Great War truck

Yes Doug. You are quite right. More photos later.

Here are a selection of photos of the Luc Court. Any thoughts or comments greatfully received:

I cant find any data plates on it, but it certainly appears to be military: Any thoughts?

The next day - back to it. Final assembly of all the frame bits after making sure that everything fitted and it was all square. Sunday after noon, friend Mark arrived with the soft wood for the floor and sides - all nicely finished and ready for painting and assembly. We laid out the floor planks on the chassis first of all to find that they were perfectly dimensioned, then removed them and laid some polythene dust sheets on the chassis before replacing the floor planks on it, but up side down so that they could be painted that way. The usual problems over lack of space - we have had to store some of the soft wood for the sides on the back of the FWD! Looking ahead to the next urgent job then that will be the folding canvas cab roof. This will be a little out of our hands as we shall have to rely on the Professionals to fit the canvas roof to the frame - but we shall have to provide the frame. This will be made of ash - cut very thin and laminated around a former. Mark again will kindly cut the ash into strips for us. As the fitting of the canvas is out of our hands, we deem it important to get the frame completed and handed over as soon as possible if we want to ensure that it will be ready for the "Brighton" in May.

Steve and I travelled down to Devon for a working weekend - the objective was to get the framework for the bodywork drilled and bolted together and mounted on the chassis. Tony had painted these Ash parts since the team were all last together as they are far easier to paint before they are assembled. We are quite limited for space and the only satisfactory way for us to drill the planks in the room available was to take the Bench Drill from the workshop to the Garage floor where we had sufficient space to accommodate the planks for that purpose, That all worked quite satisfactorily. Whilst me and Tony were drilling the Ash parts, Steve was keen to try out his newly home made Forge and practice with it by making a Poker! He reckons on using it for more serious purposes later on with Dennis body parts! We were again very fortunate to have the original drawing and specification for the bodywork - we were surprised to find that originally, oak was specified for the longitudinals, ash for the cross members and maple for the side planks. The frame consists of two main longitudinals, but a strip 7/8" thick but the same width to sit under them against the chassis which has clearance holes drilled in them to avoid protruding rivet heads and some bolt heads. These are made of ash. After these strips were drilled with the avoiding holes, they were finally screwed to the underside of the longitudinals. The six ash cross members and the longitudinals were all drilled for bolts to hold them together but were deeply countersunk to accommodate bolt heads on one and nuts on the other.

"I love it when the old girl goes down and gets dirty".

OK. I dont know about that one. Maybe other Richard knows about it?

Cracking pictures there Alan. The US Army did not have any wheeled heavy artillery tractors at the start of the war so borrowed a good number of Renaults (amongst others). The French were still using them at the start of WW2 hence the captured one.

Yes quite right. There is a Latil TAR01 that i think lives in Surrey. It looks very similar, but painted light blue.

Yes, well spotted. You are quite right.

This Renault EG has just surfaced and is for sale. It looks like the owner started restoring it but lost interest. He said he last ran it 15 years ago. Four wheel drive with a massive winch on the back and was used for towing artillery. Look at the steering wheel to get the scale of the thing: I didnt put this in the items for sale threads as it seems more appropriate here. I can only think of one other survivor (at the Berliet foundation). My sincerest thanks to Marcel for bringing it to our attention.

Some did go to Russia. Whether they were paid for or not is another matter.

The new swedish tank museum has been completed and they are just beginning to move the collection in to it. Some interesting shots of it here:

Thats interesting. The V3 site is open to the public and is quite interesting. A little strange to think of all the human remains still in the lower levels as you walk around.

Could that be US marine Corps?

The armoured body on the second one down on the left looks like a Seabrook (chain drive too), but the wheels are not wooden as they should be. Runflat will have some ideas for sure.

it was very busy. Had a great time and met everyone that i have ever met before - except Jack. Are you sure it was him?

I have never seen one marked up RAF like that before. Very unusual. The WD ordered a new batch of lamps in 1922, so it is always possible that the RAF did ao at the same time. Very nice.

Collected two Steering Wheels from the Foundry today - we had a second one cast at the same time for a friend with a future Dennis project in mind! We thought that our friends, Steve and John at the Bridport Foundry might find it necessary to put more than one "runner" into the mould - probably around the rim and in which case there would be quite a lot of cleaning up to do in that area. But they managed to feed the molten aluminium into the mould through just one place, right in the centre of the wheel. You can see in one of the pictures where this "runner" was cut off after the casting came out of the sand. The castings are just as they have come out of the sand so there is a fair bit of cleaning up and polishing to do to them before they can be considered as "finished" and ready to have their coat of black plastic placed around the rim. The spokes will be left as polished aluminium. And here are some more images of the progress in the body painting:

Thats unusual - especially on an AEC! No, i think you are right. Napiers it is. Incidentally, has anybody got any photos yet of the Irish Napier. I would love to see it.

Great pictures. In the top are a cracking pair of FWD's. Not sure about the rest in there yet. Next one down AEC or Daimler Y Types on the right, Albions on the left. Bottom photo more Y Types. I will give some thought to the rest.

Hi Tim Yes FWD was made in the USA and there are lots of surviving FWD photos here: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?13046-FWD-Model-B-Gallery Kempton Park was used for storing vehicles returned from France at the end of the war. There were thousands of them there of many different types. If you would like to post the photos up then we will all race each other to identify them first. Tim

That looks great. A cracking picture of the truck. A US AS Heavy Aviation. A rare beast. I wonder how Oliviers restoration of one is getting on.

Great photos. You obviously know the best place to stand. A bit like waiting for a bus. Wait for hours and then 12 come all at once. Tim

So, for those who dont know what we are talking about this is the lorry chassis in question: When the building in the background was being demolished this is what was found. A superb Locomobile truck chassis. However, the problem is that is all it is. There is no engine, gearbox, diff, steering box or any of the important parts. if the owner plans to undertake a full restoration then i wish him every success but the chances of finding original parts in this country is practically zero. France or the USA slightly better chances, but not greatly so. he may wish to put a modern drive train in it which can be done, but is going to be an awful lot of work. Value of old chassis like this is about £100, slightly more if you scrap it. If you do intend to scrap it let me know as the wheels might be of interest to someone else who has one to restore and the greasers could be useful to. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but finding WW1 truck chassis is not too hard. Finding a really nice one like this Locomobile is a little harder. Finding the drive train is next to impossible - but can be done with a great deal of hard work and lots of luck.