Jump to content

BenHawkins

Members
  • Posts

    855
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Everything posted by BenHawkins

  1. The Morris is a bit of a distraction but I am trying to maintain some progress on the Dennis. We had another day of driving it around as the weather was good and there was no salt on the roads. 311218trimmed.mp4 After running around for a while we emptied the petrol filter bowl into a jam jar. The one on the left is new clean petrol and on the right shows particulates and a little water. No stoppages today which is a definite improvement but I think I will continue to flush the contaminated fuel through a filter each week and burn all this brown fuel off before putting fresh fuel in. I have been making the covers for the door pockets. Starting with the leather off cuts from the seat cushions I used a cardboard template to mark out the leather and started to stitch the edges. After stitching the whole way around I treated them with some leather balm.
  2. Sorry for the lack of updates. This has mainly been due to concentrating on other projects such as clearing some space in the garage and workshop so we can move on to the next projects. I have flushed the same couple of gallons of petrol through the system on numerous occasions and the level of particulates has greatly reduced. We have bought ourselves a Christmas present (one of the reasons we needed to tidy). It is a 1913 Morris car and said to have been laid up from WWI until 1970 (when restored) and had occasional use since. I can't imagine any were used in WWI so we have little excuse for posting it!
  3. We have taken a few more trips and can get further between stops for clearing the fuel filter each time. Next time it is convenient we will attempt the canal bridge again and see if it is any better now the fuel is cleaner. In case that is not successful I have been considering swapping the Claudel Hobson carb that came with the engine for a Zenith. The Claudel is a simple single jet carb; the one fitted is a 22mm but this size refers to the bore of the throttle barrel; the Zenith size is the bore into which the choke tube is fitted. There is a lot of documentation available for the Zenith carbs; for example this gives the suggested fitment of carburettor, choke tube and jets. For the 75mm bore engine the 26mm carb with 16mm choke tube is recommended. However this carburettor is quite a lot smaller than my inlet manifold; mechanically a 36mm would be the correct fit for the flange but a 30 could be fitted with an adaptor. I have borrowed a box full of Zenith carburettors but none are in a serviceable condition. There is a 30mm carb in the box and I have given it a clean, purchased the suggested jets (I don't make everything) and made the suggested 16mm choke tube. There is another part to make for the slow running device. And finally for this week a testimonial.
  4. Today I was looking in some Dennis literature and found the testimonial referring to the subsidy model.
  5. Sorry it has taken so long; a scan of the book is attached. Thornycroft M Engines.pdf
  6. There is far more rain protection than was typical for 1914 but certainly room for improvement. The fixings for the windscreen and canvas supports were blasted and painted this week so we managed to make some more progress with fitting those. As the weather was very good this weekend we decided to have another go at driving around. We took it for several trips out on the road with only one unscheduled stop where we had to clear some water and debris from the filter bowl. Overall I think we covered a little over three miles. We did a fair bit of tinkering with the Claudel Hobson carburettor; the Aster engine is half the power of the White and Poppe originally fitted to this chassis and it does show out on the road. It is fast when it gets up to speed in 4th (over 25mph) but does take a while to get there. From a standing start we were unable to climb the 1:6 gradient of the local canal bridge, but on a positive note the handbrake had no trouble holding it on the slope. We tried changing the carburettor jet from 120 to 130 (purchased at Beaulieu) but I thought the performance on the level was worse so I did not attempt the bridge again! Once we were done for the day we adjusted up the handbrake and but it back in the garage. Today we have drained the fuel out again but jacked one side up to get a bit more out the tank and removed the additional drain plug on the bottom of the tank releasing a little move sludge and water. Quite a successful first road run but certainly still improvements to be made.
  7. We have been working through the list of tasks, many are not worth photos. The second seat base cushion was made in the same way and looks quite nice in place; I might need to screw a couple of battens in place to prevent them from moving around. The windscreen brackets have been in the press another few times to get the shape right. We then bolted them in place and offered up the windscreen. I was then able to drill through the pilot holes to mark up the positions for six coach bolts. After drilling and filing it all looks like the factory photo. We then took it all off again so we could blast and prime the bolts. It has just stopped raining but the light is fading so a test drive will have to wait for another day!
  8. In the selection of drawings we looked at in Hampshire were marinised versions of the T4 engine; this explains where at least some of the engine numbers not in the production registers went. This book for the marinised version of the M1 M2 and M4 engines; I don't think it is of use to anyone with a J Type but I can scan it in if anyone has a boat project in the shed!
