Pete Ashby

Well said Bob we are straying into dangerous waters with this turn in the thread. There is enough pain and angst in the UK over the whole sorry mess currently without letting it spill over onto this platform. Gentlemen I think we all respect your views but it may be safer and more harmonious for all of us to steer clear of getting in too deep here

Has anybody used War Paints (Kerry Cheese) British G3 ? If you have can you post a photo that would give me a clue to the shade please and any comments regarding percent level of sheen and thinner used. Thanks Pete

Thanks for the details Ron Pete

Stand back there and form an orderly queue that man This is one of the great debates of the MV world along with what is the correct shade of early OD for US trucks and just what shade was Canadian G3 this is one that taxes me currently. As you have found out getting paint mixed from war time BS numbers often turns out to be not what you hope for. I have a similar issue with early G3 for a British truck and am also trying to match a shade for a Canadian version of G3 which if I compare remaining uncontaminated paint samples from both trucks they turn out to be significantly different canvassing other restores has produced a range of shades and tones all matched from original samples. Mike Starmer as you probably know is the accepted authority on paint colours and has published a number of very detailed pamphlets on the subject with colour chips. None of this has directly answered your question I'm afraid as there is no one stop shop for this and it would be interesting to hear others views and comments with attached photos with details of the paint codes and suppliers used and level of matt bearing in mind that colour reproduction on a computer screen is not always the best reference particularly with shades of green, brown,blue Pete

Attention now turns to the road springs, the bushes have been measured and found to have virtually no ware so they are good to go again without any further work. The leaves are all good, if a bit grubby, there are no cracked or broken leaves and the rebound clips are all good so the decision has been taken not to disassemble completely but to de-grease then rotary wire wheel them as assembled units. As removed from the truck After de- greasing and rotary wire wheeling Nice detail revealed during cleaning the bottom leaf in each spring pack is stamped with the Dodge Brothers logo, part number and the manufacturing date in this case 15 May 1943 ( not sure how visible this is in the photo below) My usual painting regime followed for wire wheel cleaned steel components with a coat of dilute phosphoric acid followed by etch primer then a gloss sealing coat Pete

Pleasantly warm in the spray shop for the last couple of days so I've taken advantage of the solar gain from the tin roof and got a gloss sealing coat on all the parts that were blast cleaned and primed the previous week. Pete

You might try this company they have done some excellent work for me in the past http://www.undercovercovers.co.uk/# Pete

That is a very fine truck indeed Wally congratulations Pete

Most of the UK and European parts dealers have them or as has already been suggested e-bay or any of the vintage/classic car parts suppliers. Pete

Personally I'd wire the rears and the diff light together to operate from the main lighting switch in the cab and leave the two way switch in place but by passed, you need all the illumination you can get on the rear end with today's traffic and I doubt that the RCMP will pull you over 74 years later and put you on a charge for showing a rear light instead of a blackout diff light or vice versa Pete

Thanks Kevin yes this should move things along a bit now. There's a gloss grey under coat to go on everything and then the frame and all the other gubbins will go back into the workshop for assembly. Pete

I gave the blaster an hours start then I got cracking in the spray shop with a Zinc phosphate primer by working together with the blaster no surface was left untreated for more then 1hr as blasted raw steel will start to oxidize almost immediately it's worth making the point here that it is best not to handle the blast cleaned parts with out gloves as the sweat and grease (particularly if it's hot..... which it was).will readily contaminate the clean metal and can make paint adhesion a problem. So after a longish old day by the time I'd washed the spray gun out and tided up a bit it all looked like this Pete

The media used was crushed glass which gives an excellent surface for painting without the heavy etching of the surface that can occur when using some of the more traditional blast materials. Glass was chosen for this project as there was very low levels of corrosion and no scale for heavily scaled projects something more aggressive would be required. The weather was perfect with a slight breeze, warm and low humidity and most importantly of all a blaster who knew his trade and took a pride in his work And now as if by magic it all looked like this Pete

It been a busy time here in the wild west involving preparations to get the D15 frame and various other large lumps and brackets moved into the barn, de-greased and generally made ready for the media blaster arrival. Here's the frame transported from the workshop to the barn strapped to my WW2 Canadian 10cwt trailer, ( another project when I get the time) for now doing stealing service around the farm Now set up on trestles and piled up with brackets and frame fixings spring bushes have been blanked off using threaded rod and suitably sized washers the spring brackets have then been fully de-greased. I'm probably telling people to suck eggs here but for those who are contemplating media blasting for the first time blasting over greasy surfaces has two effects the first the grease will absorb energy from the blast media making the job harder and longer secondly and more importantly the oils and fats will be driven into the grain boundaries of the steel and will result in poor paint adhesion during the re-painting process A pallet of wheel rims, I use polythene tube warmed up and pushed onto the studs to protect the threads from the effects of media blasting, if required they will be cleaned up using a wire brush and then a dia and thread cutting paste. And last but not least hubs, drums and rear axle case all vents and openings have been blanked and taped shut oil drained and de-greased, only the outside of the drums will be media blasted the inside will be done with a rotary wire brush once blasted and painted the rear axle will be completely stripped and rebuilt. Pete

