WW1 Peerless lorry restoration

[CornishMade]

i wont put up too many pics as this thread isnt about this peerless  but this was dads handy work

[andypugh]

16 minutes ago, CornishMade said:

1982 and 1984 dad did the London to Brighton in it and finished twice, first time only casualty was the tank for the carbide lamps came off, second time no issues and the Dennis fire engine in our class said we clocked 22miles per hour down hill on the straight.

If that was our Dennis Fire Engine then you should take any reading from our speedometer with a pinch of salt. 
Though it generally under-reads....

1982 and 1984 are a bit before my time, my first Brighton run on LP8389 was in 1986 but I have done nearly every one since. 

[andypugh]

16 minutes ago, CornishMade said:

1982 and 1984 dad did the London to Brighton in it and finished twice, first time only casualty was the tank for the carbide lamps came off, second time no issues and the Dennis fire engine in our class said we clocked 22miles per hour down hill on the straight.

If that was our Dennis Fire Engine then you should take any reading from our speedometer with a pinch of salt. 
Though it generally under-reads....

1982 and 1984 are a bit before my time, my first Brighton run on LP8389 was in 1986 but I have done nearly every one since. 

[CornishMade]

😆🤣🤣🤣  dad may be wrong as it may well have been 1984 and 1986 it was while I was at secondary school and that was 1982 until 1987, and I used the photos in my English language exams( o' levels and cse🤭) so may well have been, it may have felt faster as wooden wheels and everything vibrating and rattling..including our teeth, we followed up in the car and the lorries went by low loader rather windy may bank holiday weekend👍👍

[CornishMade]

10 hours ago, Minesweeper said:

Thank you so much for yours and your dad's in put into this, Emma. Amazingly, it was more than 30 years ago that I bought the Peerless and the poor thing has been waiting in the queue to be worked on all this time - we have done four other lorries in the mean time so we have not wasted our time! During that period, we have acquired a lot of information about Peerless and also a lot of pictures of them, but strangely enough despite the large numbers of Peerless' that the WD had and that were later sold off after the war into a civilian life, very few of them and bits of them have survived when compared with other makes. We have enough bits to do a second Peerless - but not an engine for it. There must be one somewhere!

Anyhow, from all of the pictures we have carefully studied, we are convinced that with the majority of Peerless' that left the factory when new, the Dashboards were of wooden construction with the outside parts consisting of vertical planks but in the centre section, the planks were laid horizontaly. So that is how our good friend Mark who is a very skilled woodworker has made ours - in Sapele - and a beautiful job it is. It will be a great shame to paint it! We think that it will probably take another year to finish it all off.

Having done other American built trucks previously, we were convinced that all of the threads used in the Peerless would be either UNF or UNC and initially struggled with that as nothing seemed to fit as we had not identified the problem. Another reader of this thread some time ago after we really got started into it, suggested that the threads could be UNS which rather puzzled us - but he was absolutely right and that is what they are - we had not come across that one previously. Another reader of this thread sent us a photograph of a box of taps and dies that he had bought at an American Autojumble - and the box was labeled - "Taps and Dies for Peerless". They were UNS. I should be interested to know how your dad got on with this - you cannot buy UNS nuts and bolts and we have made our replacements as we have progressed!

Tony

 

 

Tony before I forget dad also mentioned he was sure he saw an advert at some point in his travels that peerless could come with an 'L' series gardner engine....didnt say were or when and I'm not sure if the advert would be among his photos or papers..he seemed to think you would understand....👍

[MatchFuzee]

23 hours ago, CornishMade said:

peerless could come with an 'L' series gardner engine..

