Great War truck

Here are a few more photos:

it does make me wonder about the sort of people who are in our hobby. Very sad.

Just got back from W&P Six hours in the car today and I am cream crackered. Some people not happy with the site, others were. I found it to be quite good but very dusty. The Kitchener field at the end was a bit rough though and cant be much fun to camp on. Anyway, I have hundreds of photos and not enough time to post them. So here is a quick selection. First of all, my favourite:

I thought you were having a laugh there. I clicked on Packard and it took me to an HO model. The number gives me a nice looking Packard project though. I think that one has been on E bay before. It will give someone a lot of fun (and trouble). Shame the rad is missing.

The Gearbox ended up its commercial working life as part of a drive mechanism to a Water Pump in North Wales. All of the Transmission Brake gear – apart from the Brake Drum was stripped off the Gearbox as that would have been surplus to those requirements, all that time ago. It appears that the Drum was not wide enough to take what we assume must have been a flat belt drive to the Pump, and a further ring was welded on to the Drum, just to make it wider and to suit that purpose. You will see from the photographs that it was a neat welding job. In due course, that ring will have to come off again – it will have to come off before we can put the Drum in the “gap” in the Colchester Student to skim the circumference and clean up the edge as the Drum as it is too wide for the “gap” as it is. So we have turned our attention first of all to machining up the fulcrum pins for the brake shoes. Some years ago, Steve was working in the Portsmouth area, and with the blessing of the Garage Foreman, he spent some evenings in the Bus Garage there, where the Portsmouth Thorny J Double Decker was kept at that time, just measuring up and sketching bits for our future use and reference. It is now, after all that time that the drawings and measurements are coming into their own! These two pins are simply machined from 32mm Hex Steel Bar – reduced to 1” in diameter at each end with one end threaded 1” whit to take a securing nut. And these two pictures show the pins in their position.

Great news I just heard from Steve and the petition was a success. So many thanks to everyone who signed. They are still operating although they don't have the resources they used to have. Anyway, Steve sent me some results from their latest dive. Do say if you think you can identify any of them. The last one is a Nash (although obviously not a Quad). Tim

Different types of vehicle. Middle one is a IV, the top and bottom are III.

Steve has been pressing on with preparations to machine the pistons as soon as they come back. To that end, he has made the draw bar and cross-head to pull the pistons back onto the face plate. He has also faced and drilled the mounting plate ready to bolt it to the face plate. Steve wondered where he was going to get hold of a big chunk of aluminium of steel so he asked Adrian. ‘What about this?’ said Adrian producing a 10” disc of 1 1/2” plate from the back of the car. He must be a mind reader! Thanks Adrian! Steve has also been putting together some chunks of MDF to make the pattern for the ‘onion’ casting. He can’t turn these at home but they are ready for when next he goes down to Devon and can use the Colchester. He used the press to hold the bits together as he doesn’t have any G-clamps big enough!

I used to work for Avimo in Taunton making Susat, Simfics, TOGS and lots of other goodies. Wished I took more interest in it at the time.

That's fantastic. What a great picture.

He then passed the job onto Dad who made up a gland follower and a new bronze bearing. As the casting is so thin in the area of the bearing, Dad secured it with Loctite rather than risking pressing it home and cracking the casting. He then undertook a trial assembly . Then, he painted the castings and, after making up a new gasket, put them all together again. All that remains of this assembly now is to make up a new ‘onion’ support casting to replace the heavily corroded original. Steve will be starting on the pattern shortly.

After Adrian’s successful leak treatment, Steve applied a bit of filler to the water pump inlet casting just to hide the welds. He then clamped the casting to the cross-slide on his lathe and drilled out the screws which had secured the brass instruction plate. These were re-tapped at 1/8” Whitworth. As he didn’t have any screws of this size in stock, he turned some up and slotted them in the mill before trying them out.

Some very funny answers there. It is a difficult thing to do or have to contemplate. With Mr DuFresne he died leaving everything to his son who was very interested but then promptly died in a car accident and everything was left to his sister. She inherited a large collection in sheds, a museum and a field full of stuff (which has just been auctioned off). Not sure what is going to happen to the rest. Just goes to show whatever plans you make you can never cover every eventuality. Anyway whatever happens I do hope it is a long way off for everybody.

Great photos there Rob.

