Old Bill

We have been doing a bit more and are getting ever closer to the first swing. Dad has started painting the rear wings. As always, we are tight for space! I have installed the throttle rod so the pedal now operates the carburettor. I made up the other rods and installed them too so we have a hand throttle here And magneto advance linkage. As the magneto was in position to set up the linkage, I did the HT leads and ran the wire through the dash to the magneto switch. All controls are connected and functional! Dad wanted to push on with painting the wings so I cut the mounting pads and then drilled them through and screwed them down. I suspect that the fasteners should be 1/4" x 1" bolts with 1" dia mushroom heads but I have yet to find any. I didn't want to make them so we have settled for round head screws for the time being. Making 24 of them will be very tedious! Dad has masked the area up and started painting them. The last items to complete before swinging the handle are the oil pipes and I have been tackling these today. It really is a weird oil system of unreasonable complication. The big ends are splash lubricated so the engine driven pump is only for top-up purposes. However, the sump is divided in the middle so there are two independent reservoirs, hence two feeds. The first pipe I put in was the overflow return to tank. This is the main feed line from the back of the pump housing to the sight glasses. Access to make the connection is hopeless. The gap here between the crank case and the pump is about 1". How I am supposed to connect the union nut to the banjo, goodness only knows. Wangling the pump in with two feet of pipe attached to the back will be challenging too. A job for tomorrow. All the pipes are cut and bent and have their end fittings silver soldered on save the pressure line where it fits to the back of the pump. That joint has an olive so I shall have to turn up one of those tomorrow as well. Once all of those pipes are fitted and clipped, there are two more delivery pipes from the bottom of the hand pump to the two sumps which is a ridiculous level of complication! Steve🙂

Had a nice time in Devon last weekend and did a bit more. We are getting very close now so it is time to think about getting a licence number for it. To start that process, we needed some photographs so the first job was to push it outside. Moving it outside is quite hard but not half as hard as putting it back again as it is uphill! Dad took the opportunity to look at his paintwork and was satisfied with the results. The whole thing suddenly looks quite big! Once we had got it back inside, I fitted the angle brackets at the rear end, ready for the tailboard. Fortunately we have the bolts in stock and I didn't even have to trim them to length. Very satisfying. Dad has been pushing on with the tailboard as well and has been painting the planks. And also the ironwork. I have yet to make the hinge blocks. Then we cut and drilled the side capping strips and fitted them. Dad had already got them up to the undercoat stage. I made a start on turning up the fan pulley. I couldn't get a good enough grip on the centre to cut the belt groove so I have brought it away to cut the keyway and to make up a mandrel to hold firmly in the chuck so that I can cut the groove. Once that was done, we positioned the wing and remains of the running board so that we could confirm the size of the boards. The timber for them is now on order. Dad has painted up the brake rigging so I installed the last rod and connected it to the pedal. Another functioning control! Behind the brake pedal, you can see the unpainted throttle rod which I cut to length and fitted. I also propped up the floor support angle and screwed it to the dash board. A bit more throttle rod cut to length here, ready for finishing and also the new petrol line. I found a bit of old copper pipe in the workshop which I straightened out and it proved to be exactly the right length with no trimming at all. I just soldered on the end fittings and ticked another job off the list. I fitted the petrol tap extension. This went exactly through the brake rod! I resolved that by putting a kink in the middle of the tap rod. I was tempted to kink the brake rod instead but that would have made the brake a bit spongy and it is that already ! Today, I have made up the last of the thottle and ignition rods, turned up a sleeve for the water pump drive and turned some insulating bushes for the HT leads so it has all been quite productive recently. # The current focus is to get the engine running as soon as we can. To do that, we need HT leads and oil pipes so we are very close. It is all getting rather exciting! Steve🙂

Hi Mark. They look very much like the right kind of thing. Certainly the sort of style we are after. I think they should be about 3" dia or thereabouts. It is always amazing to see what keeps turning up. Thanks for sharing them! Steve 🙂

Hi Barry. They are just a way of making a strong point in soft ground for securing tents or aeroplanes and such like. You screw them into the ground and tie a rope to the end. These are the modern ones I have managed to obtain but I suspect that they are a bit small really. They are also powder coated which isn't very period. If anyone has any military versions about 24-30" long then I would be very pleased to hear from you! Steve 🙂

Part of the equipment on this recovery lorry are half a dozen screw-anchors hung on brackets on the side: For a bit of light relief, I have bent them up. It is so nice to have the tool for the job! Here are all six, bent up. I mis-calculated the length for the first but fortunately, the right way. Trimmed to length and drilled for mounting. Back to the paint shop! Steve 🙂

