Karrier WDS

Doc · June 5, 2020

2 hours ago, Great War truck said:

Sorry for making you pay so much. That was me.

That's ok. Public auction. Always has to be a bidder and an under bidder.

Andy

Tomo.T · June 5, 2020

Lovely pics of a Karrier WDS, with attendant gentlemen of the ASC (They didn't receive the Royal prefix until 1918.)

The chap with lighter coloured outfit is a fitter and is wearing a faded blue suit of overalls to protect his uniform

Sadly it is not possible to identify the unit from the WD number on the bonnet.

Doc · June 7, 2020

It's that time again. This week's progress has largely been about cleaning and painting front axle parts.

Don't be fooled by the bright sunshine in the first few pictures - these were taken last week but somehow didn't make it into the post.

Near side hub-cap removed.

End of near side stub axle exposed, also eccentric oil groove cut in the end of the hardened steel knave.

Stub axle with flat for grease distribution, also thrust bearing. Note the absence of felt oil seals, compared to the Leyland for example.

Near side front wheel ready for paraffin washing.

And the same again; this time the off side front wheel.

These parts had clearly been sand blasted back in the 70s and with several coats of paint, all that was required was paraffin washing, sanding down and repainting.

Small parts - hub caps, king pin covers, greasers, pins, spring hanging links have also been prepped and painted.

Above and below: first coat red oxide primer.

The ever-so-helpful wheel stand was brought back inside and now supports both front wheels. These are receiving the same treatment.

Getting a bit crowded in the workshop, so the easiest way to manoeuvre the off side front wheel was to lift it clear over the top of the stand...

...before guiding it onto the end of the tube.

Prepped and in first coat oxide. Note the jubilee clips to stop the wheels trying to escape!

Doc · June 14, 2020

I'm now enjoying a well deserved sit down, so, not content to be completely idle, will take the time to post a short update.

Front wheels have been painted up to top-coat green and now need to wait for the paint to harden before I can consider lifting them.

There was a dawning realisation that if I wanted to refit the front axle then the hooks needed to come off and be cleaned up and painted. So these have been playing catch-up alongside the spring hanger links, king pin covers and hubcaps.

Sorry, not the best picture....

Meanwhile, the spring hanging links were loose fitted to the chassis in readiness to receive the front axle

The front axle was manipulated comparatively easily using the high-lift pallet truck. Fitting the front pins was a bit of a fiddle, but we got there in the end.

Offside front pin and hook were first to be fitted

Followed by the nearside (don't the hooks look handsome!)

With the rear pins in place, the truck was lowered and moved out of the way, giving access to prepare and paint the underside of the axle beam and the fork ends of the radius rods.

Note the odd pin with the greaser mounted at right angles. This is to clear the track rod.

Other work this weekend:

The engine was paraffin washed while the front axle was out of the way. Looks much better for it.

Also made the most of the nice weather and shredded a few wire brushes. The angle grinder cup brushes were particularly poor value for money. But the result was that the manifold and exhaust were ready for painting.

Another thing that doesn't seem as good as it once was: aluminium paint. Used to need two hands to stir it; a far cry from the watery stuff that masquerades as paint now. The pictures below were taken after the second coat. Two more will be required, I think.

The tail end of the pipe still needs to be repaired. I have no idea when I'll be able to do this and I didn't want to waste the weather. So this will have to be touched up afterwards.

Scrunt & Farthing · June 14, 2020

6 minutes ago, Doc said:

The angle grinder cup brushes were particularly poor value for money.

There appears to be loads of rubbish crimped-wire cup brushes on the market now, mostly from usual shed outlets. When I did my engine I found the only ones that did not shed their wires almost instantly and painfully into my overalls were the SiT brand (I believe they are Italian) or Lessman (German).

Lorry is looking good (better than mine).

Rootes75 · June 14, 2020

That really is some superb work, keep it coming.

EdB · June 18, 2020

Sorry these have taken so long but it's only recently while extracting some hay making equipment that I've had a chance to get anywhere near our old Karrier (or remains of).

I seem to remember there was a query about the prop tube, anyway our chassis still has it fitted, hope pictures are helpful/of interest. Keep up the great work!

Regards. Ed.

Rootes75 · June 18, 2020

13 minutes ago, EdB said:

Sorry these have taken so long but it's only recently while extracting some hay making equipment that I've had a chance to get anywhere near our old Karrier (or remains of).

I seem to remember there was a query about the prop tube, anyway our chassis still has it fitted, hope pictures are helpful/of interest. Keep up the great work!

Regards. Ed.

Is it cut down? Do you have the front end remains too?

EdB · June 18, 2020

5 minutes ago, Rootes75 said:

Is it cut down? Do you have the front end remains too?

We have the rolling chassis with correct wheelbase, it's had the end of the chassis trimmed off for some reason. Was converted into a farm trailer probably prior to ww2.

