WW1 Dennis truck find

[Great War truck]

Then, back to the pedals (which i had painted earlier), which we slid onto the bar:

 

 

and which we then bolted on to the sub frame.

 

 

 

The sub frame came off a different Dennis than the chassis we are restoring, so unsuprisingly the holes didnt line up. However, with a bit of jiggery we managed to get everything in place then tighten up the bolts a little at a time to pull it all into place. Then it was a case of assembling the rest of the brake linkage and making new arms to replace the old ones. As the old arms were incomplete we had to calculate how long they should have been. Hopefully they should be alright, but if not we can always shorten them.

 

 

 

As you can see we found some original oilers.

 

Finally, on one of the rotten arms was the return spring bracket. I got this off by getting it hot and belting it. It cleaned up a treat and put it on to the new arms:

 

 

Another small step completed. Now, i just need to paint up the nuts and bolts and try not to drip paint over everything we have already assembled.

[Bystander]

Like everyone else I have watched this outstanding piece of restoration with great interest, while being very impressed. Keep it up!

[Enigma]

Its coming along nicely I see.

Like the pedals,sturdy!

[Great War truck]

Yes, this is the sort of pedal that you really can stand up on when you have to make the thing stop.

 

The FWD has been taking up a lot of time recently, but Tony spent some time today on the Dennis. While Steve is getting a new steering wheel made Tony made a new nut to secure it. The process was fairly straightforward but time consuming as you can see:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the thread on the shaft was a bit nasty the nut fitted very nicely. A bit more done. If i ever post eight pictures of every nut we put into it again, then you know i have too much time on my hands.

 

Tim (too)

[Energumen]

Ongoing and growing respect.

[Great War truck]

As i am about 120 miles away from where we keep the trucks, i keep myself busy by taking bits away to work on them at home and then take them back once finished to put them on the truck. One of the ongoing jobs has been in locating and restoring the correct lamps for it.

 

The Dennis should have two headlamps, two side lamps, a tail lamp and a gas generator. The lamps were primarily made by the companies of Miller and Powell and Hamner, although there were a few other odd makes used as well. The price of an original lamp in good condition can be quite frightening. Over the years we have been collecting odd ones that we have seen, even in bad condition so that we can put a good set together. This is where i am currently at:

 

This is a Miller headlamp, in very good condition. It looks even better now that i have taken it back to bare metal

 

 

As you can see it has the WD mark on the top:

 

 

Even the insides are in good condition, with a fine reflector (one of the first bits to disappear), the burner and glass.

 

 

This is the next one in line to do. It is also in quite good condition although it needs a very good clean:

 

 

 

It is however missing the bolts that secure it to the lamp bracket. I did manage to find another lamp which was in appalling condition, but had both bolts and burner in place:

 

 

 

We managed to remove the bolts and burner after a bit of effort. Steve could have made replacements, but it is nicer and quicker to have originals.

 

Edited June 3, 2009 by Great War truck

[Great War truck]

The sidelamps turn up occasionally. Here are a pair of Millers that i have been working on.

 

 

 

I have the correct glass to put in them, which i will do after i paint them. Both of them were quite badly buckled (probably dropped) and one of them had been used by someone as candle holder. It was full of melted wax and soot. A real pig to clean out.

 

After i finished these two another one (P & H this time) turned up on E bay in the USA. It was missing its glass and was bought at a garage sale out there by the previous owner many years ago. I often wonder how it got there. It is in great condition and wont need much work doing to it:

 

 

 

My latest lamp acquisition is this very fine P & H tail lamp. Looks very similar to the side lamps, but has a red lens, glass to both sides and a rear mounting bracket. It is however dated 1924, so i suppose we shouldnt use it, but then again it is so far under the truck chassis that no one would be able to read the date anyway.

 

 

 

 

The tail lamps are the hardest to find. I would presume that because the WD had to order another batch in 1924, they were even short of them then.

 

Tim (too)

[Enigma]

Great effort.

I love the WD markings on them.

I'll keep a lookout on fleamarkets for these ones.

[centi521]

greeeat work

much respect. i've never seen a restoration like this one

[Great War truck]

Yes, thats a good place to find them. A friend picked up a wonderful and complete one in france for €10. A real bargian. If there is the correct reflector in the back it makes them worth buying even if the rest of the lamp is shot.

 

There are other sorts of lamps used by the WD as well and gas generators too of course. Hmm, maybe i should start up a whole new thread on WW1 truck lamps.

 

Thanks for your positive waves Centi. With all this good karma the restoration will soon be finished.

 

Tim (too)

[Ravenhook]

Guys, this thread has been a riviting read, as a retired engineer all I can say is that your professionalism is outstanding and would be very difficult for any commercial engineers to carry out let alone being done at home and as a hobby albeit a labour of love. Words cannot express the admiration I have for your outstanding contribution to history and its only through the selfless dedicated efforts of people such as yourselves that we have these lovely early examples around. Keep it up, I am really looking forward to seeing the finished article, prehaps a vido clip of it on the move would top off this excellent thread.

I will now, give some of the old and abandoned farm sheds a good looking over, some of the old portable chicken sheds were made from vehicle chassis, never know there may be some more on their way to you...:idea:

[Great War truck]

Thanks for that, there really is very kind of you. As i might have said previously, what really makes this restoration possible is that there are three of us working on it. Still a very long restoration though. Any individual sane person would have given this project up as madness years ago. There is certainly no money to be made in it. A labour of love indeed.

