Old Bill

Thanks for the pic Tomo. I have not seen that one before. The heat shield is quite different from any I have seen before. Mine is a copy of that on the Carlton Colville lorry and looks like the one in the parts book so I don't think I am too far off. Actually Barry, I was quite pleased to knock the slag off in one piece each time instead of chipping it out of holes a piece at a time! I'll put aMig on the shopping list. There are two items left to do before we run the engine. I have just tackled one of them by making up the magneto coupling. This was probably a forging but I have fabricated it by adding a boss to piece of flat plate. The magneto shaft is tapered and, some time ago, I tried to fit an impulse starter to the Dennis mag. I was unsuccessful at the time but did make up a setting jig with the right taper. Even better, I found it! This allowed me to set the topslide over at the right angle to bore the boss out. Once bored, it needed a keyway cutting in it. This was a five minute job with my home-made slotting attachment. Brazed up with the outside profile turned to diameter. Then it was a case of turning up the drive studs and pressing them in. Turned up a woodruff key: Job done! Only one job left before engine start and that is the oil fill tube and cup. Steve

Something I have been working on for the last couple of weeks is the tailboard hinges. These are heavy ironwoirk jobs and involve welding and angle grinding, neither of which I enjoy. However, the job needs to be done. The straps replicate forgings with thick bosses at the bottom ends. I created these by turning up some bosses to weld on. Poor old Myfard, always working to the limit! My welding set up, indoors this time. My welding has improved slightly but I did put down 30, 3mm rods in the course of this exercise. A wooden welding bench doesn't do the atmospheric conditions much good, hence the foggy picture! The the side pieces to take the catches. These are just bits of plate with square holes in, started on the mill and finished with a file.. Veed out and butt-jointed. Thank goodness for angle grinders and filler! The original forgings have radiused edges so these were added with a file. Filler! Works though! Now the catches. These just bolt to the uprights at the rear corners. All done, at last. Now I can get the filthy grinding dust out of my workshop. Into the paint shop. Now we can assemble the tailgate. Magneto coupling next. Steve

Yes, I did spot that but am not quite sure what it is, None of my pictures show any sort of fastener just there and I am beginning to think that it is something to do with the pattern possibly a chaplet. I remain to be proven wrong, however! I have been working on the floor extension on and off for a while. Whereas that for the Dennis is horizontal, this follows the line of the main floor and tapers outwards as well. I had a rummage in the garage to see what timber we had left over from the Dennis and found enough to glue together and do the job. The good old Woden Dowelling Jig came out from under the bench and was pressed into service again. It really is a great tool. Dowelled and glued together. Then the edging strips. Once down in Devon, I used my dinky bandsaw to set an angle at the ends. Then bolted a block to the seat front to support it. After that, it was just a case of planing the ends to fit. Job done and the panel is now in the paint shop. One other task was the P-clip for the oil pressure gauge pipe. If I didn't do it then, I would forget about it. Tomorrow is the first day of a week off work. I really need to get some production going and need to tick off at least one component per day if we are going to make it. I shall put my alarm clock back a bit but not by much! Steve

Dad still pressing on with the endless painting. The rhs has now had its second coat and the bonnet boards are in undercoat. Weather not looking too good for painting this weekend though. This is one critical job we can't speed up. Oh well. We must do our best. Dad has also machined up the differential spider. It was an awkward thing to hold but with gentle cuts, he was successful. Note the lines scribed on the back of the legs in order to position the bolt holes concentrically with the boss.and bore. He clamped it to the milling table in order to get the bolting face parallel to the rear face. As this is a high speed rotating component he has made every effort to get it all true, square and concentric to try to avoid propshaft vibration. A six foot length of 3" tube rotating eccentrically would certainly rattle the teeth! Now that Barry's gauge has been found a perfect fit, the casting has gone off to have the spline cut. Once the spider is on the differential, it will set the length of the prop-shaft and we can put that together. I am looking forward to ticking that job off! Steve

Quite right! I probably won't ever cut the hole but I will make the casting and fit the pipe. Not before Brighton though! Steve

