danthecapriman

When I left school my first job was with Sparshatt & son coach builders in Havant. We used to alter the length of brand new trucks. 
I don’t remember ever doing big conversions like adding axles or anything but we definitely would alter length. 
They usually came in as new chassis cabs direct from the manufacturer then got built up into whatever the customer wanted. 
One of the biggest rolling contracts they had was with John Lewis. We’d get a few new Mercedes rigid chassis cabs delivered a week for building into box delivery trucks with a tail lift. They’d come into the workshop and the first job was removing the light bar from the back, measure up and slice off a few feet of chassis. 
 
The other favourite was removals trucks. Usually they came in as used trucks so there was always a variety of lengths involved depending what their previous use was. There was quite often an amount of demolition involved in them getting them ready for the new body. Then they usually got a chassis stretch to maximise the space in the back. 
Someone in the office did all the paperwork though so I’ve no idea how or what was involved with all that, but the customer would usually turn up after the vehicle was finished and drive them away.

When I left school my first job was with Sparshatt & son coach builders in Havant. We used to alter the length of brand new trucks. 
I don’t remember ever doing big conversions like adding axles or anything but we definitely would alter length. 
They usually came in as new chassis cabs direct from the manufacturer then got built up into whatever the customer wanted. 
One of the biggest rolling contracts they had was with John Lewis. We’d get a few new Mercedes rigid chassis cabs delivered a week for building into box delivery trucks with a tail lift. They’d come into the workshop and the first job was removing the light bar from the back, measure up and slice off a few feet of chassis. 
 
The other favourite was removals trucks. Usually they came in as used trucks so there was always a variety of lengths involved depending what their previous use was. There was quite often an amount of demolition involved in them getting them ready for the new body. Then they usually got a chassis stretch to maximise the space in the back. 
Someone in the office did all the paperwork though so I’ve no idea how or what was involved with all that, but the customer would usually turn up after the vehicle was finished and drive them away.

When I left school my first job was with Sparshatt & son coach builders in Havant. We used to alter the length of brand new trucks. 
I don’t remember ever doing big conversions like adding axles or anything but we definitely would alter length. 
They usually came in as new chassis cabs direct from the manufacturer then got built up into whatever the customer wanted. 
One of the biggest rolling contracts they had was with John Lewis. We’d get a few new Mercedes rigid chassis cabs delivered a week for building into box delivery trucks with a tail lift. They’d come into the workshop and the first job was removing the light bar from the back, measure up and slice off a few feet of chassis. 
 
The other favourite was removals trucks. Usually they came in as used trucks so there was always a variety of lengths involved depending what their previous use was. There was quite often an amount of demolition involved in them getting them ready for the new body. Then they usually got a chassis stretch to maximise the space in the back. 
Someone in the office did all the paperwork though so I’ve no idea how or what was involved with all that, but the customer would usually turn up after the vehicle was finished and drive them away.

After I fired up the engine via the battery charger on Monday evening, I left the battery to charge overnight. In the morning, the charger battery level light was still only on amber, which I assumed meant that the battery was refusing to receive / hold charge. Time for a new battery. 
Getting hold of the correct replacement battery should have been easy but Euro Car Parts, specifically their website, made the process very complicated and it took me two days to source the correct battery.
I have been advised that the battery that was in the Sierra was not right for the car. Apparently, the battery was more suited to a diesel engine or a much larger capacity pez motor.

I measured the battery.

I also measured the battery tray, which has three holes for the clamp bolt, which means that the battery tray can accommodate different sized batteries. Clever.

Replacement battery purchased and fitted.

The weather forecast for today was dry and sunny so I decided to take the Sierra to work.
I got my surveying kit in the boot.

I drove from home along the M40 and M25 to Old Windsor, then into Windsor, then along the M4 and A404 to Marlow, then to High Wycombe, then back home, approx 65 miles, I think.




The exhaust fumes smell has been fixed. Evidently, exhaust fumes have been getting past the old gaskets / loose manifold and downpipe fixings and replacing the lot has fixed the problem.
On route home I popped into Wickes to buy a fence post.

Which fitted easily inside the cabin.

I have a few more jobs in mind for the Sierra but you will hear about them next week as I have non car related plans for this weekend.

50p well spent! I presume it’s missing an engine cover, but hey 50p 😁

Yet more Matchbox, but in boxes now. Firstly this Model A, perhaps not the most exciting casting but I really liked my childhood early cream and green version as depicted on the box

Seller unfortunately just wrapped the lot in paper so the boxes got a bit of damage - as well as underpaying the postage

Coming bang up to date, Modelmatic got a slew of Collectors and Moving Parts 




















Finally, I spotted the last of the latest trio of Hot Wheels Team Transports for not much more than Smyths sell them for. No doubt that means there will dozens on the shelf next week

Sticking with Matchbox, I gained a couple of Laser Wheels 

As well as a Super Kings K70 Porsche Turbo, I'd been on the lookout for a decent example of this release for a good while. It has had a couple of touch-ins on the "sunroof" sticker etc which an annoyance 

However my itchy trigger finger has been at it again, so there were some parcels at home when I got back
First of all a couple of slightly scruffy Volkswagens, the Hot Wheels Sunagon that's quite a difficult one to get at a bargain price

And a Dragon Wheels, as it had an unpainted base rather than the usual black

However I also found one of the Retro 70s re-releases, I'm very tempted to get this out of the blister for a proper comparison 

I might also keep an eye out for the others in the series

Our shunter is OAC. 4x2 tractor unit. 
 
