Progress this summer

I have achieved quite a lot this summer (schools back next week), but not as much as I'd have liked; everything takes so much longer than you expect. August in the blog archive contains 20 articles, but to summarise, this month's achievements break into four sections: the sourcing of parts, the making of others, the restoring of the engine and negotiations with neighbours.

Parts

I have bought wheel cylinders, wheel bearings, a fuel tank, VHT paint, found two wheels (one of mine was wrong and I didn't have a spare) and hard-to-get domed cold rivets for the leaf-springs. Magpie has also provided info on windscreen rubber profiles and how to fit them, wheel sizing, etc (will do a piece on this); Truman has told me that I can get an exhaust made up fo £75 - and he will collect it for me! I have found someone to do a thoroughly good job of recoring my radiator, after I have modified the frames from one provided by Colin to replace the completely rusted away ones on the radiator Truman very kindly gave me earlier this year. I had hydraulic brake pipes made up (ready flared and with threaded fittings), using dimensions from the original parts manual.

I shall be making up a parts source list in a column on the right of the blog in due course. In the meantime, Truman's blog is a useful place to look for ideas.

Fabrication

I made up the radiator support, the driver's side panel, the radiator baffle, cleaned up the front leaf springs, made chassis reinforcing plates and outriggers, did some experiments with the doors using a template, made a trolley for the cab front and reorganised the workshop to work on the chassis - ready to reassemble the parts on it.

Engine

The highlight of the summer - Colin got the engine finished! Marvellous. I probably should have done it myself, for the complete experience, but I am on a tight schedule and anyway am doing lots of processes other J Type owners are never forced to tackle. This way I have had an expert on the job and have been spared the irritation and frustration of having to research every stage and try to find parts I don't know the names of. And I haven't needed to work out how much wear on old parts I can allow, etc. No, Colin was by far the very best solution.

Negotiations

I'm glad to say that I have got convenient storage and workshop space for the van once my next door neighbour gets her garden back at the start of November, and she has even agreed (in return for me replacing her fence) for me to have a gate through to her neighbour's garage, which is where my van will be. At last I won't be land-locked! I have until then to get both sets of leafsprings sorted out, the axles back on the chassis, the brakes reassembled, the steering reassembled...and the wheels on...so that I can steer-roll the lot through the gardens in two months' time. It all begins to feel possible now.

It WILL be done for the 60th Anniversary of the J Type in June '08! Brilliant! That means that next summer I can do something else.....for a change!

Replacing the outriggers

The outriggers on the 101 had all but rusted away, so I removed what was left of the stubs and filleting-brackets, removed side rivets and generally cleaned up the area. I then cut along the length of a rather heavy duty, welded seam,square section channel to make a length of [ shape (squared U) shape channel for the outriggers. This was wider than the original, so I had to insert a packing piece, but rather than this being a compromise, it actually adds strength (being a splint) and made it easier to clamp the material square.

After a bit of experimenting, the easiest way to line things up and level it was to turn the chassis over, with a friend's help, and clamp a length of shelf-slotting upright (to provide a level) across the main rails, and then clamp the outriggers to this to do the welding.

The outriggers are actually pretty solid - I find I can lift the chassis off its trolley with them - but I don't want to try standing on them until I have fitted the filleting brackets, which I am going to make tomorrow. Below is what's left of the old one.

Typically, I am going to slightly over-engineer these brackets because they support the step and the cab...and because my sheet steel is slightly too thin and otherwise I just have 4 mil plate, which I got at a scrappy and might as well use. I am not going to try to bend it, but will make it in 4 parts welded together. To give additional support and to reinforce the repair by drawing the old and new parts of outrigger together (in addition to the weld), I'm providing the bracket with the part drawn in orange, which will be drilled on the side opposite the suspension casting's domed rivets. (a belt and braces solution). This is the part of my van which suffered most from rust, so I am determined that the repair will be REALLY solid.

Chassis reinforcing plates

I turned the chassis over and removed the severely rusted remains of outriggers and their supports to discover that the chassis beneath had suffered quite badly from corrosion, so I bought some 4mm plate from a convenient local scrap merchant (along with some angle iron to repair the outriggers) and cut and fitted it as snugly-fitting reinforcing plate inside the chassis rails.

On the advice of a friend, I won't be welding them in place, but will be bolting them with high tensile bolts through existing holes (the bolts visible here are only temporary). I'll treat them against rust, then fix them in place when I bolt on those things for which the holes were designed. I chain-drilled holes to accomodate the domes of those rivets which I am not removing. But I have removed the rivets which held the outrigger supports and will bolt the replacements in place.

Fantastic - 1st Start-up (for me, anyway)

http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g102/rivet_101/engine/?action=view&current=engine.flv

Fresh from my phone.....completely unedited, jumpy, poorly defined etc.....but none of that matters because this is it - we get to see my engine actually running again.

When Colin took it away it was a great big, seized, greasy lump of rust.

She Goes!

Colin tells me the engine is going! I am off to see it tonight. Excellent.

I'll see if I can't film the start-up.

Mr Magpie and Billie Piper

I have been exchanging emails the last few days with "Mr Magpie", owner of the van featured in the Dr Who episode where an alien takes the form of the Watch with Mother presenter (Maureen Lipman) and sucks people's life-force out of them through their TV Sets, which have been supplied to them by Mr Magpie.

I first met Magpie at Gaydon a few years ago when he was then displaying 3891 EV (the Austin 101 truck in my "Correct 101 Face" section on the right). It was he who bought the blue builder's truck that Truman and I had hoped to buy together, and is making great progress with its repainting; rather unusually, using housepaint.

We made contact again when I bought a fuel tank from him on ebay for about a quid, which I am due to collect shortly, along with a pair of 16" wheels, which he has very kindly supplied for a song....thereby restoring my faith in the kindness of J type enthusiasts (after the Brian Squirrell fiasco).

Getting back to Dr Who, Magpie tells me he met Billie Piper, who admired his van. Lucky beggar. He ought to get one of those blue and white plaques you see outside notable buildings, testifying to the fact. Sigh, I'd have been admiring Billie.



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An Austin 101 in 00 model railway scale

I was having an idle search on ebay on Sunday and spotted three J Types in 00 scale (1:76)! Fantastic!

They are Classix, by Pocketbond. Diecast with nicely proportioned wheels (unlike the Corgi ones, by the way), there is a green fruit and veg van, a British Railways one (of course!) and the 101 is a Home Dairies Ltd van with a Milk logo on the side.

I ordered all three from Les (known on ebay as toy444). But what really delighted me about the 101, when it arrived, is that it isn't just a J Type van which has been painted to look the part, but actually has the correct front grille.

Superb!