PITT24423

Not much to report as we have been on the bus but Chris who is usually part of the Wednesday crew wanted to tackle the wiring so a productive evening resulted in most of the loom made and in place with the additional wires for indicators and main/dip headlights. The indicators are led hidden in the original side light units. The new wheel rim bolts turned up today from Historic Threads as most of the original ones were unsafe or wrong.

Tied in a work trip and collected the crown wheel and worm from Leek Gears can’t recommend these guys high enough , did exactly what they said they would when they would. New bearings fitted to the diff hub and crown wheel bolted to the hub just got to measure up and knock up the input shaft .

Over the last week of evenings I have been distracted by the Dodge but Dave finished off the seat box which was mostly modelled on Bill’s period photo and a couple of other pics I liked the detail. A friend has turned up a replacement drive shaft which powers the water pump, lubricator and finally the mag as the original was worn and a poor earlier replacement.

Almost identical to my 23 tourer minus the priming cocks. The head is original with the block carrying a 1919 casting date, hence the earlier position for the fan . My original block was scrapped as it was beyond repair after suffering frost damage in the distant past and cracked in every conceivable place. And yours has presumably a later fitted bumper

Engine assembled and reunited with the truck starting to look how it arrived!!

In the American box of goodies came the new standard size pistons. The block was bored and sleeved due to the severity of the grooves caused by the original gudgeon pins coming loose. New little end bushes are still available so an easy fix . New guides and hardened exhaust valve seats fitted to suit unleaded Even though the block had been in a cleaning tank there was still pockets of gritty sludge tucked in the inaccessible corners plus swaff from all the machining. Simon was duely volunteered to steam clean and scrub which admittedly took longer than expected. Looking for a magneto drive coupling which to date I haven’t been able to source as the original is just about torn out.

Used a friends shot blaster and cleaned up the tube plates this evening fitted temporary angles to hold them flat and square. Also drilled the mounting holes and had a trial fit ready for its trip to Lincolnshire to the rad guy. I won’t fettle and polish the sides until it comes back. Made a dummy base plate so I can fabricate the bottom tank whilst the rad is away.

New cast ally radiator sides arrived back from the foundry last week which we used original sides from New Zealand as the patterns . The only original parts we can reuse are the top and bottom tube plates which came in a box of loveliness from Cumbria along with the unserviceable tubes which has given me the size and spacing for the gills.Managed to buy a pattern for the header tank from a earlier Daimler restoration which is now at the foundry which was a result.

After a small wait my parcel of goodies arrived from the States. Apart from the usual readily available repro Dodge parts I had a real stroke of luck in that I had managed to buy a new old stock petrol tank to replace my peppered holed original from our favourite American sales site. It’s anyones guess when it was made but exactly the same it was.

I`m no expert on trams so please correct me if i`m wrong, but purley going on gut instinct it appears to be a double decker tram due to the detail / style and heavier build than a bus of the same period ..

A pair of front wheels have surfaced which was on one of the chassis cut up. What do you think Karrier?

Thanks.Couple of things which made us question it’s use was the cut out in the flip section of the seat but no slot in the top “if” it had been used for returned tickets . Barry had told us that this was all original as he had salvaged this item along with his handrail in the early seventies . Your probably correct in that it was for spare tickets . Thanks for your comments.

Not sure what this box was originally for but guessing it was a safe box for collecting the used tickets we have copied it from Barry s AEC B type . The flip over seat is best described as a perch and a few one liners were flying about ref who’s backside would actually fit in the gap

A friend unearthed these photos which he believes were taken in the early 80s. Story is his grandfather had the job of clearing a local caravan site of all the bus based chalets many of which were mounted on WW1 lorry chassis. Unfortunately all bar one body was scrapped at the time

This is one of the buses we have used as a guide.All-though it’s a AEC the dimensions are almost identical and has been perfect for our project.The kick plates are visible in these photos.

Inner stringer fitted which has made the stair quite rigid . Rear platform fitted with steel brackets and modified bottom step which I have made so it folds up. The reason for this is I was forewarned that the step is a problem grounding when loading onto a lowloader.

