Sean N

Lizzie, you flatter me, though I wouldn't say I'm an RL expert by any means, I just love them. I'd guess it's the normal RLD charging body with a variation on the tilt rather than the 27 kVA gen set vehicle as it doesn't seem to have any of the other signifiers. I know what that towed genny is, but I can't bring it to mind at the moment. I'm sure Mr Farrant will be able to place it. The interloper is of course a Morris Commercial MRA1, an awful vehicle and not a patch on a K9!

Hi Lizzie, Clive is obviously not letting on whether he's using special software or repairing the image using Photoshop or similar, though from his last comment I'd say possibly the latter. You can get specialist software to heal dust and scratches - Silverfast do one, for example - but I couldn't comment on good or bad programs as I've never used any. A scanner with Digital ICE can do a good job as well. If you are using Photoshop the clone stamp can work as well as the healing brush tools. The trick is to pick the right brush size and type and then go carefully. I often find a soft edge brush works well as it will blend in. It's just practice really. Anyway, back to the trucks. The charging body on early RLs at least is the same as the cargo body with a few modifications. To quote the user handbook: "The body used on this model is a converted Cargo body without seats. Two low benches are fitted in the body, one at each side, extending from the front towards the tailboard. Each bench is provided with a cupboard and a drawer. Provision is made for busbars to be mounted along the sides of the body to which batteries, placed on the benches, may be connected for charging. A stand and strap are provided at the rear end of each bench to secure carboys of distilled water or acid. Holes are bored through the floorboards towards the front end of the body to encourage air circulation and prevent accumulation of acid fumes. The holes are covered with a perforated zinc plate. A ramp is provided to facilitate loading and unloading of batteries. All internal wood and metal parts of the body are treated with acid resisting paint. The tilt has six windows of oiled canvas, two in each side, one in the front and one in the rear. Each window is provided with a canvas flap for blackout purposes" The 'benches' are in fact a lot more akin to racks, and there is often a third floor mounted rack in the middle. Interestingly your two charging vehicles - which are both very early RLs - have two windows, not one, at the front. The rest of the RLs appear to be cargo vehicles and appear to be later cabs, after the headlight position was changed (at least, vehicle 6 is). Did you notice the interloper, fourth vehicle in the convoy, which no-one has commented on, and does seem to be towing a generator trailer although not the 27.5 KVA Meadows? On first look I had assumed the first K9 was our friend 94 BG 06 from the earlier photo, but if it is, something dramatic has happened to it between the two shots. It might also explain the discrepancy between the apparent ages and the vehicle registrations in the earlier shot. Can you spot what I'm seeing?

Hello JP, I think it might, the question is to what extent. I have a couple of tachos here, late '70s to 80s paper disk type tachos of plastic construction. I'd be pleased to find out they're worth something but I don't think they are. A quick search seems to indicate maybe £50 if that. Your tacho is obviously older and I would think not common, so IF someone is restoring a truck of that era and needs to replace the tacho it would obviously be of value to them. The reservation is how many people are restoring trucks of that era - there never used to be that many, but there is increasing interest in them; I don't know what the vintage commercial scene is like where you are. There are a lot of people asking very optimistic prices for things out there, but not necessarily getting them. Thing to do might be keep an eye on that one and see if it sells, or search eBay with the 'completed listings' or 'sold listings' filter checked to see what actually sold. Of course, the other way to do it is stick it on eBay as an auction at at a moderate price or at a higher price with best offer and let it find its place in the market. How's that Viva GT coming on?

There's one of these Lansing sideloaders locally, though it's conventional diesel not Ex

It's definitely different on the second photo but looks as though the O/S flash is the same while the N/S flash has been changed to the Tripolitania Barbary dhow Lizzie uses as her avatar. I can only see two tones in the first image but that may just be my eyes. They've painted the O/S screen frame as well. Lizzie, I meant to say you can get software to clean all that dust and speckles etc. up, or often there are plugins or filters in image editing software such as Photoshop to do it.

Yes, the Perkins colour (inside) is really quite brick red, while the colour on that engine is very dull brown, but I wasn't sure if that was just age and contamination.

A quick Google image search says "Aeronautical engineer and inventor Vittorio Isacco demonstrates his telescopic rotating wing at Boreham Airfield for British and foreign government officials. Its intended purpose is to replace the parachute as an emergency descent device." courtesy of Getty Images.

It has been discussed before on HMVF but I had forgotten that the Belgians painted their engines red and that the CVRT and parts in that topic had come from Belgium. I can't recall the 'fresh' colour - am I right in thinking it was about the same as the red oxide on the inside of Perkins engines?

Lizzie, it's seemed to me on other occasions that there's something in the forum software that uses the posted image as a thumbnail and links to the full size image if the image is over a certain size. I've never been able to confirm that suspicion or establish the critical size though. Nevertheless it would explain what's going on. David, I didn't think it was originally, and I was accounting for the gun mount. It appeared that there was something square in front of the mount at the very front of the roof. However looking at it again, I think what's happening is that there is something horizontal and linear just above the windscreen at the front of the roof, which is combining with the light and shadow of the roof and gun mount to give the illusion of a square plate. It could be that the windscreen wiper is parked on the roof which can happen on K9s. I notice it's had the offside windscreen replaced though. Lizzie, I think you may have missed the tongue in cheek nature of my comment...

