From Under the Bus
Progress on the restoration of the Leyland bus stood still for six months while we waltzed around Britain. There was some hope it might have been painted in our absence but in retrospect it was lucky it wasn't. The firm who were going to do it, professional bus body builders and repairers, quoted $26,000 plus GST for it to be done in two-pack sprayed enamel (ie enamel with a hardener: don't try it at home it's toxic and needs all sorts of gear).
So it went to Smithfield, sat for a month while they got around to looking at it, and came back from Smithfield, unchanged, except that we noticed it had a clicking noise in the gearbox in second gear. The gearbox came out, was overhauled using some parts from another box of the type, and some new bearings and seals, plus a thorough clean up and paint job.
THE GEARBOX going back in: that thing you see hanging from the ceiling is a chain block: a block and tackle that works with chain instead of rope. Talk about a stroke of luck: an old mate from across the road moved house, cleaned out his rabbit warren of a workshop and found he had THREE of them and would I like one? This a week before taking the box out. The bus body is built with a screw socket in the ceiling for this very task, so it was performed very professionally.
A BIT OF INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY-- STAMPED ON THE CASE OF THE GEARBOX IS ITS DATE OF ASSEMBLY. ELSEWHERE ON THE CASE ARE THREE SETS OF INITIALS: THE MEN WHO PUT IT TOGETHER IN 1938. (SO THEY COULD BE BLAMED IF IT GAVE TROUBLE). THE BUS WAS ACTUALLY BUILT IN 1936, SO THIS GEARBOX IS ONE IT HAS ACQUIRED AT ITS LAST OVERHAUL IN 1955.
New arrangements have been made for painting: long ago, when it was first ready for it, I wrote to Rob Gregor who had painted the Albion double decker 25 years ago and done it superbly by brush, and asked would he like to do this one? He lives at Engadine on the southern fringe of Sydney, and doesn't drive so he politely declined. Option 2, ask Custom Coaches, $26.000 please.
Next step, rack brains, think maybe Rob would come to the museum at Tempe and do it there, closer to his home, but the roof leaks at Sydney Bus Museum, and it's a dusty place at times. Brainwave 4: maybe the Tramway Museum at Loftus, where I have been a member for 45 years, and where I am helping restore their 1938 Albion double decker, would let me park it in a shed there, only one train stop from Engadine. (For the story of the 1938 Albion, see: www.albion1615.blogspot.com ). Yes they would, so write to the Board of Directors and clear it with them, and contact Rob again. Yes he'd be happy to. Phew. But he can't start until about late September when he can take two weeks' leave, and anyway some of the paint has to come from UK, where they still make enamel you can brush without having it dry on the brush as you try to apply it.
Which leaves a lot of spare time to tidy up many loose ends, such as getting upholstery done. And finding a firm to bend steel tube to make new seat tops, and a firm to cut the lugs to go on them which attach the seat backs, and a firm to do all the electroplating of bright parts, including the seat tops. And rounding up a few last items of glass to complete the stock of windows. (Some were victims of .22 bullets shot presumably at rabbits when the bus lived on the property at Yeoval NSW).
A COMPLETED SEAT WITH ITS NEW TOP HELD IN PLACE WITH STEEL DOWELS IN EACH SIDE, AN IDEA PRESENTED TO ME BY A FRIEND YEARS AGO, TO AVOID HAVING TO REPLATE THE WHOLE SEAT FRAME.
THE DRIVER'S SEAT NEWLY UPHOLSTERED IN LEATHER (DON'T TELL PENNIE). All 30 seat cushions and backs have been done, plus a few oddments of trim for the driver's cab, including the sun visor. Son-in-law Tim found the upholsterer: he redoes the seat cushions for the gym machines where Tim works, at the Forum complex.
SOME OF THE HUNDRED OR MORE PIECES OF PLATING BACK FROM SWIFT PLATERS, SILVERWATER. A LOVELY JOB AT A SURPRISINGLY MODEST COST.
So when painting is complete there will be a whirlwind of window fitting, covering of lower deck floor, seat installation, interior trimming, fitting of lights and many oddments, with the hope that it will be ready for Motorfest on January 26th.
THIS IS THE AUTOVAC, A CONTINUOUS SOURCE OF LOW LEVEL DIFFICULTY. THE THREE-WAY COCK UNDER THE LEFT OF THE BLACK BOX OOZES DIESEL FUEL QUIETLY OVER A LONG PERIOD, LEADING TO A STICKY, DUSTY MESS. Somebody recently commented as I showed them the problem that it would be very simple just to get rid of the cock and fit a new pipe connection! Unthinkable! That thing, and the mess on the bulkhead, is such a classsic feature of early Leylands that it never occurred to me to abandon it. After trying paper oil jointing, then a thick cork gasket, the latest attempt is using reinforced rubber sheet. After three days it hasn't dribbled.....
A Merit Certificate for anyone who can guess what the Autovac does.
For the whole story see: www.leyland1379.blogspot.com
So it went to Smithfield, sat for a month while they got around to looking at it, and came back from Smithfield, unchanged, except that we noticed it had a clicking noise in the gearbox in second gear. The gearbox came out, was overhauled using some parts from another box of the type, and some new bearings and seals, plus a thorough clean up and paint job.
THE GEARBOX going back in: that thing you see hanging from the ceiling is a chain block: a block and tackle that works with chain instead of rope. Talk about a stroke of luck: an old mate from across the road moved house, cleaned out his rabbit warren of a workshop and found he had THREE of them and would I like one? This a week before taking the box out. The bus body is built with a screw socket in the ceiling for this very task, so it was performed very professionally.