 

Anyway, while i am on about lamps i thought i should post a couple more pictures. One of the rotten lamps we bought still had its bracket attached. I would guess the weight of the bracket ripped it out of the scuttle as it rotted and it got left behind when the lorry was scrapped. When we bought the Dennis we had only half of the scuttle (cut up the centre). On the scuttle was another bracket, the exact mirror image of the other one. A matching pair! Making these things is a pain, but now we have a pair of originals:

 

 

With the holes drilled in the scuttle they just bolted in. Perfect. The only thing is they are at head hight and right in the way so we keep walking into them. Tony has put a pair of gloves over them to make them more visible and reduce injury to passers by.

 

 

Tim (too)

[Jack]

Tim this is just such awesome work, you guys have real talent and passion.

[Minesweeper]

Thanks Jack!

 

We must get our heads down and get on with it again. The Differential is there looking at me and is really the next job. I have dug the Beach Sand out of it and perhaps this Saturday, we can get the Worm out and have a look at that. So much work done but still quite a lot to do. We have to make a Water pump for the engine and we can then run it - something to look forward to!

 

So next jobs - Differential, Water Pump and then connect up the whole drive.

 

Finally, body work. We quite like carpentry too!

 

Tony

[abn deuce]

I m hoping you will be writing a book about this incredable project ,once the Dennis is largely finished , I say finished period but I think you would say it never truly will be ,as You have quite a following you have others finding this thread on the Forum and are spreading it on the other Military Vehicles sites all with very positive comments and replies !!!

[Ravenhook]

I think a book would be of enormous benefit to those who wish to start a project such as this, not only the stage by stage process that we have been privilaged to see, but also the pitfalls that come hand in glove with any restoration projects, I'm sure that it would inspire readers to get their hands dirty and would give them confidence that there is light at the end of a very long tunnel.

[FWDTEXAS]

I agree and the same should be done for the FWD maybe including segments of other restorers

[Great War truck]

I had a message earlier asking who we sourced our felt for on the Dennis. Rather stupidly i seem to have lost or deleted the message so here is a link to our felt supplier. They were very helpful.

 

http://www.hardy-hanson.co.uk/

 

I hope that helps and sorry i lost your message.

 

Tim (too)

[philb]

Thanks Tim, that was me. I'll get on to them.

Phil

[Great War truck]

When we bought the Dennis we were missing something quite important:

 

 

The Diff! Now we started this project being fairly certain that we would have to make one, but we put it off on the off chance that something might turn up. Luck in these old restorations really is important and we have so far been very lucky indeed.

 

A Dennis chassis was found by a Builder under a sea-side chalet being demolished near St Ives in Cornwall - no one had any idea that the chalet had been built on an old lorry chassis. The Builder phoned his mate in Winchester who he knew would be interested to say that the chassis had been found and that if he wanted it, he must come that same day to recover it - otherwise it went to the Scrappy. The Winchester man was doing nothing that day (fortunately) and went straight down to St Ives with his lorry to pick it up.

 

He didn't need it himself but wanted it saved and through a series of phonecalls found us as the "Dennis people". He then sent photographs of it to us and through those we could see that the "diff" was most unusually still in the chassis. Usually the first part to come out because of the scrap value of the Bronze in the worm wheel.

 

Tony hastily went to Winchester to confirm that the "diff" was still there and that it was the correct one - amazingly it was.

 

The whole thing was full of sand as the half-shafts had been taken out many years ago, and over the years, sand had blown into "diff" through the ends of the axles - had mixed with the residual oil in the "diff" to form an oily putty which has fairly well preserved it.

 

We bought the whole lot and took it down to Devon, which is in fact not all that far away from where it was found a few weeks earlier. We took the axle off the chassis and put it to one side while we got on with the other bits.

 

 

We did some work on it over Christmas, finding that the crown wheel was quite worn and the worm a bit rusty, but now is the time to get the worm out and see if it is salvegable.

 

Edited June 14, 2009 by Great War truck

[Great War truck]

These photos show the worm and its casing - with sand - before we unscrewed the end cover. Despite all the corrosion and oily sand, it just unscrewed to reveal the Thrust Race which appears good enough to use again!

 

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

This set show the special "Jacking Tool" made up by Steve to enable us to get the other end cover off. The Thread on the Jacking Tool is something like 4 1/2" x 16 TPI - screw cut in the lathe.

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

Tried to thump the worm and Bearings out - but even with heat, it would not move as rusted up quite solidly. Therefore, only thing to do is to make up a special "jacking tool".

 

 

Special Jacking Tool made up, and then no problem. As the Bolts were tightened, the worm assembly and bearings started to come out.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bearing at the far end of the worm assembly was very badly rusted and the circumferance of it had to be cleaned before we could pull that trough the hole in the casing. TGhis had to be thumped - but caused no real problem.

 

 

 

 

The last job was to get the rusty bearing off the shaft - this was held in place by a big nut! A 2" Whitworth Spanner applied to it just undid it and the bearing came off quite easily.

 

The job now is clean these bits and assess them - and we are hopeful that only one Bearing will have to be replaced. After getting the oil and sand off them, important surfaces will be protected and plugged and the big casting will then go for sand blasting. The worm is still really the main worry as it is rusted in places and we must hope that it will clean up and polish and be suitable to fight another day.

 

The Worm Wheel assembly will then follow.

 

 

[Enigma]

Good luck indeed to find the diff.

Hopefully you will be able to use most of it.

Good luck.

[Stormin]

I thought Vince had already won the `whos got the biggest spanner' competition with his railway relic.

 

Is this a new entry in the veteran spanner category?