Minesweeper

Great stuff and good luck with it!

2 hours ago, PITT24423 said:

Just found bought the Leyland instruction plate and it turned up today in all its loveliness. 

That is a great find - amazing that these things still turn up!

14 hours ago, CornishMade said:

On ‎11‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 10:19 AM, Old Bill said:

 

I know a certain someone who's going to be glued to this 😜😜😜😜😜

Very pleased to read that and I do hope that your Dad is keeping well!  This is all going to bring back memories for him!

Tony

Very moving.

That is Lovely!

It is looking a real treat!

Tony

We have discussed dipping steel in Molasses and how it successfully cleans up rusty steel - and we have now seen the results of this for ourselves - quite amazing and pleasing! Two very sad looking P and H Acetylene Headlamps came with the Head Light Brackets and they are quite rusty with some bits of them beyond repair. They have been stripped down and the outside rusty case of one - which is just steel - has now been left soaking in a Molasses solution as well. We already have two good concave original P an H reflectors and with some of the newly arrived parts, some that we already have in stock and with other bits given to us, we have enough to make up two sound Head Lamps.

The reflectors are contained within beautifully made steel cases - shaped around the back of the concave mirror in a fitted convex form to match the back shape of the reflector and then with a steel flange folded around the front edge of the reflector glass and then around the back edge of the back steel case. This holds the Reflector firmly. On the back of the case are fitted four steel lugs which are used to fasten the reflector to the outside case. On one mirror, the lugs are riveted to the case and on another they are soft soldered.

Now to come to my question - and maybe a chemist will be able to answer if no one else has considered trying this or had any experience of it - can I dip the steel encompassed reflectors as they are, still in their steel soldered cases with a silvered back to the glass, in the molasses solution, just to get the rust off the steel - without damaging the Reflectors - especially the silvering?

Tony

4 minutes ago, Alastair said:

I too use molasses.  I read somewhere that the molasses made for human use is not as good as that used for horses so I buy mine from the local feed shop by the gallon (at a much reduced price).

I once asked a friend of mine, who worked for a large engineering company, to ask his company chemist why it works.  All I can remember is the statement "Of course it works!" followed by such complicated chemistry that I could not understand it.

 

Alastair

This stuff that I bought from Amazon is for Horses - I wonder what the difference is?

Tony

10 hours ago, andypugh said:

Not just the Antipodeans, I used this on my Ner-a-Car chassis and other parts with great success. 

Though I did feel a bit strange buying all the molasses in Tesco. 

I thought that we are going to need a lot of this stuff so I bought14Kg from Amazon for £22.85 - delivered. The cheapest way that I could find for buying it at the time.

Tony

The Headlamps are P & H - (Powell and Hanmer).

The two common makes of these WW1 Headlamps seem to be either Miller or P &H.

Tony

On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 9:10 AM, Chris Hall said:

👍

It was a great day and a lot of fun. We had planned and hoped to take the Thorny but that did not work out because of the further teething problems. Second choice would have been the Dennis but that is now living at Steve's place in Leicestershire - so the dear old faithful Autocar saved the day! It has not been out for a couple of years but started very easily and we were away! I guess the only disadvantage with it was that there is no proper weather protection so we had to cope with the few showers that came along.

Reception from the public along the way was tremendous and the crowds in Blandford were amazing. Two onlookers said to me that it brought tears to their eyes - the whole scene was truly wonderfully set with the foot soldiers marching ahead of the convoy in the towns and villages - and on occasion singing the First World War songs that are so well known.

I am afraid that other traffic on occasions came to a halt - but that really was only because the traffic coming towards us stopped to watch us pass by and thus held up the following traffic. Hundreds of photos taken.

Probably never to be repeated but an occasion for us to remember for a long time.

Tony

That was a good find!

The correct one that we have on the Dennis was made by Radmore - and branded "Radwell" - and we have never seen another. I have left a continuing Search for another one under either of those two names for some considerable time on EBay but nothing has turned up. Hence Steve's thoughts of just copying the original for the Thorny.

Tony

We shall see - but Steve has matched the existing holes in your Dad's Scuttle so I am quite sure that it will be right!

