handy1882

Thanks for all your comments and questions guys. As Gordon has mentioned there are a few different ways of possible manufacture for a top tank and a big consideration for me is wallet related! The original tank would have been cast but for us to duplicate that we would have to spend quite a lot of time learning a new pattern making skill and then the subsequent financial cost of the casting and finishing. If I had no other option this is exactly the route I would have gone down eventually. I am very lucky to have Dad who has the same interests as myself. Most of the material used for the tank and for the former mostly came from scrap bins with a few bits of 1/4"plate being bought in and utilising skills Father already has. Will it perform better than a cast tank? Only time will tell, there shouldn't be any difference from a cooling point of view. I guess it will be slightly stronger than cast as an aluminium casting would tend to be more brittle and prone to cracking, if a spanner were to be dropped on it for instance (god forbid!) it would just dent rather that punching a hole or causing a crack. Threads are probably less likely to strip in a fabricated tank as opposed to cast. It seems that once an early aluminium casting starts to corrode there seems to be little you can do to stop it, I assume that is to do with the metallurgical make up of the casting metal, and possibly galvanic action from the dissimilar metals in the radiator, however I am no expert on the subject. I would think that as long as there is a good antifreeze/corrosion inhibitor used in the cooling system cast or fabricated tanks should last for a very long time. I imagine that when some of these early vehicles were originally in use they were just run with hose water, pond water or whatever was available at the time. They were probably not expected to last for a hundred years, although some have, and survived well. It would be possible to make a tank with the makers name on the front using a similar method in which the name badge was made for the Vulcan, by riveting individual letters onto a front plate and polishing, this is probably not as easy as making up a pattern with the name already on itand having it cast, however, 'easy' is a matter of perspective. Neither option of fabrication, casting or machining from a billet is particularly easy.

Thank you to everyone for your very kind comments. I shall be taking Dad out for some beers soon to try and say thank you for all his hard work! I still can't quite believe it's been made, it is one of the main hard to find parts that we have been discussing between us for ages. It was very unlikely that we would ever find an original as these radiators seem to have been built just for this model. The radiator top tank is one of the defining features on a vehicle of this type and the problem of how to make one that looks right posed quite a problem, which father has solved! To say that I'm extremely chuffed is a huge understatement.

The welds were then filed and polished up, holes drilled and bored for the flanges, all mating faces skimmed and the front bonnet hinge mount was machined up and bolted in place. Some detail of the welds inside. This is a very abridged procedure of how the tank was made, I'm sure Ive missed many, many of the details out, i think you could probably write a small book on it!

The base plate was marked then machined out, the curve on the front was machined free hand. At this point the back face "back top" and bonnet rests are welded together and its all fitted together on the baseplate. The top flange for the filler cap is held in place in the same way as the back flange. After welding.

A bit more detail of the weld. Next the back of the tank was made, the top was formed in a similar manner to the "front top" but made smaller to fit inside it. The boss for the tank connection was also filed to shape and held in place with bolts throgh the hole centres for welding later. Also spaces were cut where the bonnet rest slots will go. These were then machined up separately from aluminium blocks and welded in.

The upper part of the tank is all made from 1/4" Aluminium, so an aluminium former was sawn and filed up 1/4" smaller all round The tapped holes were to hold on some pressed plywood sheets sandwiched together to form the back of the former. All the sheets were sawn out and flatted off to the correct form. A strip of 1/4" plate was cut and annealed then beaten over the former to form the front of the tank, the material was annealed many times before the finished shape was achieved. The edges were then sawn and filed flat. the top of the tank was then formed in the same fashion. The front and top were then welded together.

As promised, I've been through dads pictures and will try to expain how it was done,I cant take any credit for the work at all, this was all Dad. I'll start with the name badge. The dimentions all came from an original badge and a photocopy of a head on photograph which was blown up to full size. The letters were then transfered to some aluminium sheet and all sawn and filed out individually. The back plate was also marked out silmilarly, but dad said he "cheated" and got a CNC mill to machine out the pocket.... i think i'll let him off! The letters were then riveted on using aluminium of the same grade so that when it was polished up they would not show. The badge was then polished up and looks very nice indeed!

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments. Dad has a look on here occasionally so im sure he will see them, and i will certainly pass them on if he hasn't already. Tony, I have some pictures he took while he was making it, I will get them in to some sort of order and try to do an explanation. There was no casting involved, it was all made in sections and welded together. He used some enlarged photo's and measurements from Bob Grundy's Vulcan to get the correct size and shape. As for the finish, it was all filed to shape by hand then polished with emery paper and scotchbrite then finished off with brasso.

Just for comparison, this is an original radiator from Bob Grundy's Vulcan which provided the measurements.

Well, santa was extra good to me this year! A simple thank you does not seem enough and the photos certainly do not do justice to the sheer amount and quality of work involved. My Dad Jim has fabricated a radiator top tank from scratch! A huge surprise, I had no idea he was building it. With the rad cap in place

Thanks Greg, It looks like the holes for the retaining screws were drilled and tapped in place, so the burrs on the edges of the holes were holding on too.

With the castings removed the axle mounts and bump stops could be taken off, everything was cleaned up and coated with primer, then the spray gun came out.. All the rear suspension and back axle is now in a nice coat of deep bronze green.

