Minesweeper

Which of the two Sayings apply? The "Sun shines on the Righteous" OR "The Devil looks after his own!" Whichever one it is, I am very pleased for you Tomo! Tony

Great stuff - well done - now some real progress!

Most interesting, Tommo! Tony

Does this include the military collection as well - Jack might know something about that ?

Yes, I had forgotten about this one as well and will be very interested to know how it is going.

Superb - Brilliant work!

Yes please - do post some pictures!

Steve and Tim have been back in Devon for the weekend and we have been going hard at it on the Peerless. The engine is successfully out of the chassis and the strip down of it is well under way. Full report and pictures to follow - probably tomorrow! No real surprises - the last owner of the Peerless said that he had broken one of the pistons but in fact two have been damaged beyond repair and will have to be replaced.

Spot on with the Manufacturer and Date! Thank you.

Any possibility of showing a picture of the Hallmarks?

What a story there must be behind those pictures!

All most interesting - please keep them coming!

Yes it is!

Yes - wonderful pictures and thank you for sharing them! I am sure that Tim will be along to comment as well as soon as he sees them! Tony

Most impressive work!

And mine for me, too! We each had them for Model Engineering work but have stretched their capabilities to the ultimate over the lorries.

Most interested to read about this again - my step-grandfather had served on the Iolaire prior to that disaster. He had been a "Ganges Boy" and had enlisted in 1885 and left the RN in 1909 when he was discharged to the Royal Fleet Reserve. Was called back in August 1914 and served on different Auxiliary Patrol ships of the same squadron based in Stornaway - the Iolaire being one of them. He was at sea on HMT Calliope II, a converted Trawler which had been armed with a 1 pdr gun and which was sunk after collision with the SS Dane in March 1916 off the Butt of Lewis - some of the crew were lost but my Grandfather survived and returned home to Falmouth in "borrowed clothes" - never mentioning what had happened. It was when researching family history that this full story was revealed and when it then tied up with "family legend" about the sinking that had never been fully talked about.

Boxing Day was a very appropriate time to start work on the tool box. This goes at the rear of the lorry underneath the body. As we were in a bit of a hurry to get the lorry finished we left this until last. It has become quite apparent that making the toolbox first before putting on the body would have been the easiest option as it has become quite awkward to do. The aim is to now cut the wood to size, drill the holes, test fit, remove, paint then reassemble. It is proving to be a lengthy process so far.

Yes, it is very unusual. Two springs coiled within each other. In good enough condition for us to use (after a clean up). The water pump is not the factory supplied one but made by Peerless trading in the UK as a replacement and of a slightly different design. No gland on it which is quite unusual. I imagine that it will leak a great deal. We took it apart to see what it was like inside. Had to get the bolts very hot to make them let go but it all came apart and seems to be in good condition, which is a relief.

A question for Steve I think. It should be noted that in between buying the Thornycroft and restoring it we also restored two Autocars, one Jeep, the FWD and the Dennis so it had been waiting its turn long enough and needed to be done. I think that it is common belief that we should never have touched the Thornycroft because there was not enough of it there to make a viable restoration. We have been very lucky and we have some very helpful and generous friends.

More straight forward - I do hope so. We have most of the bits, but strangely things are missing which should be there. I think the Peerless was parked up outside about 70 years ago. It changed hands about 30 years ago and a lot of parts on it were moved to a better chassis which was "cosmetically" restored. We bought several chassis as you know and we have lost track of what we have so we need to do some more work on sorting through what we do have. I think some parts may have been lost by the previous owner. Saying that we have remarkably found a lot of original parts for the Peerless that we had to make for the previous restorations. So, for example we have an original NOS fuel tank and a really good radiator. Probably the most difficult part will be the engine. Not sure about the gearbox, that might be ok. As we plan to restore two Peerless consecutively I hope that we can use the best parts for the first one and maybe we will turn up some other parts for the second one while we are doing the first. It is all very exciting.

We refitted the Thornycroft fuel tank after the rebuild, fitted the petrol tap, changed the jet on the carb and fitted instruction plate. A few less parts on the floor to trip over.

That maybe why the squirrel died? For most people Christmas is a time to eat and drink too much and then sit on the sofa and watch TV. Personally, we would prefer to spend the whole time in the shed. Doing that and squeezing in family meals can be a bit tricky. However, the aim was this Christmas to prepare the engine for removal. With the bonnet off the next step was to remove manifolds, exhaust, starting handle, water pump, scuttle and anything else that we could get off. With three of us on it the day went quite well.

and finally: Loads of goodies.

And these too!