Ian

Making the taper fit part was quite interesting.. Starting with this pillar drill leg off cut.. This may take a while! Taking shape. Turning it around, the raised blue bit in the middle was cut. So I could centralize the PTO clutch plate to mark the holes for drilling. A view of it from the outside. Now for the fun bit, cutting the taper inside! The hole was bored out a bit.. Deep breath.. Here we go.. A little was cut out at a time, checking the fit on the tapered crankshaft, the then angle of cut was changed very slightly until I had it spot on. Once I knew I had the angle right out came loads of material. Woo-hoo it fits Due to a slight change in design (fitting the PTO) I had to take some more material out of the pulley part. The two parts shrunk fit together.. No separating them now! I was very happy with how well they fitted together, you can see here how good a size match both parts are Pulley and PTO plate bolted on.... This was by far the most complicated bit of lathe work I had ever attempted, and to date the bit of lathe work that I am most proud of

Memories indeed Mark I still remember the day Pete and I got the rolling chassis out of the shack... I gave the chassis a gentle prod with my foot, and she rolled out the shack door, bumped down the step as the ramps hadn't been put in place quite yet, and then rolled half way across the garden with the aid of a slight down hill slope And now for something that's completely out of "build order" as it's getting rather hard to work out in what order things happened! Well at this stage of the build anyway, the order will work it's self out later in the build.. To get power from the engine to the trans I had to work out how to get a pulley on this tapered shaft on the engine! After lot's of strange measuring... I came up with a plan.. To make sure I would be able to make the parts on the lathe I used Google Sketch-up to do some 3D modeling, The "pulley" part started as this thick heavy square of steel. Taking shape. A pulley blank. Getting into the groove.. Part 1 of the pulley done.

This may be a long shot, but are all the clutch pipes firmly fixed in place where they should be? If the pipes break loose and get near something very hot like the exhaust manifold, the clutch fluid could be getting hot which would thin it out giving you less or no clutch pressure? Just a guess really as you have had just about all the clutch components replaced over the years.. I bet if the van used a clutch cable rather than hydraulics the problem would of been fixed first time it happened... Sometimes the old ways are the best

As always I'm amazed at your attention to detail Richard, very impressed at your flywheel balancing

It was indeed No wonder most of my fillings were shaken loose I'd hate to drive the Holder over speed ramps flat out!! That would really hurt

Don't forget to waxoil your new pick-up, it should keep the iron oxide at bay for a while I'm not sure where I would start on your blue pick-up, I'm guessing replacement panels are a bit thin on the ground... and any donor trucks would have the same rust problems by now unless you find one that really has been pampered from new... How good are your metal fab skills? Your going to have to make a lot/most of the repairs panels/patches by hand!

Have another one of my "Clocks out of context" series... This one I call "Peek a Blue"

I like the big green lawn trimmer, it looks like someone has chopped a push mower in half

I'm not sure where I'd start on that, so much metal missing! It must be nearly 20 years since I last did any car body repairs! This might be of help to you, this chap has been rebuilding a Vauxhall Victor, his hand fabrication is the best I've seen... It's worth a read, on the second page he starts showing how he made the repair panels/patches.. It might give you a few ideas.. http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/65793/1962-vauxhall-victor-fb-panels Some very cool cars on that forum too

Your be pleased to know it's been a productive day Kenny, I did find a few more small holes in the hood, so more patches coming up.. Just not today Today I've been tackling some thicker metal, no not the seat pan but the fender pan Here it is as arrived! A bit of straightening soon made the back a lot less flat and a lot more like the shape it should be. A dig in the pile of metal off cuts unearthed these two bits that were left over from making the 6x6 fenders.. Hhmm, this looks like it should work. Ok the line is not quite original but unless your a serious spotter with a tape measure no one will notice the difference To fill the gap between the two "er... bits where the lines get lower", a dig under the bench found this off cut... Don't worry Mark, your corners are still safely stashed away Quite a while later... The rusted away lines are back While I was under the bench I also found this long forgotten 300 series side cover. Trimmed down a bit. See these rusty holes? Gone!! Almost.. The patch just needs a little tweak then it's ready to be welded in.. If all goes well I might even get the fender pan finished tomorrow!!

Wet but not sad, it looks like a great time was had by all Thanks for posting

Ouch!! That's not looking good!

