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WW1 Thornycroft restoration


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23 hours ago, andypugh said:

I think that the idea is that a tank full of water is verifiably not full of petrol vapour. 

You can then arrange the tank to allow you to work in a bubble. 

My meaning precisely (and a very small bubble at that).  Make no mistake, an empty petrol tank, whether washed out or not, becomes a bomb in the presence of a source of ignition.

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If the tank only has a very minor leak why not re-slosh it with whatever you used last time.

Assuming it's minor it should seal up easily.

I'd contact the manufacturer/distributor for advice.

Cost nothing and won't blow up in your face and will be heaps quicker than dismantling the tank.

If you do dismantle you basically have to re-slosh it anyway..

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The aim is to reduce the inflammable air mixture in the tank . A CO2 fire extinguisher directed into the tank will replace the lighter oxygen, the heavier carbon dioxide remaining in the tank. Can do the same using nitrogen. Visit a tyre supplier and fill an old tube with nitrogen to flow into the tank. Needs a bit of fiddling with the valve to discharge.  

 Doug W

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Putting petrol fumes to one side, and assuming tank was degassed, putting heat to the tank with slosh sealant in it may not be a good idea as the sealant could burn inside or detach itself from the inside of the tank. One problem with using a sealant that it can inhibit soldering or welding in the future. Might be worth pressurising the tank (if possible) and putting it in a bath to find the exact point of the leak.

regards, Richard

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Tank the tank off, plug all the holes except one, and fill the tank with a few pounds of dry ice. Let stand for two hours, keeping the open hole on the “top”,  dry ice is pure co2, and will constantly replace itself while you are soldering the tank. It’s the only safe way short of a continuous flow of co2 or argon while doing the job. It’s cheap and easy..........👍

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Moving on one from Richard Farrant's post may I suggest that having found the area of the leak by pressurising the tank that you re-slosh the tank and pressurise it again with the slosh in the leak area. Hopefully this will force the slosh into the hole and seal it.

John

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Thanks, Chaps for all of the advice. At least I have recognised the potential hazard before finding out the hard way! Current thinking is to fill to the brim completely with water to push all of the fumes out. Then I want to unsolder just the outer skin which, with a bit of care, I should be able to do without getting the inner one too hot. I shall drill a couple of holes in it so I can drain the petrol in that space and tap the plate so I can put a screw in it to start lifting it up. It is a real pain living 200 miles from the project as everything has to be planned in detail to make use of the short timescale. Oh well.

Some things still going on slowly. When we were down last week, Tim spent an age touching up bolt heads. This is a very tedious job but has done wonders for the lorry's appearance.

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We have also carried on with the hood bows. I started off by bending them to shape using an anvil tool that I made up.

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Dad had cut the angles perfectly so the quadrants just dropped in and were ready to weld.

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In the mean time, I riveted the lap strip onto the centre flat bow.

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And then drilled the bottom edges where they bolt onto the extension pieces left by Father.

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The longitudinal bar brackets, I had already bent so these were riveted as well.

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Centre bow ready for paint!

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We riveted the joiner plates onto the end bows.

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Then a trial fit to get the bolt hole positions.

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Once welded by a pal (Thanks John), the longit brackets were riveted in as well.

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Dressed off ready for paint.

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Just the top-coats remain and then we can tick another job off.

Steve  :)

Edited by Old Bill
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I had a nice weekend making up more bits. This time, the shovel and pick brackets. I am fortunate to have the original Dennis works drawing for these but it appears that they are a Govenment standard so the Thorny will have the same type.

First challenge was to find some suitable timber. Fortunately, I had a pice of school woodwork bench in stock which is Beech and hard as hell! I manually planed this to shape.

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The second one was cut from a piece of Herbert Machine Tools workbench which I also had in stock as being too nice to scrap. I did have to dodge the bolt holes, however.

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I had nothing in stock for the last one so I laminated it and then cut it to size.

