simon king

Thanks for that - I have some of that white decal paper but it will only work in situations where the lettering is on a dark background. Only the background is printed and the white decal paper shows through the unprinted areas of the background to give the appearance of white lettering. Effectively you are printing in negative. I think the chances of matching the printed background to the colour of the painted surface are pretty low - althiugh I did wonder about that. It will not work unfortunately when you are applying the white lettering directly onto the surface without a background.

We have all been through that pain of painting over expensive and nicely grained ash. I brushed on a clear wood preservative like Tony and added a grey wood primer for longevity prior to assembly before laying on the 499 service brown/SCC2 with a spray gun once fitted to the frame. SS Cars built trailers had the bolt countersinks on the outside filled so it didn't matter that the grain was lost after sanding the primer smooth to loose any faint brushstrokes.

Clive, this is one which will never work again but it should look half decent in the back of the Bedford. Unfortunately I don't have the skills to recommission it to an operational state. The waterslide transfer paper means all the artwork can be done on a computer and printed on an inkjet printer. The only downside is that you can't do white lettering. To do that needs specialist printing

Thanks Chris control box next - but that's much more of a challenge as it's the tropicalised version with the rubber cables which are terminally perished and it has white lettering but first the transfers for the radio and power supply need applying - they should arrive shortly

thanks Clive - I appreciate that. I've wanted to try the moulding and making transfers for a while but was never motivated until now.

Finished the variometer tonight. The data block is a homemade waterslide decal, printed using an inkjet printer, special waterslide decal paper and Microsol liquid decal film. Quite pleased how it has come out considering what I started with

GKN = Guest Keen and Nettlefold GKN (Cwmbran) was a foundry sited, strangely enough, in Cwmbran. It started off as a steelworks with rolling mills and a foundry supplying mainly the railway industry. In 1951 the rolling mills transferred to Cardiff and the foundry was modernised to be an automotive engine block and cylinder head foundry. Closed in the 80's.

The refurbed faceplate for the variometer with a before example, the basic smash moulding and a trimmed example

Must admit I had absolutely no idea what MOWOG meant but this helped http://www.mossmotoring.com/mowog-mystery-solved/

As outlined above, well worth also reading the various threads on G503 about which rear seal to fit and which to avoid before progressing any further. Many swear by the French Payenne seals if you can find them it would be a pi55er to do all the work and then find that the new seal self - destructs within a relatively short time

Both variometers had smashed windows in the front face so something needed doing. In the absence of any vaseline, i stole some vaseline lip balm from my long suffering other half and smeared it on the inside of a variometer front face. I then packed the inside with body filler, placing a craft lollipop stick (v useful around the garage for all manner of things) to act as a handle. With a bit of additional work, I had a perfectly smooth male mould. I made a female mould as well but in the event didnt use it. Next thing was to make a frame from lollipop sticks. I initially used 20thou clear plasticard but the finished window was a bit flimsy so I moved up to 40thou. Clipped the plastcard to the frame, held it over the gas cooker and then pushed the mould into the softened plastic. Allowed the window to cool on the mould then extracted the mould. It is much clearer than it looks in the photo. Just now needs trimming to fit and a line painted on it.

.....which should be a script body in any case

While the 19 set/PSU refurb is on hold, pending parts and transfers, I thought I would get on with refurbing a good variometer for the set. Two variometers came with the truck, one dark green dated 1955 and another with appeared to have been painted with a yard brush in household gloss brunswick green. Both were distinctly second-hand but I thought it might be possible to make one good one from the best bits of the two. As I stripped the yardbrush green one, it became apparent that the body was copper with steel ends and had originally been painted a service grey colour. I sanded the body down carefully and eventually found the very indistict remains of a data/nomenclature block of which although well degraded enough remained to indicate it had been manufactured by Canadian Marconi in Montreal. More sanding revealed a green basecoat and a further data block - presumably a second one added following a REME rebuild in the 1950s I decided that this was the one upon which to base the refurb. Why was the body copper though - was it just that sheet copper was readily available at the time. The next issue is the clear window on the front face. Both were damaged/discoloured to the extent that they were unuseable. Has anybody found a way of replicating these? I have tried to heatform acetate sheet over the edge of the front face but so far this has been singularly unsuccessful - any ideas? I have done the artwork for a transfer based on a picture on the internet. I will try making my own transfer eventually using decal paper, a household printer and decal varnish produced for plastic modellers - another voyage of discovery......

