Great War truck

This is where we left off this evening. There are still steel angle braces to make up which run outside the front corners of the bodywork and underneath, there are six wood vertical braces to go down the outside of the sides - three each side, between the steel ones and there are wooden horizontal members to go along the top of the sides - you can see one held in temporarily with "G" clamps. Does anybody know of a source of "Imperial" Coach (Carriage) Bolts - our existing stock is running low!

The outside surfaces of the headboard planks were painted before the headboard was constructed as it was perceived that it might be just a little awkward to get at them to paint in situ.

Construction of the Dennis Bodywork has continued since Christmas - it is starting to take shape but still quite a way to go! Back to it tomorrow.

Looking good. Well done.

In between doing Christmassy things, Steve has been doing a bit of the throttle linkage. First, he rescued some drop-arms which had been used elsewhere on another lorry. Then he turned up a spacer and silver soldered it between the two arms. Finally, he filled it and rubbed it down and it is now ready to fit. We didn't have one of these but only an assortment of Dennis bits from other vehicles so, although it is a new part, it has been made from Dennis bits. There are two other levers in the throttle linkage, both mounted on the dash. Fortunately, we have one, albeit very corroded and Steve set about dismantling it, again using heat. He then cut and bent a new mounting plate as the original is beyond salvage. Finally, he turned up a new pivot screw for the second lever which will have to be made as a copy of the first. That will be his next job.

I received this one from the swedish tank museum:

Yes. He sounds a little peeved with them.

Here are some more from the same chap. All very interesting and if not recorded will be lost. In the start of the raids on the country, Westland's was protected by barrage balloons and a most excellent camouflage. From a nearby hill the place looked just like an extension of the surrounding houses. There was a lot of air activity everywhere. We saw Dog fights nearby. However a lot of enemy were going over to Bristol etc. but still as they went over Yeovil we had to keep going to the air raid shelters. It was about this time that an enemy plane slipped through the barrage balloons, in daylight and skip bombed the main road in the factory, the bomb ran along the road until it hit the corner of the Administration building, Killed one person. It was decided to move the technical department to Compton House on the Sherborn Road where we stayed until it was safe to go back to the factory in 1943 I think. We had problems with sneak attacks. Consider a flight of maybe 3 planes. At about 220 MPH they would skim the channel, rise up over the cliffs, hug the land and in 30 miles were over Westland's before the balloons could get up. One day three of them skimmed the airdrome almost touching the ground. They did not drop anything, may have just been looking. I had such an encounter. A beautiful summer evening, the sun had set, I looked up and three enemy planes were approaching overhead. I was by the Westland sports pavilion. I knew they had a full size billiard table, weighed a ton. I ran and dived under just as those three planes let go in one big salvo. That table came off the floor. I ran outside and the eerie quiet was weird. Then I heard a dog bark, followed by approaching sirens and rescue. I found the remains of a domestic air raid shelter. Whole family wiped out. Vast craters , probably 1,000 pounders I guess, gas mains flaring, houses in ruins. Knowing that the quick raid, now in the dark might be pathfinder thing, I got out of there. Indignation at such civilian carnage was rife. However not so. They approached from the East instead of the West. Got the wrong side of the aerodrome. Great timing, wrong side. Sometimes Yeovil was the target. Got a pasting for a couple of hours. There is a web site devoted to all the Raids and casualties. Far more than I knew. Google Yeovil air raids WW II. You might see it. One night I witnessed an enemy experiment to defeat balloons. I had just taken a girl home from a dance, its 2.00 am. She was, ----well moving the story on. ----- It was a clear moonlit night. What we called a bomber's moon. Dead quiet except there was a droning from a single plane. Odd, the balloons were up, shining in the moon light. I stopped to ponder. No air raid warning, guess they wondered what the plane was up to. Then there was a loud "PING" and away floated a silver elephant. The droning continued. Another "PING' and another balloon went. I was fascinated. Stood there leaning on my Bike. After the third "Ping" there was a sudden roar as the plane revved up and came down to just about roof level right where I was standing. For just a moment I saw right into the Green house', (so called as their bombers had crew all together in the front. ) I could see the men for just a second in the faint glow of the cockpit as I dropped into the Gutter. Then horrors, I realized I had my best suit on. Jumped up to brush myself off. The plane disappeared toward Yeovilton and dropped some bombs. Then all the sirens went off and the guns opened fire. Now the bomb aimer in their planes had a machine gun in the nose, which he used on anything he saw moving. But although he was very visible to me I was not to him, so I was untouched. Later. I was in charge of incoming technical stuff including the latest from the enemy. They had a picture of the wire cutters. At the front was a sort of pylon sticking forward. From the pylon ran a great curved piece to the wing tips, Along at various intervals were fixed cutters. I think the idea was to have a line of Cutters to clear a path for low level bombers. Apparently the enemy lost so many planes trying to perfect it, they gave up. The demonstrating I saw worked. I admire the crew though. If the first contact to a cutter did not work,, they were dead. Must have been a terrible jerk as they hit a wire. My suit survived the war. As for the girl I took home, None of your business.

