Sean N

They do specifically say it would not be their objective to include non-HGV derived mobile cranes, so your Iron Fairy would still be exempt.

This turns out to be a water pump for Perkins 4.236 and 4.248 engines - I found another one with a Perkins logo on it.

Still do, though modern versions. This is Seahouses, Filey has a similar one, and I guess many of the East Coast stations: This is the old one at Filey (1960s / 1970s): Far as I know all the O type fuel and water tankers had tilts and frames, and quite a lot of others as well.

Evening Wally. I hung fire on a reply as I wanted to check the engine colour on my early K9 - which I haven't looked at in a long time! It's sky blue, but interestingly all the bits you'd keep if you were changing engines - air filter plumbing and the like - are all DBG (and definitely DBG not MBG). This one was cast in 1988 and came straight to me unmolested. Am I right in remembering Austin using MBG pre-1952 and black before that (not on K9s, just generally)? What happened to the ambulance?

Ah, but it takes a professional to know just what size hammer to go up to! :wow:

Ian, damaged shaft is scrap? In that case could you cut the shaft off then machine the remaining shaft out from inside the eye, leaving the thread which can then be cleaned up? Alternatively could you get in with a Dremel, die grinder or similar and grind the weld away, allowing you to unscrew the shaft?

Thanks Wally, that's interesting. Oddly the one colour I can't remember seeing on a K9 engine is mid bronze green. I will have to check on my early vehicle now, I'm sure it's DBG but it's tucked at the back of the shed and it's a long time since I looked at the engine! Wally, can you recall the service registrations for any of these? I bought several from Aston Down in the 1990s, just wondering if any were the same ones and found their way out that way. Having said that, it would have to be the FFW as I didn't see any GS.

Anyone got a fitment reference for Crosland 472? It's a bypass filter about the size of the K9 one (in fact, it may even be K9) and apparently was discontinued in 1975!

John, sorry, I missed the fan question. Hi Wally, happy to bow to your vastly superior knowledge, but I wonder whether K9 engines followed the 'system'. I've seen a fair few K9s in service / recently ex-service or where the engines were apparently untouched (no overhaul listed in history or chassis plate), and they've all been sky blue except for some early vehicles. I wonder, as I say, whether Austin were painting them sky blue straight from factory for a large part of the production run? I know there's a suggestion a similar thing happened with Champs.

Bob, can you post some pics of the K9? My mate mentioned it but I couldn't find the listing on eBay. I'd like to see it out of interest.

Hi John, I'd leave it just plain DBG then. I have seen a photo of an in-service K9 with black over DBG but it looks odd & you'll have a nightmare with the rivet counters. Do the prep thoroughly & it'll look fine in DBG. Never seen or heard of a factory red engine, and I don't see Austin having used it. From what I've seen I think early engines were DBG (or a very similar dark green) and then for much of the production run they were using sky blue (BS381C 101) straight from the factory, but Richard, Wally or others may know better. I don't get involved with FB but I had to have a look after you told me about that group.

Thanks Mike, that's the one I was thinking of. No sign of AFS amber lights though?

If you're making as good a job of it as it looks on FB you won't need to hide any faults. You could spray matt NATO green and brush black but that puts it roughly post-1968. Not sure that makes any practical difference though.

In my experience with PU tyres used industrially (fork lift tyres, handling equipment, and machinery roller coatings and suchlike) there's a wide variety of formulations and hardnesses available for different uses. If you talk to the PU people they should be able to tell you whether the tyres are up to it and make recommendations. If you think about it, in industrial use PU is subjected to very high loadings without issue. For example, pallet trucks are typically rated at 2 tons capacity on a tyre contact patch which is probably well under a quarter of that of a truck or locomotive tyre and last for several years in everyday use.

Nick, going back to your post on the extra plank, would the coach bolts through the tilt hoops normally have the heads on the inside / nuts on the outside? Doesn't that encourage the tilt to chafe on the nuts?

Hello Bob, is that the one that was on eBay recently? It looked a bit distressed, but worth saving. You should have a look on the chassis, probably on the left hand chassis rails somewhere not far behind the cab, for the Ministry of Supply chassis plate. If it's still there it'll have the service registration number, contract it was supplied under, and so on, which will be a starting place to get the service history and date into service. There are a lot of keen bus enthusiasts around, so if you can find a relevant group or forum I'm sure someone will be able to give you its bus company history and perhaps even provide a link back to the military history. The chassis number is 32616, which I think would make it early '60s, and the model type is RLC3, which decodes as R type, Long wheelbase, (supplied as) Chassis & cab, 300 Petrol engine. Unfortunately it may be difficult to get the exact date of manufacture without the military history or registration, unless someone has a reference to that chassis number. Vauxhall Heritage have chassis number lists but they're not tied to dates. Great trucks, R types, I'm sure you'll have many hours of fun & pleasure with it!!

Same chassis, I believe. Chap's got to keep his rocks somewhere...

That makes sense, and saves space in the cabin.

Jules, to echo Paul, do you have the manual(s) for the truck(s) in question? Should specify oils and grades in that.

A quick Google suggests UBAS stood for Unbreakable Axle Steel or Universal Best Axle Steel. Several references to it; the most relevant suggests Alford & Adler used it for motorcycle swivel pins in the 1920s and by the 1960s were using EN16T for the same job, if that helps. This page has some great adverts for it: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/W._T._Flather

That's interesting, that confirms my feeling about sprayed green and brushed black. Your guys were quite keen to worry about the masking, then!

It did occur to me that a full length armoured section would be a lot of extra weight - probably too much. A bobbed tail finishing immediately after the rear axle would have saved even the weight of the boat tail section, while still getting the same cabin space. However they couldn't have done that with the leaf sprung chassis. I assume the boat tail is just a big empty box rather than storage space??

Photos? Details? A quick Google? http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sop=10&_nkw=kismet+foot+pump&_frs=1 http://www.heritagefootpumps.co.uk/

Suspect you are being a little disingenuous there, Clive. More cut and pasted the paragraph whole from the Mk 3 section of the site! Clive, why did the Shorlands have that boat tail? It seems like wasted space. Was it used for storage or a particular purpose?

Railway carriages were certainly brush painted right into the '80s, and I know of bus companies who were brush painting into the '90s. You can still buy coach paint for brushing which flows out really well, but some of the modern synthetics don't do a bad job with brush or roller. Just to add to what Clive said, from my K9 experience all the trucks appear to have been sprayed from the factory. I have had ones that were repainted NATO green or NATO green & black which were sprayed, and ones which were brushed. Oddly green and black ones often appeared to have been sprayed green and then the black brushed on! From what I've seen and heard the quality and type of painting often depended on who was doing it and how much of a hurry they were in as well as facilities. I've seen MKs that went to the Gulf where everything - cab, body, tilt, glass, lights, tyres, the lot - had been sprayed with no attempt at masking, and then the overspray scraped off important areas!