I responded to an advert a while back with a guy selling off all his stuff. The Jeep and spares etc had already gone but I went to see what other bits and pieces he had left. He was getting on a bit and had decided to sell up while he was still able. His house had little sad piles of stuff scattered around which I went through and bought some choice pieces although it all felt rather sad. My question is though, how do you anticipate leaving the hobby? In my case ideally in a wooden box feet first through the front door, but I don't want to leave a burden for the kids - which will actually be five military vehicles each and a loft crammed floor to ceiling with stuff. I can see most of it being dumped as they have no idea what it is. My wife has told me to label everything with what it is and value. Then once completed sit back and eat the mushroom stew she will have prepared for me. I have not labelled everything yet so she has not collected the mushrooms, so I am around for a bit longer yet. I once watched a guy leave his angling hobby. It seemed to be quite straightforward. he threw all of his equipment, rods, nets, umbrella, folding chair and box of tackle into a lake while screaming at the top of his voice and jumping up and down. Problem solved quite quickly, but I don't think the authorities would be very happy if I drove 8 trucks a Land Rover and a Jeep into a river. So, how do you plan to exit this fine hobby of ours? Any last things you feel you should undertake before you peg out (and I don't just mean leaving a trophy in the HMVF clubhouse and settling up the tab)? Recreating "half safe" or driving a Jeep across the Himalayas, or through Brixton. Any ideas on a good way to bow out?

The K2 went for just £2,100 and the three GMC's went for 2,000 2,100 and 2,200

Ah, look at that. I totally missed that in the catalogue. It has gone to Belgium I hear. I understand that lot 16 was actually a heavily modified WW1 White, which sold for 4,000 P442 was another one I missed, a Latil but in appalling condition. Sold for 1,500 The WW2 GMC's sold for 550 and 950 with the other two not selling. I quite liked P497 the WW2 US Searchlight which didn't reach a reserve of 400 so didn't sell. I am told the stuff which interests us most has gone to a Belgian dealer. I expect it will come up for sale again later on.

Since the worm straightening exercise, Steve has assembled the steering box. It was quite straight-forward. The original radial bearings were re-fitted followed by the new thrust bearings. Then the slotted discs were installed followed by the shaft assembly before dropping the whole lot into one half of the box. A handfull of grease was added and the other box half was fitted. The bolts were knocked through and the nuts nipped up finger tight before fitting the end-float adjuster plug. As we have discussed before, the adjuster plug is secured with a ring of piano wire which has the end bent over. This, in turn, slots into a radial hole through the case and into the plug. You can just see the hole at the top of the picture. Of course, our new thrust bearings are a very slightly different thickness so the radial holes no longer line up. For the time being, the plug has been adjusted up without drilling a new hole as we plan to do this when we assemble the whole steering column and mechanism. The main casing bolts have tightened onto the plug so hard that it cannot be moved by hand anyway. Finally, the base was added. The box has now been put away until we are ready to start on the missing column.

I think it would have been, but I don't think it would last very long.

The auction took place today. I had a phone call last night asking if I wanted to go but sadly couldn't make it. I did benefit today from a commentary of the results. The Nash Quad which is actually very complete sold for 2,800 Euros. The three Berliets made 3,000, 1,600 and 1,200. An unknown truck but which appeared to be US built sold for 4,000. A Delahaye made 3,100. I am told there was a Liberty there which didn't sell at 3,000. I am wondering if this was actually a Heavy Aviation (D33) which had been mis-described as a Berliet. I am sure we will see the photos in due course which should answer my questions. I feel a need to resubscribe to Charge Utile to see a detailed report. Marcel, did you make it?

The results are on line. it appears that a few things didn't sell such as the weird Jeep, BRDM and Model T. Highest wins were for the 251 chassis at 40.5K, Kettenkrad 40K, Stower 26.7K, Sherman hull 25K and AMX for 15K. Not a bad day doe someone. I wonder how much will come back to the UK? The AMX looks very tasty at that price.

it sold for 16,846 Euros. it looks like most of the vehicles made good money. Prices are listed on the catalogue if you are interested.

Had not been to Duxford for four years, but really glad I went this year. Another one crossed off the list: had a ride in it up the runway. Very draughty. Not used to travelling that fast: Strange to see so much stuff from Lambeth packed in. It gave an interesting different view:

Yes, it was very loud. Didn't wake up my daughter though. Anyway, we had a great time and it was wonderful to meet up withhold friends. Really nice to say hello to Mark and have a ride on his Albion: Why Church of Apollo on this Bedford:

Steve has been to see the Maudslay again and it is making good progress. The chassis is now an appropriate khaki-brown colour and the engine has gone away for rebuild. The transmission brakes shoes are terribly worn as the previous owner wore right through the lining and 3/8” into the iron! This has left them very weak around the anchor point so Steve has made up a pattern so that new ones can be cast. First, he glued some segments of MDF together and then sanded them off to form a curve. This he reinforced by gluing ribs straight onto it. He fitted fillet leathers as he went before fitting a boss at the end with a smaller boss for the grease cap hole. Then it was simply a case of a bit of car body filler to finish the radii followed by a good rub down and the usual two coats of Bondaprime. The extra semi-circular piece is made to support the main pattern whilst it is being rammed up. It is slightly tapered to ease its removal before the second side is rammed. The pattern is now with the Friends of the Museum ready for casting.