Great War truck

To avoid the pitfall of "I know of a WW1 Napier in a barn, but no one is allowed to look at it", i think we should follow steves idea of posting photos of them as evidence. Then i think Bob should catagorise them. I presume that this is not just the UK, but worldwide as well? Tim So here is another one. A very original and profesionally restored daimler Y Type. A Holt 75 from the same owner (although whether it is military or not is still open to some debate) An FWD Model B in USA And a Liberty B with the same owner: Both very original i think. FWD Mitchell Model B in the South East of the UK: Foden steam wagon. Another very original Fiat at Duxford.

The Peerless is almost certainly ex WD as it has the correct pattern hooks on the front. Didnt your father obtain some bits for it from Argentina? Was there anything else that might be of interest to someone restoring a Peerless. Tim

Thankfully we have a spare impeller in stock so that is something we wont have to make. Rather a nice little brass label still on the pump! The Pump has now been put to one side for a while - standing vertically with a pool of Plus Gas in a saucer-shaped recess surrounding the shaft where it goes through the pulley - in the hope that this will soak in and start to free it.

Tony has had another go at the water pump - the pulley has to come loose on the shaft and slide along it to release the aluminium shroud. Could not move it last time so he left it soaking overnight in Plus Gas in the hope that it would move - but no luck! He polished the shaft with some emery in the hope that this would help to get it moving - but again not successful. Apart from the Taper Pin which was removed last time, the pulley is also on a key way. Having reached a temporary impasse with the pulley, it was perhaps a time to try another approach - remove the water pump entirely, from the engine. The nuts holding this in place all let go fairly quickly after the usual procedures with Plus Gas and it was possible to lift the pump right off. This revealed a considerable amount of loose rust in the pump - and also in the water jacket surrounding the cylinders. It also revealed a crack in the impeller - can be seen in the photo.

The restoration of our FWD was finished about 10 years ago. I have not posted many pictures of it as i would need to scan them all. i will get round to doing it one day. Anyway in the meantime we noticed that the Prop Shaft on the FWD had worked slightly loose towards the end of last season - nothing had been done to remedy that since then but it was time to get a grip of the problem now with the Honiton Hill Rally coming up again. The FWD has not been out since last August. A simple problem to resolve but difficult to get at! We wanted to get it outside the shed for more room - the FWD started easily on the 3rd or 4th pull - first time that has been started up for nearly a year and Steve drove it out on to the Drive where we had more room to get at it. The prop shaft pulls up on a tapered shaft with a keyway and is locked in position with a large nut. Steve identified that the nut had come to the end of the thread before it was really tight, and he has simply put a washer under the nut so that it can be really tightened against it before coming to the end of the thread. Seems fine now. Lorry started easily again so that it could be reversed back into the shed.

Doesnt it look nice. Well done everyone.

You may remember we lost an original brass Dennis plate off one of the hubcaps when we did the London to Brighton. The replacements have just been done: Not by us i must say, but by Diane Carney ( http://www.loco-nameplates.co.uk ) who does this sort of thing. As you can see we thought it a good idea to get more than one made in case we lose another one.

The nuts holding the aluminium shroud were easily removed and after some wangling, the shroud started to slide along the shaft so that it could be taken off. But before the shroud can be slid down the shaft and right off, the pulley has to be freed as that must be slid off at the same time. In these two pictures you can see how damaged the aluminium is and that the pulley is rusted on the shaft. That is attached to the shaft with a taper pin pushed through it and that can be seen in the second photo. It was not possible to knock the taper pin out because of the severe rusting so that the protruding parts of it were cut off with a Dremel - and then the now flush ends were drilled out and it then became easy to knock the pin through. The pulley should now be free but it is still rusted to the shaft and at the close of play today, had still refused to move! Have left it soaking in Plus Gas - the shaft will have to be cleaned up with emery tape to get rid of the rust on that so that the pulley has the opportunity to move. It may well be that heat will be required on this one!

It is such a long time since we did anything on the Thornycroft i have lost track of what we are still missing. Quite a lot as a general rule i think. We will have to do an inventory. Tony had some time on his hands so thought that he should have a go at dismantling the Water Pump! These four pictures show it before battle commenced! The first job was to undo the 1/2" Whit nut on the end of the shaft to free up the drive disc - presumably for the fan - and slide that off. That was on a key and pleasingly this was free and easy to do. On the aluminium "shroud" is a screw of some kind - very rusted over and impossible to undo - but appears to be an oiling point for the pump shaft. On looking inside the aluminium shroud, a rusty steel rod or pipe is apparent which leads from this screw and it must be further investigated when the whole thing is apart. The bottom end of this rod or pipe is "free" and not attached to anything. It is so heavily rusted that it is not possible to see if it is a pipe but we think that it must be.