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I did the chamfers with Grandfather's spoke shave which he used to build frigates at Charles Hill's Shipyard during the second war. I do love using his tools.

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Then onto the steelwork which I bent using the press. It was bright steel strip so I had to anneal it frst to prevent it from cracking.

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The shovel handle bracket was a bit tricky. It is supposed to be riveted together but I couldn't see how I could get a snap in there or bend it afterwards so I bottled and used my favourite silver solder. The rivets are supposed to be countersunk so the bracket looks no different from the drawing

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Complete and ready for the paintshop.

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Headboard and rear lamp bracket next.

Steve    :)

Edited by Old Bill
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Well, we had a nice day at The Great Dorset on Friday and saw a lot of friends and old lorries. We have had a lot of opportunity to discuss the fuel tank as well. We have reached the conclusion that the lowest risk approach would simply be to Slosh it again as Barney has suggested. It is a bit pricey but offers the remotest chance of blowing ourselves up so we have, today, drained the tank down completely, removed it form the lorry and left it on end with the cap off to dry out. I'll order some more Slosh shortly.

In the meantime, we have been back working on the lorry. We have put up the hood frames and trimmed the longitudinals to length before drilling the ends and fitting them.

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Next job is to make the wooden headboard up and then to remove the sump for investigation.

Steve    :) 

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8 hours ago, David Herbert said:

Or lowering the floor by two feet ! That way the authorities won't notice. The railway might be a problem though.

David

I think you get away with it. I remember the Charterhouse bedford OY we drove in the UK had no problems in the middle of the bridges . You could stand upright in the back.

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4 minutes ago, Richard Farrant said:

They are talking about lowering the garage floor, not the height of the lorry!

david refers to railway problems also  that was never an issue. I consider him thinking about railway bridges

 

Edited by monty2
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Yes, a bigger garage would be a great asset but we will have to live with what we have. Actually, more floor area would be useful for the next project! In the meantime, we are trying to push the Thorny over the finishing line but it is not giving in without a fight.

We took the sump off on Monday. We expected to undo the bolts and just drop it but famous last words. It stuck to the gasket and just would not shift. We had to strip down the oil pump and front of the engine in order to get at the joint.

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Lots of knocking and pulling from awkward angles went on but it eventually let go when Father held a jemmy inside against the underside of the crank case and I hammered a chisel into the end joint. It took us three hours!

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Dad wiped out the sludge which had accumulated in a surprisingly short time.

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I now have it with me ready to fix the leak. I think it will be a Dremel and filler job. We shall see.

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Steve    :)      

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I'd suggest the sludge is predominantly emulsified oil from when the sump was full of water.

If you're going to slosh the fuel tank why do the sump at the same time.

An alternative would be to paint the inside for the sump with a sealing coat of whatever is good on alloy.

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From Frost's   POR15 Tank Sealer - Fuel Tank Repair Kit Instruction

PATCHING

If you have small pinholes you would like to seal from the outside, you can use the POR-Patch. This acts as a filler that is impervious to fuels etc.

The best time to add patches on the outside of the tank if there are larger holes to fill, is when you have finished drying the tank after using POR15 Metal Prep, when the holes in the tank are too big to be sealed by the sealer alone.

Here’s how you do this: Brush/Spray the Metal Prep on the surface and rinse off. Once completely dry, paint the area where the hole is with POR15 Rust Preventive Paint, then place a piece of the POR15 Power Mesh reinforcing fabric into the paint. Now paint the mesh outward from the centre with more POR15. The next day or 5 hours later, paint it again. You have now sealed the tank from both the inside and the outside.

And remember, whenever you want to seal a tank, you must use POR15 Metal Prep on the inside and/or the outside, because the adhesion must be perfect. After the tank is sealed, wait at least 5 days

Would POR-Patch work for the fuel tank and if POR-Patch is hot engine oil proof it could it be suitable for the sump repair?

Have you checked to see if you can use a second coat of sealer or is it one coat on bare metal only? 

Edited by MatchFuzee
Typo
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