I see it's BAIV selling these, who I don't think are known for sensible pricing, though I may be wrong. They're talking them up a lot though! Last one of these I saw come out through an MoD sale was at the miscellaneous auction at Dunkeswell in the late '90s. That was a crated 27DW engine recently rebuilt and was knocked down for around £550. I came close to buying it out of interest but had no use for it and was impecunious at the time so didn't. I remember looking at the specific fuel consumption on the test sheet, which was pretty frightening!

Oh OK, hadn't picked that up. Thanks Richard. Are you seeing some small fragments of sky bue on it or is it just my eyes? Incidentally on the OLBC engine colour, the more I think about it the more I think I noted it as sky blue at the time and then had brain fade later, but I can't be sure so can't take it as a point of information.

Data point - see this thread about the NZ CVRT rebuild: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?56120-Scorpion-Scimitar-Restoration-in-New-Zealand&p=484302#post484302 Photos only, but I see these engines as first one OEM red with maybe sky blue traces, other two sky blue.

Also bearing and power transmission suppliers. If you're really stuck give me a shout, I can probably get some down here and send it up.

They were but I can't recall if they made VAS etc. bodies. Judging by the shape of the missing radiator grille on the first one I assume it's one of those that had the grille that was like a panel with lots of small square punched holes in, which IIRC was on several different bodies on VAS and SB Last two that style I know of coming out of the MoD were VASs LAA 541L and LAA 543L, which were used as test vehicles at RAE. Both had jacks / stabilisers etc. like the office trailers and were subsequently converted to campers.

They were, for my ageing eyes at least, a bit small to see & pick up on much detail, and don't click through to a larger version like some others. Austin K9 has an earlier registration than the RL (BG vs BJ) yet is a later vehicle. Could the RL have been in store for several years before being allocated a service registration? That doesn't seem to tie in with what I understood to be the practice. RL without a bridge plate, just the number painted straight onto the panelwork which seemed to happen a lot on R types - and the half track with a bridge plate but no number. What is the square thing on the front of the K9 roof, above the screen just at the top of the passenger side 'A' post? I wonder if you put two flashes on a restored truck whether you'd get a lot of flak from the rivet counters?

Never mind the railway wagons, Willowbrook bodied Bedford VAS - or is the second one an Alexander body?

This sort of nonsense happens whether you keep things under your hat or not - you can't guarantee the other side of the deal isn't talking. Best just to do what you've got to do and not get wound up about it.

Lizzie, you'll know this already, but if you're scanning this stuff do it as high quality and large as possible, subject to going OTT, even if it takes longer. You won't want or possibly be able to go back and do it again, so it's one of those do it once and do it right things. Oh - and post them here every time.

Well, I think we are all waiting for you to post more! I suspect they are all playing silly b****rs for the Pioneer photo given the sign and the fact one of them seems to be inflating the tyre by the power of lungs alone! Two Mk2 Hippos in the background .

Only if you MoT it, I think. As it stands I don't think you can transfer them.

Possibly not even that. I can only think of the Bovington one that came from the same hole and the two bridgelayers in Oz.

The first image looks (to me, on a calibrated monitor) grey with a blue tint, while the second looks greenish but is clearly sky blue with a green tint rather than eau-de-nil

Good try but that'll be where your 10 - 15 degrees has gone. The piston travel is so small close to dead centre that you can't reliably determine exact dead centre by eye. The normal way of doing it, if you have to, is to mark piston position either side of dead centre at a point much further down the stroke (where the piston travel is much larger for each degree of crank rotation) and then split the difference. Even then, it's difficult to do by eye, particularly through the spark plug hole, and I'd normally expect with this method to use a dial gauge to determine piston position for accuracy. I don't know about nonsense but I think you are overthinking it. Unless you can demonstrate that the wrong parts are on the engine I would assume that the timing marks on the flywheel and casing are correct to start with, get the right condenser, get the points set up and time to the marks, then see how it's behaving at that. Oh, OK. Sounds like the wrong condenser supplied. Didn't someone say upthread that most fuel problems are ignition problems, or was it the other way round?

Clive, exactly so. The light source - whether that be natural light, flash, workshop lighting, whatever - changes the white balance and therefore the appearance of colours - and that's only the start of it! Is that generator sky blue in real life?

I think that's definitely the case; to muddy the waters further, the sky blue is (to me) really obviously sky blue when new, and I would say is definitely blue not greenish in colour, but ages greener; while the eau-de-nil ages to a lighter colour closer to an aged sky blue! I did a Google image search to see if I could find any good examples for this discussion; I didn't really come up with anything reliable, but did see a couple of photos of LandRover engines which were said to be, and I think must have been from my experience, sky blue - but looked distinctly green in the photos.