Hello and welcome to a glorious bank holiday weekend update from Quorn. Two wagon restorations are finished and two tanks go grey.
Saturday started with Dan finishing off signwriting the two builders plates on the Lowfit B452718, whilst Mark, Oliver, Tom and Nick applied a coat of varnish to the body of the Lowfit and also the Conflat B507489.
Ernie and myself got the Esso Plate jig out and fitted the brackets for the east side of 3689 to the jig, which was then offered up to the tank barrel, checking the bracket positions before grinding each of them up as required.
With the jig in place again each bracket was tack welded; the jig was then un-bolted and each bracket fully welded in place; Charlie and myself also having a go at the welding. Once cooled Oliver applied some red-oxide to the new brackets.
Charlie did a bit of work on Edward’s frame and bodywork, however some further work is required to get him operational again to reliably provide a source of compressed air.
The Test Car’s generator was run-up to warm it through, the throttle linkage was adjusted to get the generator running speed correct to give 50Hz output; then in accordance with the workshop manual the cylinder head nuts were re-torqued up whilst the engine was warm. This involved removing the rocker cover, rocker-shaft, injectors and various fuel pipes from the top of what was quite a hot engine.
We decided to leave the re-assembly of the generator until it had cooled, so Sunday morning Ross and myself re-fitted the injectors, rocker shaft and fuel pipework, then re-checked the tappets, with only one needing very slight adjustment. The rocker cover was then re-fitted with a new gasket, new rubber top-nut seals and a smear of sealant.
The fuel system was bled and it started up first time, and the Test Car’s compressor run up to check operation, and the air used to blow-down the two tank wagons 3854 and 3689.
Having now got a reliable source of compressed air, the main focus for Sunday (on one of the hottest days of the year so far) was for Ross and myself to get ourselves wrapped up in protective overalls, masks, gloves etc and break out the paint spraying equipment. Some grey primer/undercoat was thinned, mixed and checked for consistency.
After Nick had removed a few spiders webs and bird droppings, we then set about spraying the two Esso tanks 3854 and 3689, starting with the north ends and east side of both wagons.
More paint was mixed as required and we moved round to the west side.
Nick and Ernie followed behind us with brushed to attend to parts that we couldn’t easily reach with the spray-gun.
By the end of a very warm day we had both the tanks looking very grey. The spray equipment was given a good clean out so it will be ready for when we need it to apply the black gloss top-coats.
On Monday, Nick, Charlie and Ross brake tested the Conflat and Lowfit together using the little test rig before the mercury started to climb. Both passed with minor issues, one needing a brake adjust and the other requires a bit of lubrication.
With the brake test complete, Nick got the undercoat back out and touched in more areas that myself and Ross couldn’t get to or missed.
With the weather being so hot, not a lot else could be achieved with most of the team retiring to the shade for most of the afternoon. Next week, we shall hopefully be getting the gloss out and getting the two tanks into their black top coat. Join us then and see how we get on!
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