handy1882

Thanks for that N.O.S, i'll have to give them a call and see what they think. Richard, that is interesting, I have a picture of the another Vulcan taken in the 1960's which shows a disc wheel with a solid tyre, I always assumed that it belonged to something else but maybe it was the spare? Some interesting clutter in the background too.....

Thanks for that Runflat, That would make a bit more sense if they were 23" front wheels, they still seem a bit small but 3/8" undersize seems a bit better than 1 3/8"! Maybe it would be best to take the rims to some vintage tyre suppliers and try before i buy.

Nope, you're not boring anyone at all! All very usefull stuff! :thumbsup: I can understand the old tyre sizes, they make a bit more sense to me than modern ones anyway:-) The 33 x 4.5 tyres should give a 24" rim, yet they measure a lot less than that, 22 5/8 across the bead. i would have thought 24" tyres would just fall off those rims. Would 22 5/8" rims have been a standard size? Seems a bit of an odd size. I'll go and dig an old 33x4.5 out of my collection of worn out tyres and have a measure tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply N.O.S, The rim measures 22 5/8 dia on the bead where the tyre sits, so it's 1 3/8" smaller than the 24" i was expecting, i could understand if it was a bit undersize but that seems like it would be far too loose for a 24" tyre?

Hi All, Probably a daft question, but where do you measure the size of a wheel rim? I was under the impression that the 30 cwt wheels I have for the Vulcan were 24" rims, as they are supposed to have 33 x 4.5 tyres on them. However there doesn't seem to be any part of the wheel that measures 24", is it one of those odd tyre sizing things that i'm unaware of, or are they just not 24"? I thought i'd better find out before i start buying tyres! They measure 24 3/4" across the fixed rim on the back of the wheel, and the rim itself measures 22 5/8", and 4 1/2" across the outside of the fixed and split rim. Front. Back. Measurement across the fixed rim. Measurement across the front of the rim. Any help or explanations muchly appreciated!

I've been making use of the new Argos range of portable spray painting booths, otherwise known as a Gazebo! Works really well, it stops any over spray drifting over next doors washing, windows, dog etc!

Just painted both my chassis rails with a gloss roller using this paint, it came out really well, i would definately recommend this paint and Palatine paints who supply it.

Finally! Something green! This was the paint i used, i was really impressed with it. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chassis-Paint-Vehicle-Military-Bodywork-/110668173315?pt=UK_DIY_Material_Paint_Varnish_MJ&var=&hash=item5f77a880c7 The guy at Palatine paints was really helpfull, can't recommend them enough. Bent over backwards to do a good deal and save me some money, makes such a nice change to find such great customer service. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ONLINE-SURFACE-COATINGS?_trksid=p4340.l2563

Thank you Pete. Its coming along one bit at a time. It'll be nice when things go together and stay together! I saw the Pictures of your Leyland on the other thread, its looking great!

The Leyland is looking great Pete! :-D

Signed. I really hope she gets saved, there have been far too many historic ships broken up over the last few years. Best of luck.

I've been getting a bit more done to the chassis, gave both side rails a good clean up with a wire wheel and a grinder and welded the rear axle mount braces back in. The chassis and service number show up well now all the paint and muck is off them. Looks better with a bit of primer on! A trial fit together to get the new chassis cross members to the right width and mark the hole positions. The rear one was fairly straightforward as the centre cross member gave me a measurment to go to of 34 1/8" The front one was a bit more difficult as i have no real reference to work to other than it should be somewhere near 30" wide. I bolted the front suspension and axle on temporarily to make sure everything lined up It all seemed happy at 30 1/4" wide. It could have been pulled in to 30 1/8" but it would have put a fair bit of strain on everything to make it parallel and i would rather it was a little too wide for the rear engine mounts than too narrow. It actually looks a little bit like a truck! Shame i have to take it all to bits to drill the holes and paint everything. Now to find some BSF bolts.....

Very true Tim. Not many miles to the gallon!

Thanks Marcel, It did take a lot of time and patience, but it will be nice to start building things up and make something that looks like a truck rather than a pile of bits!

The chassis rails were a bit bent and out of shape. Both were kinked upwards in the same place where the chassis narrows towards the front of the vehicle, the nearside was fairly straight apart from that. The offside one was a bit worse as it was like a banana towards the rear, about 1" out along the length. Poor old girl has been a bit overloaded during her working life! I made a frame up out of some 3" box section and 3" angle so that i could gently tweak it back with a 5 ton bottle jack. I kept working it a little at a time every 3" or so along the rail and just kept going till it came back somewhere near straight. It took a while, but was well worth doing. The upward kinks on the front needed a little bit more persuasion. Enter Dad with a gas torch resembling an olympus jet engine! We got them just warm enough so that they would move with a bit of a tweak from a 4x2 timber. They seem to be all over the place, a bit tapered in places and bulging in others you could spend years messing about trying to get them spot on! We layed them top to top and they looked pretty good with a line stretched along the join, so that will do for us.

