PITT24423

Thanks for the previous two posts of help but fingers crossed i may have this one covered now as theres a resident old bouy engraver at the other end of the island who has hopefully going to engrave the lenses for me .Plan B i`ve got some spare lenses being blown to cover all bases if the worse was to happen .

Top deck seats finally finished and fitted, can’t believe how many hours they have collectively taken , just about all of us are seated out ! Felt seals turned up for the king pins and front wheels. Rear wheels,we will machine out the felt seal carrier to take a lip seal as this has proved successful in the lorry and a unseen mod .The brake shoes are away being relined with a superior lining matched to the drums so hopefully the brakes will perform better than ever once bedded in. Stair set out and pattern stringers cut out of 4mm mdf to double check all is well. Simon drew up what we had created with additional radius’s to replicate the drawings we had as a dxf file for both stringers and will get lazer cut later this week out of probably 18g where as originally we think they were 20g . Reason for increasing the thickness is to improve strength as everyone appears bigger than their ancestor .

It was always intended to replace the unserviceable spokes as we drive our vehicles and they need to be safe. It just means more new unfortunately than we intended but we will leave the Oak bare so it will soon distress and grey off before we seal them if we choose.

Rear springs fitted with new bushes and pins which were made oversized so we reamed the shackles and hangers to save making sleeves . Rear axle fitted and brake actuators which were stripped and cleaned earlier refitted.Started to set out staircase and will be a combination of templates from a restored B type and a London General Omnibus drawing we have which is so close to the Birch Brothers body we have . We were lucky in the fact all six of the original electric light fittings survived but unfortunately none of the glass lenses. A friend had some almost identical but the lenses are a fraction larger . I have now found a company who can replicate them to the required size but still have to find someone to cut the star in the bottom. We now know this is a early body which was lit by gas (carbide) and converted probably around WW1 to electrickery. We are now looking for a Lucas electric conversion for the oil lamps which was a bulb holder which screwed in place of the red lens in the back of the lamp.I’ve had these lamps on the shelf waiting for a permanent home for over twenty years which are probably originally for a car being a single spade whereas we should have a fork fitting but it is a case of I have them and they are complete.

Update from darkest Devon, wheels stripped unfortunately the spokes that even appeared serviceable are all honeycomb by the worm to the extent if we are lucky we may only be able to save a couple of the original spokes . IMG_4808.MP4

In the past we have had tractor flywheels machined and new faces let in when we have used bronze sintered clutches .Several clutch firms around that offered this service , we haven`t done one for a few years now as we have come away from this sort of work.

Nothing spectacular to report other than lots of loose ends to tidy up. Seat backs retaining straps folded up and painted. Drivers steps fabricated and fitted. Drivers floor frame made to determine pedal positions. Started to set out seat box with limited information available. Cracking photo in Bill Wards book of Daimler bus bodies laid up for the duration of the Great War .A bit of polishing has gone on under the bonnet.

Sentinel Standard steam lorry or something similar

Starting to get the hang of this lockdown as I appear to have unlimited shed time plus my child work force. IMG_4360.mov

Chassis given a few coats of top coat in between festive eating and drinking. Body jacked up and trolley removed ready for chassis marriage tomorrow , all of a sudden it looks a bit on the tall side. In theory it’s about 3” higher on the stands than it will be on the chassis for real minus a bit for spring compression.

Foundry located inNorfolk who are going to cast the pump casting and the radiator side castings in the new year. Gearbox bearings and seals arrived so I can think about getting the box back together over Christmas . Back axle stripped and blasted so I can start getting “ diff “ inspiration hopefully scheming something out of what oily lumps of diffs we have accumulated. Repro nuts and bolts arrived caught me out how long it took to swap with the temporary bolts. Fuel tank fittings freed off and cleaned, realised the fuel cap had been repurposed to the Kiwi made gearbox top. Luckily we have spare gearbox caps as they are the same as the diff oil level cap . The tank is away now being acid cleaned as it looks as if it has had its share of H2O .Apart from the newness hard to tell the difference between the rivet bolts and rivets.

“Not much” other than collect parts/info . Mainly due to the fact we are getting on with the Daimler and the Dodge pickup. Going to use the period Leyland engine that came in a box of lovlyness from NZ . Because the Dodge wheels need sorting we gave those to Greg the wheel to work his magic instead of the Palladium wheels as we don’t need them for a while. We have located another body which we can’t extract from its 60 year + resting place yet as it’s boxed in . Bit of a tease but in a word it’s “puka “ and correct for the Palladium, so watch this space.

