Henry Boler

Hi All, The next stage of the rebuild is underway now, that is the rear axle. I sandblasted the whole unit with the wheels still attached as I couldn't get the wheels off to begin with. Masked everything up that I didn't want to get sand in so all seemed well until I actually did the job. Turns out the right hand side torque tube near the differential on the front side has some nasty corrosion, odd because there is none at all on the left side, would this be exhaust related? Anyway, I blew some holes in the casing with the sand and thus presumably got sand in the differential which means the only option now was to fully disassemble the whole thing for a total clean up. I intend on having the corrosion brazed up which shouldn't be a problem. I'll attach some images just to give you an idea. Note the axle is all black because it now has a rust proof coating on it. It was silver after the sand blasting. Having stripped this thing down completely now, I will start going through each part one by one cleaning and assessing etc. Some issues already standing out for me are what gasket material should be used on the axle end caps and pinion cap and what thickness? Seems that my end caps have thick rubber gaskets on them which mean the bolts were not very tight and I'm not sure how they would have been holding the bearings in place. Also, presumably the axle could have fallen out if those bolts did shake loose...? Any other tips info or any guidance with the rebuild would be much appreciated. I have rebuilt differentials before and I think I'm happy with the setup side of things with the gears etc. Just want to make sure it is all correct. Cheers, Henry

It's interesting you mentioning this particular bit. My ones have those little grooves in them. I need to clean the other 3 shackles up and have a close look at them all I think.

Thanks for that Tom, really interesting and very helpful! I've been thinking about this and I think that I'm going to have to fit modern shackles to the springs for the time being so that I can get the originals fixed properly some time as it looks like they will take a while!

I have a 1931 British UF-10. And here's a photo of the chassis. I have the front floor section too which I can get some photos of for you if you still want them.

Hi All, I've been working on the front suspension of the truck this week and have come across a problem that needs dealing with. The spring shackles on all four corners are shot. Not bad considering it's 90 years old, but bad enough they can't go back together like that. Basically, the pins, of which there are eight, four pressed into the chassis and four pressed into each spring are completely worn through. These should be easy to have remanufactured, unless someone knows where I could just buy some. These are straight ground with a taper on each end and a hole through the middle, the look to have started life as a tube before machining. The shackles are also worn in the same spots the pins contact them. What should I do? I'm not 100% sure what these are made of. Presumably the shackle is cast iron, but is the journal lined with a different metal or is it just steel running directly in iron? I was thinking about braising these up and then machining a new cup into them to match the new pins I will have made. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Henry

Hi All, It has been a long while since my last update. But I have just finished the sand blasting job on the truck chassis and have released a video to show just how much fun I didn't have during the long process! Click Here to see the video on YouTube Click like and subscribe on YouTube if you enjoy the video to support my channel! Check out the other videos on the channel too! Thanks all and take care! Henry

I just realised I never said thank you for these photos. How rude of me. So, thank you very much! Much appreciated. Henry

I've just released "The Dash" part 3 of 4! Restoring the Oil Pressure and Ammeter this time. Click like and subscribe on YouTube if you enjoy the video to support my channel! There're all sorts of other videos to watch there too!

It makes all the difference in the world!

I've just released "The Dash" part 3 of 4! Restoring the Oil Pressure and Ammeter this time. Click like and subscribe on YouTube if you enjoy the video to support my channel! There're all sorts of other videos to watch there too!

Thank you! I used the cad system and loaded an image that ArticiferTom sent of his fuel gauge and then traced over it. It is vectorised so can be blown up to any size etc. The nice thing with cad is whilst creating a vector drawing, you can do it all to exact scale and dimension each part to get it really good.

Thanks for watching! You have no idea how long I was messing about with that speedo before I twigged that I could get the shaft out! Felt like forever, but now it is absolutely silky smooth like a brand new one and there's no slack or anything either. Regarding the coil face, it's interesting you mention the white writing. There was the absolute faintest little hint of the word "IGNITION" from memory, but the funny thing was that it was on the back side of the little plate, not the side facing the driver, I can only assume this has been the case since it was built as the screws and threads etc. all looked completely untouched, but who knows! It was too faint to make out properly unfortunately, but I guess yours would be the same layout relative to the key hole so maybe one day I might try and put it back. It would be really handy if you wouldn't mind getting a really square on close up high quality photo of your key switch face. Henry

I've just released the next dash board video! If you like it, don't forget to click like and subscribe on YouTube! It helps out the channel!

I've just released the next dash board video! If you like it, don't forget to click like and subscribe on YouTube! It helps out the channel!

Thanks John, that’s a handy tip! I’m going to get the whole thing blasted as it is quite bad, and then go over and do it again but quickly before I paint it. Depending on how long it takes I might paint it in sections.

Yeah, it was a tiny cutter. Even managed the tiny "PATD." at the bottom of the face!

And here is the most exciting part!!!

So, some progress is being made. You probably saw the cool photo I did of the gauge in the last video. If not I'll attach it here. A friend of mine is going to attempt to CNC mill the new gauge face today, so we'll see the results soon!

I missed your last message, apologies. I've got some gloss black chassis paint that will go on. Powder coat is a bit beyond what I can do at home I think! I've just released another episode, the start of the dash board project!

I've released another episode now. This time focussing on the dash board restoration!

Thanks Spinneyhill, that's a great listing of parts on that website.

Episode 8 is now released to the public! As usual, the links are above. Cheers!

I've just released Episode 8! It shows my attempts at sand blasting so far. Need more sand and more time and dry weather yet!

And just another one. Where I work is currently on the market and the advert is in square feet, not metres! Even though we're supposedly metric now!

This is very true, and over here in England / Great Britain / United Kingdom, or whatever we're called we still don't really know. We use miles and yards on the road, efficiency is in MPG as you'd expect, half the people measure their height in inches the other in millimetres. We go to the pub for a pint still, and we buy a pint of milk. But to comply with the EU rules we have to display metric on everything, so we have some strange numbers like 568 millilitres of milk written on the carton etc. next to where it says 1 pint! It's a strange old place! And we drive on the right of course and you drive on the wrong, er, I mean left! haha! We've always been in miles, just at some point, fancier cars started having dual gauges that display kilometres in small print inside the miles band. I have a 70s triumph GT6 and took it to Europe for a holiday (vacation), and the kilometres part was completely useless, could barely make out what it said! Thanks for the link. Is that the same part that I would require on my truck then? Are these 1930s bits all standardised?