A BIT OF INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY-- STAMPED ON THE CASE OF THE GEARBOX IS ITS DATE OF ASSEMBLY. ELSEWHERE ON THE CASE ARE THREE SETS OF INITIALS: THE MEN WHO PUT IT TOGETHER IN 1938. (SO THEY COULD BE BLAMED IF IT GAVE TROUBLE). THE BUS WAS ACTUALLY BUILT IN 1936, SO THIS GEARBOX IS ONE IT HAS ACQUIRED AT ITS LAST OVERHAUL IN 1955.
New arrangements have been made for painting: long ago, when it was first ready for it, I wrote to Rob Gregor who had painted the Albion double decker 25 years ago and done it superbly by brush, and asked would he like to do this one? He lives at Engadine on the southern fringe of Sydney, and doesn't drive so he politely declined. Option 2, ask Custom Coaches, $26.000 please.
Next step, rack brains, think maybe Rob would come to the museum at Tempe and do it there, closer to his home, but the roof leaks at Sydney Bus Museum, and it's a dusty place at times. Brainwave 4: maybe the Tramway Museum at Loftus, where I have been a member for 45 years, and where I am helping restore their 1938 Albion double decker, would let me park it in a shed there, only one train stop from Engadine. (For the story of the 1938 Albion, see: www.albion1615.blogspot.com ). Yes they would, so write to the Board of Directors and clear it with them, and contact Rob again. Yes he'd be happy to. Phew. But he can't start until about late September when he can take two weeks' leave, and anyway some of the paint has to come from UK, where they still make enamel you can brush without having it dry on the brush as you try to apply it.
Which leaves a lot of spare time to tidy up many loose ends, such as getting upholstery done. And finding a firm to bend steel tube to make new seat tops, and a firm to cut the lugs to go on them which attach the seat backs, and a firm to do all the electroplating of bright parts, including the seat tops. And rounding up a few last items of glass to complete the stock of windows. (Some were victims of .22 bullets shot presumably at rabbits when the bus lived on the property at Yeoval NSW).
A COMPLETED SEAT WITH ITS NEW TOP HELD IN PLACE WITH STEEL DOWELS IN EACH SIDE, AN IDEA PRESENTED TO ME BY A FRIEND YEARS AGO, TO AVOID HAVING TO REPLATE THE WHOLE SEAT FRAME.
THE DRIVER'S SEAT NEWLY UPHOLSTERED IN LEATHER (DON'T TELL PENNIE). All 30 seat cushions and backs have been done, plus a few oddments of trim for the driver's cab, including the sun visor. Son-in-law Tim found the upholsterer: he redoes the seat cushions for the gym machines where Tim works, at the Forum complex.
SOME OF THE HUNDRED OR MORE PIECES OF PLATING BACK FROM SWIFT PLATERS, SILVERWATER. A LOVELY JOB AT A SURPRISINGLY MODEST COST.
So when painting is complete there will be a whirlwind of window fitting, covering of lower deck floor, seat installation, interior trimming, fitting of lights and many oddments, with the hope that it will be ready for Motorfest on January 26th.
THIS IS THE AUTOVAC, A CONTINUOUS SOURCE OF LOW LEVEL DIFFICULTY. THE THREE-WAY COCK UNDER THE LEFT OF THE BLACK BOX OOZES DIESEL FUEL QUIETLY OVER A LONG PERIOD, LEADING TO A STICKY, DUSTY MESS. Somebody recently commented as I showed them the problem that it would be very simple just to get rid of the cock and fit a new pipe connection! Unthinkable! That thing, and the mess on the bulkhead, is such a classsic feature of early Leylands that it never occurred to me to abandon it. After trying paper oil jointing, then a thick cork gasket, the latest attempt is using reinforced rubber sheet. After three days it hasn't dribbled.....
A Merit Certificate for anyone who can guess what the Autovac does.
For the whole story see: www.leyland1379.blogspot.com
2 Comments:
Mail certificate to morpeth@hotkey.net.au
if I have the correct info!
The patent Autovac vacuum petrol feed apparatus has for its object the elevation of fuel from a main tank placed below the level of the carburetter, thereby gaining the advantages of accessibility, increased fuel capacity and correct weight distribution.
The system employs a small auxiliary tank usually mounted on the engine side of the dashboard, with its base above the carburetter float chamber. It is divided into two chambers - the inner or vacuum chamber being connected to the induction pipe and main petrol tank, and the lower or reserve chamber to the carburetter. Communication between the two is via the drop valve at the base of the inner chamber.
The engine suction creates a partial vacuum in the upper chamber, thus closing the drop valve and drawing up petrol from the main tank. As the fuel flows in, the float rises. When it reaches a certain height two valves are operated - one cuts off the suction, the other admits air; this admission of air destroys the vacuum, releases the drop valve and allows the petrol to flow into the outer chamber. As the reserve chamber is always open to the atmosphere through the air vent the fuel flows to the carburetter by gravity.
As the float falls with the outflow of fuel from the inner chamber, the valve mechanism is again actuated and the operation of taking in fuel is repeated.
This girl knows her stuff. A pedant (I did meet one once) would point out that a diesel bus has no carburettor, but an injector pump, and there is no petrol involved, but then Autovacs were far more common on cars of the 20s and 30s than on buses.
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