GeePig

I remember my brother had the coastal defence set, which had 2 plastic spring guns to fire plastic shells or matchsticks. That was good for knocking over troops or vehicles, and it did help spark an interest in things military made of concrete, of which there was no shortage around Folkestone.

Eventually Fort Sahara fell to my Diana air pistol...

Thanks. I just can't say how pleased I am!

I agree, things like Airfix made history interesting, something you could be involved in, without having to worry about grades and such

Dangerous places those canteens, one lunchtime in a place I worked at in the 60s, some young oik threw a screwed up foil wrapper off a chocolate bar at a girl in the works canteen, from a couple of those long tables away it hit her on the temple, and unbelievably knocked her clean out!

 

There was a bit of a flap until she woke up, but no one sued and foil wasn't banned from the premises..

That's because it was a flap and not a flapjack...

I can't believe that in many of the clips the guy supervising stands on the actual trailer when there is plenty of space on the truck. :nut:

Well, a photo of a Morris, at least.

some 3 decades ago, when I was still an apprentice mechanic, we had a four wheel drive Morris Commercial with a crane on the back to drag home those vehicles too heavy or too fixed into the scenery for our Landrover to deal with. It used to stand for most of the time at one end of the workshop, and was beautiful to see. Eventually, soon after I left, it was taken to a car breakers and I have never seen it since.

However, for the past 15 years I have done the occasional search of the internet to see if I could find a picture of it, and yesterday I finally found one. She is the one at the left hand end of the line up:

http://www.reflections-images.co.uk/image1.php?img_id=1251

This image dates from 1949, another 3 decades before I knew her, and presumably was taken relatively shortly after she had been converted to a breakdown vehicle. I think it is a C8, but I do not know enough to tell the difference, I only suspect that the bonnet was changed along with the other bodywork alterations to make her ready for her new life.

The garage was C Hayward & Sons, in Ashford, Kent, at the time the photo was taken, but had become Caffyns by the time I worked there.

Not bad, though, to find a photo of a specific vehicle, and I am over the moon!

Yes, good work on the radiator, and it is worth the effort because you know that is one part of the vehicle that people will look at.

This is very interesting about St. Omer, puts the whole situation about the use of the trucks in a new light!

I suppose there is a chance that they marked things that they made, at least the more time consuming parts, I mean, it is the military we are talking about. It would be nice to find something that could be tied definitively to one of these workshops, though.

If the modified parts were better than the original parts, then there is a chance that an example of something surviving even though such a small percentage of components exist today.

Roy,

You have referred to the ASC at St Omer manufacturing parts for Thornycroft that was an improvement over the factory items. Can these items be identified as such by casting marks or similar?

I have come across the odd rear axle casting that has slight changes to the norm, and now you have me questioning these pieces.

Thanks

Doug

Doug, what kind of changes have you seen?

On the other hand, I would not be surprised if the factory were making changes or, indeed, refurbishing their own old stock to make it suitable for current production. In the past I have even seen development parts remachined to current spec to make them suitable for production.

I don't get to work on vehicles any more, so I try to show what I see by editing images. Although I usually use my own images, this is one posted by Steve.

Thank you for a great thread and an excellent build!

 

Incidentally wheel barrows in Army stables used to have to be coated with tar.

Oh no, you can't not tell us why!

Is it to stop the horses from eating them?

Dan,

 

The header tanks look great! Not sure about the plywood core plates though - they will be a bugger to solder to I reckon.

 

Best wishes

 

David

Perhaps the wood will swell and prevent any leaks

Looking good, though!

... it is just so satisfying when the flux turns liquid, the metal gets the perfect glow then just a touch of the SS rod and the join line changes to gold......

 

Lovely description! :-)

One question I have about the project is whether it still feels like Steve's original lorry, or does it feel more like a new lorry in its own right? When I used to 're-engineer' motorcycles from bits and scraps they always felt like a new thing made of old things. If that makes sense.

Never had a welded joint come apart? :shocked:

Silver solder and brazing, when done right, ensure that the stress is spread over the whole joint and not just round the edge, as occurs with welding. Imagine gluing to pairs of blocks together - one pair with a lower strength adhesive spread over the whole mating surfaces and the other pair with a higher strength adhesive applied only around the edge. Which will be stronger?

Secondly, welding involves higher temperatures, which then effects the structure of the metal in those areas local to the weld, generally weakening them unless you carry out some kind of post-weld heat treatment.

Thirdly, if you fill the crevices with solder or braze then you can reduce the risk of water and oxygen creeping in.

Of course, if you keep dropping the handle on the ground, then there is a risk that a joint will eventually spring open.

Ahh... I miss brazing and silver soldering...

.... Old stuff is generally over engineered and can take a lot more damage with newer material and less material a half a thou crack becomes critical.

 

Older stuff having larger masses is also a problem, because the forces that are generated at any particular speed are also greater, meaning any cracks will propagate faster. What I find interesting is considering why some things survive while the majority don't - were they the best parts, or the failed parts that got replaced and abandoned, or new parts that never found a use? Was that crack something that went unnoticed, or was something that someone meant to do something about, sometime...

If you are interested in checking cam timing, a good, easy to understand guide is the BG/Piper Tuning Guide, available online.

http://www.bgideas.demon.co.uk/tmanual/

Chapter 5 covers camshafts.

I used to work with the author, Bob Gaylor, when he was a director of Piper FM, one of my most enjoyable jobs.

That's the tea kettle for the gun crew.

Huddersfield? I thought they knocked that place down years ago...

Anyway, welcome to the site, Phil!

Hi Strat! :-)

Here's a Gaz owned by someone from a few blocks over, here in Poland. In winter!

Couldn't find any wolves or polar bears, tho.

Looks like early days, so many heartaches and pleasures to come!

Love all the pictures, when do you think it will be ready?

Thanks everyone!

Now I just hope I have something relevant to add to the forum...

Well, it looks like I actually managed to follow the instructions this time...

My name is Trevor Butcher and these days I live in Poland, and have little left but a few spanners in the basement of my past life as an engineer. These days my tool of choice is image editing software, as I prefer to make images, based on photographs, that show the things I like about engineering rather than making faithful renditions of reality.