Something else we got on with was the heat shield over the exhaust manifold. I had a rummage in my steel store this week and found a piece 21" x 9 1/4" . I wanted 20 1/2" x 9" so that was the one! A bit rusty but ok after a quick sanding. Adrian very kindly put it in his press-brake which did a wonderful job and much better than I could have managed with two pieces of wood and a hammer. Quicker too! When we looked at the manifld, we realised that there were the remains of two studs still in the holes so the next tas was to dig them out. I very carefully scraped and then centre-popped them. Successful stud removal really does depend on getting the drill down the middle. As usual, I started off with a very small drill and worked my way up to the tapping size. When I first started the dimple, I could see that it had drifted slightly off so I angled the pistol drill to move the dimple back into the centre of the stud. This was quite painstaking but well worth the effort as the tap went straight down the hole and cleaned it out nicely. Then I had to do it again! All successful. Some exhaust black to finish and Dad has fitted it back to the engine. There is a casting that fits on top of the studs to hold the shield and support the HT lead tube. I haven't got around to that one yet and there will not be the time before Brighton. The HT may be secured with a bit of wire! Steve

Dad has been endlessly painting but it is beginning to pay off. He finished the hood frame brackets this week so the first job on Saturday was to fit them. They have been in stock for a while and it was nice to get them out of the way! One hole in each bracket faces into the end of the side plank so it needs a 1/4" x 1" coach screw instead of a bolt. Unfortunately, we are out of old ones and modern ones have hex heads instead of square. Something I will have to make in due course I guess but not now. Time is too short! Once the brackets were on, the seat could be bolted down. We had left it loose so that it could be pushed sideways to get the drill in! The seat is held down by two 3/8" coach bolts and two straps with 3/8" studs welded at the ends. I asked our senior welder at work to attach them as I don't trust mine in this situation! We also took the opportunity to put split pins through the ends of the studs as I really don't want the seat coming loose in service as it could give me a lot more excitement than I want. Pushed outside. Fitting the hood frame is a horrible job as it is big and heavy and awkward to handle whilst working at height. Not good for my temper at all.... Looking good! We measured the length needed for the leather straps and have passed that information on to Mark.who is making them for us.. More tomorrow! Steve

Yes, a larger shed would make life a lot easier. I think there is a rule, however, that no matter how large your shed, you will always have slightly more than you can reasonably store! We have been doing some more. One of the jobs finally ticked off this weekend was the rear wheel hub greasers. These are ordinary stauffers screwed into the wheel hub on extensions. We had one original and I turned up the other long ago. The trouble was that the threads in the wheel hubs were extremely poor having been left outside for so long. I tried Father's 1/2" BSF taper tap and that eventually got a bite but it was a funny tap with a taper along its whole length and there was insufficient depth to screw it far enough for Father's plug tap to start. After messing for a couple of hours a few weeks ago, I gave up and Dad has since obtained a second cut tap. This has made all the difference and with a bit of cutting compound, the threads were cleaned and the greasers screwed in. Part of the challenge, though, was that the threads are buried inside the wheel with no room for a tap wrench so I used an old trick picked up in the factory at work whereby I filed a square hole in a nut to match the tap and then used a socket extension to turn it. After starting the tap with my fingers, this made all the difference and the job was soon done. Another one ticked off! Steve PS A photo like this always shows up the bit which didn't get painted!

We have had a good weekend. Barry's new spline gauge has arrived and is absolutely perfect! It pushed on easily by hand as a nice firm fit with no rattle. Wonderful and thank you Barry! We also pushed the lorry outside for a trial fit of the cab. We are pleased with the result! More later. Steve

Thanks Barry. That looks most promising. Measuring the spline sufficiently accurately and working out what shape it was before being put into use has proved most tricky and I have spent quite a lot of tie sitting under the lorry with the torch behind the gauge trying to decide where it needed adjustment. I am hoping that this will get it! The two parts fitted together really caught us out. Dad didn't see it and I only knew to look because or that photo! It knocked out easily enough but I don't think I could put it back together. Just going back in the shed for the next installment. Steve.