Tony

We are going to be in trouble here for going off topic - but very briefly, it did not have a stripe and was painted the standard "black and green" cam pattern when I bought it. It spent most of its service life with 16 Sqn Wildenrath as a "Tracker Radar Towing Rapier Rover" - Service No. 73KB70

Tony

21 hours ago, Old Bill said:

We have 1963 109 as well within the collection! I bought it about 25 years ago as that we needed something to tow the two Autocars around on a Trailer when we took them to "Meets". It is ex -RAF Regiment and had the equivalent of about 7K miles on the clock when I bought it - now reached about 27K only after all of these years.. Looking a bit shabby but dearly loved by us all!

 

Tony

 

 

Stupidity! Not 1963 - should have said 1983!

Tony

A wonderful job!

Many congratulations on your Award, Ben!  Superb work and very well deserved!

Tony

1 hour ago, Asciidv said:

This was in the era when the F1 rules permitted either 3 litre normally aspirated engines or 1.5 litre turbo engines. The turbo engines ran with tremendous boost so although they started off with only 500 BHP by the end of the development they were producing close to 900BHP. The BMW engine programme was run on a shoestring with them making do with whatever they had available. Stress relieved old blocks were therefore essential to the campaign.

However, we are talking about a Thornycroft here, so hone out the bores, skim the pistons, perhaps increase the ring gaps too and enjoy happy motoring with 50 trouble free horses.

I think that the final paragraph in your last posting is exactly right, Barry, but Steve will have the final say when he comes back on line! When he left Devon yesterday, we agreed that the Pistons had been machined parallel initially with a 0.005 clearance. We shall have the bores honed out by a further 0.003.

 The pistons will be stepped to a clearance of 0.017 above the top ring and 0.012 between the rings.

At least, that is what we talked about yesterday - but that may change!

Tony

Steve just telephoned me to say that his Computer  "died" today - he has just been out to buy a new one but he will not be operational with it for a couple of days. He very much wants to reply to the comments made today and yesterday and will do so as soon as he can!

Tony

Ah yes but you are talking about a fire engine with 9 1/2 l engine. These army lorries are only 6 1/2 l and they didn't feel the need to fit them with impulse or trembler. They were also driven by 18-25 year olds, not old fogies like us!

Steve    

Painting of that must wait until after the Brighton. A pity but there are other more pressing things to complete first of all.

3 hours ago, dgrev said:

Well, that makes it official, the Gosling clan just qualified as HMV royalty. ;-)

London to a brick (or is that Brighton?) you would never have predicted when you started posting to this forum that your quiet restoration efforts would grow to become something avidly watched by people all over the world.

Or that the Thorny restoration would prove more popular than the Dennis.

I wonder which is the bigger surprise?

Carry on chaps, the end is in sight, time to start planning the next restoration.

Well, it has been all of a bit of surprise - we never gave it much of a thought that it would have created this amount of interest! We are just so pleased that folks have enjoyed watching  it develop in this way. Whilst there have been three of us at it, it has been very much Steve's project and it is a prime example of the "Apprentice has now become the Master".

And all the way through, there has been a tremendous amount of advice and encouragement from members of the Forum and we have been very grateful to have had that.

And we must acknowledge Jack for it is his Forum that has given us the means to tell the story in this way and we are grateful to him.

Tony

14 minutes ago, 8_10 Brass Cleaner said:

Steve. 

I agree that the valve timing looks near enough vs the period data to suggest that its correct. 

Stiffening up is a concern. Will it turn now its cold?. I think with it idling youd have noticed a change in engine note and it would have got very hot had the bores gone tight. Realistically just idling id be very surprised if it picked up.

Is it simply that it has bedded in a bit, and now has built more compression? Can you turn it minus the plugs?

Steve can reply properly later on, Hedd, but it has loosened again now that it is cold. We plan to run it again this afternoon -"as -is" - and see what happens this time.

Tony

Thanks John - that's very kind! I noticed, too that the One Million is fast approaching and can hardly believe that it has all created so much interest. I am expecting Steve here in Axminster later today and we have a significant amount of work planned for the week ahead - we shall know by the end of next week if we are going to be ready for the "Brighton" or not. Everything is planned and hope that nothing unexpected will hold it all up. We will keep everybody interested of our progress - or lack of it this coming week!

Tony

20 hours ago, Asciidv said:

Andy, if you remember from the Dennis thread Tony bought a Black and Decker 'Power File' on my recommendation to clean up the steering wheel casting. He managed to blow it up in less than a day!

Well, I did subsequently buy another similar B and D one and it has been fine! Lightning did not strike again in the same place!

Tony