Spent the spare hours I had over the weekend measuring and going through the diff to harden up my plan . The CC crown wheel and worm are the same part number as the CB22 so and will be used to reverse engineer the new gears for the bus . The new crown wheel will have the gear profile as per original shown on the left in the pic with the internal detail to match the grafted in hub shown on the right in the pic.The Daimler diff has two planet wheels where as the replacement has four so this is an improvement for a start to smooth out the action . The shaft centres measured up to within 25 thou between the three Daimler castings I have . One casting being the correct one for the bus being plum average which helps deciding how much clearance to give the new gears.

Managed to bunk off most of today so between Dave and myself managed to get the stairs nailed ,still have the inner stringer to fit plus the landing. Diff bearings unfortunately are pitted and are unusual in that they are metric Id and od with a imperial width . Fearing the worse due to their size our bearing supplier had a pair old stock which have now finally found a home. The windows and front vent now have their new retainer springs fitted managed to reuse all but 7 of the ally brackets as they were beyond salvage.

Diff hub split and cleaned this evening. Some rust pitting on the thrust faces far from being ideal we will call them oil reservoirs as they are immersed in the thickest of oils so will run with what we have. The Holley carburettor came back today looking very shiny after being sorted by John who in normal circumstances forms part of Wednesday night team . I won’t be cutting the gears as I don’t possess the necessary patience for being a machinest probably because you have to stand still 😁 even though a couple of us have been known to turn out the odd shaft. Dave the chippy has been in and started machining up some Opepe I had for the stair which were off cuts from London Underground sleepers .They have machined up far better than we expected and are incredibly dence with a high silicate content so the blades on the planer came in for hard time.

The smelliest grease you could imagine when you disturb it !

Started to seriously think about the diff as this proved quite painful for the lorry. I was lucky in that I was able to get a second axle which had a top casting. Over the years I’ve picked up the remains of worm drive diffs on the off chance and today it paid off in a monumental manor. I need a ratio of 7.25 to 1 = 29 teeth on the crown wheel and a 4 lead worm . I cleaned up the top casing a while back and had measured one of the spare diffs with a hunch that looks close but with 26 teeth. Undid the four clamp nuts and low and behold it dropped straight in as if it was made for it without even requiring new bearings.Our suspicion is that this diff is American possibly Peerless . The plan is to use the diff centre and get a new crown and worm machined .I’ve been recommended a gear cutting firm that can cut from a copy so we have stripped the diff out of a Daimler CC we finally got home this week to use as the pattern inc the worm. Mudguards bolted on which added a some distinctive style. Graham the spring did his bit and made new brake shoe springs which tidied up the pile of shoes.

Engine bulkhead repaired and sealed .Steering box stripped as it didn’t feel right and found shaft ,bronze bushes torn out due to thrust bearing braking up. All replaced thrust bearings on short supply so metric equivalent used but had to grind out centre to required size .Unfortunately a lot of the timber is beyond salvage with it crumbling away if any pressure is applied . The cross members at the back of the cab were only just holding their shape and have replaced what was necessary

Borrowed a former from a friend which I adapted to make the rear mudguards which we successfully glued up three layers of 4mm ply this afternoon with the proof being tomorrow when we release all the clamps.Will glue up the second mudguard later during the week . A bit more luck in that another friend unearthed a pair of headlamps which arrived this week which share a close resemblance to the ones originally fitted to CBs

First two wheels assembled by Greg with remaining hopefully tomorrow. Once they get wet and bleached it will take the sharpness away. The originals we believe were Hickory which we have replaced with Oak. A bit more soft furnishing horse trading. The leather used was all the off cuts from a posh job and blended to even out the shades. What makes this leather special is it marks relatively easily and is designed to look worn with little use and then adopts its own worn patina in a short period of time. Perfect considering we had no seat to start with ,perhaps should take the protective plastic off to let it start getting aged but couldn’t quite bring myself to until I finish the gearbox and engine rebuild as I’ve been careful not to get any oil or grease on the rust which is a bu66er to clean off without destroying the look.

A bit of luck as a correct period Hackney carriage plate was flagged up to me on our favourite auction website These plates were issued to buses until the 30’s by the Met Police in a similar manor as they still are today for taxis. Apparently the crown alternated yearly with the unicorn and lion crest. If anyone can add or knows if any of above is incorrect please let me know and I’ll correct the text, thanks.