I need to come and pay you a visit for some test driving Nigel, your having way too much fun there

Nice videos Nigel, good to see Noddy getting a thrashing..... I like the new decoration on the red bars at the front

Looks like a fun time Nigel. Did the boy wonder win? I'm not sure but where they are racing looks local to us both? I may be wrong of course, it is a Sunday after all

The new axles needed some key-ways cut in them... I was going to do it the easy way this time.. A slot mill was bought and this bit of bracket work was made for holing the axle on the lathe. An action shot. A freshly cut key-way.. Now you can start to see why this build had been taking so long to do.. 20 bit's hand made on the lathe, and these are just the front and middle axle parts! The front axle being mounted.. And a visit from Andy (Wheeledhorseman). All four axles mounted, bit hard to see two of them though.. Three wheels off the ground, getting close now to the first real milestone Which was a rolling chassis A quick bit of hood stretching.. And off the bench she came.. This was the first time I had been able to have a good view of her all the way around... I was very happy Pete having a drive And that I think is a good point to stop for now, thanks for reading hope your all enjoying this build..

While on the subject of engines I might as well post this here.. Another Fleabay find but this time a good one... A Kohler M20 with seriously low hours... Less than 1 hour on it when I bought it!! It was bought new as a spare for a wood chipper, only it was never used just started once in a while to make sure nothing seized! As you know this engine runs and sounds great This may not be in the right order of the build, but there you go.. Confused.co.headscratch! At this point (I think it was at this point but can't be sure!) I still needed to make the middle and front axles.. One axle taking shape. One machined and two blanks. The part the wheels actually bolt on to were cut from this thick steel.. Same about the hole in it, but that's an easy fix. Machine a bit of bar so it's very slightly too big for the hole. And bung it in the freezer for a few hours to shrink.. When the time was right the hole was heated to make it expand a bit.. The shrunken bar was then dug out of the freezer and beaten into the hole.... I don't think it will come out now You can just about make out the bit of bar during turning.. Marked out for wheel bolt hole drilling. Cutting the threads.

Back to the "fitting the controls in a tight space" problem.. After measuring both the C-175 body (which has all the right holes for the controls) and the Raider body I found they were almost (and I do mean very close) the same width.. Lot's of measuring and marking out.. Chopped! Welding old and slightly less old together. A little filler bit. Ta-Daa.. I'm now getting very confused working out when and in what order things happened... All my photo's are numbered but something has gone amiss somewhere!! So have some engine photo's... I was never sure the 12hp engine I planned to use was powerful enough, so I took a chance on a very cheap Fleabay engine... Of course the package had to arrive at the shack in style A Kohler M18 engine in kit form.. Bit's everywhere! Even though the bare engine turned over by hand the valves wouldn't open on side, so the case was split.. Problem found... The camshaft gear was missing a few teeth!! Add in the very deep rust pitting in this barrel meant the engine was only fit for parts! Oh well, at least I paid less for it than the parts were worth

Morning chap's, it's about time I got some more of this build posted up, so here's some more More steel was added to the chassis, the small box section running front to back is to add some more strength and give me somewhere to bolt the inner axle bearings onto. When it came to adding the extra steel on the right side I ran into a drive belt problem! The pulley on the 8 speed trans was so low the drive belt would have to "around" a bit of structural chassis!! A removable section in the chassis just wasn't an option! The solution landed on my bench a couple of weeks later when this large lump of Wheel Horse C-175 was bought.. The Eaton 1100 hydro trans has it's drive pulley mounted up high on the pump... It's behind the cooling fan on the far side... Working out how to get the hydro control levers etc... Inside the skinny Raider body was going to be interesting Meanwhile getting the wheel hubs off the new trans was proving to be a pain.. One hub puller with a stripped thread! After lot's of repairing/breaking my hub puller, the wheel hubs eventually came off with the help of a grinder!!

That doesn't look too bad Chris, who cut the large bit out the side of the front panel? Looking at the rear, I'd better make a template from Kenny's hood I will PM you at some point today Chris. Sorry Kenny, no more progress on your parts. I did start straightening your seat pan out yesterday, but my balance went on holiday so I thought the shack was not the safe place to be.. Fingers crossed I'm back in operational condition tomorrow.

Hi Chris, I can't help you with your dipstick, but Welcome to MOM.. Good to have you aboard

A very productive way to sped your winter Andy.. Making a former out of wood to press the repair patches show real dedication.. A fantastic Job Sir

Thanks Neil, yep the rusty look would be the way to go... It would feel a bit strange making the fresh steel rusty after cutting out the rust that was there