Great War truck

Oh yes, please bear with me. I have to scan some photos of some remarkable finds so you can see how things have progressed. Tim (too)

In case you are uncertain as to what "J Type" should look like, this is how they appeared as they left the factory.

As I was not inclined to pay Photobucket the $1,000 a year ransom for my photos they have blurred and watermarked them all. I do have backups and will try to replace them but this will take me an awful long time to complete. I will start with the Peerless ones. A downside is that it is now impossible to get the captions to match up, but I am sure that you will all work this out. If you need to see any photo specifically please let me know and I will treat that one as a priority. Thanks I have been intending to post these pictures up for a while, but have just never got around to it. Basically, it is Steve's "entry level" restoration project. After finishing University (which i think was in about 1988) he wanted to restore an old vehicle. Veteran cars were out of reach of his modest pocket so he started looking for a commercial vehicle. After a few false starts he found this WW1 Thornycroft J Type. The story behind it was that it had been recovered by our friend "Jones the scrap" off of a Welsh mountain. It had been driven into a shed to run a water pump. The back of the truck did not fit in the shed so had been cut off and scrapped. The engine had expired to be replaced by a Studebaker (i think - steve will correct me). The chassis had at some time been broken and repaired (however, as the back of the chassis was missing altogether this did not present too much of a concern). The gearbox was a bit poorly too and the top of it had been smashed: It did however have good front wheels and a canvas (although we think the canvas had come off a small trap). Other plus points were that the gear change mechanism was there and so was the fuel tank (although this had a 3 foot hole in the bottom). A price was agreed upon and the whole lot was taken to Devon. My Grandmother (rest her soul) saw it all just afer its arrival and utterred the imoral words "what a load of old rubbish". Not always inclined to agree with her views, i must admit that on this occasion i had trouble to disagree. Twenty years down the line, where are we? Well, one thing is for sure Steves optimism has taken a little dent. "If i knew then what i know now I would never have bought it" and "buying them is always the easiest part" are two phrases that crop up in conversation when he talks about the Thornycroft. After doing some work to it the restoration was of course interrupted by the arrival of a more viable Autocar retoration, which was in turn followed by a procession of Peerless trucks, an FWD, another Autocar and the Dennis. Now however as the Dennis restoration approaches its completion (well maybe just another year or so to go) we ask ourselves which project next - Peerless or Thornycroft.

Marvellous. Pity Jacque did not see this.

Oh my. I would like to see his face when he see's that. brilliant.

Yes nice job. I would like to do another Jeep. Maybe i should concentrate on what i have already got though. Tim (too)

Ah nooooo!!! Another photo of the FWD with the comment "assumed to be an old fire truck - along for the ride". http://www.acbsystems.com/gallery-hs/gallery-hs-mil.htm Do these people know nothing at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loads more photographs today. http://www.thecourier.com/multimedia/military_convoy/publish_to_web/index.html Looks like some of the slow ones (FWD and Half track) did some of the journey on trailers. By Steves quick estimate the fuel cost for the FWD to do the whole journey would have been about £3,000. Expensive road trip.

he does of course mean "Four wheel Drive with a Wisconsin engine". Wisconsin - "brass frame" - easy mistake to make - if you are totally clueless. Tim (too)

There is a picture of an almost identical one in the book "Jerrycans". it was post war and made to hold Thermixine for heating devices. Tim (too)

If you have not heard about this, there is a trans US MV convoy taking place. You can read all about it here: http://www.mvpa.org/ Two WW1 vehices that i have seen including this loveley FWD Model B described as a "Fourth wheel drive with a brass frame engine"??? http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/06/15/22702-past-meets-present-on-2009-transcontinental-motor-convoy/index.html Looks a nice job all the same. Tim (too)

I dont know. More imigrants coming over and taking our jobs. I would have expected better from an HMVFer. Tim (too)

Well they really got washed off course.