Doc · June 18, 2020

9 hours ago, EdB said:

Sorry these have taken so long but it's only recently while extracting some hay making equipment that I've had a chance to get anywhere near our old Karrier (or remains of).

I seem to remember there was a query about the prop tube, anyway our chassis still has it fitted, hope pictures are helpful/of interest. Keep up the great work!

Regards. Ed.

Ed,

Many thanks for taking the time to photograph the torque tube details and post them. Brass plate indeed references Spurrier's patent, as I suspected. Any chance you might do a bit of brass rubbing. It would be great to be able to get a replica made for mine.

Regards

Andy

Doc · June 21, 2020

Sunday evening at the end of week 13 of lock-down (can you believe?!) and time for another update.

It was time for the front wheels to come off the stand and be reunited with their respective stub axles. First the off-side wheel, which had to come up over the top, before being stood out of the way.

Next the near-side wheel was lifted off the stand and manoeuvred to a convenient location.

Off-side wheel was re-fitted first; I was offering the wheel up to the stub axle while David raised or lowered the front of the chassis with the chain blocks.

Next the turn of the near-side wheel. Copious amounts of grease were applied to the stub axle, thrust faces and floating bronze bush before the wheel was slid into place.

Next the front wheel greasers were re-fitted.

Followed by the hub caps.

I'll be on the phone to Trojan Special Fasteners in the morning - the 3/8"BSF x 1 1/4" bolts and nuts used on the hub caps had previously been allocated to the bulkhead buttresses. I'll be needing some more.

I have also sanded the chassis from one end to t'other. I'm hoping to get top coat applied over the next couple of days; I fully expect every fly, gnat, locust, moth and other nameless flying pestilence to descend on my little corner of Suffolk as a consequence.

Rootes75 · June 21, 2020

39 minutes ago, Doc said:

Sunday evening at the end of week 13 of lock-down (can you believe?!) and time for another update.

It was time for the front wheels to come off the stand and be reunited with their respective stub axles. First the off-side wheel, which had to come up over the top, before being stood out of the way.

Next the near-side wheel was lifted off the stand and manoeuvred to a convenient location.

Off-side wheel was re-fitted first; I was offering the wheel up to the stub axle while David raised or lowered the front of the chassis with the chain blocks.

Next the turn of the near-side wheel. Copious amounts of grease were applied to the stub axle, thrust faces and floating bronze bush before the wheel was slid into place.

Next the front wheel greasers were re-fitted.

Followed by the hub caps.

I'll be on the phone to Trojan Special Fasteners in the morning - the 3/8"BSF x 1 1/4" bolts and nuts used on the hub caps had previously been allocated to the bulkhead buttresses. I'll be needing some more.

I have also sanded the chassis from one end to t'other. I'm hoping to get top coat applied over the next couple of days; I fully expect every fly, gnat, locust, moth and other nameless flying pestilence to descend on my little corner of Suffolk as a consequence.

It looks superb in my opinion. You are certainly getting plenty of work in during lockdown.

Kevin

Doc · June 23, 2020

Have taken the first two days of my annual leave entitlement. To be fair they were not unlike my recent work days save for not actually having to do any paid work.

A couple of small jobs now ticked off the list:

1) Front bonnet support. This was lined with felt. I have a sample of the original material in a bag, somewhere. I had some off-cuts of 3 mm felt from a work job, which was ideal. This was cut into strips, or to the arch profile, holes punched and riveted into position with nickel-plated bifurcated copper rivets.

2) Valve chest cover.

Having made one good valve chest cover from the rusty remains of the original two, a replica was required. I've been putting this job off for a while now, but decided to make a start yesterday evening. First a piece of steel was cut to width and the two long edges upset to form a shallow U.

We had a "scrap" shaft, 4" diameter, as luck would have it, exactly the same as the bend radius of the valve chest cover. This was converted into a rudimentary bending jig and, after heating the returned edges, the first bend was pulled round with ease.

The second bend required a bit more care to get it in exactly the right place.

Next the ends were cut to length, corners notched out and flanged up.

By way of comparison, alongside the original.

Trial fitting on the engine.

Finally the two spare ears were riveted on. Job done.

andypugh · June 23, 2020

I love the attention to detail, especially the careful pre-rusting 🙂

Rootes75 · June 23, 2020

Well I think you should be pretty pleased with yourself, lovely bit of tinwork.

Doc · June 24, 2020

9 hours ago, andypugh said:

I love the attention to detail, especially the careful pre-rusting 🙂

Made from an offcut of steel salvaged from under the guillotine.

You may well joke about pre-rusting, but...

The bulkhead is braced by two vertical strips of 3/8" x 2 1/2" steel. The originals had been discarded in favour of new metal in the late 1970's. When I dismantled this some weeks ago I discovered unpainted and nicely rusted metal on the mating faces. I have turned these round so the pitting shows on the exterior faces; looks a whole lot better!

andypugh · June 24, 2020

35 minutes ago, Doc said:

You may well joke about pre-rusting, but...

