Great War truck

Much the same here. I came back with a rusty bayonet (no scabbard), a bag of nuts and bolts, one photo and a wallet full of money (mine i hasten to add before someone says they lost it). Tim

fantastic job! Were the tyres NOS or new ones? Tim

Most of the constituent parts of the Universal Coupling have now been made up to the original drawings - some by us in the home workshop - but the EN24 parts - a very tough steel, were farmed out to the "Professionals" to machine for us, and the final part, the actual Drive Shaft (pictured) has just come back from them. This just leaves the Coupling Flanges to be finished with a "Square" for the coupling wire cut in one and a Spline in the other one, after which final assembly of the unit can take place, and it can be installed into the Truck.

That looks loveley. Someone in Belgium was selling (sorry trying to sell) an identical engine. His asking price was 15,000 Euros. I doubt he sold it, but you never know. Tim

The remainder of the Water Pump castings are not back from the Foundry yet, but we have pushed on with other bits of the Pump. Steve had already made up the shaft, and the Gland Nut and Gland have now been machined up from Bronze Bar.

Tanks in Russia keep dissapearing. A Stug 3 went from a memorial and a Tiger tank went from a museum as well. Probably went for scrap. The Russians have realsied there is a great value to this stuff and have been nicking it and selling it off. Mind you selling off a WW1 tank might not be easy to do.

Considering how valuable those things are i am amazed that they have not gone to a collector. Great photos there. Thanks. Tim

Yes, Steve and I will both be there. We even have a trophy enscribed "best non bus". Tim

You can see from the first photo at the top of the previous page how rough the top of the axle casing was. Although the black goo is not faithful to the original it has certainly saved us a great deal of effort and most importantly time. We are not getting any younger and we still need to be young enough to be able to start the thing. Now if you were complaining about us having fitted an electric starter, well that would be a different matter and a whole new topic. We did however put paper gaskets on the half shafts. Putting these in was not as straightforward as we had thought. Each bolt runs through a metal sleeve which connects the half shaft to the hub. These are press fittings. Tony and i thought the best way to fit these would be to put them loosely in place and then tighten up the bolts. As we were pushing in six simultaneously it required a great deal of effort. Steve pressed them in to the other half shaft one at a time in a vice which was much quicker. We then took the half shaft off again. Fitted the paper gasket and put them back in. even less bits on the garage floor to fall over now! A week or two ago, Gordon M asked to see some photos of the Lorry as it is now and Tony explained that it was difficult to get back far enough in our shed to see the whole of it in one go properly. We have taken a lot of our "junk" out of the shed to work on the "diff" and it was an opportunity to get some photos of the Dennis - but still not the whole truck in one go. That will have to wait until we can drag it outside.

As with all these things, it was all great fun and games. The reach of the engine hoist was just not quite enough to get the diff directly over the axle so Tony and i had to leant on it as Steve lowered it down. The axle has five studs that have to line up exactly with the diff. As the diff came from a different Dennis chassis i admit that i never thought that it would fit without a lot of work. However, with just a few attempts and bit of careful crow bar use it dropped down on all the studs. We did double check that it was facing the right way, then it was just a case of doing up all the bolts.

It was a great pleasure to be able to put the diff in. A very large and important chunk of the lorry is now in the chassis and there is one thing less on the floor to fall over. Anyway, please excuse me if a lot of these photos are very similar, but i thought you would be interested and it is all part of the story. One of the new oil seals that steve put in: It was a bit of fun and games getting the hoist in position, but it is the perfect tool for a job like this: The next fun bit is once we have got the diff off the ground is trying to get the hoist over the axle. The wheels on it just dont want to go the right way:

With the full team of three in Devon over the weekend, we took the opportunity of installing the Diff. A big chunk of metal to move in a restricted space but really no problems - especially as this was the first time that the Diff has been anywhere near the axle - having come from a different chassis. More photos to follow

Bought for 20p "Ormeronds Landing" by Leslie Thomas (Virgin Soldiers) about a British Policeman who travels to occupied France with a female SOE Agent to arrest a British soldierwanted for rape/murder. Quite enjoyed it. makes a change for me to read fiction.

Hi Norm I heard (from someone who should know) that the Australian Army still has some studebakers in reserve. Do you know anything about this? Tim

Yes. That is the other original one. Any chance of a photo of it yet? Tim

Fantastic! Thanks for posting these. Like Steve said we have known about this one for a long time but these are the first photos that we have seen of it. Tony Oliver tells me he went to an auction in the 1970's and there were four of these up for sale. he thinks they sold for about £800 each. he bought one which he since sold on to the Lancia museum (who i suspect removed the armour). One is in an unrestored but armoured condition at another UK address. There are two more civilianised in Ireland and one more (with a spare chassis) civilianised in the UK. Anyone know of any more? Tim

And finally, the two machined components of the Pump together - two down, four more to go!

The concave side of the Impeller is machined out at an angle of 19 degrees, whilst the convex side is machined at an angle of 60 degrees

The Water Pump Impeller casting has now been machined. Again, it was a very straight forward exercise and the series of photos speak for themselves and show the process. There were some inclusions in the casting, but they have mainly machined out this time. A keyway has yet to be cut, but Steve has a slotting attachment on his lathe and will do this later.

Peter Jackson did some experimentation with making a WW1 movie. It was only a few minutes long and was really just a test of his cameras. he made it in a couple of days. There is a clip of it on Youtube here: it does show i feel what could be acheived if someone throws some real money and effort in to making a WW1 film. I know he is collecting WW1 trucks and aeroplanes in New Zealand. Lets see what he comes up with. Tim

This is the business owned by Peter Jackson the film director. Just goes to show that not all people who come into large amounts of money do stupid things and waste it on women, fast cars, drugs and gambling. if i had the money i think i would do something similar but with WW1 trucks. Well done Peter.

Whilst Dad has been busy with the pump cover, Steve has been pattern making again to replace the incorrect one found over Christmas. It proved to be quite straightforward and just a variation on a theme really. Hopefully, this one will point at the radiator outlet this time!

Fabulous photos! Having friends with heavy lifting equipment is better than money! Having good luck is better than having friends with heavy lifting equipment. I think you have both! I look forward to seeing this restoration develop. Tim

What an interesting project. Good luck. it can be done. it will just take a great deal of time, effort and money. Tim

The Water Pump Cover has now been machined and is virtually completed. The holes around the flange have to be opened up and there are three others to go in. It has been a straight forward exercise and the sequence of photographs tell the tale. The only disappointing factor is that we have come across some porosity in the casting on the inside - it seems quite sound on the outside. Provided that there is no leakage through this, then it can be ignored as it will not harm - there is plenty of metal there. Possibly these small imperfections could be sealed with an Epoxy Resin - or even soft solder - but no final decision has been made on this.