Thanks for that. I knew of that auction just days before it happened. It is in the same State as my wifes family but they had never heard of the collection. If i understand it, all the proceeds were given to charity. Interesting to see the disparity in prices. $60,000 for an over the top restored Kelly Springfield, yet only $6,000 for an unrestored Republic. Both nice, but i know which one i would go for. Thanks Tim (too)

Tried to thump the worm and Bearings out - but even with heat, it would not move as rusted up quite solidly. Therefore, only thing to do is to make up a special "jacking tool". Special Jacking Tool made up, and then no problem. As the Bolts were tightened, the worm assembly and bearings started to come out. The Bearing at the far end of the worm assembly was very badly rusted and the circumferance of it had to be cleaned before we could pull that trough the hole in the casing. TGhis had to be thumped - but caused no real problem. The last job was to get the rusty bearing off the shaft - this was held in place by a big nut! A 2" Whitworth Spanner applied to it just undid it and the bearing came off quite easily. The job now is clean these bits and assess them - and we are hopeful that only one Bearing will have to be replaced. After getting the oil and sand off them, important surfaces will be protected and plugged and the big casting will then go for sand blasting. The worm is still really the main worry as it is rusted in places and we must hope that it will clean up and polish and be suitable to fight another day. The Worm Wheel assembly will then follow.

This set show the special "Jacking Tool" made up by Steve to enable us to get the other end cover off. The Thread on the Jacking Tool is something like 4 1/2" x 16 TPI - screw cut in the lathe.

These photos show the worm and its casing - with sand - before we unscrewed the end cover. Despite all the corrosion and oily sand, it just unscrewed to reveal the Thrust Race which appears good enough to use again!

When we bought the Dennis we were missing something quite important: The Diff! Now we started this project being fairly certain that we would have to make one, but we put it off on the off chance that something might turn up. Luck in these old restorations really is important and we have so far been very lucky indeed. A Dennis chassis was found by a Builder under a sea-side chalet being demolished near St Ives in Cornwall - no one had any idea that the chalet had been built on an old lorry chassis. The Builder phoned his mate in Winchester who he knew would be interested to say that the chassis had been found and that if he wanted it, he must come that same day to recover it - otherwise it went to the Scrappy. The Winchester man was doing nothing that day (fortunately) and went straight down to St Ives with his lorry to pick it up. He didn't need it himself but wanted it saved and through a series of phonecalls found us as the "Dennis people". He then sent photographs of it to us and through those we could see that the "diff" was most unusually still in the chassis. Usually the first part to come out because of the scrap value of the Bronze in the worm wheel. Tony hastily went to Winchester to confirm that the "diff" was still there and that it was the correct one - amazingly it was. The whole thing was full of sand as the half-shafts had been taken out many years ago, and over the years, sand had blown into "diff" through the ends of the axles - had mixed with the residual oil in the "diff" to form an oily putty which has fairly well preserved it. We bought the whole lot and took it down to Devon, which is in fact not all that far away from where it was found a few weeks earlier. We took the axle off the chassis and put it to one side while we got on with the other bits. We did some work on it over Christmas, finding that the crown wheel was quite worn and the worm a bit rusty, but now is the time to get the worm out and see if it is salvegable.

When my Jeep was uncrated from its journey across the pond, they found spiders inside it and had to seal it up and fumigate it. Found lots of dead spiders but not a live one. Still, nasty though. A friend had a similar problem with a Jeep brought in from Australia, and those spiders are well nasty. Tim (too)

Thats interesting. can you tell me anymore on this. What Regiment was he in previous to joining the LRDG? I am trying to work out some of the history behind this chap, but the LRDG association dont recognise his name although their records are incomplete. Tim (too)

Have I?

Jack Thats wonderful Jack. Really quite moving. But who was the 41 year old guy who was crying? Tim (too)

I had a message earlier asking who we sourced our felt for on the Dennis. Rather stupidly i seem to have lost or deleted the message so here is a link to our felt supplier. They were very helpful. http://www.hardy-hanson.co.uk/ I hope that helps and sorry i lost your message. Tim (too)

Yes, the Autocar always was the "real man's truck".

That looks like an FWD Model HAR. I have never seen one in the flesh before. I will look out for you at W&P. Thanks Tim (too)