March 2005 Update on garage work and restoration progress

More work done on the E83W pickups and Dodge panelwork this month

E83W Activities
At times it feels like our home is becoming a retirement home for destitute Ford pickup trucks, and two new finds early on in March did nothing to reverse this trend. I'd known about a flatbed E83W for a little while that was available down near Manningtree, in Essex, and swift negotiations sealed the deal, the only thing that delayed me was suitable towing transport. With the recent arrival of a sturdy old Merc estate, complete with towbar no less, it was just a matter of hauling a hefty trailer southwards at a mutually agreeable time, and collecting the aforementioned pickup.

Early March was enjoying a real cold snap, with the eastern side of England copping for plenty of snow and icy roads, not ideal conditions to recover a fragile old truck on a trailer, but that was a minor consideration only. It was about 5 miles from the target destination that blizzard conditions set in, with quite a swirly snowy vista welcoming me to the vendors house. Nothing majorly bad you understand, but chilly enough to make loading up the Ford onto the trailer a less pleasant experience than normal for collecting a new treasure.

The run back went without a hitch, and the shapely remains of this classic Ford were soon gracing the driveway (shown here with my Standard 10). Needless to say my dear lady was quite emotional at seeing this latest acquisition, as was I naturally, but for different reasons.

I don't think she understands the necessity to accumulate numerous examples of a particular vehicle, citing that only one can be driven at any one time (see what she thinks about my collections here). Of course the latter argument has some truth to it, but the moment that common sense gets in the way of buying another historic motor vehicle, I'll seek urgent treatment.

With this Ford swiftly consigned to the darker corners of a recently built shelter (built with housing Fords in mind), I was beginning to claw back some of the many brownie points that I'd lost through buying this truck. The announcement that another Ford was due to be collected within 4 days of this one (well it was more of a reminder than an announcement, as I had gingerly broached the subject some time earlier) necessitated me making all kinds of concessions and bargaining pleas, in order to prevent me being turfed out to kip in the garage from then on. I carefully explained that this latest acquisition was not so much a casual purchase as one of great usefullness, given that some years back it had benefited from a comprehensive mechanical rebuild with many new parts, some of which ok will need freeing up a bit, but have zero mileage or wear on them. Even the cab was very saveable on it. The worst that could happen is that this one would be good parts donor for the others, the best that it could be refurbished to a usable state given the mechanical work that had already been done. After explaining these obvious merits in the plan, I disappeared to a dark corner to plot my route, southwards once again.

This time dad came along to co-drive, I still had the trailer on loan from the previous pickup rescue mission, so with that hooked up we set off to Sussex to retrieve this latest addition to the set. We found the guys place ok, and were soon looking over this abandoned restoration project. The refurb work had been done some time ago, prior to a housemove and shift of priorities. Since the move, the poor little Ford Thames had been consigned to the corner of the garden, open to the elements and covered in greeny gloop from overhanging tree branches. Despite this, it was clear than beneath the grime it was a useful find. The old girl was easily winched up on to the trailer, and we retired to our hosts kitchen to tuck into some buttered scones and a mug of tea. An hour or so of pleasant chatter came to an end, and we set forth on a lengthy trip oop north with this latest cargo.

The trip back went to plan as before, and this late 1940s greeny-encrusted pickup was back at base. Next morning a jetwash session soon had the crud removed and a basically solid cab and good chassis was clear to see. With this done we rolled it down into the now-full shelter, alongside the previous E83W and the Dodge's streamlined trailer, also now enjoying an undercover existence.

With number of these little Fords stretching by 2 in under a week, it seemed sensible to consider moving one of them on, the chosen vehicle being the 1946/7 E83W I'd acquired back in 2004 which needed more work than either of the 2 recent purchases. The '47 was now much more complete than when I collected it. I'd fitted a replacement drivers door, grille, and more restorable pair of front wings, thus making it a more complete kit as opposed to an incomplete rolling chassis. This little beauty went on ebay, and was bid up by an 'enthusiast' somewhere in Gloucestershire. This, err gentleman, then turned up to collect, argued that I'd misdescribed it, despite me pointing out the work required all spelt out clearly in the auction listing, that he'd conveniently not read properly. Timewasters like this do turn up from time to time, and make selling anything on ebay a sometimes fraught experience. When someone turns up who isn't a welder, buying an item that so obviously needs welding work, and then complains about it, can be a real pain au derriere. Thankfully he didn't stick around for long, and I was left with the problem of what to do next. In the end I sold it for a great deal less to someone who wanted a little pickup to restore and run around in at weekends, so hopefully it's gone to a good home. Selling anything goes against the grain, so I have no plans to reduce the collection any more, all too painful!!

Despite these movements, continued work on recommissioning my green pickup has been progressing ok, the one that I bought way back in 1992. It hasn't been on the road for over 10 years and needed a fair bit of fettling up to get it back to MOT-able status. The engine and box came out a while back, to allow a new clutch to be fitted and a replacement box bolted on, the original having a cracked casing. As I'd removed the front end panelwork to hoik the ensemble out onto the garage floor, I dropped the front axle off to fit a new spring and clean the chassis up a bit. This 10cwt Thames will never be a show vehicle, so my aim is to tidy her up enough to use as intended, but not worry about having a mirror-finish paintjob. With the axle off it became obvious that the shackle pins were knack'd, so I took it to a local 'olde worlde' garage, the owner agreeing to press in new pins to the axle for me (he pressed the new clutch bearing into its housing too, thanks!).

The axle is now back here and ready to go back on the truck, the cleaned up engine and box now refitted back in the chassis. The narrow engine bay in this type of Ford, with its semi-forward control layout, makes swinging in an engine and box a tricky affair to say the least, especially as the universal joint on the back of the 'box has to mate up with the pinion on the torque tube, this type of Ford not having a traditional propshaft setup like most other cars and light commercials. All thats needed now is to refit the axle, connect up the clutch linkages, and test things to see if the new clutch and s/hand gearbox work as intended. If they do, I plan to tickle up the bodywork before treating it to a fresh brushpainting in dark green.

Dodge delights
With all this sidevalve Ford activity of late, progress on other things has faltered a little. The big news regarding the Dodge truck (also sidevalve powered, but this time by a 5.4 Chrysler unit!) is the return of the freshly refurbished front wings, sizable items and needing a great deal of pro metalwork attention to get them sorted out. I've been looking for the last 2+ years to find a decent body person who could do a decent job on them, for a price I could realistically run to. Late in 2004 I was pointed to a guy locally who is very handy at panelbeating and spraying, he agreed to do the wings for me, and for a reasonable price given the amount of work they needed. I'm happy to try most things when it comes to old vehicles, but with the complex curvatures on these wings I didn't want to risk damaging them or making a lousy job of it, hence calling in a pro. I got the wings back last week and the result is amazing, I'd never believed that they could be restored so well, given the amount of dents and edge damage that they'd acquired since 1940. But back they are, and now stored with the sandblasted and primed inner wings that are ready to go with them.

More info on the Fords can be found at www.e83w.co.uk and the Dodge at www.old-dodge-trucks.co.uk. An overview explaining more about the old cars I've had in recent years can be found on the My Classic Cars page, so worth a look if you're not yet fully asleep...