1954 Daimler Ferret armoured car

1954 Daimler Ferret armoured car

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LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Sunday 6th June 2021
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Unfortunately I made a big cock up on the brake lines getting the flares wrong, then on my last line the reel of pipe was about a foot too short to finish. Bloody annoying but had to strip the panels out and remake all lines with a couple of new reels of pipe so lost some days there.
Good steps in the right direction today however. I filled the master cylinder with fluid and started leak finding as I knew I'd have some to contend with. A couple of loose fittings here and there nipped up, then once bled out I could build the pressure in the system. The banjo bolt and fitting into the back of the master forms part of the brake light switch, this kept on weeping even with fresh copper washers and cleaned up. I took it off and to my dismay thought I'd found a hairline crack on it, fortunately the sealing face was just slightly deformed so I refaced both sides with some fine emery paper and my Landy side window biggrin worked a treat once all bolted up.



Then refitted handbrake rods and adjusted all those, it felt good so thought we'd try the brakes out round the yard by towing it with my mate's Classic Rangey and trying to stop. They appear to work really well and all joints look dry so hopefully we're onto a winner!

Engine and box then received a good bath ready for work, the difference is night and day


LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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Removed rocker cover, exhaust manifolds and side plates this evening. It was surprisingly clean inside which was nice to see, the manifolds were a bugger to remove needing heat on the nuts etc despite the fact I changed the studs probably only a year or two ago. Fair to say it gets bloody hot in there on a good run!
I started to look at how to set the valve clearances, I admit I've done several standard overhead valve engines but never set anything with side exhaust valves. On this engine the exhausts are set to 15 thou and inlets to 10. Thankfully reading the manual it's all a pretty straightforward process, turn the engine until whichever valve is fully open, then set the opposite valve, pretty much just as you would any other engine.

Depending on how long this all takes it's not looking good for hitting my deadline of 20th June, not too bothered about that but just very much looking forward to driving her again smile

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Friday 18th June 2021
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Valve clearances all set now. Next step replace exhaust manifold gaskets as it's an easy job with the engine out. Had to replace the studs again as the nuts had rusted solid onto some of them and ended up stripping the threads. To add insult to injury the studs turned up and were the wrong thread due to them being made incorrectly laugh all sorted now however.

Had a look inside the distributor after that to make sure all was well. You have two sets of points with a 3 sided cam so basically one set does 3 cylinders and the other also does 3 cylinders making up the full 6. They are to be synchronised properly but apparently this is rather difficult to do, I just cleaned everything up and set the gaps, then had a best guess at the synchronisation, if I need to adjust it that can be done when it's running again.


The fan bearings have always made a 'chuffing' noise at idle so to satisfy my curiosity I stripped it down to check it. They don't look too bad, a bit worn but still packed with clean grease. Very kindly a pal took them over to our local bearing shop today and ordered two new bearings and a seal for it so that should be dandy once it's all back together. It got a good clean up and paint today and is looking far better.

Not much left to do now before the big bits go back in

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Saturday 19th June 2021
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Some good progress today, made some rubber gaskets to go under the gearbox saddle mounts partly for shimming but partly to add an element of damping too.

Rear driveshafts were then cleaned up and inspected, unfortunately some of the UJs were a bit on the notchy side so I'll have them done by our local driveshaft place. They are pretty much completely inaccessible once everything is in so worth doing now and forgetting about it. I did open a crate we had in the shed with a new driveshaft (packaged 1974) in but sods law said it had to be a front one biggrin

Then came big progress time, firstly a bit of forklift fixing as the damp had got to the ignition, then a spot of engine fittage. A piece of cake at this point as there's only the rear mount to locate on 4 bolt holes, the gearbox we'll fit separately after rear shafts are sorted.


Topped it all off by wire brushing down and painting a few exhaust bits and the silencer etc. Really looking forward to the first fire up now cool

Edited by LewG on Saturday 19th June 20:19

Krikkit

26,500 posts

180 months

Saturday 19th June 2021
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Looking great, nice work!

What's the lead time on the driveshafts like?

