project 1951 Lanchester LD10 - Welding Near Wood

[Christine]

Imperial fibre washer on a metric bolt ...?

 

I found another old map in the attic !  Imperial too ,

 

[vulgalour]

Do you go through a wall of fur coats when you go into your attic?  Look out for chilly bints handing out sweets.

[dozeydustman]

Splendid stuff chap!

 

I must ask, do you have the matching attire for such a vehicle yet?

[Christine]

?  I'm dreading the day we get struck by lightning...or the roof blows off in a gale..and the neighbours see all the hoarded useless stuff I've got .!  ? There's 2  of those huge jugs and washbowls u p there..  why ? No one uses wash bowls and jugs anymore ..victorian fireguard ?  Film cameras ? Video players? Cassette players ?  

[vulgalour]

@dozeydustman depends which era we're representing.  Most folks would go straight for 1950s tweed, etc but that's not quite right.  In the 1950s this would probably still have been a nice looking car.  Where it sits now is more 1975-1985 when it wasn't worth much.

I've thought more about this aspect than I should because I like to nerd out about it. 

Dog Collar Clergy - We know the last person to use the car regularly was a living in a mostly rural area, must have been at least in their 50s, if not older, and was probably connected to the church.  They might not have been of the dog collar and cassock variety, but the conservative and comfortable clothing look is probably what you'd go for here, a fairly easy one, but I'm too young for it.

Farmer Brown - the car spend a long time on a farm and bears the scars from it.  It bears the scars from use in rural areas too.  Farmers like to buy good quality, use them until they're broken, fix them without spending money and use them until they're broken enough to spend money on them.  The same goes for clothes.  Scruffy worn out tweed jacket or woolen jumper, scruffy jeans or corduroys, well worn old leather boots or wellies.  I'm just old enough to pull this off, but it's not really me.

Alternative Culture - The car came off the road about the same time that punk and goth were around and established enough to be a recognisable look.  Cars were still mostly a luxury for people in their teens and twenties but something like this would appeal being both weird and cheap.  You could make a statement keep it running cheaply enough and not be as worried about doing Chelsea Cruise and the like as if you were a more mainstream youngster.  Not a hot rod type car so probably more the sort of thing an aspiring goth would take on.  Leather trousers, pointy boots, pirate shirt, massive hair, make up.  I'm too old to represent this accurately now, but my wardrobe would let me do it and it'd be fun.

Sod The Sixties - To fit my age to the car and when it would look like a banger, I reckon the '65-'75 window is about right.  You're in your late 30s, you've got a job and you rent a house, but you know you'll never buy.  You haven't the time or energy for being an entrepreneur so you just have a factory job.  Every time you just about think you've got your feet under you, another bill appears to pull the financial rug out and land you back on your arse.  Fortunately, you've got this old banger that just keeps going, it's not fast, it's not pretty, but it's reliable.  You haven't the money to do it up and it's not worth much, but it gets you from A to B and it's just about the only thing you can rely on.  Outfit would be a pullover and synthetic fabric trousers, tired but clean dress shoes, white shirt and a plain tie.  I have some items that might work, but they won't look correct to anyone that knows what 60s clothes should look like.

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Christine said:

?....No one uses wash bowls and jugs anymore ...

They might be used as props in theatre / film / telly costume dramas. Presumably you have matching chamber pots as well?

[somewhatfoolish]

Is it some kind of potatocam artifact or is there a lot of arcing around the plugs on that vid?

[vulgalour]

That's the spark plug testers, you're supposed to be seeing those sparks.  Once we knew we had sparks on all four when we should, we removed them for moving the car.

[Christine]

Erm...yes there  was a commode..it went to the tip... 

 

 

 

[dozeydustman]

10 hours ago, vulgalour said:

@dozeydustman depends which era we're representing.  Most folks would go straight for 1950s tweed, etc but that's not quite right.  In the 1950s this would probably still have been a nice looking car.  Where it sits now is more 1975-1985 when it wasn't worth much.

I've thought more about this aspect than I should because I like to nerd out about it. 

