1964 Alvis Stalwart

[LewG]

That's the one, she may even hit 43mph now!

[LewG]

Nice that is probably 'the' Stalwart picture
No major updates to report shamefully, life always seems to get ridiculously busy right when I want to work on the beasty. I've cut some more nastiness out of the rear exhaust tower and managed to buy a pair of reupholstered cab seats and a full heater box assembly in as new condition. Folded up the steel to weld in the side too. Yesterday Mrs G to be assisted with rebuilding the next calliper, just one more to go on this side now. I must say she's done a cracking job too, what a lucky girl she is

[LewG]

Absolutely S L, and never any shortage of work to do together with a P38

[LewG]

Another one down!
And onto the next one....

[LewG]

As with most stuff of that age I'd say 90% of threads on it are UNF with a bit of Whitworth thrown in for fun most of the time. I managed to spend half hour on it today in between painting some doors and sanding and varnishing a step but with the assistance of some big Stilsons and a lever bar the remaining pistons came out after an overnight soaking. Small wins!

[LewG]

A minor update to add
More big holes have been cut in the Stolly, I was having trouble getting the grinder in to cut some nasty grot out inside the rear exhaust tower so cut the external panel with a view to welding the section back in later. All the rust in the corner has been chopped out now ready for a repair section to be made and let in.

There is the remains of some heat shields in there mounted on right angled brackets so I cut all that out as they were beyond saving. I may make and reinstate these or just get some of that adhesive foiled backed heat stuff and stick it to the inside of the tower after heat proof paint.

Another calliper cleaned up and in paint, you know it's getting chilly when the little heater comes out to help dry them off! Thankfully that's the last one for this side.
I took one of the planetary hubs to work today for a thorough clean, this was really rough inside and some of the planet gears were rusted and stuck so a few months back we left it soaking in diesel and that freed it all up. It was still a bit notchy in operation so I stripped it down and blasted it all off in the hot wash. There is a bit of damage, the gearset mounting bolts are annoyingly all slightly bent and you can see evidence of vice jaw marks on them so someone has been here before. I'm hoping they'll either straighten or I'll get away with gently tapping then back in place.
I wasn't sure what I'd find after pulling each gear off but I suspected lots of needle roller bearings. I certainly wasn't wrong, there's 40 stacked in 2 lots of 20 inside each gear, so that's 5 gears per hub, 200 rollers per hub so 1200 for a whole vehicle
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They weren't too bad but I cleaned them up with some ultra fine scotchbrite and reassembled with fresh grease. Only 4 more gears to go for that one tomorrow. I will bring the casing and end plate home soon and get that bare metalled and in primer, it should hopefully be worth the effort.

[LewG]

Thanks all, not sure about the gearbox damage but I know there's a technique to driving them around corners on sealed roads to give the transmission an easier time with the no spin diff in the middle. You get the slowing down out the way on the straight then gently accelerate or keep neutral power on through the bend. It seems strange after all this time that I've never actually driven one myself, I think the day this one moves under its own power will be the best ever!
I've developed a nice technique to cleaning up the needle rollers with some assistance from a cordless drill and the fine scotchbrite. We're down to about 40 minutes per gear now, oh and it's 46 rollers each, not 40 as I originally thought! It does seem overkill being so thorough but at the same time I don't want anything to lunch itself straight away as replacements are so hard to get hold of and I only have one spare hub

[LewG]

I'm up for a mass help session, it can only move things on a bit
I can honestly say after this I'll probably never try and do up anything big again. Maybe push to a chassis and bulkhead on my old Landy but that'll do me!
Did get a few more bits done today. I rebuilt the one side of the calliper I painted in the week, wire brushed and cleaned the other half, sprayed it, then repaired a couple of rusty brake pistons as they had pitting on the bore faces. I wire brushed all the rust out leaving just the clean 'pits' visible and mixed up a tiny bit of JB Weld epoxy and smoothed it in like body filler with a razor blade. I'll give this a sand back and try it in the bore of the as yet incomplete calliper half. Hopefully it'll work OK, at the end of the day people repair engine blocks with the stuff. I do have some new pistons in stock but as I remember they were about 30 quid each and with the 3 callipers the other side to rebuild if I can mend and make do with what I have on this one then that makes sense.

The hub casing and end plate got prepped and some red oxide

My good mate Tyler cleaned up the annulus gearing to within an inch of its life, no joke it's almost better than new! No pics of that bit sadly.
I cleaned off the drive pieces and the suspension on this station with the pressure washer then out with the knotted wire wheel and grinder. There was a bit of grinder damage on the top wishbone from cutting the suspension pins as with a 9 inch grinder it was unavoidable. I ground it out and preheated then tried splodging it in a bit with the welder. Seems OK but time will tell. Finally a bit more good old red oxide on it all. It's looking cracking and should only only look better for some NATO green!