Not really, it will blend in a lot better. I was joking about it being deliberate as I imagine it was serendipitous.

Doc · June 28, 2020

Just popped in the house to study Karrier front mudguard brackets and the heavens have opened. No choir of angels, rather, it is pouring with rain here. So while I'm sat down, I'll give an update on the week's progress. I have the original foot-board brackets, though one is a little tender. So I cut out the offending material with the angle grinder and a slitting disk. Next I fashioned a piece of scrap copper busbar to fit inside before cutting a patch of replacement metal. Thanks to my brother Gerald for the welding.

A bit of fettling with the grinder and it was ready for the paint shop (after re-drilling the bolt hole).

The new valve chest cover has been worked up to black, though I'm not happy with the finish so have sanded it back since this picture was taken and will have another go...

Meanwhile, I have had another go with the front mudguard brackets. These, of course, had to wait until the front wheels were back in place.

Drilling the mounting holes on our ancient pillar drill

Trial fitting and sighting the position of the first bend.

Had to include this picture just for the colours

Welding where the notch had been taken out

A further bend

Another trial fit. Showed up the first bend was not correct. So this was split, straightened out and the notch filled in.

Looking a lot better now. Position of the final bend being estimated with a thin strip of steel bent to the correct angle and slid along the bracket until the radial distance from the tire matched the front bracket.

Marking out the last notch

More gratuitous pictures of fire - it's a boy thing!

Learned my lesson. Split and notch not welded up in order to leave the bracket malleable.

Trial fitting. Still over-long but looking good. Wish I'd scraped the runs of red oxide primer off the tire before I took the pictures!

And for good measure, I laid one of the new mudguards on for a quick look-see.

Satisfied with the shape the bracket was trimmed to length and the notches filled in. Work on the off side bracket was cut short by the aforementioned heavy shower.

Doc · July 3, 2020

The nice man from UPS just delivered a parcel: 3/8"BSF bar-turned nuts and bolts, from Trojan Special Fasteners. Only ordered on Monday; can't fault that! So hope to be able to bolt a few more bits back on over the weekend.

Doc · July 5, 2020

OK, if you felt a little cheated by the last post, this one has more substance to it. General topic: getting stuff off the floor and back on the lorry.

I needed a small quantity of 5/16" BSF single chamfer nuts. There's a bag of them on the kitchen table in Bristol, but they're not much use to me there. Strangely, in my haste to get back before the lock-down all those weeks ago, they were not top of my list. I don't currently have access to a lathe either. I remembered that I had a quantity of BS 190 1/4" Whitworth nuts, so set about drilling and re-tapping them 5/16" BSF.

Nut suspended on 1/4"Whit tap and clamped in the vice.

Drilled 17/64"

Tap started in the chuck of the drill

Finished off by hand.

Fruits of my labours: six done, two left to do.

This allowed me to fit the foot-board brackets.

(sorry for the poor quality of this photograph)

Next up was the radiator. Last week I had taken the air line too it and blown out forty years accumulated dust and cobwebs from the core. Next I gave the tube fins a good daub off phosphate conversion coating. This weekend I masked the radiator with tape and newspaper before giving the core two good coats of matt black paint. Once dry and the masking removed, the radiator was lifted onto a table placed in front of the lorry, then from the table onto the mounts. These were lined with 1/16" thick rubber sheeting (perished) so two new linings were cut and fitted prior to mounting the radiator.

With the radiator in place, it was now time for the bull bar and headlamp brackets to be re-fitted.

Parts laid out ready

Bull-bar and brackets fitted (with a little help from David, who also helped lift the radiator)

Some of Trojan's rather beautiful new 1/2"BSF bar-turned bolts

Next the front bonnet support was lifted into place.

and in a small departure from originality was fitted with countersunk screws, nuts and spring washers; originally, this was riveted. The "spare" hole takes the last bifurcated copper rivet for securing the end of the felt.

Felt pegged out of the way while the screws gt painted up to black.

She's starting to look like her old self again now...

Citroman · July 5, 2020

Looks impressive.

Scrunt & Farthing · July 5, 2020

Magnificent, doesn't that radiator set it off nicely! Well done.

Dave

Rootes75 · July 5, 2020

Absolutely superb. I know its pre-Rootes but I always like seeing the Karrier badge and sat proudly on that radiator too.

The whole job looks very smart and I take my hat off to you.

Doc · July 13, 2020

Last night, when I came to write the latest update, I realised I didn't have all the photographs I needed. So I just popped out into the workshop to remedy the situation. (I may be working from home, but I'm still entitled to a tea-break.) This week has seen the various nuts and bolts work their way up to gloss. Also I have freshened up the cylinder blocks. Finally, have re-fitted some of the shiny bits...

Fuel filter. As received, the stop-tap had rusted off to a point projecting just beyond the gland nut. I took this to work and drilled out the remains, re-cut the internal thread and turned a new needle, handle and packing washers, before assembling and soldering it all together. Still require packing material for the gland.