You may recall that we wrote about the Radiator in earlier notes where despite our best efforts to repair and seal the original aluminium tanks, more leaks in them became apparent just prior to the Brighton Run - but we saved the day by drilling and tapping some of the leaks for screws and other slight "weeps" in the aluminium were sealed with a plastic metal. These have held out OK - but we are resolved now to have new top and bottom tanks cast to eliminate the problem of leaks once for all - this will be done later after the season but again, it will be back to pattern making. Another part of the radiator which was concerning was the threaded hole in the bottom tank to take the Drain Tap - which is a rather nice brass fitting. The thread in the aluminium was so corroded that we thought that there might be a danger of losing the Drain Tap as it was not possible to screw that in really tight. The hole was threaded 3/8" BSP to take the Drain Tap. As an interim measure we have re-tapped that threaded hole 3/4" BSF and will make up a Bronze Plug to go in it as a temporary seal. When the new tank becomes available, we we will tap the drain hole in that one 3/8"BSP to take the correct Brass Tap, but the Plug will be a good and safe fit and that will eliminate that potential danger for the time being.

The actual clutch "drum" is a steel pressing with the lining bolted to it. In was very firmly stuck within the fly wheel and it took constant niggling at it and with Tony and Steve working around the rim with large screw drivers and crow bars, to eventually free it - is that "New Zealand" water running out which has been trapped there ever since the engine left New Zealand? And it eventually came apart to reveal a wet interior. Overall very pleasing as there is nothing there to cause a problem! We are on our way again, but really do not intend to do a lot more to the Thorny until the autumn when the summer rally season is over.

The first job in dismantling the clutch was to get the clutch springs off. All badly rusted in but perseverance - some plus gas and brute strength eventually freed them and they came off. You will notice in the last of this sequence of five photos that the ball race is rather beyond its "sell-by" date!

Right. Here we go again. With the Dennis just about done it is time to take another look at the Thornycroft. Steve was down in Axminster this weekend - mainly to do some fine tuning to the Dennis in preparation for the Honiton Hill Rally next month. But we have it in mind that we shall start on the Thornycroft next - with the engine first of all - and with this in mind, his and Tony's curiosity got the better of them and they started to look at the thorny engine with the winter's work in mind. The engine was imported from New Zealand and nothing has been done to it since its arrival some time ago. We always knew that the clutch was going to be difficult to get off as it was very rusted in and the securing nuts for the clutch springs were very rusted over. It would be a case of some brutal but controlled force to get things moving. A hammer and chisel job! A look inside one of the inspection panels revealed that the inside of the engine didn't look too bad - although it is seized at the moment. The water delivery pipe of the water pump is broken off so it does mean some pattern making and a new casting there. You will also notice in the photograph that the flange on the large aluminum casting has broken away so that will have to be replaced as well. Yet another job for the foundry

Not a definitive list as such. I know of eight definite survivors (including three armoured cars) and rumours of two others which are probably no more than just rumours. Of the five non AC survivors one maybe coming on the market soon? I understand that it has to find a new home for sure. The Sandstone one runs ok, but i dont think they plan to do much more to it. There might be a second one in S Africa, unless the picture i saw was the Sandstone one in a different coat of paint.

Could it be the GMC that was in Overlord and the flag was fitted to it recently? I cant think of any pictures of GMCs flying the stars and stripes during WW2.

A neighbouring farmer has just discovered an old farm trailer in the undergrowth on his farm which was built on a light-weight lorry chassis. All pretty well gone - but does anybody recognise it?

Ah, ok. That narrows it down a bit. Is this you?

Yes of course. Thinking back i dont think he was all that well when he came up to see us. But we are the Gosling family - Tony, Steve and Tim and live in Devon. Tim

Propperjob! Your dad came around to our house to look at our Peerless pile many years ago (about 15). Very sorry to say that in that time we have done nothing to it, but we have been otherwise distracted. Tim

I went past there by train about 15 years ago. It looked fascinating. Have a look on Google earth for an excellent view.

That is a good bit of parking. You could get two more in there if you park them like that.

Very good point that. It will also increase the chance of the vehicle being used which we all know is crucial to improve their longevity.

Thanks. There are some good ideas there. i will let you know how we get on. Tim

Tony's PC has picked up a piece of malware which mucks around with the search engine and diverts you to a sellers website. If for example you type into google "WW1 Dennis army lorry", you would get the response "Buy your WW1 Dennis army lorry from these approved suppliers" and lots of links. I did check, but sadly none of them have any for sale. So the question is, what is the best way to get rid of the Malware? he has McAfee but that did no good at all. Anybody else encountered this kind of problem? Thanks Tim

I think you might be paying for all the extras. Did they ever have radios in the cab? is that a US navy gunnery helmet on the seat? Lots of other odds and ends i dont recognise.