  9. The lorry was blocked into the garage by pallets of bricks this week, I had to work into the evening on three days and was away for the weekend. Hopefully we will have another go at driving it soon. At least we managed to finish the first seat cushion.
  10. The holes in the chassis for mounting the body are clearance for 1/2 bolts. I didn't have any long 1/2" coach bolts so when I saw a box of 36 for sale at 50p each I bought the lot and have started blasting and painting them ready to use. When Carter Paterson bought this chassis they did not have a Dennis built body but instead chose to take the wheels and axles off one of their horse drawn vans and mount it on the chassis rails. This leads to an uneven spacing of the bearers as there were two spaced fairly far apart at the back that carried the springs and three towards the front that carried the fore-carriage. I have seen a couple of really nice examples of these "London Vans" for sale but they would be too good to break up. I have now placed an advert to see if any rough examples survive but with wheels etc. beyond repair.
  11. I have been buying any early items with Carter Paterson asset tags since I purchased the 1908 Dennis. The Dennis had spade brackets that fit to one side of the side lamps. CP&Co most commonly seem to have used George Grou lamps and checking my stocks I found I had two (fairly poorly) CP&Co stirrup mount lamps; the correct fitment for a Thornycroft. I found another complete Grou side lamp but with the spade mount at the rear (wrong for a Dennis or Thornycroft) to use as a donor. My shelf also had two Grou rear lamps so one can be used on the Thornycroft. My understanding is that this size of van was used between CP&Co depots (local pickups still being by horse van) and as such no acetylene headlamps were fitted. Only the larger lorries (travelling to Brighton every night for example) were fitted with acetylene lamps.
  12. I have purchased a more appropriate petrol filter funnel but we are currently having some building work done so the vehicles have been blocked in by pallets of bricks and a skip so have not been able to attempt another test drive. There has been little progress as a result but I have done a few tasks towards the seat cushions. After cutting two layers of horse hair I stitched them together and cut some hessian to wrap them. Then stitched the hessian around the horse hair. Marked out two rectangles to suit the cushion on the leather and cut them out. I have folded the hem around the first rectangle and weighted it down. I had to leave enough space to lay out dinner. Hopefully I will pin the leather to the base one evening this week.
  13. Picked up this photo of some vehicles of a similar age at the GPO Stores Studd Street depot. AA2062 Wallis 3NHP Tractor (this is now in preservation) ca. 1906 LD6087 Ryknield Van Ca. 1909 LD992 Halley Van Ca. 1909 O4883 Alldays and Onions Van DU1205 Maudslay Van
  14. I am still trying to discover as much information on this vehicle as possible. As part of our holiday we booked in to spend a day looking at Thornycroft drawings and records held by the Hampshire Cultural Trust (I take the glamorous assistant to the most romantic locations). I took over three hundred photos of original documents but do not have permission to publish any of them here (yet). We will need to go back as I think we only got through half the boxes of drawings. The Beaulieu autojumble was also quite useful. I spent slightly too long looking at this photo so the guy on the stand decided I needed it. I don't know anything about "Maid of Kent" tea but they seem to have been loyal Thornycroft customers. All my Thornycroft parts books show an Enots type petrol filter (without a tap as used on my Dennis lorries) so it was nice to pick one of those up. All the greasers on the Thornycroft are "Rotherhams of Coventry". I have been buying every one I have seen for the last 12 years for the Dennis projects; each one uses around 80 greasers so finishing the 1908 Dennis will virtually exhaust my stocks. We picked up three to put towards the Thornycroft project, so around another 70 to go. We discussed this Carter Paterson sign with the vendor and showed them a couple of photos of the projects. They decided we needed all the help we could get (probably psychiatric) and offered me a good discount.
