The Governor

Sam, pop over to TT, there is some news on your engines history you will be happy to know. Kind regards,

The Governor.

Hi Chris, The make of my paint is called Craftmaster. If you go on the internet and put in the name of the paint, you will get the company come up. They are based in Cambridge, not far from me, so I go pick up my paint straight from them, however they do post out paint.

I have restored things now for some 12 years and have always used this make of paint. It is specifically for brush painting, and if plenty of prep is done, you will get a lovely finish. I also paint two coat's of every layer, i.e. two primer, two under coat, and two top coats. If you can paint a fresh coat on every day, you can get away with out rubbing down, otherwise a light rub down will be needed to produce a good quality finish.

You will also see that there is a varnish that prevents the sun light from spoiling the finish.

Further to your question, you will see that the pipe work was done in the hammerite special metals primer, this is for brass, copper, ali and all non metallic metals, I use this to make sure the paint adhere's to the metal.

Hope this helps.

The Governor.

I managed to strip every pipe of it's paint. Actually, the parts of the pipe round the back up against the frame did not have any paint on them at all. However it will not be the same quality, I will paint the pipes before they are fitted in place.

The Governor.

The repair to the socket is now complete, just several coats of paint and it will be placed on the table of finished parts for the assembly in the coming months.

The Governor.

The rear electrical socket to connect trailers to had crumbled around the threaded part that the cap goes on, and therefore, needed a repair. Now, I am never going to connect a military trailer to the lorry, so as it is damaged, I decided to repair it as the photo's show.

First of all, I cut a piece of wood to fit in the area a plug would have fitted into. I then filed it up with resin, let it set, and then drill a clearance hole in the lid, and use a brass wood screw to fix the two together.

If I need to use this a socket, I will look out for a replacement, in the future.

Oh, and a little furry cuddly toy for the German shepherd to chase, is watching to see that I do it properly.

Tiger is the workshop cat that keeps the mice and rat population in order. Even German Shepherds have to keep a low profile as they are never to big for her to send packing with their tails between their legs.

The Governor.

Excellent progress mate . You found homes for the pups yet ? 😊

Hi Andy,

I have 3 left. It is just a case of finding the right homes, we have endless calls for them, but not the right homes.

Thanks again for the valve, it is in final coat, ready to fix in place when I am ready.

The Governor.

Great thread. All looks very familiar having bought one part done as a large jigsaw puzzle. Well worth the effort as there are few vehicles that are so practical and have such a huge "grin factor" when driving!

 

Jules

Jules, your right there, this was my first lorry, straight in at the deep end really. But it has such a presence on both the road and off, people can't believe what toy's I have got.

I picked my wife up from work, the surprise was I picked her up from a prison, and nearly set the prison into gold alert, until the comm's officer saw who was driving it on the camera, ha ha. Happy days.

Glad you are enjoying the thread.

The Governor.

With all the pipe work removed, it would now be an easy job to rub down and paint, however, the area is still very hard to get to, let alone rub down and paint.

The Governor.

Doug, you know the answer, change the steam parts to a diesel engine, it's the way forward. :nut:

The Governor.

Thank you Richard, I have seen 13, 14, and now 15 as a weight of this lorry, it's like asking , how long is a piece of string ?

Now you have explained the other figure for trailer weight's, it makes sense to me now.

The Governor.

Today's question relates to the bridge weight disc.

I have obtained one of the disc's to go on the front of my Scammell explorer, I would like to know, what is the correct weight to put on the disc ?, and should there be a line underneath the weight with another number ?. If so what is this number relating too ?

The Governor.

Really enjoying this thread mate . On my Explorer that plate that is welded between the two diagonal angle irons which join in front of the tow hook has a date stamped on the underside . May only be noticable if bare metal . I have taken this as her birthday 😊. Best wishes Andy

Hi Andy, Glad you and several others, looking at the number of views, are enjoying the thread.

I will have a look at this area when I come to it and see if the date is on my lorry too.

The Governor.

looks like good progress is being made , keep it up my friend . Doug.

Hi Doug, how's your restoration coming along, these little friends are keeping me busy, I am now chief cook and food preparer, with meal times every 4 hours.

The Governor.

This little lot is the next area to strip and clean up, and even a repair to do to a pipe that has been damaged.I am not sure if the pipe has been damaged by the articulation of the back axle.

It is surprising how much you learn of the condition of the underneath of your vehicle, when working on it.

The Governor.

Thank you for the offer, I would love to borrow them so I can get them copied correctly.

I will pm you.

The Governor.

Thanks for the replies. Anyone got a picture of the said "scotch pads", I need to make two. Thanks.

The Governor.

They are for something, but what ?

The second and final coat of paint was applied to the frame where the wood deck will fit onto it. This will now be left for the paint to harden off and set hard so that the wood will not disturb it.

There is still along way to go, but now that walking on the frame to get about is finished I for one am happy to work from the ground where I have less chance to slip and do my self some damage.

The Governor.

The weather has allowed me to paint the top coat on the jib, and the rear of the lorry, if you look very quickly the lorry looks almost finished, however, I have a long way to go.

Today I managed to clean up the end part of the jib and get the first layer of primer on it, along with the spare wheel carrier. I was not happy just painting round the mounting for the spare wheel, so I took it off, funnily enough, it is the only part so far that does not have stone colouring on it.

The Governor.

Just an update, progress has been very good, with work fitting in with the weather.

I have almost finished the disc and it's light, with just another few coats of paint to go on the fixing's to finish it off.

The Governor.

are you saying all AA vehicles are fitted with a 50mm ball or a nato hitch

Every time I broke down in the range rover, and it was recovered, there was a 50 mm tow ball on the back.

If you think about it, most people with trailers and caravans have 50 mm tow balls, so nothing else is necessary, except in our game.

I like the idea of a 50mm tow hitch conversion, that should sort out the problem.

The Governor.

We had another 3 born during the night, sadly we lost one of the night born ones ,Mum knew what she was doing, nature does what it know's best.

Luckily, they are out in the run and not the workshop, otherwise they would be green !

The Governor.

I wonder if it because sometimes the recovery unit is used to recover the trailer using a standard 50mm tow hitch, if most of them saw the nato hitch they would say that they have never seen one in their life.

For example all AA recovery lorries have one fitted, I was recovered when our range rover let us down (again) and I was pulling 2 1/2 tonnes of wood.

The Governor.

A day of wet weather again, so it was inside for a good paint up. The parts were up to their final coat of under coat, so it was time to put on the top coat.

This little lot took 6 hours to paint, some of it only one side.

Oh, and you have seen formation flying, well we have formation sleeping.

The Governor.

Good progress for a months work Rob.

The Governor.