar? Still in good condition, no damp that I could see. PM me for more details.

I've been looking at the rear wheels, I thought they would be useable but a couple of them are very crunchy and the rust has got right in to the seams. They may be repairable with a lot of work. Does anyone know if these wheels were fitted to anything else? I think they may be Dunlop wheels as I have seen some similar ones on living vans and trailers, however they have the wrong offset. Does anyone have any kicking around that they don't want? I've tried asking on the British vehicle section, but no joy so far. They are 20" rims for 7.50 20 tyres. 8 stud. A wheel as new... Rear view.

A few more pictures of the rear bogie. Drums on. The bogie is nearly complete apart from the brake linkages.

Once the other axle was complete, I could start putting together the bogie assembly. Apologies for the messy garage!

The top set of rear springs originally had some steel bushes moulded in rubber on either end. I machined up some new steel bushes and hound some radiator hose that was a good tight fit, then pressed it all together.

Final drive bolted in place, one axle done!! Aaaand.... repeat.....

I thought that the original wheel bearings would be reusable, however some of them were a bit pitted and one inner race was cracked from being fitted badly years ago. The original size bearings are no longer available, however I found some that were the same internal and external diameter but are 1/8" thinner. Some spacers were made (thanks Dad!!) and it all went back together very well. The brake drums were quite pitted and ridged so we borrowed a friends large lathe and skimmed them. Again, many thanks to Dad!

Next I made a set of new leather hub dust seals and fitted them along with the backing ring. I relined the brakeshoes. 12 rivets per shoe, 4 shoes per hub. Refurbished pins, brake actuating tubes and links, brake shoes and new return springs fitted. These guys were really helpful with the brake linings and rivets and half the price of everyone else: http://www.ferotecfriction.com/

Thanks Andy. Hi Steve, it took a fair bit of thinking about! I got the rubber from these people: http://www.mbfg.co.uk This is the stuff I ordered: http://www.mbfg.co.uk/polyurethane-rubbers/pt-flex-70-rubber.html It comes out opaque, so I got some black dye from the same people. It's quite good stuff, goes off in an hour or so and makes a good dense material. Similar to the sort of rubber you get in suspension bushes.

There are some leather dust covers which fit between the bronze bump stop bushes and the axle mountings, also between axle mountings to brake shoe/bearing casting. There was very little left of the originals so I had to make something to fit. I made a forming tool out of 3/4" plywood then soaked some leather for two days in water then pressed it into the former and left to dry for two to three days. The centre was cut out and excess trimmed off the outside and the process repeated 8 times for all the seals required for both axles. The blue leather in the pressing photos was a test piece, cut out of an old welders apron, I used some decent brown shoe leather for the proper ones, unfortunately I didn't take pictures of those. They turned out to be quite a good fit. The original clips were still in place and were Jubilee type clips, anyone know when these started to be used? They must have been on there from the very early 30's. I couldn't reuse the originals so I replaced them with new. The Brake shoe/bearing castings were then refitted.

Next were the half shaft oil seals. These top hat shaped seals were made in 3 sections, tophat, leather washer and backing plate all riveted together. The rivets were drilled out, old leather replaced then riveted back together again. The excess leather was trimmed off the outside. To keep the centre hole concentric they were set up in the lathe and the sealing face cut using a scalpel blade in a parting tool holder. although the cut edge looks quite "fluffy" in the picture, it came out very well, the fluff is just the inside face of the leather.

Some more work done on the rear axle. To stop the axles going too low when driving over rough ground there are short lengths of cable attached at each end to the chassis and looping under the axle on either side. To provide a bearing surface for the cable on the axle there are some grooved bronze bushes fitting on the axle tubes. When I got these off, they had some sticky nasty tar stuff inside them which seemed to very old rubber, when this was cleaned out it left a good 1/8" of slack between the bush and axle, I guess its there just to take the shock out of any exuberant manoeuvres! I managed to find some fast curing rubber compound and machined up an aluminium bung the same size as the axle tube with a small shoulder for alignment then cast each bush in two parts. it was easier in two parts as it prevented air getting trapped in side and also helped when removing the bung once the rubber was cured. Quite pleased with the results!

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone can help me with some wheel identification? I have a set of 4 wheels for the back axles on my Vulcan project, a couple of which are very tatty, rust has got right in to the seams and expanded them a bit out of shape. they are probably repairable with an awful lot of work, but I thought it might be worth a try to see if they were used on any other vehicles or trailers just in case anyone has some tucked away somewhere? I have seen some which are similar on living vans and trailers and these are made by Dunlop. I'm guessing they would have been used from the late 20's onwards. They are 20" rims for 7.50 20 tyres, 8 stud and the centre hole is 8 5/8" Anyone got any ideas? As new... Outer side with rim and lock ring in place. One of the better ones... Rim and lock ring removed. Rear view. Any help or wheels much appreciated.

I saw this at the sale, and am really pleased someone has taken this on. Best of luck with the restoration!

Tony, I spoke to Father yesterday, yes he did quench it after heating.

In this picture you can just see the wobbly lines on the front top section, these are the witness marks from the blackened wood used during annealing.

Thanks for that link Andy, those lamps look fantastic!

Hi Tony, Yes, a very large propane torch was used to get enough heat into the parts. There is a danger in melting the material as you do have to get it very close to its melting point. Richard is quite correct about the soap, you are supposed to rub it on the part then warm until the soap turns completely black, the problem is getting the right sort of soap, the Mrs's dove cream bar isn't much good, it needs to be the old opaque unscented bars that seem to be fairly rare these days. The way father did it was to warm it then rub a piece of wood over the surface, if it leaves a pure black, not brown, trail then it is warm enough. I am unsure if he quenched it or not, I will ask him tomorrow when I see him and post the answer. He did say that he had to reanneal the parts a number of times. Andy, that seems quite reasonable. Do they charge by weight? Is there any extra charge for intricate components that require a lot of setting up?