We'r all looking for pumps and filters I can only think that when the tanks were removed from the trucks probably to sell to Farmers the filters were removed at the same time time and weighed in as scrap as they had no use. Pete

Some, but not all British Army rebuilt jeeps operated post war have had the frame number stamped there Pete

The tyre removal is now complete I had to admit defeat with the two original tyres and take them to a local tyre fitter who specializes in agricultural and plant tyres, even then they didn't give up with out a fight. On stripping out the inner tubes it was found that these were also original Canadian manufacture and in perfect condition with no repairs so it's more than likely that it was the first time the tyres had been removed from the rims in over 75 years. One of the original rear tyres The inner tube from it The removal of the tyres marks a turning point in this project now it's about cleaning stripping measuring for ware and then reassemble and painting. So this the first bit of positive progress everything up to now has been about taking things apart. I decided I would not media blast the front axle or the trucks road springs I am not a fan of blasting media getting near machined parts like king pin bushes, stub axles or spring leaves. First job was to tackle the front axle beam and stub axles so it was de-grease using a commercial cleaner then pressure wash,when clean check all parts for ware or cracks, while the axle was still on the truck I had tested the king pins for ware and found them to be in good condition so it was out with the rotary wire brush on grinder and the drill for the tight corners, an hours work on the front axle and it cleaned up well. Axle beam and tie rod before de-greasing and cleaning sub axles are wrapped and taped up to prevent damage. After cleaning and an hour with the rotary wire brush A coat of rust converter was applied and then after 24hrs a coat of etch primer First steps the road to completion for this particular project but I'm pleased with the outcome next there is a whole mass of frame brackets, rear axle, drums and the frame awaiting a visit from the media blaster. By the end of the summer I hope to have the frame painted and reassembled with the axles fitted then over the winter period I can look at the engine, gearbox and back axle. Pete

A few photos for Bob Carriere, the hubs and drums are produced by Budd and take 900 x 16 CMP Kelsey rims flat based rims for "British tyres" Front hub and drum Rear hub and drum Pete

Thank you all Chaps for your inputs useful suggestions one and all I'll see about getting a blank made up at 16 TPI with a 55' pitch and see how it fits Pete

No new fangled north American thread forms on the Retriever it's mostly BSF of a very high grade steel and a smaller quantity of Whitworth all bolts have Ley Ltd stamped on the head real quality build. Do I take it Richard your money would be on a 55' pitch? the TPI I'm fairly confident about. You can't beat a BSF or Whitworth thread no matter how long it's been sitting around they always come undone with only a little application of heat. Pete

Certainly is an odd size Rob, having failed to find anything like it in my copy of Zeus tables I turned to my battered copy of the 13th Edition of the Machinery's Handbook (not an easy read at the best of times) the nearest I can come up with is some unusual American thread forms which does not seem very likely and as you note for the common UNF would be 60'. To be fair I am measuring the pitch only with a set of thread gauges and not by the recommend 3 wire method ( don't go there never did understand this properly) however the 55' 16 TPI gauge seems to be the best fit. Confused of West Wales.

I am looking for help to identify a thread type on the Leyland Retriever main output shaft from the transfer case the thread appears to be 16 TPI @ 55' RH thread OD 31.75mm ( 1 1/4" ) the nut would be a 6 slotted hex @ 52.07 mm ( 2 3/64" ) a/c flats, 15mm total ht including 8mm deep slots. The parts list is not helpful as it lists the nut but just says "special thread" I'm guessing this would be to fit a 1 1/4" W or 1 3/8" BSF spanner Any ideas ? Thanks Pete

Cracking idea with the baking tins. I think the use of household utensils is vastly under rated , I wouldn't have thought of filling them with foam nice one, stored that idea away for a rainy day. regards Pete

Today has been all about splitting rims and removing tires, overall not as bad as some I've done where Iv'e had to cut the tire off the rim in fact I hardly broke a sweat it was a cold North wind mind. Bob, these look like standard 900 x 16 Kesley rims, until they have been blast cleaned I won't know for sure One down three to go Outside face Inside face After a bit of exercise with the tire lever, wooden wedges and hammer Job done time for a now repeat 3 times. Pete

Time for an update on the D15T . The aim for this sub project is to get the frame, associated brackets rear axle case, front axle beam, brake drums and wheels blast cleaned primed and ready for reassembly. So the first step was to move the frame out of the workshop and round to the barn ready for the blast cleaner to come and do his stuff here it is strapped onto my WW2 Canadian 8cwt trailer it has the reversible hitch and the CMP Ford master cylinder to activate the over run brakes , this is another project in the waiting room, the frame and running gear are good but the steel body has been added at some later date the original was wooden at the moment it does stealing service carrying fire wood in from the fields and other fetch and carry jobs around the place . Next job was to ready the rear axle for blast cleaning, I am not going to blast the springs I know some people do but I prefer to clean them using the wire wheel on the angle grinder. Photo showing the location and orientation of the shock absorber mount on the rear axle The nuts on the U bolts needed a bit of the hot spanner and impact gun to get them moving once all off the nuts were put back on a full nut depth and the U bolts drifted out using a brass drift and hammer Pete