restoration Mk1 Militant Tanker

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Happy New Year to all our readers, hope 2019 will be good to you.

Time to catch up with the Christmas tankering.

Brake linkage is all finished, cleaned, freed, repaired as necessary and then given the repaint treatment.  Ready to fit back on when the time comes.

Moved on to the spare wheel carrier bits that have been lounging behind the shed since the cab top moved out.

Most of it started like this.  Complete, just badly corroded and in need of cleaning and repainting.  Several hours of wire brush in the grinder, then paint shop washing line and we get to this

 Brake drums got a coat of green at the same time. More bits ready to go back on.

Quick question for those with significant others.  Could you get away with putting truck parts on the posh oak dining table?

Answer, only nice clean ones, and after asking very nicely.

Cupola hip pads being retrimmed

Had to borrow her sewing machine too!  There may be a substantial price to be paid for this, later.

Anyway, had some cloth left over from the seat recovering, so thought I'd have a go at retrimming the Hip Pads.

Original ones looked like this, but were so rotten...…...

They just fell apart like this.

So, bit of guesswork with the calculations, bit of string as a compass to draw the curves, cut out and sew together.  First attempt went into the bin, but a few adjustments and the mark 2 version looks quite tidy.

First one off the press, and 2 more to do.  I think they'll do nicely

 

[Highland_laddie 11]

Kudos for the perseverance. Looking forward to seeing the video of the first roll out under her own power. Thanks for keeping the thread going it's great to see the results of your continued efforts.

 

[Ex-boy 13]

7 hours ago, Highland_laddie said:

Kudos for the perseverance. Looking forward to seeing the video of the first roll out under her own power. Thanks for keeping the thread going it's great to see the results of your continued efforts.

 

I second that. You are doing a great job, and I would hope your other half would appreciate that and not ask too high a price.

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Fortunately the good wife is quite supportive and like everyone else is looking forward to that first run out video.  Hopefully that is not too far off now, things are coming together quite well.  So long as we don't get too many bad weather days in this and next month, another six weeks or so and we'll be on it.

[Gordon_M 14]

I'd guess the priority job would be to finish paint at least the back of the cab and the front face of the body - unless you have already managed that?  

There's no way it would make sense to refit the spare wheel gear without those faces being painted first.

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

22 hours ago, Gordon_M said:

I'd guess the priority job would be to finish paint at least the back of the cab and the front face of the body - unless you have already managed that?  

There's no way it would make sense to refit the spare wheel gear without those faces being painted first.

Absolutely!  It's the old cart before the horse thing, and has been for the past year.  Spare wheel came off to get to the back of the cab in the first place.  Back of the cab needed to be done before the top half of the cab went back on, and so on.   No point in painting just the back of the cab, better to do the whole thing at the same time, hence the radiator and oil cooler sorting so it can all get top coat at once.

There is a sort of a plan, honestly!

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

A short while back we fitted the top half of the cab back on.  Took about 4 hours in all, and the whole lot got shot on video.  It's taken a while but I've managed to edit out all the standing around, arm waving and shouting at each other and got it down to 15 min of action.

Hopefully this is the link to the youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mit4QEZtc3I

[Highland_laddie 11]

Hi Rob,

just tried the link but youtube says this video is unavailable.  😪 

[MatchFuzee 16]

The link works now.

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Sorry about the unavailability, I didn't upload it properly.  Bit of a technophobe sometimes

[radiomike7 13]

20 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Sorry about the unavailability, I didn't upload it properly.  Bit of a technophobe sometimes

That seemed to go well Rob, I have never used the winch on a Militant, do you have to carefully release the winch brake to lower the hook?

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

2 hours ago, radiomike7 said:

That seemed to go well Rob, I have never used the winch on a Militant, do you have to carefully release the winch brake to lower the hook?

You can power it down, by engaging reverse gear instead of first, but you are straining against the brake which probably doesn't do it too much good.  So long as there is some weight on the hook, like when lowering the jib, carefully releasing the brake is the way to go. 

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

After the stripping the brakes, next up, the hubs.  2 of which have been leaking badly, and a pair of NOS gland seals have already been picked up from an AEC supplier on fleebay.

End cover comes off to reveal a very large four and a half inch A/F nut (that's 115mm for you modern types) holding it all together.