Something else done now and that's the bonnet boards. We hung fire asking for them as I wanted to see where the bonnet came but Mark has now prepared the timber and I have made rebates and cut-outs to fit. Some more for the paint shop! Steve

Father has also been to the foundry this week and picked up the pivot mount for the footbrake and the spider for the differential which was made using Barry's printed pattern. Father is now in the process of machining it as we cannot assemble the prop shaft until this is fitted as we won't know the required length. The majority of the machining is quite straightforward but the problems start with the spline. This is the old, lashed-up spider which we removed from the shaft. As you can see, the bore has very heavy tool marks and the slots are 0.025" wider than the splines so it is not a very good basis for measuring them up. Trying to work out exactly what we want and then how to get it machined has been puzzling us for a while. However, Barry has once again come to our rescue and very kindly offered to wire-erode a gauge for me using my best guess at the dimensions. This is an amazing process where the job is spark-eroded using a moving wire electrode which is guided under CNC control to cut the required profile. Not ideal for mass production but very cost-effective for one-offs and specials. I have had a couple of goes at fitting it now, easing it here and there with a file until it just went on by its own thickness when knocked witha mallet. It is still a bit tight but I have revised my drawings and Barry is making me another. Once I have finalised the dimensions, we will use the process to cut the new spider. There is always a way out if you know the right people! Steve

We had an interesting parcel arrive yesterday. Rear wings! More work for the paint shop! Steve

Another weekend spent in Devon with the aim of finishing off the body so that Dad can get on with painting. It only wanted one side putting up so we thought it would be up by lunchtime. Best laid plans however! Dad has been busy on the LHS shortening bolts and tidying up. He masked it off and has given the bare wood two coats of primer. Similarly, he has also done the headboard. He had previously finish painted the outside face as once installed, it would be too close to the seat to paint. On to the RHS. The planks were put up with the seperate tongues inserted in between them. A couple of odd bolts were fitted and then the top rail was attached. This has a bolt at each end with woodscrews in the back in the middle. Getting nice slotted wood screws is becoming a pain. Dad found these but at 23p each we are being careful with them! The uprights were held in place and two bolts drilled through We then drilled the rest of the holes and put over-length bolts in place. The last job on the body was to fit the corner protector plates. This was a juggle as the seat had to be moved eachway in order to get at the screw heads. All successful in the end. Dad is trimming bolts at the moment ready for painting. I am making up the tailboard hinges ready for us to make the tailboard at our next get-together. There are other things going on too and I shall put them up very shortly. Steve

I'll have to look out for them as we don't have either. So much of this job is 'how are we going to do this with what we have'? Jobs are always easier with the right tools though. Steve

Yes, only hand signals on our vehicles! Steve ;-)

The next job before putting up the sides was to fit the rear crossmember. Dad has painted this already but the difficulty waas access to the rear of the chassis.At the moment, there is 2 1/2" behing the lorry and 1 1/2" in front and that is without the 2 1/4" thick tailboard! The only way to get in there was to push the lorry out for the very first time. After a bit of fiddling, the beam went into place. We then had to work out how to drill a 9" deep bolt hole with a 5" long bit so that both ends were in the right place and they met in the middle. A challenge! We put the corner posts up. Fortunately, I had judged the headroom available about right. The centre angle brackets were fitted. These were a bit of a pain as the holes are too close to the floor and I couldn't get the pistol drill in. I could only get sufficient clearance with the good old fashioned hand drill. Six holes through 2 1/2" timber proved very hard on the hands but success was achieved eventually. Then we could start putting the planks up, grooved again with seperate tongues. As I think I have mentioned before, the chassis is slightly hump-backed by about 1/4". We used sash clamps to spring the boards down to match whilst we drilled the holes through. Mark couldn't quite get the planks to full width with the result that each was 1/4" narrow. We made up the loss with a strip glued to the top edge. The top rail was fitted, hiding the strip, followed by the uprights. They were drilled but only some bolts fitted as we ran out of time. It is looking nice but we had to call it a day as I had to return to Leicester. I really wanted to finish the job but it all took much longer than expected. Dad has spent the week finishing this side off by cutting bolts to length and fitting them. He has also been to the foundry to deliver the patterns and ordered more wood and steel for the footstep and wing brackets not to mention extra screws and arranging the manufacture of the leather straps for the cab. Sadly, I have been at work. Oh well. We can only press on and see if we can do it. We have not given up but making Brighton is going to be a very close run thing. I have a week's holiday booked in March and we have set an engine test run date for the Easter weekend. Back to it! Steve

