Great War truck

Thank you. That is very helpful. Now I have seen the Greeks with FWD trucks before but never an AEC. All very curious.

The chains are ideal for mud, but cause a great of damage to the tyres on hard surfaces. Interestingly, we dont seem to have a single photo of a Peerless with chains. British Peerless trucks were generally photographed either outside a pub or a tea room. Anyway, a busy few days in the Devon paint shop. Two coats of primer, now one undercoat and then the first coat of service green. After years of slow progress on the other trucks this one seems to be coming along in leaps and bounds.

Pretty sure it is a Stoewer.

But all is not lost. We have two good rears on the second Peerless chassis and in the wheel store we have a pair of cast metal ones. The aim is to blast and paint the metal ones and then swap them for the wooden ones which will then need some restoration work before they go on to the first Peerless. As I may have mentioned previously, the second Peerless will be restored as one in service during the campaign in Palestine and the metal wheels are absolutely correct for this. Finally, we had another rummage in the stores and found four Peerless front hub caps and one Peerless rear. There should be more of rears so we will keep looking. It really is quite amazing how much stuff for the Peerless trucks which we keep turning up. Sadly, still only the one engine though, but we have time to find another one yet.

We have had a great deal of thought about the back wheels. When we put them into the wheel store about 20 years ago they were in pretty bad condition. The damp has certainly not improved their condition.

The nest step was to look at the bearings. We managed to remove the outer bearings from the front wheels - we all ready had the rears. We looked at what we had in stock and made two good pairs which just required a great deal of cleaning. Paraffin does work wonders. The inner hub surfaces are in good condition and just required a clean up. We thought that we should have a look through what we have for the rear wheels and found quite a pile in stock. We have cleaned up the rear inners and will probably use the outers which are still in the wheels. Also, after quite a bit of rummaging we found a good pair of front and a pair of rear nuts to hold them in place. These are handed of course but we found everything we need in good condition. As we are not missing anything here and nothing is broken no one has to make anything and we can make it ready for reassembly.

Had a productive weekend down in Devon. Dad has finished putting on the first coat of primer, and the back axle is now up on a stand awaiting his attention. We have found the chassis number on the rail - stamped in three places. 014489. I have looked through my various records and have no chassis numbers for Peerless trucks at all. I dont suppose anybody else has this information? It is interesting to see that the chassis is a great deal shorter (well, maybe about two feet) than the Thornycroft and we can walk behind it - or at least we will be able to access the shelves behind it.

That's super. A pity the original patina has been lost. On the subject of painting, Dad has been cracking on with the primer on the chassis.

Super photos as always. I have found an interesting photo of an AEC with these markings on the side. Can you tell if they are Bulgarian? Maybe they are Greek? Thanks

Took delivery of the sandblasted chassis, axles and rear springs today. No doubt as to which company made the steel for it then? We can also make out the chassis number 014489 but I dont have the chassis number lists for Peerless so I cant date it. A shame!

Wheels received a second coat of primer and are now in undercoat. Next step is to get them loaded up along with the new tyres and a visit to our friendly tyre press owner.

Wheels are now primed. Will receive a second coat of red and then an undercoat before they are taken away to have their tyres pressed on.

While we are waiting for the return of the chassis Dad carry's on cleaning up the wheels. Nearly finished them now, just needs to finish off the hubs, then we can get them painted and press the tyres on.

Yesterday was another big step forwards. The Peerless chassis was taken away for sandblasting. Once back and painted we can start reassembling. all very exciting.

An Albion shovel. What a fantastic find. I will be taking a closer look at any ore that I find. Although it looks like they might drop off they shouldn't be able to move. There are several variations to the mounting bracket. On the Dennis, the pick axe is firmly wedged down through the bracket and cant get out. The spade can slide laterally only an inch or so and shouldn't be able to drop out because of the pick. There is nothing to stop people removing them though and that is something I will have to keep in mind if we leave vehicles alone for very long.

Do you know of any surviving Clayton steam wagons which served in the war? Thanks Tim

Here is a different image. All very small unfortunately.

When you say on the front of the cab, is that the one which goes alongside the driver?

If you have been following the Dennis restoration thread you will have seen my comment on the pick and spade that should go on the side of the lorry. http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/314-ww1-dennis-truck-find/page/76/#comments A British GS lorry should carry a pick and shovel or spade on the side. I found an original WW1 dated pick which Steve mounted on the Dennis. The Peerless requires three pick axes and three spades, while the Thorny requires one pick axe and a shovel. This leaves us with just four more pick axes and five shovels or spades to find. I had never seen a WW1 spade before until last weekend when I went to Stoneleigh. I also found three more WW1 pick axes. I certainly feel that we are on our way.

Have you gone through everything in the tea chests now? Is there anything that is awaiting identification?

I have always quite enjoyed trying to find the correct accessories for a military vehicle just to finish it off. Many photographs show GS trucks with a pick and either a shovel or spade on the side. When studying photos it seems that a spade was more common than a shovel. Steve made for the Dennis the correct pattern brackets which hold them together, although i am a little doubtful if they would have lasted on long bumpy roads before dropping off. While at Malvern recently I picked up a 1917 dated pick axe. It looked spot on and had the metal ferrule in place and was quite reasonably priced. A present for Steve and he wasted no time on fitting it to the lorry. A spade or shovel are required next to join it.

That was interesting. Thanks.

Dad is progressing with the wheel cleaning. It is going to be a long old job. Completed one side so far. To break the monotony there is always painting to be done. We had a batch back from our local sand blaster. Always very satisfying to get the first coat of red on.

Sometimes it is just like that. We have not had too much of that with the Peerless yet - still, there is plenty of time. Dad put the first coat of paint on the flywheel today and is scraping the paint off the front wheels.

Nice looking job.