Old Bill

That will undoubtably happen. I have seen it before! Here is a pic. It is rather poor but we were in a windowless building at twilight time and no torch. It was a case of point the camera and hope! It is 19" OD. I have had a template for it laser cut in steel to give the pattern some strength. I now need to build up the thickness in MDF to get the shape. The finger marks are going to be the tricky bit but we will manage.

Now you're taking the mick! Actually a carb is not a requirement. What I really want is a five spoke 19" steering wheel! :-D

The throttle is a barrel type, just a glorified plug-cock in fact! Steve

No, the metal won't change over time. Well, not in these conditions anyway. Up until 1900 or so, it was thought that steel 'crystallised' with age and became brittle leading to unexpected failures. This was actually a symptom of what we now know as 'fatigue' where an item will first crack and then fracture due to a repeated loading with a force which is not actually big enough to cause it to yield. Fatigue cracks start at discontinuities such as holes, welds or sharp corners. Temperature can also have an effect. Steel has a 'Glass Transition Temperature' where it becomes brittle as the temperature drops. Depending on the mix, this can be as high as 0°C. Some 'Liberty' ships were lost during the war due to a combination of the steel type, square hatch corners and being used in the very cold North Atlantic. The hulls suffered brittle fracture and just broke up. Hope this is of interest! Steve

That's interesting. I might be following general practice, quite by accident! I can certainly believe that coloured leads would have been abandoned quite early due to the spares issue. I have only ever seen them mentioned in the subvention scheme specifications. Tim, is there any other mention in your various books? Steve

It is amazing what is still out there 90 years later! Thanks for posting, Gus. Steve

Hi Norman. You are quite right. Slackening the springs will reduce the pedal force needed. I will certainly back them off before trying to drive it! There is not actually a lot of room on the studs so I may well have to fit half-nuts. At the moment, I have just nipped them all up equally to see what happens as there is no guidance provided in the manual as to how tight they should be. Of course, it might all be a bit easier when there is a seat to push against. Roy. You will be pleased to hear that I did go looking for the colour coded HT leads. However, I couldn't find leads with different colours but of the same type of wire so we decided to settle for black all round. If you look on our FWD, though, you will see correctly coloured tape around the end of each lead as the leads disappear into a tube and are tricky to trace when fault finding. I think we will do the same again on the Dennis as the leads run through a cardboard tube along the top of the engine and we will have the same problem. Repairing the cardboard tube is my current project. Another new skill required! Steve

Hi Barry. Yes, the front springs are new, copied from the remains of an original. Since we had them made, a decent original pair have turned up. Such is the way of this game. They were not assembled with grease. I have no personal experience of greased springs but one of the fire engine crew at the Royal College of Science told me that they had tried greasing Jezebel's springs and that it had made her much more difficult to drive. Grease isn't mentioned in the manual so we have left them dry. The exhaust gasket is some modern material supplied as 'exhaust manifold gasket' by a company which provides spares for '50s American cars. It is like a very thick cardboard but is very smooth in texture. We will have a go with it and see how it works out as it is nice to handle and an easy solution for specials. On the FWD, I have made up some copper covered gaskets to see if we can stop the rear one blowing out. I seem to replace that one every year and it is a real pain. Hopefully, the copper will hold it together. We shall see. Thanks for the tip off for a specialist gasket supplier. It is always good to have a personal recommendation. Steve :thumbsup:

Thanks for the comment. No, it is just a simple expansion two cylinder engine. I did look at installing the centre cylinder (I didn't build the whole engine) but it just isn't on without a total chassis rebuild. It goes well though and I can move fifteen people on dry rails quite happily. It was building model steam engines that gave us the skills to tackle this lorry! Steve

A beautiful job Ben. I'm glad we didn't have to make one! Steve

I would certainly agree with Model T but have insufficient knowledge to date it. That really does need an expert! Sorry about the recent dearth of postings. I have been concentrating on finishing my loco off, ready for a rally last week. I am planning to draw up the lamp brackets next so Father can make them up. We are also planning a working weekend later in the month to get things moving again. Too many nice things to do and this earning a living business really gets in the way! Steve

That's interesting Radek. Please can you tell us a bit about it and a little about the website? What chassis is it? I am sorry that my languge skills are not as good as yours! Steve