Shadow R1

3,798 posts

175 months

Sunday 20th June 2021
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Looks great. smile

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Monday 21st June 2021
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7-10 days on the shafts, took them to our local place Bailey Morris in St Neots, they're very good at what they do and have done a great job on stuff of ours in the past so I've no doubt this will be the same. No matter on time really there's plenty of other bits to be finishing cool

skyrover

12,668 posts

203 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
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If your happy setting up an engine, swapping out driveshaft U-joints is a doddle.

Penelope Stopit

11,209 posts

108 months

Wednesday 23rd June 2021
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LewG said:
Could look at this image for hours on end, heaven it is

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Wednesday 23rd June 2021
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skyrover said:
If your happy setting up an engine, swapping out driveshaft U-joints is a doddle.
Think I shall have a go at some point as I must confess it's a mechanical task I've never done or been shown how laugh adds a string to the bow and all that

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Wednesday 23rd June 2021
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Shiny fan rebuilt with new bearings and fitted, plus exhaust bolted up smile oil filter housing got a thorough clean out and lick of paint, seemed rude not to whilst I was there

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Tuesday 6th July 2021
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Rad and fan housing cleaned up and fitted with new hoses etc, I've filled the system with water for now and put in fresh engine oil. It's a real pain at the moment because the driveshaft joints are proving elusive for the driveshaft place, unfortunately they need to go back in before any more big bits really so work has slowed somewhat frown

Psycho Warren

3,087 posts

112 months

Tuesday 6th July 2021
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Looking good so far! Bet you can't wait to drive it now.

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Tuesday 6th July 2021
quotequote all
Fetched the driveshafts back today having not had them done, as they claimed the slip joints in the centre were worn so they'd have to make new ones from scratch... at a cost of over 300 quid each! Needless to say in my humble opinion they seem perfectly fine, particularly for nearly 70 years old. I've done a bit of research on the UJs and they are the same as an early Transit diff end joint so I've ordered one as a test and will change that myself if it fits OK.
I did a bit of a REME level repair on the rear wing today as under the weight of 2 Jerry cans etc it'd buckled the strengthening rib on its lower edge and the top of the wing had actually started to crack from constant movement.

First I used a couple of bits of hardwood and some G clamps to clamp the bend out, then ground out the splits on the top

Bit of clamping and some panel bashing got it somewhere near, I then held a bit of plate up the back and pigeon stted it back together, a bit of grinding back and some NATO green and hey presto it's not pretty but it'll do biggrin


Prolex-UK

3,010 posts

207 months

Saturday 10th July 2021
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Used some of the images from your epic works for my minature version....

Will be adding brake hoses next week

Just finished the Accurate Armour Ferret

Great kit.

GULF WAR 1 guise












LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Sunday 11th July 2021
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Love it that's brill! One day I'll order one and make a replica of ours I think, how long did that take you start to finish?

Prolex-UK

3,010 posts

207 months

Sunday 11th July 2021
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LewG said:
Love it that's brill! One day I'll order one and make a replica of ours I think, how long did that take you start to finish?
Couple of weeks.

Great littlr kit

Reading this thread was a great help

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Monday 12th July 2021
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That's great it looks nicely weathered too, just how a Ferret should in my opinion. If I was to be a full on anorak I'd deduct points for having an early reg number with the later style side hatches but I'll let you off laugh
The new UJ I ordered has arrived today so at some point this week I'll have a bash at that, it really does need to go back together now, it was sod's law that on my week off work I didn't have any of the bits I needed to make it happen

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Tuesday 13th July 2021
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Looks like I did have the chance to give a UJ a go after all smile not too bad a job at all. Hopefully get those in this week and then the gearbox can be refitted

LewG

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

145 months

Sunday 18th July 2021
quotequote all
Gearbox is now back in and on the studs but not bolted up yet. The fuel tank has received a bit of tarting up too as it was rather nasty inside and out!

Temporary fitment whilst waiting on the forklift laugh


Fuel tank prior to painting, and how grim it was particularly down at the bottom of the reserve side



Ever so slightly clogged banjo fitting on the reserve!
It was then steam cleaned out and rubbed down, I did notice a couple of pinholes at the bottom so somewhat carefully welded them up, then painted the entire thing whilst the weather was boiling. Looks cracking but didn't get any photos as too late in the day.



Edited by LewG on Sunday 18th July 20:48