I've been getting on with sorting out the chassis rails on the Vulcan. There are 2 bits of 1/8th plate welded on the inside of the rail which forms part of the rear engine mounts, one had rotted out completely and one is not far behind it. The one remaining engine mount Nice new ones. Welded in. I'm not sure quite how the engine is mounted to these as my rear mounting blocks are missing, but i'm sure it will become clear when i hang the engine in. One day!

Looks like a nice project, a lot of good parts for the basis of a restoration. It's a shame about the chassis rails, but it looks like straight channel so if the original couldn't be bent back to shape,some new ones could be fabricated. Or maybe find another chassis? There are still a lot of old farm trailers out there. :-D

I've just ordered 7.5 litres, really helpfull guy to deal with. Bent over backwards to do a cheap deal and even persuaded me that i didn't need the large tin of primer i was going to order as he would just be taking my money! Makes such a nice change to find great customer service like that.

I'm going to be using it for the whole vehicle, painting parts as I restore them. Theres already a big box of bits in primer waiting for a topcoat. The plan is to brushpaint all the parts like suspension,axles etc while its completely in bits then assemble the whole truck, touch up any knocks and scrapes then rub it back and give the whole thing a blow over to finish. This is going to take some time, so was only looking for 1 litre tins so it doesn't all dry out, as i'll only be painting a few bits each day and it'll take me a while to get through 2.5 or 5 litres. Cheers

Hi everyone, Has anyone used this paint before? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chassis-Paint-Vehicle-Military-Bodywork-/110668173315?pt=UK_DIY_Material_Paint_Varnish_MJ&var=&hash=item5f77a880bf Whats it like? Any reviews? I'm fairly new to painting military vehicles so am looking for some nice "chimp proof" gloss deep bronze green that doesn't cost the earth for a 1 litre tin and can be brushed or sprayed using a readily available thinner like white spirit etc, which also doesn't cost the earth for a tin. Any suggestions welcome.

It has been my intention to concentrate on the chassis and running gear and get one part finished before moving on to the next so that i dont lose track of everything and end up with a big pile of bits. However there was a set of brand new Vulcan pistons and rings on Ebay so i thought it would be a good idea to see if they would be of any use. I know that they won't fit my original engine as it has 85mm bores and the ones for sale were for 102mm bores, but i didn't know if they would fit my slightly later spare engine. Time to get in to the spares shed and take the head off then! This is the spare engine when i first got it. All the head nuts were very wasted away and not really worth reusing so i split them to save breaking any studs. After a lot of persuasion the head came off and this was the result. After cleaning the mouses nest out it's not quite as bad as i was expecting! No2 looks the worst out of all of them. The head looks pretty good. Unfortunately this engine has 95 mm bores, so the nice shiny new set can stay on ebay. Nevermind, at least i can soak the bores with a parrafin/oil mix till i come to take it apart. Back to the chassis in the nice warm shed.

A few more pics of the steering assembly before and during stripdown. A large gap where the worm and end plate should be. The wheel is in very good condition, hardly any wear on the teeth. There is now going to be a fair bit of head scratching to work out the dimensions of the worm and see if i can make one. The wheel is marked 2/20 i assume this means the wheel has 20 teeth on a 2 start thread.

Theres not been a huge amount of progress on the Vulcan at the moment due to having to do other things like rebuild my air compressor and rebuild the feed gearbox on my lathe, also doing my back in whilst chopping wood hasn't helped! I have stripped the steering box down and found that there are a few parts missing, mainly the worm and end plate.

Thanks Steve, it's all the little details that make a restoration, I may have to use a bit of poetic licence on some parts later on as there is not a great deal of information around on these trucks, so i would like to get as much of it correct as possible. I'm probably putting a bit too much detail on this blog! I've been meaning to get round to fixing the steering tie rod for ages, its made out of 1 1/8'' o/d pipe, which has been very hard to find, at a sensible price anyway. Most of the rod was fine with just a bit of light pitting but a section around 8" long was very thin and would have taken a lot of arc rods to build back up. Luckily whilst rooting around in the shed i stumbled across a large M30 bolt i picked up at an autojumble ages ago thinking it might come in handy, and it did! A spigot was turned on each end of the bolt to a nice fit in the pipe bore and the shaft was turned down to 1 1/8'' to match the rod. Then the rough section was out and all 3 parts pushed together, making sure the length of the rod was the same as before i started, 53 3/8". A 1/4'' hole was drilled each end of the pipe through the spigots and a pin knocked in for a bit of strength and to keep everything straight, then i welded the pins in place, welded the pipe to the bolt and built up any thin bits and ground it all off flat. It shouldn't look too bad once its got a bit of paint over it.

Thanks Steve, It is great to have some bits and pieces ready to go, still a big pile of rusty bits to go though! I would think that the Tecalemit greasers came out in the early 20's some time? It looks like Charawacky was right, I've found some original fittings on the steering box and they none of them have have the lower hexagon. Thanks tom. I'll turn this off on all the new ones i have so they all match.