[LewG]

Another day another calliper all but complete bar putting the pads in thankfully the piston repair once sanded back appeared to go together nicely with fresh seals etc so time will tell if it ends up leaking in the future.
Spent some time this evening splitting the hub and brake disc to prep for paint, surprisingly this went more smoothly than expected and we even ended up with some primer on it, the discs are a bit scored due to previous owner running the pads down to the metal, but I imagine will bed in again with new ones

I have got a small touch up spray gun on order at the moment as I think getting into the nooks and crannies of the wishbone assemblies etc with a full size gun may be a pain, it'll be really nice to see it start to come together ready to be bolted on again

[LewG]

I certainly agree there are better products to be had these days but for what I'm trying to achieve I think it should do the job, it dries quickly and above all else is relatively cheap
For the inside of the hull I'm thinking a 2 pack primer then the silver top coat as this does seem to be particularly hard wearing and oil resistant.




A few of the components are in paint now, annoyingly the NATO green they've sent is marked as satin but looks to be a gloss finish, I'm not too worried about that at this point as when finished and back on wheels the whole vehicle will get a final 'finish' coat of paint. For the most part these components won't be visible anyway but at least I know they're as good as they can be. Most military 'restorations' you see tend to be a good pressure wash off underneath to get the dirt and oil off, then spray straight over the top of everything in sight.
I've knocked in the bearing races for the wheel bearings, the planetary gearset is refitted into the hub and all threads retapped etc so in the next couple of weeks it should start to come together looking rather nice indeed

Edited by LewG on Friday 28th October 21:59

[LewG]

A fairly busy day today but not a huge amount of visual progress. The upright got new brass bushes and O ring caps fitted, I tried a couple of O rings out of a metric selection kit I have and by some miracle they fit spot on.


The big hub nut we built the super socket for holds two hub seals inside it that fit 'back to back'. The charred remains of these were still left inside from heating it up to undo. I drifted them out and cleaned it all up as rust had set in down the backs of the seals, with it all greased up the new seals were fitted and inner wheel bearing packed with fresh grease and placed in the race. Once brake disc and hub were reunited the hub nut was fitted and tightened up to a torque of F.T there's a small locking tab that has to line up and bolts in to prevent it loosening.


Removed all studs for the hub planetary casing to clean up the surfaces then refitted, technically these don't use a gasket when mated together as they were supposedly finely machined enough not to need one! Unsurprisingly being built in Coventry 60ish years ago they're well known for leaking so this will definitely be getting a liberal application of gasket splodge when it all goes together.
The steering arm that steers the centre wheel has been bare metalled and painted, no pics of that at present unfortunately as it looks cracking, Tyler has been busy with that and stripping the front handbrake assembly. We located the bevel boxes bought for each corner and checked they'd fit OK as they're Mk2 Stalwart items, not Mk1 as this example is. I assumed they would be but do have different part numbers in the manual. From what we've seen so far it appears they should fit fine, which is a huge relief as to find Mk1 only boxes would be pretty much impossible

[LewG]

This is the trouble it's mostly this... but another 5 times
I'd absolutely love to drive the thing, if it was left in a better state after sitting for all those years it'd be more tempting to make it a rolling project that can be enjoyed whilst coming back to full strength. As it is I'd probably do more damage than it's worth to achieve that. There's a fair bit of welding to do which I must confess I don't particularly enjoy but I'm sure once into it we'll get there. The other side is tight up against the wall so once this side is done it'll need dragging out and spinning round to crack on with that. The engine appears to be a fairly healthy runner so that's a case of service, replace broken tensioner bearing, try and make it look prettier and replace belts etc, gearbox and transfer box are recon replacements so in theory should be a bolt in job. If I wasn't bothered about making it all look better along the way and worked every hour possible it could probably be up and running in a year or so. It's been 5 years to this point so far so I won't be going anywhere for the foreseeable

[LewG]

In the week I managed to synchronize the hub planetary gears to each other ready for assembly. Without the annulus fitted the sun gear will slide into the planets and spin nicely, with annulus fitted it won't, and if it does it all ends up locking up. Apparently many a Stolly hub was destroyed like this back in the day when they were rebuilt.
The planet gears should be marked with a dot to point inwards as per the manual

Thanks to Stalwart 6x6 group on FB for publishing all the manuals, most helpful.
Finding the dots however proved difficult, no matter how many times I turned the gears with a torch on them it wasn't exactly clear! I scratched any doubtful bits off and found one tooth on each that looked more likely than the others. I must have been somewhere near right as it all went together and spun nicely. Each gear was then marked to make it more clear on proper reassembly

The wishbones and shocks got dragged out yesterday and a good coat of paint, the mini gravity fed gun I bought is a godsend for doing stuff like this!


The main hub unit was then fully reassembled, wheel bearing packed and annulus bolted back on to retain it with the shims it came out with as that sets the preload on the bearing behind it. Although the bearings are new it felt right, not too much drag and no detectable play so I left it at that.


The planetary casing on top

New outer support bearing knocked in and locking nut fitted. Cap on and hurrah!