That's interesting Ben. Looks like it must always have been a problem. Dad has just checked our spare original springs (the ones which turned up after we had had a set made!) and they are identical to the ones on the lorry so it is not just our mistake. If we move the axle 1" up the springs, we should get 1/2" clearance which is still pretty tight and nowhere near the 1 5/8" claimed. I hadn't thought of the effects of a spring breakage. That really would be catastrophic. Lets just hope that it never happens although, no doubt we could fix it if necessary. Fingers are crossed! Steve

Gosh, that is a bit of an epic trip. You are a lot braver than we are! We are always loaded with tools and rarely venture more than five miles from home! Well done and I look forward to seeing it in the metal. Steve

That's right. The front springs are brand new using rotten originals as patterns. We have fitted the axle in the centre of the springs which seemed logical at the time. However, I am beginning to come to the conclusion that the axle needs to be moved 3/4" forward to give us a clearance. This will tip the king pins back slightly increasing the castoring effect and mess up a lot of paintwork! I must look into the job a bit further before we attempt to do something about it. I will also ask Dad to take some pics of the problem as, surprisingly, we don't have any yet. There's always something. Steve

Thanks Gordon. I don't think there will be a problem as long as the alignment is reasonable. Just to add to your list of variation, the subframe came out of a different chassis altogether and the engine came from a fire pump and has never been in a lorry at all! The engine was mounted on some thin shims in the pump assembly and we have incorporated one of those into the lorry. Father will cut out four pieces of 1/4" plate and we will just lift the lot straight up. Hopefully, this won't mess up my pump-radiator hose connection. There is a surprisingly large fiddling and messing element in this exercise, to get it just right. I now have a new concern in that the front axle is just underneath the joint flange between the sump and the crank case. Any spring deflection of 3" will cause the axle to smack it and probably break the castings. Probably OK in normal driving but if I hit an unseen speed bump we may well be in trouble. Another puzzle to ponder. Steve

Thanks Ray. I have just had a look but it is a bit of a poser. It is slightly out of my era but I shall look forward to reading the comments from those more knowledgable than I ! Steve

Hi Gordon! Yes, I agree that some extra weight would help the prop shaft alignment but it is not very far out so I am not really concerned. The main alignment problem is between the engine and the gearbox. Both the crank and the main shaft are on the lorry centreline and parallel to the ground but the crankshaft is 1/4" lower. We had to ease the coupling slightly to allow for the amount of articulation needed to connect it up so I think it would be a good idea to try to reduce this with some packing. We could lower the gearbox, of course, but that would give problems for the change mechanism. The puzzle, really, is why they are out of line in the first place. Both engine and gearbox are secured through the original holes! I have just had an exciting telephone call. I think we might have found the correct carburettor! Should be able to pick it up in two weeks. It's all getting exciting now! Steve

You are quite right, it was a challenge to assemble! It took us a whole day to install that single drive shaft and was a real juggling exercise with me trying to hold up all of the bits, loosely assembled whilst Dad installed the springs. They had a tendency to ping off or go in sideways and I worked up quite a sweat holding it up, much to Dad's amusement. I guess that once you have done a few it becomes obvious how to attack the job. If I did it again, I would attach one end to the engine before installing the gearbox at all. Must remember that for next time! Steve

Welcome to the Forum! Trailer sounds interesting. Any chance of a pic? Someone here will know for sure! Steve

I have just had some feedback and this is what he says: 'I would say it is what he says, a Commer engine. If you look closely you can just make out Commer, London on the crankcase, their name would also be cast into the barrels on the side we can't see!' So there you are! I would say that the style could be from 1910, say, up until the late 1920s but that is just a guess on my part. If I turn up any more pics, I will post them. Steve

Commer were certainly around in 1909 as there will be one on the Brighton run next weekend. Not quite sure when they started though. Tim (Great War Truck) will tell us I am sure. In the mean time, I will ask around. It looks to be about 4litres so a bit small for a lorry. Possibly a van? Give me a week and I will see what I can come up with. Thanks for the link! Steve

Today is the 93rd birthday of the rh cylinder block on our Autocar. Not sure about the rest of the lorry but it is probably pretty close! That makes it 48 years older than me which is still more than double my age although I am catching up. We had better get a move on with the Dennis so that it is done whilst I am still young enough to swing the handle! Steve

Hi Bob. Going back a little bit, I am very impressed with your vehicles. They both look super! May I ask how you decided what colour to paint them? Our own US Army FWD is painted a British khaki-brown colour as we were unable to trace any record of the US colour scheme. We may or may not be right but we have no evidence either way. As a British colour, it is spot on as we have a piece of lorry chassis with original paint but I would love to know what US records survive. Cheers! Steve