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WW1 Peerless lorry restoration


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Of all the things that I saw in this last post, what I liked most of all was the use of a proper old fashioned flat bladed screwdriver with a wooden handle. A period tool matching the vintage of the machine being worked on.

 

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2 hours ago, Asciidv said:

Of all the things that I saw in this last post, what I liked most of all was the use of a proper old fashioned flat bladed screwdriver with a wooden handle. A period tool matching the vintage of the machine being worked on.

 

Still available new for those with more money than sense. (You know, the sort of person who buys more than a dozen fire engines 🙂

https://www.workshopheaven.com/hand-tools/pliers-spanners-and-screwdrivers.html

They have these hollow-ground ones too which seem like a good idea for old, tight screws:
https://www.workshopheaven.com/narex-gunsmiths-screwdrivers-8869-set-of-3.html

Lots of ways to buy nicer-than-necessary tools there.

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13 hours ago, Asciidv said:

Of all the things that I saw in this last post, what I liked most of all was the use of a proper old fashioned flat bladed screwdriver with a wooden handle. A period tool matching the vintage of the machine being worked on.

 

Was I the only one thinking that the "vintage screw driver" was used to pry the lid off the tin of grease? 

Doc

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15 minutes ago, Doc said:

Was I the only one thinking that the "vintage screw driver" was used to pry the lid off the tin of grease? 

Doc

Quite right! A Pozidrive just doesn't cut it!

Dad has been busy doing other things. The wheel now has two top coats and will only get the final one after the tyres have been fitted. He is going to chase the wheelwright along shortly as we are ready for the other one.

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He has painted the chain hooks ready to go back, too.

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He has been investigating the drive shaft between clutch and gearbox. We have two but the the first one rescued was short of bits so we stripped the second one down as well to copy.

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These bronze castings carry a felt seal and one pair are beyond salvage.

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The drive pin had been protected at one end and proved salvageable.

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However, the other was distinctly ropy so Dad turned up a new one.

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The spring clip which holds the felt seal.

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The poorly bronze seal carrier.

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A nice piece of En8 was found in the drawer. The challenge,however, was to cut the spiral grease grooves. This came my way! My initial thought was to roughly draw a spiral around it and then cut it freehand with the Dremel. This would have been satisfactory but somehow, I thought that I could do better.

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My Myford lathe has a gear train to drive the leadscrew for cutting threads. Now 1 tpi, the pitch of the spiral, is just too much for it but I wondered whether I could set the gears up and drive it by manually turning the leadscrew? I decided to have a go. I had a look in the gear case and took this pic. I hadn't realised how much it needed a good clean!

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Anyway, it worked and with the Dremel in the toolpost and me turning the leadscrew, I had found a solution.

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Much better than freehand!

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Back in the little press.

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A coat of paint and two more bits in stock!

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We will have to do the other bits once the gearbox is in.

Steve    🙂

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With one wheel ready and the other on the way, our thoughts turned to the tyres. We are in the very fortunate position of having a complete set of NOS Dunlops in stock. However some of them had been rather carelessly stored before we found them!

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This wasn't settlement with age but I suspect that they had been leaning against a wall when something heavy had been put on them. Anyway, they won't press on like that so I had a go at jacking them out.

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This can be an exciting exercise when the wood and jack combination becoems unstable and fires out sideways. A friend of ours brained himself whilst working inside a steam roller firebox like that so one must take care. On this occasion, all went well.

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I couldn't get the tyre to yield to a circular condition so we cut a piece of wood to prop it until we can get it started on the wheel.

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The wheel with the wheelwright had a very worn drive sprocket which Father has removed, We took a rummage through the stores and found this one which looks quite nice. Interestingly, the brake drum on which it is mounted suits a pneumatically tyred wheel of which we have none so goodness knows where it came from.

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It was a straightforward unbolting job and it just knocked off.

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Dad will get it cleaned up now ready to fit.

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Father decided to go and see the wheelwright today to see how he is getting on. He was pleasantly surprised to find some good progress. It seems that he has had to replace a couple of spokes as well as the rim but it is all looking nice.

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With a bit of luck, we should get it back next week and Dad can start painting again!

Steve   🙂

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We unloaded the second wheel today. Greg took some photos for us showing the process. The rim was welded up again (they had to cut it to take it off) and then warmed up in a fire. The rebuilt wheel was left on a flat plate while they put in metal triangles to control the rims descent. When the rim was hot (and suitably expanded it was taken out of the fire and dropped on the wheel, then gently tapped into position. To cool it down and to prevent the wheel from becoming overly scorched it was cooled off with gallons of water. These photos demonstrate the process.

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Greg and Sam showed us damage and rot on the spokes and felloes which was not apparent until it was all apart. Good job that we went to the effort of having it rebuilt. Now we can crack on and get the tyres on, the wheels back on and then start putting the Peerless back together. 

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Edited by Great War truck
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As Tim said, first job this morning was to get the wheel out of the car. This was an engine crane job as it is a significant lump! Then there were two.

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We took a closer look at the sprocket and, although the shape isn't too bad, there is a lot of wear. The spare sprocket we rescued last time is very visably better so I opted to swap them over.

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The worn one unbolted quite qell although all of the bolts had been hammered so they were stif for the whole thread. I took the better ring and then lined it up with four longer bolts. The bolts which secure it are fitted so they are a close fit in the hole to prevent the sprocket from fretting. I expected them to have been reamed in position in which case they wouldn't line up . However, with a bit of messing, they all went in.

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UNS bolts again but they saved OK. I leaned on the as hard as I could to make sure they stay.