Lucky the car driver had quick reactions. Could have been very unpleasant for him indeed.

Thats interesting. Chain drive so it must be an early one. With a canopy like that i suspect that it is destined for India. Keep the rain off the bonnet as well as the crew.

Bogger, i missed it. Not my fault though. so much snow that the satellite dish is buried. will try and dig it out tomorrow.

Very heavy snow here in the Cotswolds. I wont be able to get to the pub if this doesnt stop. I managed to get to the co-op to stock up on essentials (cider, pastys and crisps) and that was rather a hike. In two minds as to whether to take out the Jeep or not.

Just to keep this going, here is another update. We took another delivery of timber all cut for size. We intend to have a body building Christmas with the whole team. Luckily Tony realised today that some of the timber we ordered had not arrived which would scupper the whole Christmas holiday for us (getting priorities right) so he has gone off to get what we need: The replacement power file has not arrived so Tony has been keeping himself busy (and no doubt bored) with cleaning up the wheel by hand: He is doing a very nice job on it too!

Steve has been toolmaking this weekend and has made the broach to cut the square hole in the steering wheel. After centring a piece of silver steel, he set it up in the mill to machine it square. As usual he was stretching the mill to the limit and had to remove the power feed to give enough clearance for the dividing head. He then put it back in the lathe and machined it round again! This time it had a taper of 0.008" per inch running from 16mm dia at one end to 17mm square at the other. Then he cut 48 teeth along its length. Next, it was hardened using a propane torch and bucket of water after which it was tempered back yellow. Unfortunately for us, our press is not big enough to accommodate the wheel so the broach cannot be pushed through the centre hole but must, instead, be pulled. Steve has machined it with a 10mm thread on the end so that a piece of studding can be attached. He has prepared a piece of tube (formerly a piece of the steering column!) with a thrust race so that a nut can be used to draw it through. Once Father has finished polishing the wheel, we will have a go.

Thats a loveley lamp. Does it have any WD markings on it? Integral ones are quite rare and unusual and i have only seen a few. probably jolly expensive as well. Tim

They might be having another clear out sometime. Their Abbot has only just gone to Withams. A shame. The Harrier is chained to a massive block of concrete. probably to stop some kids running off with it. Lots of other interesting stuff around the other side. There was a bridge layer there, although if it was an m2 or not i dont know. Something else under a big taurpalin.

All taken at Shrivenham. See " a Grand Day Out" thread for the full story.

Yes, you got it right. Shrivenham it is. We all felt very privellaged to go in and see the collection, especially after recent events, heightened security etc.

Last lot: Here is a photo of our latest MVT Area member Voytek - with an example of what he used to drive when he was in the army, the Polish army.

I wish i did. Time to look for a new job i think. here area few more random photos:

it was a bit cold outside so we went into one of the sheds (purely to warm ourselves up you understand):

I hope you find these helpful:

Close and even better than Christmas shopping (actually much much better than Christmas shopping). here are some photos taken in the car park: oh, oh. Someone is in trouble:

Guess where i went today. Here is a clue:

Interesting this one. The front does not look quite right for Austin, Morris, Karrier or Commer. Not sure about GMC either. What fun.