part one
A new restoration blog for my next restoration project which is a bedford MWD built in July 1940 i first saw this truck when my friend John Rippingham asked me to help with the recovery of two bedford trucks he had bought from the disposal sale of a collection of military vehicles in Chester
The two trucks after there recovery from chester
The second truck being a later 1941 full cab model ,having already restored a later 1942 MWR model with a closed cab i thought it would be an intresting project to restore the aero screen truck
July 1940 bedford as found
The truck had been brought to Chester by the previous owner Trevor Willliams who bought the MW at the dispersal sale of the Grange cavern museum in 1989 it was in the sale catalogue as LOT 108 ww2 bedford MW rolling chassis , part completed restoration project and sold for £200.00 it must have been a much more complete truck in 1989 as Rita ,Trevors wife remembers her husband towing the truck home from the sale with a tractor as she followed behind on a moped ,the site at side of the river Dee in Chester was prone to flooding so i think some of the missing parts of the truck are some were in the Mersey estuary
what is left of the truck seems to be very original with the chassis number still readable ,all the plates on the dash are still in place showing the chassis number and the engine number on data plate matches the stamping on the engine block ,the contract plate is still riveted to the top of the dash pannel showing contract V3733
all the dash instruments ,choke cable and starter pull knobs are correct for an aero screen truck onf July 1940
having drained about three gallons of water from the engine sump and found lots of rust under the rocker cover there is not much hope of saving the engine but hopefully the engine block will be reusable
i thought that the gear box was also full of water and rust but when i removed the gear box top it was only the selector shafts in the gear box top which were ceased up with the gear box in neutral the gears can be rotated ,so some hope there .
removing the drain bolts in the back axles the axle was found to be still full of gear oil and inspection of the diff and pinion teeth show very little signs of wear
the truck is now safely home and moved into the new workshop tent ready for the big strip down
- 4
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