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Now Dad is back to cleaning up the old timber ready for painting. That will be a long old job.

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Once painted, we will see about fitting the tyres. In the mean time, I am pushing on with the steering gear so we can get that on a functioning. I have a few days off so I hope to make some progress this week.

Steve  🙂

Edited by Old Bill
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Whilst Dad is busy scraping the wheel ready for painting, I have been pushing on with the steering column as this will be the next item to bolt to the chassis. Dad has already made up the two missing studs.

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The two cups over the ball joint only had surface rust and cleaned up quite well. However, one had corroded where the greaser is screwed in and almost 3/4" had disappeared. Due to galvanic action I guess.

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I faced it off and then turned up an extension.

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I silver soldered it on and sorted out a greaser for it.

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Next came the pivot block from the end of the drag link. The bronze bush moved so a clean up and some Loctite sorted it.

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The other bush was steel and heavily corroded so I pushed it out and turned up a replacement.

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Isn't it nice when you find a piece of bronze on the shelf, just the right size and waiting for the day to arrive!

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After pressing it in, I ran a 1" reamer through it and another part ticked off.

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The pivot pin cleaned up OK but the feather was sheared off so I made and fitted a new one.

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Finally, I reached the drop arm from which I removed the pin last week. Dad had a piece of steel in stock, just the right size so I soon roughed it out on Dad's Colchester. It is so nice to use a bigger lathe occasionally! The thread is 7/8" x 9 tpi for which, quite amazingly, Dad had a die in stock. I screw-cut it part way to make sure the thread stayed straight and then ran the die over it to finish it off.

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Also amazingly, Dad had a new nut and washer in stock as well. Some times the cards fall right!

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Pressed into the drop arm.

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I drilled through the taper pin hole and then ran the reamer through it a bit further to take out a little misalignment.

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Pin driven in and ready for painting.

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It remains only to fit the steering wheel rim to the spokes and it can all go back on the chassis. That will be another pile of bits out of the way!

Steve    🙂

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Just received an exciting parcel from G&S containing the new valves and some spares. Nothing to stop us putting the engine back together now!201.JPG.2dc208eff1eaab5a988a4d5073f55715.JPG

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I have fitted the mounting bracket onto the steering box and pinned Father's new studs so that is nearly ready to fit onto the chassis. Just need to get the wheel itself finally assembled and we can do it.

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The inlet manifold has a number of brackets mounted on it to guide the HT leads. These are fitted with red fibre bushes. Unfortunately, one of them is broken and they are all in the way for cleaning up the manifold so we elected to remove them.

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Fortunately for us bolts rusted into aluminium respond well to heat and they all came out without any drama.

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The red fibre bushings want replacing but I am not sure what to use. Nylon would do the job but it wouldn't look right. Any thoughts please?

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Tim has been catching up with the painting by priming the footstep brackets and the steering drop arm.

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We have made some good progress this week and are looking forward to getting the engine in the chassis. Watch this space!

Steve🙂

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1 hour ago, Old Bill said:

 

The red fibre bushings want replacing but I am not sure what to use. Nylon would do the job but it wouldn't look right. Any thoughts please?

Red vulcanised fibre sheet is readily available on eBay, but only in 1mm thickness for knife handle liners. 

There is thicker stuff in Australia, but not thick enough: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303303501503

I wonder if a stack would bond to itself if heated in a press (ie, some bits of metal, G-clamps and a domestic oven)

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3 hours ago, Old Bill said:

 

The red fibre bushings want replacing but I am not sure what to use. Nylon would do the job but it wouldn't look right. Any thoughts please?

 

A way out is to find an old fibre timing gear and cut bits off it for machining to size in the lathe.  I have used them for numerous insulation and wearing piece jobs.  Finding a red fibre timing gear might be the problem.  Most are brown.

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On 5/19/2022 at 11:27 PM, MatchFuzee said:

Thanks chaps for all of your thoughts. This one is absolutely perfect but I suspect that as a manufacturer in China, they will want to sell me a ton rather than a foot! Tufnol rod is period and will do the job so I have ordered some up. Thanks for the reminder Andy.

 

Steve    🙂

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2 hours ago, Old Bill said:

Thanks chaps for all of your thoughts. This one is absolutely perfect but I suspect that as a manufacturer in China, they will want to sell me a ton rather than a foot! Tufnol rod is period and will do the job so I have ordered some up. Thanks for the reminder Andy.

 

Steve    🙂

I just clicked on the “contact us” part of that website and there was an option to “get free sample fast”.  Very cynical of me, I know but you don’t appear to need very much, so a free sample quantity might serve your purpose….

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I really want to get the steering column mounted on the chassis so we can tick that job off. Next move is to complete the steering wheel. Dad has had the ring welded into place and painted it so I set about fitting the timber.301.JPG.af81be95231b13bec9322c8139903e0c.JPG

Roy has already cut the groove in the back so I just had to cut the rebate for the spokes. The razor saw set the end positions.

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Then some straightforward chisel work. Slow but effective.

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Roy suggested using 'Gripfil' to hold the steel to the wood and Titebond II between the timbers. Both are new to me but seem to work OK.

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This morning I set to with the glass paper, a task made more difficult by my not aligning the rings properly.

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Not irrecoverable but seven hours of sanding got a bit tedious!

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Some yacht varnish tomorrow.

Steve   🙂

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Varnish will certainly liven up the cosmetic appearance, probably harder on the skin with no power steering..   ISTR oars are left bare timber at the grips , a pick helve is best natural from use , same with Hickory/ash axe or spade handle.

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