Cheers John!

John, seen here, has been round today getting me motivated and helping me put the leafsprings on the chassis. We cleaned up some of the anchor bolts, but John machined the one below and is doing some of the simpler ones too.

Cheers John. I owe you, big time!

Photos from Carl Jones - Leafspring process

Carl Jones very kindly took these pictures of my leafsprings being made.

See the finished products here

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Greased anchor bolt- thank goodness for John

John's a good man! Not only does he have the knowledge, but he is very generous with it. He made this anchor bolt in his precious spare time in school; and goodness knows, we get very little time to ourselves in school these day.

I am feeling enormously relieved now that I can just continue on the project in my own time, rather than the depressing rush and pressure I felt under to have a vehicle ready for June. My friend B says that I will enjoy the show more now because I won't be tied to my own van and will be able to get round more and see everyone else's. I will also be saving a few hundred pounds on getting the van there....which can be spent on the restoration.

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Farting about and problem solving

Today, I rewarded myself for spending several hours marking assessments by spending several more farting around in the workshop - restoration takes quite a bit of farting about, and when not farting, standing round musing. John came round and took away two springs and some shagged anchor bolts, promising to return in a week or so with machined replacements. We have agreed that widening the holes in the mounting castings and widening the front anchor bolts on the rear springs will deal with the bush ID problem.


In the meantime I am refurbishing the rear shackles for the front springs. Today I spent about an hour cleaning up the threads and getting the worst of the rust off. The rubber bushes, surprisingly, weren't too bad. But I shall replace them anyway.

I let myself off the hook today, too. I may not put myself under stress to get a rolling chassis to the June event. It is a lot of expense and stress. I may just go along and enjoy the event and continue the project at a more natural pace......and save the money for the restoration. After all, the work is getting its public airing here.

Leafsprings, by Jones Springs Ltd

I just collected my leafsprings from NTG and the Jones brothers have done a bloody nice job on them. I was pleasantly surprised by the clamps which had been done as per the drawings and not in the compromise style I had seen on other springs at NTG. I appreciate the trouble Jones' have gone to in order to make the springs look original.

I checked, and the trouble they took with finishing the heads of the central bots was well worth it because, as can be seen in the picture above, they fit nicely into their seatings on the axles.

I am, however, a little anxious about the slack in the inside diameter of the rear spring bush. Carl had said he had difficulty with bushes and I'd imagined he meant with the OD. Looks like I will have to make some kind of shim to take up the slack.

I can't just make the bolt larger....unless I gingerly widen the holes in the castings which hold them on the chassis. This is one to discuss with my mate John. John is currently working on making me up 2 anchors with grease nipples.While I was at NTG's, Paul put some rubber bushes on my account. You can see them in the top picture.