Thanks! It is proving a bit of a challenge though. We are still on target but losing, slowly! We are thinking of the things we don't really need, like petrol tin carriers and toolboxes and perhaps we will borrow the lamps off the Dennis. We shall See! In the mean time, I have had a long weekend in Devon with the aim of delivering the last two patterns and finishing the body ready for painting. Painting is definitely on the critical path and cannot be rushed so the sooner Dad can be doing that, the better. We had previously fitted the crossmembers and the floor which had all been painted previously. Now, we wanted to fit the headboard. Dad had painted the planks so they could be fitted facing the seat without worrying about access. We started off by jointing the side rails to allow the front crossmember to be fitted along with the corner posts. I had allowed too much length on the front kerb rail so that was trimmed using the trusty chop-saw, a Christmas present from Dad a couple of years ago. This is a fearsome tool but wonderful to use. Dropped into the rebate to check the fit. The front plank was then screwed to it. Slot-headed screws of course. No Pozidrives here! Once that had been done the headboard was built up using the planks so beautifully prepared by Mark with grooves and seperate tongues. I then had a puzzle as to why I had ordered the uprights so tall. When I looked at my drawing, I realised that they were jointed into the cross pieces. The end pieces were screwed on from the back. After cutting halving joints in the ends, the top rail was trial fitted. Mark had cut it to length and it was perfect first time. I chiselled out the mortices. Final assembly, ready to fit. It is some weight and took some putting up but we did it. It was secured with the steel corner posts bolted through.

Meanwhile, I have made up the cab frame mounting brackets. These are bent steel fabrications although one of the originals might have been a casting. The steel we have is bright so it is slightly work-hardened. I found this to my cost when I put the first piece in my press-brake attachment and promptly snapped it! I tried heat-treating the second by getting it red-hot and allowing it to air-cool. This was successful, thank goodness! I then cut all of the remaining pieces for bending and heat-treated them as well. One has a joggle in it to lean the hood frame backwards by 1/4" at the top. I think this is to negate the spring in the wood when the leather securing straps are tightened. All bent and ready for welding. This was done with my usual style and ability kneeling on the floor and using a vice to hold the bits. Nothing a bit of angle grinding won't cure! A few dollops of filler to hide the gaps in the weld. A polish and a coat of primer and ready for the paint shop. Another tick! Steve

Hi Rick. Yes, I put a piece of steel under the snap when it was in the middle of the vice but the corner posts are shaped such that they have to overhang the edge and the snap had to be held in thin air. I could have made a bar and propped it against the floor but I have only a suspended wooden floor and I don't think it would have helped much. I got there eventually but I think that mounting it on the anvil will be the best solution for the future. Just to show that we are not slacking, here are a few more bits. We didn't have the timber for the rear cross-member when we laid the planks so they have been unsupported up until now. Mark produced the last bits of body timber a little while ago so I have added the chamfers and Father has been painting. The front and rear crossmembers are now ready to fit. The tailboard hinges were done as a single casting of which we took delivery a lttle while ago. Father cleaned up the casting, cut it into three and then faced and bored the seperate pieces. They have a stud in the back to mount them so he drilled and tapped the ends. Before finishing off by breaking the edges and priming ready for the next stage.

