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My Former WC51 "Flying Control Dodge" - A New Chapter


Jessie The Jeep

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What type of aircraft are they going to put these four engines in? There were quite a few that used that type of engine, namely:

 

 

 

Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle

Avro Lancaster B.II

Avro York C.II

Bristol Beaufighter

Bristol Freighter

Bristol Superfreighter

Breguet 890 Mercure

CASA C-207 Azor

Fokker T.IX

Folland Fo.108

Handley Page Halifax

Handley Page Hastings

Handley Page Hermes

Nord Noratlas

Northrop 8A (One Swedish 8A-1 was bought by Bristol to test the engine)

Northrop Gamma 2L

Saro Lerwick

Short S.26

Short Seaford

Short Solent

Short Stirling

Vickers Valetta

Vickers Varsity

Vickers VC.1 Viking

Vickers Wellesley

Vickers Wellington

 

 

Back on the aviation theme, we had a rare Bristol Hercules aero engine which was running at regular intervals across the weekend. It made a nice change from the 'Merlin' and 'Griffon' engines often seen at airshows. The team operating it are restoring four into running condition.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Last event of the year!

Blackfell Primary School - November 4th

I had a great morning at my daughter's Primary school this morning ( 'though not her class ) teaching the kids about World War 2 history. The year 6 class ( 10~11 age ) have been studying WW2 this term, including a recent visit to Eden POW Camp in Yorkshire. Living close to the school helped with getting the vehicles there, so I was able to take all three, and a friend brought his Jeep. Another vehicle owner had to drop out due to illness, not wanting to spread bugs to the kids.

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I'd recruited some other local guys to do lectures. Before morning break, we had a guy from the local aircraft museum talk about the war in the North East, a talk about the entertainments association ENSA plus a sing along, and childhood memories of WW2 from my dad.

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After break, we took the kids onto the school field to see the vehicles, some weapons and gas masks etc., then it was time for Head Teacher Mrs Watkins and Class teacher Miss Kitchen to have a go behind the wheel of my '43 Ford. Their smiles said it all.

With half an hour left, we went back to the classroom and I did a 20 minute presentation on the air war and the 8th Air Force, followed by questions. It was a very enjoyable way to end the week, and great to see the kids so interested in history. I'm hoping to add some pictures of the teachers behind the wheel, and also some taken by the school, but need permission first and the kids faces blurred out.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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For some time, I've been concerned about the visibility of the lights on the Dodge. I rarely drive it at night, but always drive with the lights on to make the Dodge as visible as possible due to its slow speed. However, the 6 volt lights aren't that bright, and the 5w indicators virtually pointless. So I decided it was time to upgrade.

Many of the replacement LED bulbs have the majority of the diodes mounted on the side, pointing to what would be the reflector in a normal car. Due to the shape of the housings, and the lack of a parabolic reflector, these aren't very useful. I decided I would have to find or make something more suitable. After a quick internet search, I found some ultra-bright 12 LED clusters designed for 6 volts. The brake and tail light will have two clusters fitted into the original 6 volt housing.

This is the glow from the current 6 volt tail light.

2016_tail_light_bulb.jpg

The first conversions were the indicators. I had some spare 12 volt BA15S bulbs which would be the donor for the fitting. The glass was smashed and the filament and support wires pulled out. The centre terminal was drilled out and a new brass pin glued in, with the solder built up the base again for the contact, and the LED cluster wire attached to the other. The negative wire was soldered to the inside of the metal fitting. The cluster was then epoxied onto the end of the fitting.

2016_led8.jpg

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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On November 3rd, I brought the Dodge home ready for a school visit the following day. Before the afternoon rain came, I got the front indicator covers stripped of their paint and rubber slits, and cleaned and polished the plastic to reveal a much larger area of amber. The inset image shows how it used to look. It doesn't look quite so good, but it's far more visible to other drivers. I also got my first two amber LED clusters fitted. The LED's have a nice clean cut off between on and off, unlike the filament bulbs.

2016_indicator_front_led.jpg

2016_indicator_front_led.gif

I tried fitted the other amber LED's to the rear, but there wasn't enough resistance in the circuit, and the LED's stayed on permanently, rather than flashing. I'm sure I can sort this with resistors to increase the load, but that can wait until it is warmer next year. It was too cold to be messing around for long outdoors.

So for now, I've fitted some 21 watt filament bulbs to replace the 5 watt bulbs that were fitted. They are much brighter, but don't really flash properly, as the filament doesn't cool down enough before powering on again. So currently they alternate between bright and dim. The gif animation below is from two frames of a video of the light to give an impression of how it is currently. I'll do another next year once the LED's are fitted and the circuit resistance sorted.

2016_indicator_rear_bulb.gif

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Today I removed the brake/tail lights to convert them to LED's. Originally I thought I was going to have to cut open the metal bulb housing, but realised I was able to prise open the glazed end that was crimped over the main body. This allowed access to the bulb, which was carefully smashed, leaving the filament wires behind.

One of the coloured lenses had been cracked for some time, so I ran some cyanoacrylate glue into the crack. The LED clusters had their wires shortened a bit, and they were epoxied onto a plywood plate which would go into the bulb housing.