Thoughts are turning to the bonnet. Nigel will make it for us but doesn't want to do the hinges so I have made them up. First, though, I had a rummage and found 22 hinges hanging on the workshop wall on a piece of string. I rescued them from the bonnet of a 1911 Daimler that I had been given thirty years ago thinking that they would come in handy. I was right! I burned the paint off them and cleaned them up and they will be fine. The only trouble is that I need forty four of them so I set to and made the tools to make some more. I turned up a block to go in the press which has a slot in it and some grub screws to hold a blade. I also cut a groove in another block using a ball-ended end mill to use as the die. A trial run proved quite satisfactory. Then I had to form the rest of the tube. This was done by pressing it into the die again but this time sideways with a flat plate and a bit of bar in place of the hinge pin. That was satisfactory too. Having done a test I prepared the steel for the remainder. More sections of Daimler bonnet! Another 30 of them to give a few spares. They were soon pressed to shape so I made a simple drilling jig to get the holes in the right place. A few were left plain in case Nigel needs a few spares. Now it just remains to package them up and send them off. Steve 🙂

Thanks Alan. They could be OK but I would need to inspect them closely if any turn up. I spoke to a chap called Mouat but I am aware of Richards Bros. I see that they advertise that they can do new centres so it is getting to be time to give them a call. This is going to be the most expensive part of the whole job! Steve 🙂

We went to the Spring Autojumble at Beaulieu yesterday and had a good day. We saw this but didn't buy it: I don't know if we have one or need one but I did take the chap's card. Then the find of the day! This is a rare animal but just what we wanted so it was worth the trip! We only have front wheels and they have a rim size for a tyre no longer made so they will need some attention. We found a wire wheel man to talk to and he was most helpful. He has rather fired my enthusiasm to get on with the job so I thought it time to get a grip of the rears and spare. Unfortunately we are short of two wheel centres which look like this: I would therefore like to ask if anyone can lay their hands on two-off Rudge Whitworth number 80 splined wheel centres please? Number 80 is quite big with a 4" diameter spline which is 4 1/2" long. I could make them but I don't want to and I think there is a good chance that we can find a pair. They will require twin rims for 880x120mm beaded edge tyres but that is a problem we can solve. We could do with a pair of spinners too but I could make them if I have to. Must finish the Peerless first but it would be nice to have the bits in stock ready for when we start the job in earnest. Steve 🙂

I missed Brighton this year and spent the weekend in the shed instead. We did make some progress which is nice. First job was to unload our new wings. These were made for us by Nigel Taylor at Vintage Wings near Preston and a nice job he has done too. They will be going into the paint shop shortly. We have also fitted the magneto switch which Tim managed to find. It is exactly the right one. Wiring might be on the horizon soon. In the mean time, Dad has been progressing the endless painting. It is much easier to paint the planks on the flat. The inside faces require only a final coat but the outsides are only as far as undercoat. They are, however easier to paint tha inside as that can be done standing up. The angle brackets were brought out, clamped up and drilled through. Then it was a case of simply aligning the planks and drilling through. It is never quite that easy, of course! The planks have grooves cut in them and seperate tongues are pushed in. Getting the tongue in the first groove is quite straightforward but fitting the next plank on top is a fight. We managed in the end. I used a sash clamp to pull them together before drilling. On to the front boards, following the same process. There was a bit of time left over so I set about fitting the lamp brackets. The dash board is sapele and took some effort to drill. I did clamp some scrap on the back to try to stop it splintering as the drill broke through and was largely successful. Tim has found some correct pattern Adlake lamps, complete with bales so we had to put them on. Dad is back on the paint brush and I am making bonnet components. Getting close! Steve 🙂

Interesting. Any date or capacity on it? Steve

Sorry. Missed you! Yes, it is heavy. Getting back off the bench once assembled was an entertaining event. It stands about 18" tall and I am guessing that it is about five ton rated. The recovery lorry drawings state that it is equipped with 'two 8 ton, two 4 ton and two 3 ton screw lifting jacks with iron crank' but we have found only this pic: This jack doesn't look like it but it is period and who is to say that it didn't pick up an alternative later on? Equipping this lorry is another challenge but interesting things do turn up. Steve 🙂

Ah yes! Sorry. Being a bit slow! Do you think they might be PoWs with the labels around the neck? The picture was taken in the middle east somewhere. Steve 🙂

