Great War truck

We had a very productive day today, pressing tyres on and off Thornycroft wheels. This is a great deal easier if you have the correct equipment and luckily we have a good friend with a tyre press. The press operates by hydraulically pushing a heavy metal plate upwards. You put the tyre on the plate and rest the wheel on top of that. By carefully positioning metal blocks against the edge of the wheel the tyre is slowly pressed on to the wheel. The water pressure is maintained by a hand pump, and for this you need plenty of athletic friends. Today was a big gathering as we had 20 people present. All the more hands to operate the pump. The recently sand blasted and painted wheels: The new tyres ready to go on (this had been removed from an Eagle trailer: The old tyres removed previously: The first tyre on the press: The wheel is located on top: The ram begins to rise out of the ground. The press goes into the ground about the same distance that it rises above it: The ram has risen further and the metal blocks which the wheel will be pushed against can be seen: The tyre begins to slide onto the wheel: The pump: The first completed wheel:

I thought it was quite good. A have read a lot of mixed reports from the "beautiful" to "disgusting". Several people have said that they were so offended by it that they wont ever go to Sainsburys ever again. Great, just what I need. More nutters in my local Tesco. If it raises money for the RBL then it cant be a bad thing.

Steve has just finished off the front wheels by clearing out the greaser holes and then honing the bores. The bearing surfaces had been satisfactorily re-machined on Adrian’s big lathe but the surface finish was a bit rough so Steve decided to hone them using a hone in his pistol drill. . This is a very slow process so after twenty minutes whilst the bore was a lot better, it was still not a glass smooth finish. However, it was an improvement and Steve deemed this to be satisfactory. He then re-cut the grease grooves using the Dremel grinder. The wheels are now ready for the tyres to be fitted and final painting to be carried out.

Sold for £152 with three bidders. Most likely that it has been bought by the steam community for use as a water bowser than someone trying to restore a Liberty I would think. I have seen several Liberty bits coming up for sale over the years. Photos do occasionally turn up showing them in civilian service in the UK, but I wonder how they ended up here as the AEF probably sent theirs directly to France. Possibly brought back to the UK from France by an enterprising businessman I suppose.

I think that the wheels are Liberty (they have the correct size tyres on them), but the axle is possibly from something else.

A trial fit of the completed shackle pin in the bracket in the chassis.

The Shackle Pins for the rear springs have now been completed and the springs can now be hung. The final jobs done on them were machining spanner flats, drilling the cross holes for lubrication, for feathers and for split pins.

He then reversed it and did the opposite end, skimming only the bearing surface. Whilst doing all of this, he found why the bottom end was worn so much more than the top. The grease hole did not go right through the pin so only the top was lubricated! To remedy this, he set the pin up once again and drilled through from both ends using a long-series drill. As you can see, he stretched the capacity of the poor old Myford once again! That done, the grease grooves were re-dressed using the Dremel grinder and the pins were finally complete and ready to fit back in the axle.

We were fortunate to be able to salvage two king pins when stripping down our various front axles. However, both were a bit worn, particularly at the bottom end. As we need to replace the bushes in the stub axles anyway, we felt that it was worth trying to salvage the pins. Steve put a file across one and found that they were not very hard so he decided to skim the bearing surfaces. They didn’t have centres so he started by screwing 1/4”BSP plugs into the ends and then setting them up in the fixed steady to drill them. He arranged that the steady ran on the part of the pin which had been in the axle end and was therefore unworn. In the last picture, it is very hard to see but Steve has used a trick to improve the accuracy of the centre. He has arranged that the cutting edges of the slocumb drill are arranged horizontally and has then steadied them by holding some rod in the toolpost and gently pushing the side of the drill to stop it wandering. You can’t see it very well because the rod he has used is the reverse end of a boring bar and is black. It does however, work very well indeed as long as you treat the drill very gently. He set the pin between the new centres and skimmed the bearing surface.