Dog Collar Clergy - We know the last person to use the car regularly was a living in a mostly rural area, must have been at least in their 50s, if not older, and was probably connected to the church.  They might not have been of the dog collar and cassock variety, but the conservative and comfortable clothing look is probably what you'd go for here, a fairly easy one, but I'm too young for it.

Farmer Brown - the car spend a long time on a farm and bears the scars from it.  It bears the scars from use in rural areas too.  Farmers like to buy good quality, use them until they're broken, fix them without spending money and use them until they're broken enough to spend money on them.  The same goes for clothes.  Scruffy worn out tweed jacket or woolen jumper, scruffy jeans or corduroys, well worn old leather boots or wellies.  I'm just old enough to pull this off, but it's not really me.

Alternative Culture - The car came off the road about the same time that punk and goth were around and established enough to be a recognisable look.  Cars were still mostly a luxury for people in their teens and twenties but something like this would appeal being both weird and cheap.  You could make a statement keep it running cheaply enough and not be as worried about doing Chelsea Cruise and the like as if you were a more mainstream youngster.  Not a hot rod type car so probably more the sort of thing an aspiring goth would take on.  Leather trousers, pointy boots, pirate shirt, massive hair, make up.  I'm too old to represent this accurately now, but my wardrobe would let me do it and it'd be fun.

Sod The Sixties - To fit my age to the car and when it would look like a banger, I reckon the '65-'75 window is about right.  You're in your late 30s, you've got a job and you rent a house, but you know you'll never buy.  You haven't the time or energy for being an entrepreneur so you just have a factory job.  Every time you just about think you've got your feet under you, another bill appears to pull the financial rug out and land you back on your arse.  Fortunately, you've got this old banger that just keeps going, it's not fast, it's not pretty, but it's reliable.  You haven't the money to do it up and it's not worth much, but it gets you from A to B and it's just about the only thing you can rely on.  Outfit would be a pullover and synthetic fabric trousers, tired but clean dress shoes, white shirt and a plain tie.  I have some items that might work, but they won't look correct to anyone that knows what 60s clothes should look like.

 

This with maybe an appropriate overcoat? Or even a fetching hat?

 

 

 

[Uncle Jimmy]

If I was of that persuasion those are the kind of lads I'd wish to hang out with.

[spartacus]

Your average punter won't be thinking in half as much detail as you are Vulg, anything mildly eccentric will do I reckon.

Purple trousers and a fedora...

[captain_70s]

19 hours ago, vulgalour said:

The problem was not one we expected at all.  @barrett had suggested the blowing exhaust could cause the issue and he was correct!  We'd gone through and checked all the other items and everything appeared to be as it should be so the last thing to do was check we had sparks on all four plugs (that's the flashing lights in the video) which we did, and to seal up the blowing exhaust better.  Astonishingly, sealing up the blowing exhaust made the biggest difference, we assume the engine needs the back pressure provided and without the length of the system it simply wasn't getting enough. 

The Acclaim works it's down-pipe/manifold nuts loose every few thousand miles which causes rough running until they're nipped up.

The Dolly ran better with it's exhaust missing than with it fully functional...

[PhilA]

2 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

This with maybe an appropriate overcoat? Or even a fetching hat?

My old man still has a wardrobe full of clothes like this. He still wears them too. 

Cat poo brown overcoat thing and brown trousers. Never went out of style (!), never wore out because it was made from something thermonuclear special new thread. Very 1967.

[vulgalour]

Well... the helicoil solution didn't last, though it's not really any fault of the helicoil.  Removed the banjo bolt and used a fine sharpening stone on the face of the of the carburettor to see how imperfect it was.  The first sign of trouble was tiny bits of alloy casting on the stone which didn't seem right at all.  Completely removed the carburettor to get a better look and one of the reasons for the leak became very clear.

The casting itself is, for want of a better description, rotten.  You can crumble little pieces off it.  The helicoil came out without that much resistance too and much of the thread that was cleanly tapped has also disintegrated.  There's not a lot can be done about this.  You could use chemical metal and it might hold for a while, the only problem is the material it would be bonded to is too badly degraded and will continue to degrade so replacement is likely the best option here.  The other reason for the joint not sealing is the difference in thickness between the new (on the left) washers and the old (on the right) washers, the new washers are just a bit over half the thickness of the old ones.