Sorry, but I am afraid that one escapes me. Mind you, flat caps are becoming mandatory but I think that is an age thing! As you know, we are recreating one of the Army's first recovery or 'Ambulance' lorries as they were known. When Tim turned up the original drawings in the National Archive they included a list of the equipment to be carried and, not surprisingly, this includes a couple of jacks. We have been fortunate enough to find this one, a Charles Willets Mk1 screw jack of 1915. We think it is of about five tons capacity and will do the job admirably. 1915 dated! Generally, it is in very good order with just a couple of things to fix. After taking it apart, I sorted out the bend in the rotating ring. It was just a case of heat and a bit of tube to lean on it in the vice and it was soon fixed. The tube also provided a replacement handle. The lifting handle on the front was there but two of the screws had sheared off. I drilled them and then tried my E-Z out extractor. I am usually very wary of these things as I usually end up with a sheared stud with a hard centre! However, in this case, they worked well. Then painting. I have just this evening reassembled it all with lots of grease and am well pleased with the result. Something else to store! Steve🙂

Hi David. We try to avoid a specific date unless we are pretty certain we can hit it. The Dennis for Brighton in May 2011 was just about do-able but was pretty borderline. The last couple of months make pretty good reading, however! We don't have a date for this lorry but plan to have it on the road this year. I have been pushing on with the bodywork and have been making tailboard hinges. I reported my trial bending of the eyes and have now done the remainder with the correct section of steel. 10mm x 50 which is quite chunky to wrap around a 20mm pin. The top one, below, was my first attempt at the 50mm strip. I heated it with the propane and then had a go but still left a little too much metal to close it as tightly as I would have liked. The second one was better and the third better still. As you can see here, the three hinges differ in that one bends each way to form the retaining pin eye and the centre one is straight. I cut and drilled the centre one and that was quite straightforward. The end ones are bent on a 13" radius. I gave them some thought but felt that my blacksmithing skills were just not up to hammering them round and I felt that I might do a better job with the press. Bending the plates edgeways looked tricky with the risk of firing them out sideways if I didn't set them up carefully. I therefore came up with these slotted rollers to keep them upright and also support them over an area without damaging the edges. They worked well and I am pleased with the results. I was also pleased that the press was big enough to actually bend the bars I gave them a push before moving them along and giving another push, repeating the exercise until I had the curve I wanted. The back plates on the inside of the tailboard, I had already had laser cut to profile and they made a nice gauge to check the curve against. Old time platers would have marked out the surface plate in chalk. My plate isn't big enough so I had to use the floor. At this point, I realised that the job would have been a whole lot easier if I had put another two inches on my piece of steel. Never mind. They were both just long enough. I have drilled and finished the ends and it only remains to bore the 1" holes for the locking pins. The woodwork is all quite easy. It is the ironwork that takes the time! Steve 🙂

We seem to be slowing down a bit. It is getting harder and harder to motivate oneself to go out in the shed of an evening after work. Getting old I think! We did do a bit over Easter although it was a family weekend really. Dad has been painting endlessly and had finished the kerb rails and the underside of the floor planks. We set up the kerb rails and bolted them down, using bolts from stock. It did take a bit of a rummage to find them but we had just enough in the end. Then I started laying out the planks. They had been cut to length and width by our chippy, Mark, who was impressively accurate. Not a gap anywhere by the end! The planks are all grooved with loose tongues. We had to slacken off a kerb rail and use a sash clamp to pull them up but the final fit was perfect. Then it was a case of screwing them down. Exactly 100 screws, again taken from stock. It is lovely now that we have got to this stage and have everything around us. I had a trial fit of my new brake rods. Rather strangely there was insufficient room for the joint as I had taken it apart. I took out the 90° link and all was well. I have since found a photo of it done like this so that is OK. The rods are now out again for painting. Tim gave me exactly the right magneto switch for Christmas a couple of years ago so I made a start on cleaning it up. It wasn't bad and I didn't want to be too aggressive with it so I used a fibreglass scratch brush to move the tarnish. It came out quite well although the nickle is a bit tired. That is fine as there is no reason that it should not look old. I picked up some steel over the break and have made up the remaining shovel brackets using my nice new bending tool. That is proving to be a worthwhile investment. Riveting can be very satisfying. Heads polished off with the flap wheel. And back in the paint shop. Mine this time! Dad is still painting, the headboard planks and the body brackets, ready for our next get-together. We really are very close now. If only it wasn't so far away! Steve 🙂