Great War truck

Doug was asking for the engine number. Tony tells me that it is 7869. Tim

Thank you for the correction. Easy to make daft spelling mistakes when you are half asleep. I will right out i must improve my spellin 100 times!!

Anybody have any ideas? I presume it is off an artillery piece of some sort, but maybe not.

Quite a lucky find you have there. Would the lights plug on it match the socket on the Jeep? I am just wondering how difficult it would be to change from one towing vehicle to another.

Did you see the ones that had just finished - the Homer Edmiston collection http://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/auctions_pictures.php?detail=99 it looks like Beaulieu autojumble

Awesome collection. I think my favourite is the Packard Hillbillymobile. I would also go away with the Buffalo Springfield (which they say would make an "ideal rockery"!) and the Traffics. A few of the pick ups would be worth having too. it is going to be a pain loading the Jeep without it having any wheels.

Just to let you know that we are keeping busy. There have been other diversions but Tony has been painting the hoodbows, here in undercoat: Although the Dennis has been great fun we are very excited about getting stuck into the Thornycroft now.

Stunning photos. Thanks. Is the Hucks starter an original? Tim

Nothing like that. it was mostly petrol tins and petrol pumps. Petrolania being the technical term. It was the last filling stop for TE Lawrence on that fateful day - so i am lead to believe.

How are you getting on with this restoration. Found another photo that might be helpful to you. Tim

That is a fabulous picture. I instantly recognised the background as Chipping Sodbury and felt rather smug until i saw it written underneath. Thanks.

I have just found one which is marked "Bite repellant". Do you think it works against sharks?

The centre of the casting had to be bored out to be a push fit on a 3.4" diameter of the spindle - it was first of all drilled out to 5/8" and then finished with the boring tool to a couple of thous less than 3/4" Then it was the case of tidying up the casting whilst it was on the same setting and bringing it to final size. The old and the new!

Tony has mainly been painting the final lot of Dennis bits, but in between, mainly whilst the Dennis paint was drying, he has machined up the new Impeller casting for the Thornycroft Water Pump. You may recall from a previous posting that we mentioned that the casting was given to us by Steve Pettifer some years ago. Quite by chance we ran into Steve at the Great Dorset, recently - we had not seen him for many years and were able to remind him about his gift, and able to tell him that it was going to be used! The old cracked Impeller was eventually freed from its shaft - it was an extremely tight push fit and pinned - and it suffered more damage during its removal. The casting was first of all chucked by the main diameter so that the inner "boss" and the flat surface could be machined. The casting could then be held squarely and safely by that boss when it was reversed in the chuck for the other side to be machined.

Ah yes. I recognise that Thorny. It belongs to that film director fellow Peter Jackson.

Wonderful. I understand that the wheel right will not do any further Dennis wheels as he had too much fun doing yours? Did all the cylinder blocks come from the same stand? Quite a remarkable find. Tim

Excellent news. I am pleased that it has ended with such a positive outcome.

I dont think i knew about that one either. here is another recent one:

Thanks for that Jim. Steve, Tony and i are concious that we are getting older and with the last restoration takeing 10 years we dont know how many more are left in us. Bearing that in mind we are trying to get the youngsters trained up as much as we can:

The British MT depot was in Rouen. This lot was photographed at Le Mans.

We went to the autojumble at Beulieu yesterday. Came back with a couple of good finds. Probably the best one was this: it is the correct oil pressure gauge for the Dennis. Paid rather a lot for it, but as Steve says we will no doubt forget about that over time. Also found a five spoke steering wheel which could have worked for the Dennis (but would never have been completely right) so it was a good job we didnt see it until we had already made one. Also found the correct Stromberg M2 carb for the Autocar. we had spent ages looking for the correct one and eventually got one from the USA so we didnt need it. These things do turn up after a while - usually after you no longer need it.

Tony has had some time after painting and decided to have a go at removing the water jacket covers on the rear part of the engine. We have been squirting the nuts with Plus Gas for some time - that has paid off as all of the nuts undid easily. Took the lower cover off first - and revealed the water space jammed solid with scale and rust. Then took off the top cover to reveal the top of the scale level - the space behind each cover is all one so that it is one water jacket with two covers. There are two similar covers on the other side of the cylinder which will have to come off in due course. He dug out the scale and rust as far as possible through that exit - but there will be more to come.

The other item that Steve has been working on this week is the final section of the cab floor boards. The floor boards were mainly completed before the "Brighton" but the part surrounding the Hand Brake and the Gear Lever is just a little convoluted in shape and was left until now because of the time factor. This part has had to be made in two pieces to get it in. Just remains to be painted now. No more draughts up trouser legs!

We were racing the clock to get the Dennis ready for the Brighton Run, and we just ran out of time to fully complete the steel bows supporting the canvas over the body of the lorry, and the longitudinal wood beams were held in position with temporary bolts on the bows instead of the correct steel brackets. Six of the twelve brackets were completed and fixed a few days ago - these were the easier ones that were riveted to the straight parts of the steel bows, but the remaining six had to be riveted to the curved part of the bow - so that the brackets had to be curved to match the curve of the bow. This was done by Steve, bending them hot by eye, using the Hearth and Anvil - and after they were bent, they were offered up to the bow - then bent again if adjustment had to be made until they fitted. They were drilled 1/4" for 1/4" rivets, countersunk, hammered in and then ground off flush on the top side. They are now ready for painting.

These pictures show just how bad the radiator is. The radiator was left "filled" for four days after we returned home from the Honiton Hill Run and the porosity is very apparent.