We're on the lookout for a new carburettor or carburettor chassis/body now.  A direct replacement would be preferred, this one is a Zenith 30VIG-5 C1226.  That would allow minimum fuss refitting. We've been keeping an eye out for one of these just in case something like this happened and haven't found one yet.  It doesn't stop the progress on the car completely, new tyres are going on tomorrow or the day after schedules permitting and if the weather is good and there's time, more paintwork polishing will be done too.  There's plenty to keep us busy even without the ability to drive the car.

[vulgalour]

Good news!  Just found a 30VIG-5 chassis on eBay for £35 and the thread that's failed on ours looks great so fingers crossed!

[PhilA]

Ah, crap. That's what's known as Zinc Pest. No fault of your own, that's lead impurities in the metal from the foundry.

The only way to fix that is what you're doing; replacement.

Phil

[Rocket88]

I know that this sounds sacrilegious, but could, in extremis, a Weber or S.U be adapted to fit ?

[sloth]

lots of hornby guys have issues with that. its destroyed a lot of valuable trains. as said dont worry. 

[sloth]

32/34 weber would be the go. though getting the c/r up from 7 to 1 would be a better idea. 

[PhilA]

You might find that other parts of that casting are affected internally and it's warped, swollen, cracked and leaking.

At worst, the metal expands about 115%, which will take even the simplest cast shapes well out of tolerance.

Hopefully the new one is in good shape and has it running smoothly again.

Phil

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, sloth said:

32/34 weber would be the go. though getting the c/r up from 7 to 1 would be a better idea. 

Why? It'll run adequately at 7:1 without issues like detonation, preignition and it'll also lose the low end flexibility it currently has, making that gearbox awkward to use.

I'm guessing the engine is fully pressure oiled, going by the fact it's got a filter; also because Daimler I'd guess it's got proper white metal bearings rather than Babbitted insets. 

I'd also put a guess that the drivetrain as a whole is probably good for about 50-60hp tops, which is probably more than the brakes are good for...

Phil

[sloth]

downsides being coking, oil usage and shorter service intervals plus a harder effect on plugs.  a modest raise to 8 to 1 would see a better burn, a gain in power and torque and a better fuel economy figure.  this thing is long stroke, it s power band is measured in singular digits. its been shown multiple times a mild raise in cr helps massively. 

obv its up to vulg what he does, just my tuppence worth. 

 

 

[vulgalour]

We just want to use it and see how we get on with it first.  Then we'll decide if modifying things is what we're after or not.

[Christine]

No carburettors at all in my attic ...☹️

[busmansholiday]

9 minutes ago, Christine said:

No carburettors at all in my attic ...☹️

And sadly neither of my Lucas windtones want to play ball now I've charged up the spare battery. Must add them to my "to doo" list.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, sloth said:

downsides being coking, oil usage and shorter service intervals plus a harder effect on plugs.  a modest raise to 8 to 1 would see a better burn, a gain in power and torque and a better fuel economy figure.  this thing is long stroke, it s power band is measured in singular digits. its been shown multiple times a mild raise in cr helps massively. 

obv its up to vulg what he does, just my tuppence worth. 

 

 

True, but using the correct plugs and understanding the technology in the engine is only just post-war in terms of metallurgy, pre-war in design and tolerances helps to realize there's going to be a factor of running an older car regardless. Modern oil tolerates the coking much better, and it's got a what, 2000 mile oil change schedule anyway?

Even a bump up to 8:1 puts additional pumping load on the bearings and gaskets in the long run.

Town putzing it'll be fine. There's a Princess for high speed long distance running.

Phil

[Christine]

I was readingg something on the net ....is there a resistor in the horn  circuit somewhere ?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 hours ago, PhilA said:

....Even a bump up to 8:1 puts additional pumping load on the bearings and gaskets in the long run...

....hmmm, turbocharging.....

[PhilA]

36 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

....hmmm, turbocharging.....

Rootes supercharger.