Propably not the same vehicle:-

1926 PEERLESS TRUCKS OF SLOUGH, HAS HAD EXTENSIVE WORK CARRIED OUT TO MAKE IT TO THE PERFECT CONDITION IT IS IN NOW. CHASSIS NUMBER 740 AND COMES WITH ONE OF THE EARLIEST GARDNER DIESEL ENGINES EVER SEEN. A GARDNER SPECIALIST FROM GARDNER HAS NEVER SEEN SUCH AN EARLY ENGINE AS THIS ONE.

https://carluv.co.uk/trucks-for-sale/1926-peerless-truck/

[CornishMade]

I saw this too, probably isn't the same but you never know with dad he may have seen it advertised,  but he did have a lot of interest in gardner engines in general so may  be that's where it came from

[Old Bill]

Well, it has been some time since we posted anything which looks like we aren't doing anything. Well life has had a few excitements recently but we have still done a bit. I have drawn up the bodywork and the timber is on order and the steelwork stored away. We plan to have a blitz on the body over Christmas. In the mean time, I have finished off the oilers.

The elbows that I bought were slightly longer than the originals and fouled when I screwed them in so I had to make two of the stub tubes longer than the others. Always something! Then I set about the pressure relief valves with some eccentric turning.

I sketched these up from the parts book and photos and the springs were in the drawer. I have yet to calibrate them though.

The whole assembly is quite a lump!

Mark has finished off the dash panel. It is made from Sapele and is beautiful. Far too nice to paint.

Dad has brought it up to the first top coat and we have had a trial fit. It really gives the lorry some size and allows us to do a lot of other bits.

It should have a half-round edging and we made this from aluminium. We bent it before drilling all the screw holes and it went surprisingly well.

We first pulled it around by hand.

And then found a bearing of about the right size to get the radius just so before drilling.

Another trial fit and a chance to set up and drill the floor panels that Dad has been painting.

The bonnet rest in position set the location for the oiler.

The floor panels in position and drilled through.

The panel has been removed for finish painting and we are looking at other bits.

More shortly!

Steve  🙂

Edited November 4, 2023 by Old Bill

[rog8811]

Oiler = jewelry, as I used to call the brasswork on projects I worked on🙂

Such satisfying parts to scratch build, lovely job as always.

[Alastair]

The dash panel looks a fine piece of work.  What is the thickness and width of the planks?

[Asciidv]

Steve, can you describe how the oiling system actually works. It appears that you need to reach the blow off pressure before you are feeding oil into the 'metered' drip tubes. Are both blow off valves fed from the same oil pump? Or do I have this completely wrong and just haven't grasped what is meant to be happening. What ever it is, every part of this assembly looks exquisite. Just hours and hours of careful lathe work.

 

[Citroman]

Dash is great, the driver will not be distracted by the amount of instruments 😃

[Old Bill]

Hi Alistair.

The planks were 12" wide and have been brought down to a finished thickness of 7/8". I have not yet seen the bill!

Cheers!

Steve

[Alastair]

Thanks Steve.

[Old Bill]

Hi Barry.

The lube system was a puzzle to me too! The engine is splash lubricated and the pump and sight glasses just provide a top-up function. The other oddity is that the sump is divided into two so there is a front sump and a rear sump, hence the two glasses. The engine drives a piston pump through a worm off the cam shaft so it is quite slow. It feeds a gallery at the top of the sight feed which is connected to both metering valves and the relief valve. If there is an excess of oil, then the relief valve opens and lets the oil return to tank.

Once the dash is finally fitted, I will mount the sight feed permanently and then plumb it in.

More jewelry!

Steve

[Bill Coates]

If that "isn't doing anything", it's time I packed up!  Keep at it ...fantastic work Bill

[Old Bill]

Another item that has been simmering for a while is the change speed mechanism. I measured up the selector rods and Dad turned them up. 3/4" diameter with a 7/16x20 LH male thread on one end and female RH on the other.

An adjuster sleeve goes on the LH thread end with a RH thread on the end of the selector forks allowing the sleeve to be turned to set the length. Unfortunately, the sleeve bound up on Dad's new threads. In the end, we decided that the pitch was out. Dad had cut the threads with a die and on a long thread the slight inaccuracy was cumulative to the point where it wouldn't function.

To get over this, I screw-cut some LH studding which I finshed off with the die. The screw cutting set the pitch and the die just followed it but gave the thread some form.

I cut the old ends off and drilled and tapped the rods before screwing the new stud into place with some Loctite.