I must admit that I know little of early registrations. Tim is the expert in that sort of thing. I am just pleased to have the original number. I took the day off yesterday in order to get on with the HT lead tube. Fortunately, Dad has already made the support brackets so only the tube remained. Adrian very kindly bent a piece up for us and cut it to length by guesswork. Fortunately, he is a very good judge and it was over-length by 1/2"! As you can see in the photo, the ends of the tubes are all bell-mouthed to avoid chafing the cables. My first job, therefore, was to make up a block into which I could expand the tube. After annealing an off-cut of tube, I gently tapped it out and it was fine. Then I had to do the real one! There were several holes in the tube for the cables. The piece I had obtained was very thin and a challenge to cut neatly. In the end, I chain drilled the holes and then dressed them out with the Dremel. Now, the bent piece joins the straight piece via a silver-soldered joint in the middle. I had to flare the bent piece out by eye until I achieved a neat fit. This was a challenge so once again, I started with my test piece. Three annealings later and I was quite pleased with the result. Now I had to do it all again with the real one! A satisfactory result was achieved and I propped it up for silver soldering. This went well and I was pleased with the result. As the ends of the straight tube are also flared, I had to remember to fit Father's brackets before stretching them! Same method again. There should be two locking screws in the brackets so I turned them up from a bit of brass. Another piece ready to fit! Actually, it should probably be painted but I shall leave that decision to the paint shop. Steve

Another step in the right direction. The Dennis was brinkmanship but this is getting silly! Anyway, we press on. Dad has painted as much of the body as he can in flat-pack form and it really needs to go together. Like the Dennis, The hood frames are part of the structure but far too tal for the shed so I have have decided to break them by lapping a piece of steel angle inside and bolting the top parts on. It is a deviation from the original construction but needs must. This is the lower piece of the corner post, 3" x 2", the joining angle and the base which was folded up before Christmas. After grinding the back of the angle to fit snugly into the main piece, lts of 5/16" rivet holes were drilled along with holes for the bolts which attach the planks. The lap angles were too wide on one edge so they were trimmed along their lengths with the disc cutter. Holes spotted through and temporarily bolted up. Then the excitement of riveting. These weren't too bad as the snap could be held in the middle of the vice with the bottom end resting on the jaw so it couldn't slide through. A few thumps with a ball pein hammer and they were down. Then dressed off with a flap wheel. There is a gap between the braces and the angle where it will be very difficult to get any paint so I decided to prime both parts before final riveting. Again, they were knocked over with the snap in the vice but this time, I had to rely on the grip of the jaws to hold the snap. Of course, it knocked through and it proved very difficult to get a really tight joint. A lot of messing saw success but it was frustrating. Once I have my anvil here, I shall make up a snap holder to sit on the top. It won't go anywhere then! Four corner posts all complete and ready for the next body building installment. Cab brackets next! Steve

What is the engine, Ed? It didn't come with one did it? The radiator looks new too. Is that being made up? A bit of a challenge, this one! Steve

Thanks Ian. Most interesting. Thanks for the video, Drifter, even if it has disappeared again! Every input is appreciated. Visible progress is slow sometimes. Father has continued with the endless painting and I have been doing some bodywork this week. In the meantime, here are the propshaft ends. Thanks to Barry's printed pattern we have two super castings. These were set up in the Colchester, faced and bored, Father faced the backs of the bosses as well and scribed a line to locate the bolt holes. A slice of the propshaft tube was used as a gauge. Reversed in the chuck, Dad used a hardwood bung to give some support before facing and boring the ring. Bored out until the flexible couplings fitted. Next job was the bolt holes. As this is a relatively high-speed component it was crucial that they be concentric with the tube and also correct for the previously drilled leathers. How to get them spot on was a bit of a puzzle until I remembered the laser cut drilling jig I used for the leathers. I hacked someslots out so that it would clear the legs of the spider and it could be placed on the back of the casting. The next task was to locate the hole centres. Now Dad has an optical centre punch which consists of a perspex rod with cross-hairs and a centre punch of the same diameter. With a brass bush turned to fit the hole in the plate and bored for the optic, the previously scribed line could be observed. Remove the optic and replace with the punch and the dot could be placed spot-on. This was repeated for the other two holes withought moving the plate. The only way to get a hole where you want it is to use a small pilot drill first! I started with 1/16" dia. Follow up with successively larger drills and job is done! No ready for brazing to the tube. We can't do the brazing yet as the tube length will be fixed by the differential spider which is going to be the next priority. There is no sliding component to the prop shaft so the length must be spot-on first time although I might make it a whisker short so that I have room for some shims. Just going back in the shed! Steve

That's pretty Ian. What is it and what is its history? Steve