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WW1 Dennis truck find


Great War truck

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Thanks. Thats a cracking photo. I will ask someone who knows about this sort of thing.

 

Anyway, it has been a busy weekend for Steve and Tony but no great material chunks of completed work to show for it!

 

Apart from delivering the Hood Bows to the Canvas men, yesterday, Steve has spent his weekend polishing the steering wheel. It was our intention to send the wheel away to specialists so that a black plastic coat of some kind could be placed on the rim - but with time now running so short, we are afraid to part with it at this stage in case it is not completed in time and does not come back before the "Brighton" as we shall be really stuck without it.

 

So as an alternative, we shall just put a coat of black paint on the rim for now and rectify that at a later date. The masking tape shows the extent of the rim painting - the spokes will be left bright.

 

In polishing the spokes, Steve has found that there are countless pin hole size gas holes in the casting which cannot be polished out and presumably are throughout the depth of the casting. This is of no great worry as far as the strength is concerned but it does not look quite as nice as we had anticipated.

 

Tony is still painting, and the body of the lorry is starting to look quite smart!

 

From next weekend, the full team will be in Devon for several days and it is our plan to build the Seat Box during that period - amongst other things. We are getting there!

 

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What about some frosts plastidip coating for the steering wheel?

 

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=9449&frostProductName=Black%20Plasti-Dip%20Coating%20%28429ml%29&catID=22&frostCat=Miscellaneous&frostSubCat=Plasti-Dip%20Coating&subCatID=47

 

May i also say what a fantastic job you are all making of this restoration, good luck with getting her on the road for Brighton.

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Following our up-date on Steering Wheel progress, yesterday, Barry very kindly suggested that the rim could be Powder-coated which, if thickly applied would look indistinguishable from the real thing and that with a bit of luck, there might be a Powder-coating company near us who would do it!

 

And with the help of the Internet, a company was quickly located in nearby Cullompton - about 40 minutes away. After speaking to them on the telephone this morning when they confirmed that they could do it, Tony took the wheel to them and its return, duly completed was promised by next Friday!

 

Meanwhile, the painting continues today. The body has now had various coats of wood primer and undercoat, followed by two top coats. Tony is not satisfied with the depth of the finish and will give the sides a third coat of top coat later this week.

 

We have also obtained the rope cleats for the body - they have been screwed to bits of off-cut, just for painting and will be screwed to the body when they are finished.

 

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Work commenced on the Seat/Cab assembly today. Once again, Mark had kindly sourced and prepared the timber to our specification and we worked from Steve's drawings of the similar set-up in a Thornycroft J Type which he had set out some years ago. The two assemblies are not entirely identical but the Thorny drawings coupled with photographs of the Dennis have provided an adequate guide.

 

 

We are always handicapped by a lack of space - but we get there!

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Edited by Minesweeper
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Lack of space?

 

I know that.

My Dodge sits outside, not even on own property.

Painting parts behind the house in the open and in the bicycle shed isn't very easy.

 

Guess with more space comes more stuff filling it.

 

Anyway, good work is being done by you guys!

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I will be carrying a bag of them. They will make a handy "missile of correction" if the same daft women trys to overtake us on the inside again.

 

Anyway, work continued on the seat assembly today, but before we could assemble it for a trial fit, Steve still had one or two parts to finish off. No real problems with these.

 

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The assembly is very tall but the 30 gallons petrol tank actually goes under the seat

 

 

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Edited by Minesweeper
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Two pairs of hands required to assemble it and move it around. The seat is very wide but the War Department specification for this was that it should be able to take four persons sitting side by side in the front.

 

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Looking good but how are we going to get it on the lorry? It is going to be a very heavy unit by the time it is finished as there is still a lot to do to it

 

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The seat has to be fully assembled and painted before we put it on. It has to be lifted over the top of the petrol tank which has about 1/16" clearance on each side and will dent if the seat lands on it. We cant use the chain block because the seat wont go over the radiator. We cant put the seat on and then drop the fuel tank in as the strenghteners for the seat will get in the way. The seat is very heavy, but we do have just enough roof clearance to get it over the tank.

 

 

 

Any good suggestions please?

 

Tim

Edited by Minesweeper
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The seat has to be fully assembled and painted before we put it on. It has to be lifted over the top of the petrol tank which has about 1/16" clearance on each side and will dent if the seat lands on it. We cant use the chain block because the seat wont go over the radiator. We cant put the seat on and then drop the fuel tank in as the strenghteners for the seat will get in the way. The seat is very heavy, but we do have just enough roof clearance to get it over the tank.

 

Any good suggestions please?

 

Tim

 

Well, apart from the traditional "5,000 slaves and a lot of wooden rollers"...

 

Clamp some wooden guides to the chassis, plus a depth stop to prevent it hitting the tank, then do it outside with enough people to lift it into position?

 

The original fitters would have had a hoist and much more vertical clearance, I suspect.

(Plus a severe lack of interference from HSE!)

 

Chris.

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It needs to go into the truck bed, be lifted onto the headboard, and carefully lowered into place by at least two people and preferably four.

 

I do think it would be better to roll it outside first, regardless of the weather, and put that old carpet down in the back to keep it all clean.

 

Am I the only one who has noticed the amazing resemblance to a church pew ?

 

Gordon

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As everything is so perfectly screwed together, wouldn't it be possible to first assembly and paint it on the floor and then break it up into 4 or 5 major pieces which are then lifted and assembled on the chassis.

The screw holes can be touched up afterwards ....

 

Just my 2 cents ...

 

BTW i have followed this thread when you were at page 50, but i have really enjoyed every further progress ! :thumbsup:

 

Kind regards,

Glenn

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Thanks for the good ideas guys. The seat box is screwed and glued together. Due to the shortage of room once it is in situ we have no option but to assemble it on the floor. It just cant be done once it is on the chassis. Gordon, your idea looks to be a good one and one we had not thought of, so we are leaning towards that idea at the moment - unless anybody has any better ideas of course?

 

Anyway, today we painted up the capping strips that go on the edge of the body and the metal strips that run inside. Also, the seat box is looking better and more pew like every day:

 

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Edited by Minesweeper
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Guys,

Just a suggestion, I am sure there is somebody near you that has a heavy wrecker (military) and is a member of this forum. I think they would jump at the chance to lift that seat assembly onto your lorry. Maybe post a message in the wrecker forum on this site.

 

John Gott

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Any good suggestions please?

 

Tim

 

I am very confident that after you have written the 7 page risk assessment, donned the yellow jacket, hard had and steel boots then put up the obligatory signs and created a 3 mile exclusion zone to keep Mr and Mrs Publc safe that all will become clear and you'll realise there was no need to worry about it at all.

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I am very confident that after you have written the 7 page risk assessment, donned the yellow jacket, hard had and steel boots then put up the obligatory signs and created a 3 mile exclusion zone to keep Mr and Mrs Publc safe that all will become clear and you'll realise there was no need to worry about it at all.

 

Nice one, Roy!

 

Tony

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Yes you are right. I have seen a photo of one Dennis fitted with just the seat and no body being taken for a test drive. It seems we have put this one together in the wrong order.

 

Anyway, the Seat is virtually completed - just a few more screws to into the back to see "job done"!

 

Started last Saturday morning - finished Tuesday evening - now over to the "Painting and Decorating Department"!

 

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Next job now is the wings and mudguards - fortunately we had those made a few years ago by "Vintage Wings" and they have been waiting patiently for this stage. All the brackets to hold them have to be fabricated this week and then they can be finish-painted..

Edited by Minesweeper
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