Great War truck

A fool and his money.......

That is a massive cab. It would easily come off though if you wanted to return it to its war time appearance - but that would be a bit of a shame or a nice fire if you did take it off. Out of idle curiosity, how much was the asking price five years ago? Tim

A Hub Cap has been mounted on the new Half-Shaft - both Hub Caps have been cleaned up and painted - so both Half Shafts are ready for fitting. The one original Half Shaft that we had already had a Hub Cap tightly fitted to it and this has not been disturbed. The Hub Cap/Half Shaft assembly is fixed to each back wheel by six, 3" length, 3/4" BSF Nuts and bolts which are inserted through fitted 1 1/8" diam collets that are a tight fit, half in the hub and half in the wheel. We have managed to re-cover six of the original collets but the other six have been made up here. Apart from the Water Pump where we still await the first batch of castings from the Foundry, the next major job will be making up the Universal Joint assembly between engine and gearbox - we never had one of those.

Not a problem. In fact i have the manual.

That is fabulous. OK Steve. In your spare time can you make 1/4 size Holt gun tractor for the girls to play on. Thanks Tim

A very interesting clip here, taken during the general strike: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=25277 You will have to wait until about 4 minutes have elapsed then there is a convoy (of what appears to be mostly Dennis's) with a Peerless armoured car at the front and the back. Tim

That is a Lancia, I am certain. There is a photo of it in the superb book Irish Army vehicles by Karl Martin. 50 of them were supposedly converted like this. Fantastic clip of film. I am amazed at what you continue to find. Tim

Steve has sent me an update on his progress. The pattern is nearly there now, made up from ash (main body), MDF (flange), a bit of pine (core prints) and filler (the rest!). Once sawn in half, the lost material was made up with some 30 thou plywood and fillets were added using fillet leathers glued on. The reason for using proper timber this time is that the moulder said that he didn't like MDF much as it tends to delaminate when trying to draw the mould from the sand. OK for a couple of uses but not much more. The plan is that he should ram up the flanged side first and then, after turning over, manually cut away some of the sand over the flange so thatwhen the other side is rammed, a piece of sand sticks downwards into the cavity but lifts off the pattern when the mould is split. No doubt time will tell as to whether it works. He is now pressing on with the core box and this should be completed tomorrow. Next part will be the main pump body. Our thanks to everyone for all of their helpful comments.

I was down at the Anchor Inn at Sea town a few weeks ago. Love it down there. Sunny, but very windy. Great waves, food and cider.

Last lot of photos for now. This is Father Christmas at his holiday cottage in New Zealand, packing up presents for good boys: And sure enough, three Months later, this one has arrived for Steve. And he is looking very happy indeed: Whatever might it be? It looks very interesting though: Ahhh! One of those. A Thornycroft M4. We certainly needed that: Lovely. Thanks to everyone involved for that. It is great to have such good friends.

Over a period of time Steve got some replacement parts made. New springs. A replacement rad and a half shaft. The springs are unphotogenically buried in the garage. The rad is hidden away in the attic. But here is the half shaft Then Steve heard of a surviving rear axle with diff in it. The owner brought it over from Ireland. However, on arrival it was quickly realised that this was off a different Thorny and was too small. A great shame, but it found a good home at Milestones museum where it was used in one of their restorations. Then another front axle turned up. As you can see it had been butchered to make a trailer: However, sometimes these things can yield some very useful parts and it is always amazing what good condition some of these parts might be in: And we can always do with more Thornycroft hubcaps:

No response. I am suprised. It is the ammunition body off a WW1 Nash Quad or FWD. Still looks like original paint on it. Tim

Yes, no problem at all. Do add to this topic with as much as you can. Those wheels certainly look WW2 German. Possibly from an artillery piece or a half track. What are the dimensions of the wheels please? Tim

I have seen a photo of that, i think it was in Windscreen some years ago. it shows the engine coming up the beech on a trailer. Must have been a hellishly hard load to move on the sand. Tim

Ok thanks. Thats a shame but i didnt pay a lot for it and as it still holds petrol it makes a perfect one to use on the lorry. Thanks. Tim

Thats the one. I have still not found that photo of it in use, but it is a remarkable survivor. Tim

Wonderful. Always fascinating talking to these old boys.

You have got me there, bang to rights and no mistake. great photo though eh? Red and grey, that would fit the photo. What new grades were introduced at that time? Does the Shires book have a lot of info on petrol tins? In fact is there a petrol tins "bible". If not, thats potentially a great book. I have been out and looked at the tin. I cant see a "2" on the handle. The light was not great though and i need to clean up the handle some more. A job for another evening. I will get back to you on that. Tim

hang on, i will put my boots back on and go out and have a look.

Here is an interesting period photo that will appeal to you. How many different types of can can you identify and why the two tone colour scheme? Tim

Hi Roger Sorry to keep you. Nice looking tins. I have not seen one like that before. I have just been out in the garage taking photos of mine. As you can see the arrow is quite narrow and there are no other markings anywhere else on the tin: It is all a bit manky i am afraid as the previous owner had slapped a heavy coat of grey paint over it first which i have been trying to get off. Pleased to say that the tin is very sound as i had to use it to hold some petrol i had to drain out of the Jeep in a hurry.

I went to History on Wheels about 18 Months ago, but i dont remember seeing it. Mind you, tehre are so many interesting thigns to look at i could have just ovelooked it.

Just come across this photo. Kind of interesting. Nice to see they have lots of safety grill in place.

Marvellous.

Thanks Richard. You get the impression that they dont like to write these things down for easy availability. You have to scrabble around for information. Thanks for your input. Tim