Only 5 to go

Edited by LewG on Sunday 6th November 12:05

[LewG]

If I had to guess, including wishbones etc as bolted to the hull it must be around 350kg, you wouldn't want to drop it on your toes put it that way

[LewG]

Some more progress today, I almost started the welding then caved in and did something more interesting instead

Drive spline removed from bevel box, cleaned up and mocked up in the hull, thankfully it fits a treat.
Out it came again for a spruce up.

Some better green paint arrived so obviously the stuff needed testing, and what a nice result

[LewG]

Thanks chaps, it is indeed very satisfying. To actually see parts come back together looking as I imagine the end result to look is great! A few years back when I had the XJ-S I fully rebuilt the rear subframe/axle back to immaculate and that took an absolute age, lots of time and patience. Amazing that one assembly could take so long so anyone that has restored a whole car etc I take my hat off to.
The Stolly at Sunday Scramble is a mate of ours, he has a couple of spare suspension bushes for me I need to go and collect which is much appreciated. That is one nice running Stolly, and regularly goes swimming.
We've had a good result as spare parts collection goes as I've managed to source 3 more NOS/recon wheel station drives, collecting tomorrow. Will all need a coat of paint as a minimum but should make things a bit easier!

[LewG]

A very minor update of late, last weekend we picked up the 3 NOS wheel stations from Mark, the former owner of the lovely white Stalwart pictured earlier in the thread. He has just sold it and his Leyland DAF 'DROPS' used for carting it about to Crouch Recovery of the 'Trucking Hell' TV programme. It was about the best rig money could buy, Mark is over 70 now so after nearly 30 years of Stolly ownership he is probably the last of the 'original' group of Stolly owners to sell up. Always a pleasure to deal with as he is a cracking bloke and has been extremely helpful over the past few years.
Not sure if already posted but here is the pair of them at Brooklands Military Vehicle day 2018


As a bonus he also had a full exhaust system for sale so I stretched the account a little further and bought that too, telling myself it'll save me money in the long run

More old scrap on a pallet about the place

I finally got round to prepping some of the side panel for welding, it took a lot of trial and error but is now ready to tack in. I need to cut the flat panels for the bottom and get the reinforcing U sections cut then it should come together pretty easy

[LewG]

A minor update, sadly I'm stuck in the house with super man flu at the moment so not a whole lot of cracking on!

We finally have some metalwork! Need to tidy it all up, and get the U channels glued back in for strength, it has pulled very slightly after welding resulting in a slight bow along the side so I'll probably need to apply some heat and then pull it back into place. The drop side panel will need to be remounted on the existing mounts to mock up where to weld the hinge brackets back onto that were cut off during cutting all the grot out. It is amazing how much time all this welding and fabbing takes, especially when you're not very good at it

[LewG]

Wishing everyone a happy new year.
Not much to report but feels like a milestone on the Stalwart. Not a huge amount achieved over Christmas apart from a bit of welding and lots of tidying the welds underneath to make the panels look nice. I welded in one of the strengthening ribs and then annoyingly run out of steel, now that the world has returned to normal I should be able to get more. The heat has pulled it all quite a bit so once together it will need a bit of heat and some delicate percussive adjustment to get it straight again.

All wishbone ends tapped out with a 1-3/16 UNF tap, and the stop plugs test fitted

I cleaned out and painted inside part of the engine bay and fitted the new recon bevel box for the rear corner, these have a spacer ring against the hull before fitting so they were prepped and painted too, then faces sealed with RTV silicone and inside the void a liberal application of thick grease. In the future if she does dip her toes in the water hopefully it'll help keep it out.

With bevel box installed the tracta joint drive knuckles were cleaned up and assembled, these are a right pain to line up, then the swivel housing was put in place

This is a completely arse about face way of doing it as normally the wishbones are bolted up to the hull, the shock absorbers are removed out the way and then the entire hub assembly including brake disc etc is plonked in place and pins slid in. Unfortunately due to the shock pins being seized in I don't want to disturb or cut them so it may take a bit of trial and error on the method of getting it back together. I'm sure we'll manage in the end!

[LewG]

Thanks very much RD, back to normal now thankfully!
Tried out my new oil gun today on the wishbone pins as all suspension points are lubricated by oil strangely, not grease. The inner side lower pins are lubricated one side with a small link pipe to the other so that was bare metalled and painted.
Finally it was offered up to the hull for a test fit, this was in usual Stalwart fashion far more difficult and annoying than anticipated

Once tried we pulled it away and gave the faces plenty of Tiger Seal to keep the water out. Interestingly it has 4x tapered bolts from the outside to put in first that locate the assembly perfectly on the hull, the remaining 16 bolts are then fitted from inside the vehicle into the backs of the wishbone upright.


On and bolted up with new pins tried for size. I felt so guilty opening the 'new' boxes after so many years!



Next big step was to get the hub in position, after a lot of swearing and injuries we gave up for the day as we simply could not get the splines to line up and go together properly. Hopefully have better luck tomorrow