I posted some photos of a WW1 Packard which turned up in Yugoslavia a few years ago. The restoration has been completed and it looks rather good: Sadly, the owner/restorer who features in the background of this clip died not long after this film was taken.

Too many distractions at the Devon end have slowed progress up down there but all six shackle pins for the back springs have now reached the same stage. All that has to be done now is to machine spanner flats, drill cross holes for lubrication and holes for feathers and split pins.

Interesting pictures. The YMCA was one of many charitable organisations which operated on the Western Front. They usually brought their own vehicles or purchased them locally but it looks like this Pierce Arrow has been lent by the US Army. Other charitable organisations which you can occasionally see pictures of them at work are the Salvation Army, Red Cross and Knights of Columbus to name but a few. The YMCA was probably the largest one of them all however.

Yes, it is a bit. But I have written in my "French" to several French collectors and they have always responded asking me to write in English as there is a chance that they might understand that. Anyway, Scotty, have you had any interaction with French, Belgian or Dutch half track owners as there are a lot of them out there and I expect that they are already well aware of the problem and may have taken action. if someone is commissioning new Sherman tracks surely they would have already considered halftrack tracks as there would be a great deal more customers?

These were dressed to a curve using a chisel on the outside and a flap wheel on the concave surface. Fillets were fitted next using traditional leather. All that then remained was to rub it down and paint it using our usual two coats of Bondaprime. These will be cast in SG iron in due course, once Steve has checked them closely to the gearbox. Brake drum pattern next!

These were assembled over a couple of days allowing the glue to dry in between times. Then he had to produce the curved surface. This he did with a series of blocks.

Steve has been pattern making again, this time for the transmission brake shoe. Isn’t it funny that no matter how many pictures you take, there are never quite enough? We have about 600 of other people’s lorries and still these were the only ones Steve had to work to! Fortunately, whilst living as a student in Portsmouth, he took the opportunity to sketch the Portsmouth bus which was kept in the local bus depot and he had a good idea of how it should look. With that and the photos and measurements of our gearbox, he drew it out on the board and then started with the spine of the pattern. This was followed by the bosses and bits for the clevis end.

Thanks. Those are very interesting.

Bronze plaques were made and presented to each Naval ship – the idea and design of Mrs. Charles Hill, the wife of the then Chairman. Each plaque bears the name of the vessel and the motto “Shipshape and Bristol Fashion” with the centre depicting the appropriate flower in the case of corvettes and the River Avon for the River class frigates. The plaques for the Loch and Bay classes depict a loch and bay respectively. It seems that two plaques were originally made for each vessel and towards the end of the war when materials allowed a third was made which was presented to the lady who launched the ship. At the SS Great Britain museum (which is next to the site of Charles Hill ship yard) there is I understand a display of Charles Hill builders plaques. I must go there again as I have not been there for years.

That would be great David. Thanks

Yes, some photos of it on pre war car. See below. http://www.prewarcar.com/magazine/previous-features/drowned-packard-truck-needs-waterpump-022099-2.html Steve in Wisconsin is looking for a water pump for it. (Kind of ironic really).

I agree that there was only one Militor in the first transcontinental convoy, but was one used on the second convoy the following year, although that did not go to San Francisco of course but San Diego.

Does anybody have a photo of a replica European SAS Jeep which I might use. I don't need the LRDG type, but one with the two bullet proof glass windscreens as used by the Belgian SAS during WW2. I have been volunteered to write a brief article for a country house about the Belgian SAS who trained in their grounds during the war. Many thanks Tim

The truck still exists and is currently under restoration by a Steve Kersten.

In 1921 a 1912 Packard had just delivered furniture to a house on an island in Wisconsin by driving over the ice. On the way back the ice gave way and the truck sank to the bottom of the lake 35 feet down. In 1958 the truck was hauled out of the lake. These photographs give a clue as to how it was done. More photos to come.