Not exactly Snap-on!  Still haven't got round to buying a proper socket, yet.  Made this for the Timber Tractor years ago, and it works so don't fix what ain't broke.  You just beat it with a sledge hammer.

Stripped out and wrapped up to protect axle ends, while the rest gets the treatment at home

Hung each one on a wire to keep all the spacers in order

All the old oil and muck has now been washed off, bearings and spacers are all stacked awaiting polishing, hubs awaiting de-rust and respray.  Hopefully that will happen during the evenings this week ready for refit next weekend

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

On ‎1‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 8:47 PM, Zero-Five-Two said:

…….. Hopefully that will happen during the evenings this week ready for refit next weekend

Did I say that?  OK, well, maybe next weekend then!!  Didn't get much done at all last week, something else always seemed to get in the way.  Still, managed to get stuck into it yesterday and today.

All four hubs cleaned and painted, ready to refit.

Moved on to sorting out the 2 leaking hub seals.  Militants don't have a seal as such, in the sense of a rubber ring affair, they have what is called a packless gland.  A metal bellows that uses spring pressure to form a metal to metal seal.  Any damage or scratches to the 2 mating surfaces and hub oil just pours out.  

Packless gland on the right, with the brass mating face upwards.  Hub plate, (the other half of the seal) on the left.  Spot the damage at 12 o'clock on the hub plate.

Having lashed out £50 odd on 2 new glands, I was a bit peeved to say the least when I found this.  A new gland isn't going to help that.

Part of the cleaning process, is to polish the mating surfaces with fine wet and dry, so nothing to lose but see if it will polish out.  Started with 180 grit and worked up

Gland getting the works, using a bit of plywood as a flat surface

Finished with 1200, and finally cornflakes packet and brasso

Rather pleased with the result on the hub plate.  Hopefully it will do the job.

Still got a whole load of nuts, bolts, clips and things to clean up before actually fitting, but otherwise we are ready to go, next weekend?

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Well, this weekend happened and I'm pleased to say we nailed it.  Took 2 trips, yesterday, with the car delivering all the bits.  Bit too much weight carrying both hubs and drums together.  Early start this morning and cracked on, took all day  but got the right result.

Back plates and rear dirt seal first, and build from there.  Son Stuart assisting, took a hub each and on we go

Shoes next, then hub and drum

Had a couple of minor issues, couple of blocked grease nipples, and one pair of shoes that just would not behave, but otherwise things went fairly well.

Last job, wheels back on.  We've still got to clean the rims, so they will have to come off again later.  Haven't fitted the brake chambers or any of the linkage yet, either.  I'm leaving them off for now to allow more room for chassis cleaning first.

Just one downside!  Having spent most of the day bent over in this sort of position, and lifting heavy drums and hubs, the old spine is protesting violently this evening.  Don't know about "the joy of movement"  the joy of sitting still is pretty good just now, along with some "medicine" to numb the pain.

 

 

[Highland_laddie 11]

Cracking' (or based on your back should that be creaking') job 😀

 

Although there's a lot to do, with the recent reinstatement of the cab and the hubs/wheels it must feel like real progress.

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Absolutely, have ticked off quite a few big jobs recently, well pleased with the progress

[Zero-Five-Two 18]

Another week and another round of pretty good progress on the old Tanker.

Got a colleague with a steam cleaner to give the chassis a once over during the week.  300 degrees steam at 60 bar pressure apparently.  He said I should stand well back!

 Started well, looked good to me, bits of crap going everywhere. But, he decided it wasn't going well enough.  Needed to get a bit more up close and personal with it

He was right underneath it at one point.

Did strip off all the muck and loose paint alright.  Quick whizz round with the wire brush in the grinder on Saturday, and on with a coat of underseal

Just done the chassis rails so far, bit more cleaning required on the axles etc, then a coat of DBG will finish the job.  Well pleased with the result.

Back at the home workshop, started looking at the number plate and convoy lights.  Both well rusty, and looking past their best. But with replacements being advertised at £80 a throw, I was keen to try something

So, strip out and try and make a good one out of the two

Doesn't look promising, but with a good deal of patience, loads of penetrating fluid and a bit of gentle heat, I got enough serviceable bits to make up one good lamp, complete with an original War Department 5 watt bulb that must be older than I am!

All cleaned up, ready for refit, and a coat of green next time there is one passing.  One down, and one more to find.