The rear axle has been progressing well. The hub nuts and hubs came of quite easily as they were still well oiled up. This revealed some nice hardly worn bearings, a screwback oil seal and the remains of a leather washer dust seal. The brake shoe pins were seized but a lot of heat and wd40 got them moving. The brake actuating shafts got the same treatment and came out with a bit of persuasion. The main brake bracket/hub casting was not so willing to come off... They are held in place with two 9/16" bolts which came out with out too much fuss and two 1/4" x 3" long keys. They also seem to be a press fit and were not keen to come off, putting it mildly....:shocked: I could not find any bearing pullers which would fit and grip on anything substantial, so we made a set using some 1" plate, big G-clamps and 16mm screwed rod.... After a big fight involving a lot of heating, oiling, tapping and bending of 1" plate, they eventually came off. Much excited jumping up and down and a trip to the fridge for a beer!

Nice job Andy.

Andy, Very interesting clip, did you get much expansion when you took the spring off the mandrel?

Rod, Thank you for your comment, it is a lot of effort to restore these old trucks but will be worth every moment when I kick it in the proverbials as you say, and take her for a test drive, really looking forward to that day but I think I'm a little way off that though!

Gordon, I think you're probably right! Apart from the leather seals in the axles everything else has been fairly serviceable so far.... Let's hope the other axle is as good!

The worm and shaft cleaned up well, also very little wear. Housing cleaned up and in primer. I replaced the roller bearings on the worm shaft and on the diff just as a matter of course, they didn't seem worn but it was easier to do it now rather than later. Slightly odd however, the diff bearings were metric (6212) while the shaft bearings were imperial. Everything slotted back together quite easily. The seal in the housing behind the drive flange is felt, I made a new one using the same method I used on the seal for the transfer shaft a few posts back, worked quite well!

A start has been made on the rear back axle. They are an odd set up, 8 brake shoes per axle, one set for foot brake and one set for handbrake all rod operated. The bronze balls just inboard of the hubs are for mounting the springs on to the axle, where a split cup holds the top and bottom springs. The mounting on top of the final drive is for a swinging arm mounted on a pivot in the centre of the chassis. After much heaving and shoving (much, much heavier than it looks!) it was in the shed. The oil was drained out of the final drive, which was still nice thick black stuff. The half shafts were removed and the drive was unbolted, and after a bit of persuasion it came out without too much fuss. Looks quite healthy in there! Bit out of focus (Iphone!) bearing caps removed showing diff bearing, thrust bearing and shims. Diff removed, Diff cleaned up, very little wear. there are a couple of teeth which have the corners chipped off, but apart from that all seems fine. The drive flange was removed from the worm shaft and the bearing housing taken of the other end, revealing a large thrust bearing, again very little wear. (Please excuse the messy bench, all handy stuff!)

Thank you Tony.

Another huge thank you to my Dad Jim who made a Vulcan emblem to go on the radiator when we make one. Amazing job, all filed out by hand and riveted on, using a couple of measurements and a photo for reference.:wow: An original badge on Bob Grundy's Vulcan.

Andy, Thanks for your comment, I should have explained my method a bit more. I quite agree that there should not be any need to heat treat piano wire as it comes ready treated from the factory. However I tried a few unsuccessful attempts to cold form the spring, but as it was 4mm piano wire it was not too keen to stay in the correct shape without trying to tear my face off when I released the tension. I could have made a purpose built forming device but it seemed a lot of messing about for a one off. I machined a piece of bar to the correct inside diameter of the spring and marked the required spiral on it using the other good spring to get the correct pitch. I then held the bar in the lathe with one end of the piano wire clamped under a chuck jaw, then heated the wire nearest to the bar up to cherry red and slowly wound the lathe by hand bending the wire to match the spiral and heating as I went, this seemed a safer way of doing things and produced a good match with the existing spring I had. Due to the effect of the heat on the wire, which would have normalised it in some places and made it brittle in others from the cooling effect of the bar, I heated the whole spring to cherry red then quenched it in oil, polished it up then heated it gently till it was blue and quenched in water. Using the original spring, I placed a lump of metal on top and measured the compression, then did the same with the new spring and they were pretty close, within a couple of mm, good enough for the job it has to do. I'm sure there are a lot better methods out there, but this seemed to work quite well for me. Kind regards,

Corbs, Thank you, it's been a lot of work so far and a lot more work ahead. Very enjoyable though! Regards,

Hi Pete, Thanks for your kind comment. It's nice to get back to the Vulcan, progress has been too slow recently. Hope everything is going well for you. Regards from Dad and myself. Rob.

The shaft was a little pitted where the felt seal sits, so the pits were cleaned out and filled with metal putty then machined off and polished. To make the cork seals I used a slightly odd approach but am very pleased with the results. I mounted a piece of plywood in the lathe and used double sided tape to hold the 1/4" cork gasket. A parting tool was ground up and used to cut the correct inside and outside diameter, then the seal was carefully peeled off. They were then fitted in the housings. The same idea was used to make the felt shaft seal, but a scalpel blade was mounted in the parting tool holder. All fitted back together.