2016_led_tail_brake5.jpg

The LED wires were then soldered to the tinned filament wires and covered in epoxy to give a little vibration protection to the solder joints. Once the LED's were epoxied to their mounting plate, the plate was epoxied into the housing.

The front housing and lens were then crimped back onto the housing. One of the light covers had quite a bit of surface rust, so it was stripped back to metal, primed and resprayed green.

2016_led_tail_brake6.jpg

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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These stills give a comparison between the filament and LED lights. It's not a perfect comparison due to different lighting conditions for each picture, but give a general idea.

2016_bulb_led.jpg

The animated gif below is compiled from a video shot during testing. It shows the tail light LED coming on first, followed by the brake light. Each LED cluster is quite close behind the coloured glass, and so doesn't illuminate the whole glass as the bulb did, but the light is much more intense and noticable.

2016_tail_break.gif

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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I tried fitted the other amber LED's to the rear, but there wasn't enough resistance in the circuit, and the LED's stayed on permanently, rather than flashing. I'm sure I can sort this with resistors to increase the load, but that can wait until it is warmer next year. It was too cold to be messing around for long outdoors.

 

All you need to make the LEDs flash front and rear is an electronic flasher unit that can operate LED indicator bulbs:~

 

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/flasher-units-shop.php

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These stills give a comparison between the filament and LED lights. It's not a perfect comparison due to different lighting conditions for each picture, but give a general idea.

 

2016_bulb_led.jpg

 

The animated gif below is compiled from a video shot during testing. It shows the tail light LED coming on first, followed by the brake light. Each LED cluster is quite close behind the coloured glass, and so doesn't illuminate the whole glass as the bulb did, but the light is much more intense and noticable.

 

2016_tail_break.gif

 

Is it just a combination of the video then viewing on a laptop that makes the LED tail and brake lights appear the same intensity, rather than the brake being much brighter as it is with filament bulbs that are normally 5 and 21 watt respectively ?

 

As to the indicators I'm sure discretely fitting a resistor of suitable power rating to dissipate the heat of drawing the same power as two indicator bulbs will work. Another trick would be hiding two filament bulbs somewhere. If you can just swap the electronic flasher unit for an electronic one that would be the easiest and neatest solution.

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I got an email this morning giving permission to use some of the other pictures from the school trip, and apparently, the kids are still talking about the visit this week, so we must have done something right.

Colin Bourdiec, our ENSA entertainer

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My dad's talk was illustrated by several watercolour paintings he'd done. Here's a couple of them.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Next was the turn of Miss Kitchen, though it was somewhat of a surprise! I shouted out to the kids, "Who wants to see Miss Kitchen have a go" and they all cheered. Again, I took her for a ride around first showing her the gear changes etc., then she had a go.

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The Dodge went back into storage on Monday, and will probably hibernate now until spring, bar the odd engine run, exercising the brakes and a slight move in the container to avoid flat spots.

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 4 months later...

It's been a bit of a traumatic week. On Monday, I got a phone call from the yard where I keep the Dodge truck, telling me that they had been given notice, and everone had to be off the land by early May.

 

I could have moved the truck to pretty much any caravan park exposed to the weather which was less than ideal, and finding somewhere that would take the 20ft container was a problem. Everything was too expensive ( three or more times our current rent ) or the sites wouldn't take containers. We had to consider outdoor storage without the container or selling the Dodge.

 

Forced into a frantic search, a bit of good luck resulted in finding a storage company only two and a half miles from home that would take our container and the Dodge. It would cost only slightly more money than we currently pay, and he had a contact for a cheap HIAB truck to move the container for us. Relief!!! HUGE relief.

 

This morning for the last time, I brought the Dodge home from the yard, a former Anti-Aircraft Battery. This was the first Dodge trip of 2017. I'll keep the truck at home for a few days to give it a pre-service look over prior to ordering any parts. The container move is set for Tuesday morning, and then the Dodge can move to its new home.

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Things do have a strange way of working out in the end.

 

i happened to click on the link to your first post on this thread and saw the photo of your daughter. I remember my son was about the same age and he's almost 7 now. Time flies!!

Edited by Chris Hall
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On Tuesday April 11th, the container transporter arrived at the rapidly emptying old yard, collected the container, and made the trip of a few miles to the new storage yard. I followed him there to get a key for the new place and to check the access to the container was suitable for the Dodge to drive in without obsticles.

2017_container3.jpg

Later in the day, I drove the Dodge over and squeezed it back into its home.

2017_container4.jpg

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 2 months later...

On Tuesday June 20th, I brought the Dodge home from the new storage yard to do the Spring service. This was the first trip back since moving, and although there's a steep hill to drive up on the way, the whole trip is now only three miles door to door.

Today was all the basic maintenance like oil change and greasing everything, but I also waterproofed the roof canvas too. I've noticed gaps opening up above the rear window panels, where the old hinged side joins, so that needs some sealant and I also want to add some angle steel to the rear body roof, to stop it sagging and pooling water when it rains. I've also got to add some resistance into the indicator circuit to allow the yellow LED's to be fitted to the rear lights, and finish the LED headlights.

Next week is the first show for the Dodge, although I've already done six shows with the two Jeeps.

2017_service.jpg

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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