  15. Although we had some other commitments we were able to play lorries for some of this weekend. The lorry started easily and we could drive it out of the garage and shunt it around the yard using 1st and reverse. We had fitted the seat back but still need to finish the base cushions. We made some minor adjustments to the brakes and clutch but after taking it to the end of the drive and reversing back into the yard (the mirrors are just about sufficient for this) the engine came to a stop. I lifted the needle on the carburettor; it took a while to overflow but I went ahead and started it again. It was happy to idle for about a minute before it stopped again. At this point I decided it was time to remove the filter bowl and discovered a substantial amount of black particulate. We cleared it out and started the engine again to give us another few minutes of shunting around the yard before we had no fuel again. This time the flow to the filter was also down to a dribble so I removed the pipe and put a 3.5mm drill bit through the hole in the tap on the bottom of the tank to clear some crud from that and regain a gush of fuel. The brass tank had looked clean inside before I fitted it but I could only see as far as the baffles so there may have been quite a lot of dirt in the end sections that was not water soluble. I expect several months of exposure to petrol in warm weather loosened it and driving around has worked it all free. I decided to empty the tank; passing all the fuel through a coffee filter. As we were running out of time we put the filtered fuel back in the tank, started it up again, reversed it back into the garage. However, there was once again some particulate matter in the filter so I think it will take a few goes to get a clean supply of fuel.
  16. It helped that I was off to Denmark for a week and then we had a two week holiday! Time to forget about such things, but I was chastised for using the "house scissors". Rust and swarf in the house still seem to be unforgivable. The holiday did include some work related to this lorry, I gave a presentation on this project to the Dennis Society and also attended the Beaulieu Autojumble. This meant we had to do the jumble on Sunday so obviously there is less stuff there but you have slightly more bargaining power. We negotiated a bargain on this headlamp which appears to be identical to the one in the photo that turned up recently. In addition to a few dents and a missing cap it has these cracks around the rim by the catch. I am not sure how to go about fixing these. We also collected some more belting in case we need it.
  17. I cut the leather for the seat back so that it was two inches wider in both dimensions. That meant I could fold one inch over around the perimeter and hold it down for a day or so. It then wanted to hold its shape; getting it wet may have helped with this but I did not bother as around then ends I was not sure if I wanted a permanent crease. I then pinned the long edges in place with upholstery nails, using a nylon headed hammer. When folding the short edges I cut some of the excess leather away to get a tidier finish. I cut some steel strips, drilled, countersunk, blasted and started to paint them. These will screw to the backrest to it can be fixed to the back of the cab. I need to follow the same procedure to make the seat cushions. Now I can select all the gears I can make sure the cushions will miss the gear lever.
  18. Yes, the idea was to protect the core. I can't decide if I should paint it black and leave it permanently in place in case anything goes wrong with the fan mounting. Anyway, the fan is now back in place. The selector gate is now painted and in place; all gears can be selected but I still need to fettle one of the floor board blocks and refit it before we can have another go at taking it for a drive. Without that block the main removable floor panel could slide over and interfere with the gear lever. We put the bonnet back into position so with the exception of the seat back and windscreen (oh, and the registration number) it looks like the factory photo.
  19. A small amount of progress this week. I have purchased a set of ten spark plugs. As the engine has dual ignition the set of ten gives me two spares. The rusty plugs currently fitted are mostly Lodge but I think this set of Champion 5 com plugs would look appropriate.
  20. I am close to the soft furnishing stage so decided to make a start by cutting some rubberised horse hair to match the board for the back cushion. I decided to use two layers and put a few stitches through the layers to keep them aligned. It looked a bit square so I chamfered the edge. And then fixed a layer of hessian over the top. The final covering will be leather but that will wait for another day.
  21. As the bonnet was off I cleaned out the tapped hole in the front cylinder block and fitted the additional pillar to support the fan bracket. I then marked the location to drill the fan bracket and after checking everything lined up removed it all for further painting.
  22. I welded the stack of laser cutting together to form the new gear selector gate. Then after tapping the holes out, blasting and priming I was able to try it in place. It has been taken off again for painting after checking that gears can be selected (actually second requires a little more wood removing from the seat).
  23. The signwriter has lined out the cab, mudguards and bonnet. It was easier for him if we removed the rear mudguards and bonnet. Over the week of studying the photos we spotted there were also lines on the dumb irons so he added those. Another error we spotted was that there should have been a diamond (rather than a dot) in the centre of the line under Chesterfield. The windscreen was lined out as well. I just need to finish shaping and painting the brackets.
  24. I will keep posting things as I find them. If it was a Brasso lorry there would be an obligation for excessive polishing. The photos of BT lorries show a four spoke coated steering wheel. Blumels patented a celluloid coated steering wheel in 1911; the hub is aluminium and the rim is a steel tube. I picked one up this week; it might be a little small at 14" diameter but I am sure it will work if nothing else turns up.
×
×
  • Create New...