 

I have had 4 wheel tanker chassis shortened and 4 wheel car transporter chassis stretched,done by local engineering companies,no paperwork involved apart from the invoice!

Nice!
 
But, I raise you…


Full CF house!!
 

Found nothing much locally, still dithering over that Matchbox 5 pack with the Minor in Morrisons but I don't fancy much else in it. Might as well see if they drop the price...
Only real 'toy' shop I've bothered with lately is Smyths, and it did nothing to dissuade me that our local one is the dumping ground for all the shite that doesn't sell in other branches. and they've completely done away with Matchbox mainlines, with only a couple of 5 packs reduced to clear
Nothing really of interest among the hot Wheels premiums other than the Porsche set with the VW T1, but didn't really want to blow £24 on it. No Team Transport whatsoever either. Only other bit of interest was that they had that new run of Neon Speeders in, and for once they had the whole range in. I got a few of them, the ones I had most interest in,  and the RX-7 too, as there was only one of those left,

As mentioned on here before, they're not everyone's cup of tea, but this run at least has some good castings in, and being half-premium, they do at least have some good detailing,

Suppose this type of colour scheme suits the RX-7 the most,


One of my favourite HW castings, but I wish they'd done it with the standard rear  arches as theyre one of my favourite bits of the real car,


The tail light detailing and the little GT R badges make this one for me,






Another winner of a casting,



I also recently found another couple of these Fast& Furious ones, the two I've been looking for after bunglebus kindly supplied me with the Jetta. For F&F cars, they're fairly nice and subtle,

I had been tempted by the premium version of this casting, but I'm glad I got this one. I always think these Novas are handsome things, especially with a bit of slight modding, and as mentioned on here before, this one's almost as good as the premium one, but less than half the price,

It still happens quite a lot. I've seen a good number of tractor units, particularly ex Stobart Scanias, made into 6x2 or 8x2 rigids. That involves not only a chassis stretch but usually moving the lift axle to the rear (most tractor units are midlifts but almost all rigids are tag axle) and in the case of eight-wheelers adding another steer axle.
This one for instance was a Stobart 6x2 unit (PO66 UHU, Isabelle Skye), not that you'd recognise it as such now.
 

Youngest son next to a stunning ERF about 20 years ago, my once boss is part of the family who ran this in fairground days..

It can be done quite easily, but I’m not 100% certain on the exact laws. They have to be IVA approved I think, which means it gets tested to comply with the rules of a rigid vehicle and a change of chassis and then a new VTG plate is issued. 
 
i am no longer working for Mercedes Benz. I am now I’m my 3rd week of working for Trailer Auto Group, a new company specialising in the refurbishment of trailers owned by part of the Culina/stobart group. We have over 150 old “Eddie stobart” trailers on site being stripped, blasted, repainted and rebuilt in “Stobart” or “Culina” livery. I am part of a 6 man team rebuilding and servicing the running gear on trailers. Much better, more relaxed and less stressful way of working. 

I started working for WS Transportation a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been allocated this Scania 18 tonner on pallet network and general haulage work.

Interestingly, it was originally a 4x2 tractor unit running in Eddie Stobart livery. In common with several sister trucks, it was stretched and converted to a curtainsider in 2021 (judging by the body builders plate on the door shut). At a guess, acquiring new trucks was difficult post-Covid, so the existing fleet was adapted to suit changing operational needs. Being a 410, it goes pretty well for a four wheeler! Here is a pic of it from the Eddie days, borrowed from ‘eastleighbusman’ via Flickr.

Nice!
 
But, I raise you…


Full CF house!!
 

Here's one I de-gassered earlier.

I'll be back with better pictures soon.

You think you have?????

As promised, the old Corgi A60 is painted!
I still couldn’t decide on colours. I very nearly painted it maroon with white stripe, but having tested the paint colour first I wasn’t convinced. 
But, to be honest the colour scheme corgi used was nice. It was just the L plates and roof wheel thingy that bothered me so I decided in the end, if it ain’t broke… or whatever!
So,


Lada Adriatic blue with a gloss white stripe. The blue will tone down a bit once it dries. 
The stripe was a bastard to mask up well. A combination of fairly rough casting edges along what would be bright trims on the real car and this particular car has some pretty heavy chips and dings in the same place so the tape was hard to cut where they were. But, it’s a toy that’s been played with over the past half century plus so what do you expect!
The good thing is though I can disguise the wavy edges between blue & white by painting in the bright trim which Corgi didn’t do. That’ll have to wait a few days though as the blue needs to harden off.
There is a bit of a ding/damage to the boot lid too which I didn’t fix, and a slight - very slight! - bend to the roof… but it’s an old toy!
Not sure if I’ll find a replacement front solid axle for this or just glue the original steering wheels in the straight position. 
Obviously the steering mechanism won’t be getting refitted so the steering wheels will just flop around independently of each other if I don’t glue them.
I still think Corgi missed a trick not releasing this model later, maybe by altering the tooling to remove the L plates and fill the hole in the roof, and punt it out in various colour combo’s but what’s done is done I guess! We’ll never know!

Here’s something I didn’t know existed.
The Dinky casting for the Ford D series, I knew about the early type with early grill and opening doors and of course the late type with non opening doors and late style grill.
But I found this.

Early grill, non opening doors. In that same yellowish green the last version of the Johnson road sweeper comes in. I didn’t realise they did these like this. Almost an intermediate version of the D series.

Nice!
 
But, I raise you…


Full CF house!!
 

Nice!
 
But, I raise you…


Full CF house!!
 

I see your CFs and raise you an old Fiat

I've got "wood"