E Pluribus Thames Part 2

VOLUME 18, NUMBER 2 Mar-Apr 2013 INSIDE THIS ISSUE UPCOMING EVENTS EDITOR’S BIT AC 2 Litre 4 May 7th at 7:00pm VCB May This issue marks the start of year A Rolls For Two Governors 9 event: Garage tour at Fred Van four for me as editor (yikes!). Hearts and Tarts 2013 10 Aggelen’s house—21113 97th Special thanks to John Peirson, St. Patrick’s Day Parade 11 Ave., Langley Steve Blake and David Ballantine VCB March Event 12 June 4th at 7:00pm- VCB April for their great contributions this Upcoming Special Events 13 Event: British Classic Auto—shop month. Many thanks, as always , Welcome to OECC / The Boot / At tour—346 W. 5th. Ave, Vancouver. to our regulars, Walter Reynolds, the Wheel 14 July 2nd at 7:00pm—VCB July Les Foster and John Chapman for event—garage tour –7491 Aubrey always coming through with inter- St., Burnaby esting and well written articles. tization that made swift work of it. What at first E Pluribus Thames Part 2 seemed to be an overwhelming task became a logical sequence and within about a month we had it all tri- By Les Foster aged, sorted, and stored. The last job, not without a In the July-August 2007 issue of the Roundabout, I touch of sadness, was to demolish the building and its wrote a story called “E Pluribus Thames”. The article storage platform and take it all to the dump. Calla recounted the saga of one of my 1951 Ford Thames and I actually had a lot of fun working together and it E83W pickup’s first long runs after its then-recent me- gave us a real sense of accomplishment to finally see it chanical restoration. The article went on to lay out done. It was a good start to our retirement and we future plans for Phase 2, the body restoration. The rewarded ourselves with a trip to Palm Springs where heart of the article, though, was the declaration that the swimming pool and sun soothed our aching mus- this Thames pickup would be, as the American coins cles! say, “E Pluribus Unum”- out of many, one. More than four years later, to make this second phase of the restoration possible, a great deal of infrastructure work was needed. My son and daughter-in-law had bought my Tsawwassen house and my fleet had to be down-sized from six to one. A forty year collection of parts had to be reduced to those bits essential to the restoration and future maintenance of just the one Thames. The process of doing all this took about a year. I sold off the vans, estate car, and another pickup rolling chassis together with tons of parts. One van was given away in exchange for the removal and return of its frame for use under my pickup. A ton or Calla poses at “Dagenham West” so of less desirable bits went to the dump in Gerry before its deconstruction Parkinson’s pickup. The bulk of the fleet found its Work on the actual truck had been going on concur- way to Parksville in a truly epic transport involving rent to the infrastructure efforts beginning in the au- Gerry’s pickup, a trailer, and a lot of muscle. A few tumn of 2011. As soon as the hot-rodder who took one months later, the collection was re-sold to a fellow in of my vans returned its frame to me, it was straight- Coombs. The new owner sent a flatdeck for the last of ened and given new cab brackets and minor repairs by my surplus bits, packed into another E83W pickup Gerry Parkinson and then sent off for blasting and box. Meanwhile, “Dagenham West” (my backyard powder coating. Upon the frame’s return, early in the complex where, in a reversal of the process at the winter of 2012, work on the project commenced in ear- original Dagenham Ford plant, whole vehicles came in nest. Our overseas member, Carl Knorr, soon arrived and ferrous oxide went out) had to be demolished and from Czecho for a six month stay and joined Gerry and the land scoured clean of any sign of the great works. I on the resto work at Gerry’s home shop. Alan Miles This meant sorting all the parts, transporting them lent us a hand, too, and quickly the cab and box were from the compound of Dagenham West to the main removed from the chassis and then the chassis was garage, and levitating most of them into the attic. The stripped of all its running gear. Everything was trans- heaviest items were neatly stored around the edges of ferred to the “new” frame with the exception of the en- the one garage bay that I was now allotted in my for- gine. All the running gear had been completely rebuilt mer residence. My wife, Calla, was in her glory at in Phase 1 of the resto back in 2005- 2006 but the mo- this. She has a natural gift of organization and priori- tor that had been rebuilt at considerable cost back Now the new cab needed doors and they had to open then had failed on the 2008 London-Brighton Com- and close, damn it! The E83W cab has a wood-framed memorative Run. I had since been running on a good back wall sheathed in a sandwich of .025 aluminum used motor but the blown one was now in Coquitlam and eighth inch mahogany plywood. This all rests on Automotive (now Wescan) for a really professional re- a flimsy sheet metal floor structure to which removal build at the very fastidious hands of Laurie, their head floor plates are bolted. It has all the rigidity of good machinist. English toffee -on a warm day. The tool of choice in the body adjustment department was the largest available hammer! After many days of struggle, somehow, the doors began to fit decently. Gerry welded. Carl and I ground and filed. Gerry made a superb new rear wall and perfectly duplicated the wood rear wall header. The cab was beginning to come together. Once the basic cab installation and repairs were complete it was returned with the chassis to its garage bay. I had the doors blasted then rebuilt the wood structure of their lower part after Carl welded up some rust holes. I then primed the doors and re-mounted them. After not a little fighting and the studied appli- cation of a sledge hammer, they conceded and an ac- ceptable fit was obtained. Les with Laurie from Wescan, picking up the newly rebuilt motor It is difficult to recount every step in the pickup’s restoration but once the replacement frame was in place we turned our attentions to the cab. This was not the same cab that adorned the pickup prior to disassem- bly. It was one from a 1952 Thames pickup bought in New Westminster some years ago and repaired by Carl and me at my place. Carl had skillfully removed a non-standard passenger footwell and grafted in part of the firewall and floor of yet another E83W to return it to original spec. I had then blasted and primed it myself. So finally, six or more years later, the replace- Thames sporting its new cab ment cab was sitting on a fully restored rolling chassis. When the cab went “home”, the pickup box returned to Gerry’s for repair. “Repair” does not, perhaps, do jus- tice to the effort needed to return the box to a sem- blance of structural integrity. A plasma cutter was the first line of attack! Extensive patching was needed at the base of the upright side supports, a completely new, heavy-gauge, rear cross member had to be cre- ated and the bottom two inches of the box sides, which are bent to form a mounting flange for the plate floor, had to be replaced. Finally a new one-piece floor plate complete with sixteen hand-formed channel supports had to be installed. New mounting brackets tilt tubes and extensive repairs to the tailgate followed. The whole job took a couple of months of hard, dirty work! Next page: Gerry hard at work welding up the Thames pickup box Carl and Les with the new chassis VOLUME 18, NUMBER 2 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 2 Help Still Wanted Although 2014 seems to be a long way off, now is a good time to start planning a route for the Brits 'Round BC 2014. In the midst of all the physical work, I was playing de- We need a 'Wagonmaster' tective- tracking down parts and sourcing fasteners, etc. The Thames shares many smaller parts with U.S. for this event. I found that Fords of the mid-1930’s and they can be had much more reasonably than bits from Britain. It can be chal- by starting early on the or- lenging but rewarding to find the cheaper domestic re- ganisation it was never a placements. Hardware Sales in Bellingham Washing- ton proved to be an invaluable source of slotted screws 'job' or 'chore'. and other fasteners not easily available locally. Bump- ers and lamp trims went to Dependable Plating who Here is an opportunity to did a beautiful job and Steve Diggins has my two seats serve the club and embark (after blasting, powder coating and new backs) for re- upholstering. As I mentioned earlier, Laurie at West- on a tour with your friends, can in Coquitlam rebuilt my engine to the highest stan- dards.

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