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1951 LD10 KKV 222

Descriptive and in-depth articles on how to do repairs or restoration. (Wilf's articles visible by forum members only).
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watkindj
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Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by watkindj »

Darren
South Cambridgeshire
XJ Registrar &
LD10 Registrar
LD10 Website Webmaster Incorporating (Worldwide Lanchester LD10 Register)
http://ld10.awardspace.co.uk

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by Vulgalour »

Thank you for the link and the reminder. I'd had a look at the site and somehow managed to miss the bit on the steering column/wheel. We've been a little waylaid since the last update when my daily driver 1980 Princess decided to blow the head gasket. I shan't go into the details here, suffice to say there's a few other items I'd like to take care of that means taking the engine out of the car to sort and that has rather taken priority over the Lanchester for a little bit. A reshuffle of the tiny garage to accomodate the new tools and give just enough space to work on the Princess' engine has led to the Lanchester getting rather hemmed in.

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We'll get back on the Lanchester jobs as soon as we can, we've just been a little waylaid for the moment.

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by Vulgalour »

It's been all quiet here lately on the Lanchester front, and is set to be for a while longer yet. Working hours and the weather are putting paid to any sort of progress. Additionally, the garage roof failed after a particularly heavy downpour.

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We were aware that the roof wasn't the best job and it's been on the long term list since we moved in last December. We had hoped to replace it by now, but with Covid that put everything back further than we would have liked. We just wanted one more winter out of the roof so we could comfortably afford to replace it. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and we had to call in a favour to get it sorted promptly.
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Luckily, we had a favour we could call in and we found a local roofing company who could come out and fit a new roof very quickly for us. They also repaired the damage the previous roof fitter had caused, and the damage the weather had done, before fitting a nice new roof, better supporting beams (in addition to the original beams), new pointing, reseated the capping tiles, and of course a complete flat felt roof with a 15 year guarantee. They managed to do all that in just four hours and when they left, with the exception of the new roof, you'd never know they'd even been.
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Unfortunately it does mean there isn't any money to spend on the cars for a while now and with our working schedules and the weather being what they are, we may not be able to make any progress on the interior or other jobs on the Lanchester for quite some time now.

HenryC
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Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by HenryC »

That's really bad luck. Sorry to hear it.

I'll look forward to your continued posts in due course.
Cheers, Henry Curwen
Registrar for Conquest & Century Saloons (DJ250/1, DJ256/7, DJ260/1)

Conquest (Drop Head) Coupe DJ252

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by Vulgalour »

We managed to find some time to get back on the horse, as it were, and have a nice big update for you all along with a decent video which we hope is informative. Learning how to improve video editing, what to record, what not to record, and put together something not too boring is a steep learning curve!

---

The door cards for the Lanchester are now, finally, finished. These haven't been that difficult a job, just a victim of circumstance with schedule clashes, poor weather, and other things like the garage roof failing. So, some highlights and then a video. I'll make the written update a bit whistle-stop since the video goes into greater detail on just how this job is done.

The main issue with the door cards was water and woodworm damage (limited to just one card and none of the surrounding wood, strangely) which had rendered the old plywood very brittle. All of the old steel brackets and felt discs were salvaged from the original door cards, as were the rexine and and carpet covers. Even the elastic cord could be re-used with care. At the risk of repetition, the goal here is conservation rather than restoration. Using the old boards as a guide, we drew around them onto the new boards - a single sheet of 8'x4' 5mm marine ply was ideal, 4.5mm would have been better as that's what the original was, but that doesn't seem to be available and 4mm was too thin - and then cut out the various holes for the rivets and door furniture with a combination of drill and jigsaw.
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After that, some of the edges - top and short side on the rear cards, top and both sides on the front cards - had a bevel sanded on to them, this was a copying of the original boards and we found that it help give a much better fit of the fabric on those areas compared to the boards before the bevel was done. Any tear out and splinters were also sanded off. Old on the left and new on the right in the image below.
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Then the brackets were refitted to the new boards using the copper bifurcated rivets we found on eBay that were a very close match to the originals, and finally the black felt discs added to the relevant door furniture holes, one per door card.
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The factory number and colour were scribbled back on in pencil by Pat, as well as a new date for when we did the work on them, it's part of the story after all.
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After that, the markings for the cotton wadding were transferred from the old boards to the new ones and new wadding was glued in place in the appropriate locations.
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A lot of tacks applied for the various layers, the old elastic cord rethreaded through the new board and new knots made to keep it there.
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The top edge of the cover was glued down with Bostick contact adhesive and held in place with wooden pegs while the glue cured.
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Finally, the door cards were then given a thorough press on the ironing board, using a teatowel to protect the rexine from the heat of the iron and the iron from any risk of ending up covered in melted or scorched rexine. It would definitely have been easier to assemble with new contact adhesive, new vinyl, new elastic, and staples. However, we opted to go for the original methods because it worked and because it was a lot cheaper to buy the materials we needed in NOS form on eBay, especially since the tacks (or staples if we'd gone that route) had to be very short and getting staples that short for a regular home staple gun isn't easy. Here's a little overview of the tools we used.
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It took about an hour and a half to two hours to strip each door card down, and about the same to build them back up again, so definitely a labour intensive job. However, the end result is very pleasing for what we're trying to achieve, that being keeping as much of the original look of things as we can rather than restoring to as-new. Because we've used tacks instead of staples, when we come to remove the carpet sections to replace them with new to match the new carpet the car will be getting, the old stuff will be a lot easier to remove. Since we're a long way off getting the carpetting and we don't want to lose parts, it makes sense to do things this way and put it all back together again rather than waiting until we can afford however much proper wool carpet we need to do the car. We're both very happy with the end result of these, the look right and they smell right and we can't wait to get them back in the car.
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It was very satisfying to finally have a couple of weekends when we could sit down and get these sorted out and when we get another dry weekend together, we'll get them and hopefully the dashboard back in the car. For a more detailed look at the job, and a little bit of an update on car things in general, please do check out the video over on the Youtube channel:

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by Vulgalour »

It's been a little while. A few days ago we wheeled the Lanchester out of the garage for the first time since the garage roof was replaced with the goal being refitting the new door cards. Slight hiccup in that they need some minor adjustment to fit which has also involved partially dismantling them. As soon as weather, schedules, and the gas works on the street are completed we should be able to get a proper update together and make some more progress and more regular updates again.

Our major jobs at present are to get the leaking radiator repaired, the starter motor repaired or replaced (depending what's actually wrong with it), and to fit the new wiring loom. Minor jobs are reinstalling the dashboard and door cards, and making use of an old carpet set from the Princess to give the Lanchester some carpets temporarily while we save up for some nice proper brown ones.

Happily, there's been no sign of rodents or moths in the car while its been tucked up in the garage, and the new roof has meant the garage is much drier inside so we haven't had any issue with mould inside the car either. We are very much looking forward to getting stuck in again now that the weather is improving. I'm now doing Youtube videos more regularly, uploading every Tuesday, alternating between crafts and automotive content each week. I'll be sure to document the progress on the Lanchester as we go and mix it in with the other content. Happily there's plenty of Lanchester content to come and hopefully our adventures in how things are done will prove useful to other folks out there.

Just a text update this time. There is a new Lanchester video in the works so do watch this space.

grahamemmett
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Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by grahamemmett »

Hooray! We’ve missed you :D
Graham Emmett ¦ DLOC Chairman ¦ chair@dloc.co.uk ¦ 07967 109160
Northwich, Cheshire
DB18 1949 LCV522 (Yes that one with the P100s)

HenryC
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Location: Surrey / East Hampshire

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by HenryC »

Looking forward to the next instalment: as Graham says, we've missed you.

Can post a link to one of the YouTube videos, to make it easy to find?
Cheers, Henry Curwen
Registrar for Conquest & Century Saloons (DJ250/1, DJ256/7, DJ260/1)

Conquest (Drop Head) Coupe DJ252

Vulgalour
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:04 pm
Location: Kent

Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by Vulgalour »

New forum donation thingy was handy, I've made use of that and put what I can in the kitty to help towards running costs. I've been checking threads on here without signing in, winter was surprisingly busy here and what with learning how to do better videos regularly, it's eaten into my free time somewhat. Nice to know we've been missed!

All new Lanchester videos will be put in this thread for your convenience, along with illustrated write ups as before. I've been finding the best way to keep the projects flowing has been to do both, sometimes you don't have time to sit and watch a video after all, and sometimes you want to find information without having to skip through a video. We're hoping the videos serve to make the Lanchester marque a bit more accessible to a wider audience by showing how surprisingly easy they are to work on for the most part, just like the videos put out by Catherine Jones that helped us understand what we were taking on.

I have made a Lanchester playlist specifically for KKV222's journey here:


I can't promise when exactly the next Lanchester update will be released, other than to say it will be soon. Things are a bit Maestro heavy at the moment on the videos since there's been more I could do while the weather has been inclement, though that will definitely change as spring approaches.

grahamemmett
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Re: 1951 LD10 KKV 222

Post by grahamemmett »

Love it!
Graham Emmett ¦ DLOC Chairman ¦ chair@dloc.co.uk ¦ 07967 109160
Northwich, Cheshire
DB18 1949 LCV522 (Yes that one with the P100s)

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