Then we just trimmed them to length.

Then we installed them. That was a bit of a performance! If I had designed the sleeves, I would have made them from a bit of hex so that I could turn them easily, Unfortunately, Peerless made them round!

The selectors located nicely and we have a functioning gear-shift!

Dad will have to get his paint brush out!

Steve   🙂

[Old Bill]

I have told the story of how we came to acquire the fuel tank a while back. Dad has painted it and I have overhauled the tap and the time has come to install it. Dad has bought some screws of the correct length so these were fitted and finally tightened.

Dad had made the tank mounting straps some time ago and turned up the pins. I glued some rubber to them and then they were fitted.

A nice new gasket and the tap was fitted.

A rare event! We pushed the chassis outside in order to get the tank under the chain block. It isn't heavy but there is no hand space around it inside the seat box so we had to drop it in with a rope.

It does look nice in daylight!

Tim steadied whilst I pulled the chain.

The top straps were then placed on top and the pins wangled in. Getting the split pins in was difficult, however!

Once the tank had been secured, I trial fitted my new tap handle. Fortunately, I got the length just right!

Another tick in the box!

Now I must puzzle out the pipe routing.

Steve    🙂

Edited November 12, 2023 by Old Bill

[Old Bill]

Something else we have been puzzling over is how the bump stop springs are attached to the rear axle beam. Well, it suddenly became obvious when we spotted these rather rotted bits.

The springs are clamped to the axle with some bent hooks. Father made up some replacement clamp plates

And bent up some new hooks.

Simple in the end!

The hooks just need trimming to length.

Another tick in the box!

Steve  🙂

[Asciidv]

I like the even tight radius bending. No mean feat!

[Old Bill]

We had a nice time over the weekend. ad has been painting the dash board and the time has come to fit it.

We carefully manhandled it in without scratching it.

And then bolted it to the braces using some coach bolts previously cut down by Dad.

Looking good!

I made up an adaptor and pressure tested my oil relief valve. It cracked at around 5psi which I deem to be perfect. A very lucky guess with the spring!

Then we fitted it.

It was something of an intelligence test as the elbows all foul each other and it would only go together in a very specific order. Pleased with the result though.

We then drilled through the new brace to fit the throttle pedal and floor support casting. It really is a weird pedal but exactly correct.

Dad has had a load of steel for the bodywork delivered.

He has also had the front corner braces cut and bent.

He has drilled and painted these and they are ready for fitting.

He has also picked up the back plates for the side braces laser which were cut with the help of our friend John for which many thanks. The square holes are to accept the heads of the coach bolts.

These pieces are parts of the tailboard hinges and the main hood bows, ready for when we get around to them.

[Old Bill]

I cut off some of the steel angle to make the side braces which are 90° bends. They were probably forged around but my blacksmithing skills are not up to that so I elected to cut and bend the angle before welding a gusset back in. First job was to makke a slot at the bend.

Then out into the forge one dark, wet night and I bent them around, hot, with the assistance of my bending block.

Then I welded some pieces into the corner. This was the best example of my welding. As you know that is a skill I have yet to master....

Some work with the angle grinder and I have six acceptable angles.

The tailboard is secured to some bent flats at the back of the body.

These are the tailboard catches which I proceeded to weld into position.

I am not showing my welding of these. Suffice to say, the angle grinder and Isopon filler are very much my friends with this type of job!

All ready for paint.

The body is coming to the top of the pile of things to do. The timber is on order and we hope to make a start over Christmas.

Steve   🙂

[mammoth]

Noted the use of square (rather than hex) nuts - nice.

[ruxy]

I suppose most people just accept the word 'dashboard'  like  garage without question to origin , I think the construction / finishing of this Peerless dashBOARD  - finally nails the matter - other than  DASH  &  btw  , I don't know the origin of the word garage  ?

[Alastair]

My encyclopedia tells me it is from the French "garer" to shelter.

As to dash board it was originally the board in front of you on a carriage that prevented pebbles and suchlike, having been kicked up by the horses, from hitting you.