Am I correct in thinking that the armoured bodies fitted to the Peerless chassis in the post war period were originally fitted to Austin armoured cars? I'd love to see a reproduction of the Austin armoured cars but I wonder if any of the correct Austin (?) one ton chassis remain.

Well that seemed too simple - sorted in 10 minutes thanks again Edit- it was too simple, only three of the four flags working but I still call that a result. I'll carry on to see if I can get it working without pulling things apart In the meantime, just waiting for a few items and the lettering

Nicky and Chris Thanks for your help - getting there. Looks as if I'll be twiddling some dials tomorrow.....................

Not guilty, m'lud it was like that when I got it, mister - honestly

The cosmetic rebuild of the chosen 19 set built by EKC is progressing well. I have stripped the set down to the state where it was possible to remove the faceplate. That has now been stripped and repainted (Ford engine grey as it happens aka RAL Mausgrau). I am now putting it all back together, using a scrap set to supply some of the common parts lost when the B set was removed during the REME rebuild in the 1950s. Work to replicate the lettering on the face is in hand. I am having problems with the flick setting screws though. When I got the set, two of the setting screws in both of dials were not screwed in and I still cannot get the screws to engage. I suppose the threads could have been stripped inside but it seems odd that two diagonally opposed threads in each dial have been stripped. Is there a trick to sorting this out? It's not a big deal but I would like to have it mechanically right even if the electrics are shot. thanks

The cosmetic rebuild of the chosen 19 set built by EKC is progressing well. I have stripped the set down to the state where it was possible to remove the faceplate. That has now been stripped and repainted (Ford engine grey as it happens aka RAL Mausgrau). I am now putting it all back together, using a scrap set to supply some of the common parts lost when the B set was removed during the REME rebuild in the 1950s. Work to replicate the lettering on the face is in hand. I am having problems with the flick setting screws though. When I got the set, two of the setting screws in both of dials were not screwed in and I still cannot get the screws to engage. I suppose the threads could have been stripped inside but it seems odd that two diagonally opposed threads in each dial have been stripped. Is there a trick to sorting this out? It's not a big deal but I would like to have it mechanically right even if the electrics are shot. thanks

I think only one was built. It survived to be sold off after the war as surplus. It was road registered and a photo of it parked on the street appeared in Classic and Sports Car magazine a number of years ago. I seem to recall that the caption indicated that the copywriters had no idea what they were looking at! Presumably it was eventually scrapped although I suppose it could linger on somewhere festering in a lock-up or derelict barn.

We all learn tricks and tips from threads like this as well as being inspired to stretch ourselves with our own restorations. It would be a shame if threads were pulled due to the lack of comments.

Have to say that that mount for the convoy light looks remarkably like one of the three brackets that are welded to the first cross member back from the rear cross member. Nobody has yet come up with any good reason for the presence of those three brackets. I wonder if one has been chiselled off and rewelded at 90 degrees to the original to allow the fitting of a convoy light. On mine I left brackets as they were ( having replaced the middle one which had been removed to allow a flat plate to mount the switch to be welded to that cross member) and made a little L-plate to mount the floodlight.

or "Trekker"

Nicky the only resource I have is the parts manual which inexplicably makes no reference to the yoke that the prop shaft attaches to. The designer and manufacturer is of course the famous Smiths of instrument fame but I can't find a contact for the current company archives to see whether they had any archival documentation relating to this specific PTO or to others of a similar design. Rest assured I will share anything I find with you. PM me re site visit! Simon

Has anybody got experience of dismantling this PTO fitted to the MWR. I need to strip it down to replace seals and bearings and free off the operating fork but I can't seem to pull the yoke off the main shaft. Am I missing something here or is simply corroded on. I can't seem to find the yoke in the parts list as a separate item so I wonder if I am on the right track here. There is a key listed for the main shaft along with the retaining nut and washer so it seems to be a separate part thanks