True if you use tap water only or a average antifreeze. Shuttleworth were (maybe still) using a Honda coolant in the aircraft because of the inhibitors and I know others use deionised water which is why I choose to use the waterless coolant as it ticks all boxes with no expiry date. The problem with it is that it finds the slightest hole or crack which more often than not wouldn’t leak with conventional coolant , so you need to be water tight from the off.

Brief update , engine stripped with the block now being bored and sleeved and hardened valve seats fitted . Gearbox partially stripped,for full clean and check. . Rear axle about to be stripped as half shaft hub threads waisted plus brakes are rough to say the least plus axle/spring pivots seized solid. Wheels not due back until early next year with new spokes as required.

Cheers Thomo, this casting is pretty poor on the coolant side which we have blasted several times with it sweeting after each occasion lifting off another layer each time .Leaving us two options two pack epoxy which we have successfully used before or cast new. The problem we have is that the local non ferrous foundries are not interested in one offs. We might of got it sorted by calling in a favour before we go traipsing across the country.so we will wait and see.

In the box of lovlyness were the radiator side castings which had already been prepared as patterns saving us a bit of extra effort. The water pump casing is quite badly corroded and in two minds over repair or renew, this I think will be the latter.

Gearbox all stripped and cleaned large amount of road grit which presumably entered the box through the broken casing which has resulted in all the bearings being unserviceable. All the original bearings are Hoffman who were based in Chelmsford where as the bearings in the lorry were Swiss . New bearings are all on order and due in this week. We will do the same as we did with the lorry and fit double lip seals with the minimum of modification as I personally prefer to have things as oil tight as possible in our environmental sensitive world. After numerous under coats the wheels have gained their first top coat which in my opinion has changed their visual size and appearance for the better.

Hello Tim We use Dave Swaffield for our bolts https://historicthreads.co.uk/ all CNC small batches no problem ,near your HQ as well

Due to a slight delay in the chassis bolts coming which are metric bolts with pre war whitworth heads I decided to get the gearbox done so we can fit it to the chassis before we fit the body saving us jacking the box up from underneath as it’s plain heavy. Gearbox casing has some damage which we think will stitch bolt in a plate with a new flange with sealant for good measure . Once we had the gears out found some spare iron mongery in the bottom miracle that none of the gears had picked any of the bolts or knife section up.

American Rambler engine built by Thomas Jeffery who incidentally sold his bicycle factory to a Col Pope. Slightly bigger on the bore but 1/4 “ less on the stroke so hopefully the bus will perform closely to the original.Has some nice features McCord 7 port lubricator,3 mains &4 cylinders. Nice American Bosch DU4 mag which is relatively common and identical to the one fitted to my Dodge so the spare will cover both vehicles. Early Holley carb that just sounds right with no spitting or dribbling but as I reported earlier drinks petrol like one o . The ally water pump housing is holed and badly pitted plus a we will turn up a new shaft at some stage it had been filled with modern antifreeze which accelerating the corrosion. Before we ran it up we had cleaned out the sump and had a general check over but it wasn’t until we stripped down the water pump and took the timing gear cover off we found that the cam was timed one tooth out. We will reset the cam when we put the pump back and it will be Sod’s law there will be a reason for it being out With all our engines I use Evans vintage coolant as it possesses quite a few advantages. It doesn’t evaporate on a vented system,the boiling point is 180 deg and you don’t get cavitation or corrosion. The down side it’s expensive so you don’t want to be sprinkling it to the road gods so we go the extra mile to omit leaks. Another plus when you check the level it smells like cherryade .

Radiator mounting studs machined up as luckily the remains of one was in the box of loveliness which we used as a pattern.. Fitted a starter motor and alternator the latter will get a casing to resemble the dynamo originally used Fired up the engine for the first time, a few known problems to attend to but wanted to see what it ran like as we had been told it was a runner when we bought it. What we quickly found out it loves Petrol so don’t expect to many mpg . For some reason the tappets sound louder in the clip than when stood next to it . FullSizeRender.mov

Not quite as exciting as cranes but there’s a pair at a motorsport supplier in Beds .

Will need them at Dorset if its wet ⛈️ like 2014 ,Webbys Locomobile was unstoppable with its original chains on.

After a bit of trading the front spring pins were dropped off as all the originals were well past their best The rear pins are next weeks instalment I’ve been told. Rear engine mount took a bit longer than anticipated to fabricate due to the mating surface being curved. Temporarily fitted the bulkhead to check out the handbrake lever is set it so it just stops short of bulkhead in the off position.Just got to find a period rusty gearstick.