Traction engine restoration...

[jjeffries]

Whoops....anyway: Ken was a great character (extreme views on most things and loved to yell "This is DIABOLICAL!".... his wife, the lovely "Aunt" Jean used to just laugh at him) and always a brilliant guy to me and my three brothers. He was a serious model maker and mostly did radio control stuff in his shed in the garden (Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol), which I remember fondly because it had that green corrugated fiberglass for a roof, so was always glowing green inside, and for the smell of the fuel from the RC engines. It was always spotless and definitely an early marker for my love of workshops and garages. He unboxed the Mamod and got it working with me. God Bless Ken; he passed a few years ago.

I even recall taking the Mamod to school; another kid had the steam roller version and we got to demonstrate them to the other primary school kids at lunch hour. Try that today and I'm sure all hell would break out? That was when teachers always had a coffee in one hand and a ciggy in the other. I miss the 1970's!

There was a nice write up about a full-sized version in a recent Octane, thankfully written by Martin Gurdon (sp?), as opposed to one of their ponsier scribes.

How will you approach this restoration? What sort of paints? Best, John

[911hillclimber]

Pleased this has evoked such good memories John.

As a lad I too did model planes, built them with my father first then became an indie! That all led to Lambretta's drag racing, hotrods and the 911 and hill climbs, life follows a path!

The engine comes apart today, won't take long.
I have a thread started on a Mamod forum so getting some info there.
Previous 'drivers' have touched-up the paint so that has eased my conscience to strip and re-build to As New.

That Octane article was simply wonderful and I think that was the seed sown in my mind. What a machine it was, what a road trip!
You could taste the beer outside the pub and the smell of the hissing engine waiting for the off.

VHT light green paint for the boiler, satin black VHT for the fire box and gloss vht for the chimney stack if I can find it.

Old English white or Lambretta 'white' for the canopy as I have some.

My self imposed budget is £80 to first steam, and maybe a month tops to get there.

Race season is arriving very quickly, so need to press-on.
Graham.

[impmad2000]

I’ve found mine

[911hillclimber]

Get it going!
WD40, bit of manual turning and fire it.
Just got a great book on the entire range to study. Quite a subject matter.

REALLY fancy a Mamod boat!

[impmad2000]

I’ve oiled the piston and bearing surfaces and gave it a go.
https://youtu.be/3ENQ7KUS5Q8
It still works!
Tim

[911hillclimber]

:drunken
excellent!
I'm already pondering what colours to paint the engine, some things never change!

[jjeffries]

Great fun. BTW, the first engine I ever got to play with and get running was an Series 2 LI-150 my brother bought as a bag of bits, Bristol circa 1980 when the whole Mod redux scene was going on. We made it quite luvverly.

[911hillclimber]

Spooky!
My first motorised project when I was 15 was a Lambretta Li 150 series 2!
However, that was in '67 so you are a kid!
My father paid £5 for it, mainly to shut me up as I would go on and on for such a thing...

It was the first of 3 Lambretta, v good memories indeed.

[Ashley James]

I had one of those, it was my first motorised transport too. My son has 1 1/2 and is looking for parts to complete the second.

[911hillclimber]

Strip down has begun!
Everything went easy, the boiler was bolted to the fire box, no rivets, wheel retainers all came off with no damage, and even the fire box cover came up well enough to use again.
Whistle and cylinder all came free and I've broken nothing!
The original pale green is evident and I'm pleased so far.

Rather think this will be closer to a re-build than restoration...


















































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[911hillclimber]

A few more hours on the TE today, finished off the dirty stuff and got some paint on using my 'stock' of rattle-cans built up over the years, still looking to keep in budget.
Ordered the VHT Blue paint for the boiler, will have a nice fresh green tin too...

The pictures say it all. The canopy was a resolute failure though. All stripped with no rust under the paint, etch primered and then the first coat of smooth Hammerite white. Disaster followed as the
paint ran and reticulated off the sharp corners. Strip and new Ford paint I think.

[911hillclimber]

This painting is a bit tricky in these temperatures, but getting there.

All the wheels are now done and detailed (polished rim edges). Will order some tyres today.
My trusty 1947 (ish) Drummond round Bed lathe as ever was a great help, one of the best things I bought myself when I retired.

Detailed the stack also, red inner funnel and a bit on the nose.
Burner box and scuttle all done but the cylinder bracket went wrong with a paint reaction, no idea why, cleaned in cellulose thinners etc. Will finish tomorrow.
The canopy was stripped to metal, double cleaned and washed with panel wipe and given 3 primer coats of Halford's best.
Dried and roasted a touch, the new off-white paint from the local car shop went on a treat with no adverse effects bar....one run!

Will let it all harden and rub it down and apply 2 more coats.

The dark blue VHT came today, earlier than expected, so painted the boiler after careful masking, and pre-warming the tube before the coats. It has 4 on, so all done.

The finish is a nice deep satin dark blue. The can came with a nozzle I have never seen before and it gives a very fine even spray atomisation, quite impressive. Wish Hammerite had used this
nozzle.

Possibly assembly on Sunday!

host and share images

[PeterK]

My trusty 1947 (ish) Drummond round Bed lathe as ever was a great help, one of the best things I bought myself when I retired.

I had a Drummond round bed lathe for a while. It was originally a treadle operated one that had been converted to use a 1/4HP electric motor - driven by a leather belt.

Was fine for anything that didn't need speed or load

Replaced by a more modern thingy now - had it for about 3 months and still not found the time to clean it
Peter

[911hillclimber]

And so to the last but one episode to this little project.

Re-assembly started and was all done in 60 minutes, the tricky bit being to re solder the boiler pipes to the oscillating cylinder bracket because it was so cold in the garage.
Used the hot air gun to raise the ambient temp of the local area to give my 55 year old soldering iron 1/2 a chance. All done now.

The TE is actually dark blue but photographs black due to the 5000 year old tubes in the lights, might treat myself to some day light ones soon.

I hope the following pics say it all, a great little project.
The last episode will be the rubber tyres, the drive belt, a burner box and stand back. Be a shame to burn the boiler paint!












It's tiny!

[jjeffries]

Nice job. Does the switch from green to blue for the boiler and red to blue for the wheels make this an Outlaw Mamod?