A better day at the office....

.....well, a much better day at the office today after the fiasco of a couple of weeks ago.

Managed to get the new voltage regulator onto 326 this afternoon but still not bolted on properly as the aluminium tube I ordered to create a sleeve around the stud so I could tighten the nuts was 1mm too narrow! Still, it's wired in and, with a loose battery fit, the ignition comes on! I didn't start as it's not earthed properly yet.

New voltage regulator in place and wired up:

 Not started but at least power is flowing!

Got the bulb changed on the rear blue light - switched it on, the bulb came on but no 'flash'. Off with the cover, whizzed the worm drive motor off that drives the reflector and manipulated it a bit, cleaned the terminals, put it back together and hey presto - it works! Also discovered that the flashing orange lights at the front still work too! The two-tone horn compressor fires up but no sound, so one for the future maybe.

Got the rear light cluster off to sort the bracket out after a fight with all three nuts, which needed a spanner or socket all the way off! Does it have a plug on the wires? Oh no, so all the lights had to be un-wired and the wires pulled through the back.... Rubbish!! Not looking forward to getting that back on....

The result of backing into a tractor on my first test drive - oops!

Got the new period windscreen wipers on - that was pretty easy!

Also, whilst on the roof wondering how the rear blue light was mounted, took off the small inspection panel at the rear of the roof. I then gazed in wonderment at the pristine wood around the hatch and inside, which is  good news and confirms what I thought about the condition of 326 when I bought it.

Hatch off - decent, good condition wood - in fact, the smell of wood coming out of the sealed cavity suggests that it's all in pretty good contition!

Inside - still as good as the day it was put together:

Hatch:

Front wings in fair condition, just some rust on the top edges:

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.....

After a bit of a quest, I have managed to find some new windscreen wipers that match the old ones. With flat windscreens, GGs used the older style of flat bales without the built in spring mechanism that modern wipers have to keep the blade in contact with curved windscreens. They seem to be quite hard to get these days - after quite a bit of web searching, I found that Britax / PSV Wypers still make them and as they sell to trade only, I then tracked down a specialist 'screenwiper systems' company called Transwipers in Worcester. Result, for not much more than modern wipers, a pair of classic wipers which are far more suitable and look the part! Oh, and which move water off the windscreen!

Bad day at the office, darling?

So, having planned to pop up to put on the new voltage regulator, I set forth with much in mind and a list of jobs to do. Arrived, set up, extention lead out, fan heater on in the cab. Great.

Old regulator came off easily enough, wires matched what Dan and Rhys from RSOLES had been talking about last night, marked them up with masking tape. So far so good. Popped the new one on then realised that my small fine screwdriver set which I would need to connect the two smaller wires to the terminals was at home on the box room. Fair enough. Anyway, started to screw on the nuts to hold the unit on and as there is now much more thread exposed than there was, do I have any white spirit and a cloth to de-grease the thread? Nope, that's under the sink at home. Can I get a socket or spanner into the right hand nut (which is the earth as well) which is now sandwiched in a narrow gap between the box and the cab side? Nope. Anyway, rough fixing done, will complete next time.

Next - I'll whizz the bulb out of the rear blue light on the roof which doesn't work. Cover off no worries, gently working the bulb out - snap! Base now stuck in the fitting, no small screwdrivers to work the remnants out.

OK - I'll take off the rear nearside light as the bracket is badly bent from where I reversed into a tractor on my original test drive so I can take it home and straighten it. Hooked the work light up, sat on my cardboard with all the tools and a wire brush and WD40 - clang! Work light falls off, buld dead, spare at home, no light. Job finished, so a scrape with the brush and a squirt of WD40 for next time.

Hey ho - did get the rusty badge off the front for re-chroming and remembered the windscreen wiper so I can replace the blade. Also discovered that weirdly, the heat exchanger taps at the the front don't have a matched flow / tap handle set up, so what I thought was open (handle pointing along the pipe) was in fact closed! Anyway, opened and a small amount of water came out after I jiggled the pipes but not much.

After that, I thought it was time to go home really. I'd only break something else! Friday the 13th? Pffft, try Sunday 15th.... I guess some days just go like that.....

Duncan.

It's always good to give your tool kit a good scrub

Well, what better way to spend a tedious new year evening when there's nothing on telly? Sad but Christmas at a very nice hotel in the Lakes and Hogmanay in Edinburgh seem a lifetime away.

Having acquired a hearth kit, it had sadly seen better days with quite serious rust progressing nicely as the contents hadn't just been damp but submerged! The bag was given a wash in my almost volcanic hot water with a little washing-up liquid and a stiff brush before drying. The tools required a little more work.... It's amazing what 3 litres of coke does! The tools were soaked in this most festive of drinks (think about that one....) and other than an occasional prod and scrape, came out in much better shape as you can see.

Sadly, the 2 saws will need even more TLC and I'm not sure that coke is the answer here!

All the gear, no idea?

Well, as Christmas bears upon us and the year draws to a close, after only a couple of months of ownership I can put my feet up and enjoy the festivities knowing that kit-wise, 326 is now pretty much complete. After a quick (!) trip to west Wales earlier this week, I returned with pretty much all the things that I need to complete the kit as carried during Op Fresco (i.e. the kit that would have been on it when it was cast and sold of by the Home Office in 2005 that has since gone walkies). A pry bar, hearth kit, axe and pick axe all made the journey home along with a spare dynamo (just in case there's a drama that the new regulator doesn't cure and if the dynamo has lost its polarity) and a few other bits. A few items need a little TLC (so a good soaking in coke for the rusty bits) but that can wait for the new year!

Happy Christmas!

Is that a ground monitor in your lounge or are you just pleased to see me?

Now term has finished, finally found time to nip down to LW Vass in Bedford to collect my early Christmas present. There, nestling forlornly in a corner of one of their stores was my ground monitor. These weren't part of the kit carried in 2002/3 on Op Fresco (the point at which 326 will stay in terms of colour and kit) but they are apparently good fun....

Rhys' ground monitors in action

We'll skip over the bit where I put it in the back of the MG and then closed the boot with the keys inside (a couple of their mechanics, some small wedges and a long wire.....).

He threw a nozzle spanner and some more nozzles in too! Anyway, it's now in my lounge on display until I can put it in my friend's garage with the rest of the stuff. Not that I mind as it does have a certain industrial beauty!

Ground monitor with kit, serial number EFS 0056, still with most of its protective coating on:

Unused nozzle spanner - if you look through the protective layer, you can just make out the ER cypher and date - 1-54:

Nozzle detail:

Dunno about Nate Dogg and Warren G but I also had to regulate...

Well, back from another weekend on the south coast and it's a good 4 degrees cooler here in Rutlandcestershire. Came back via Dorset to see a very nice chap with some GG spares. Shopping list isn't too bad at the moment (I could quite easliy go mad in a supermarket sweep kind of style!) but I did bring home a solid state voltage regulator for 326. These were procured by TNT when they maintained the GG fleet at Marchington and it was apparently intended that a good proportion of the fleet, if not the the whole lot, would receive these more reliable solid state regulators to replace to old 1950s versions fitted. So, anyway, having bought them they were never fitted and were sold off when the fleet was sold in 2005.

The one I have still has a tag on allocating it to a vehicle - PGW 206. No idea where PGW 206 is now...

Here's the old one in situ. A handsome 1950s bakelite box but not that effective now:

Here's the new one:

It even has a backing plate on with holes which match the current holes in the dash! Good thinking.

PGW 206 - where are you??

I also returned home to find this latest eBay purchase had arrived in the post. So now I might be able to understand how the pump works......!