2014 Christmas Roundup

Unfortunately we have not been able to make much use of the Stanley this season.  We did mange to attend a few events. Brooklands Museum's Great War Muster in August, and in October the Shalbourne Classic car show and  Englefield Sawmill open day. The latter event involved  a 64 mile round trip, our longest road run to date, and the car performed very well.  Frequently using the  the 'steam enema' fitted last winter to blow through the burner vapouriser and getting more used to appropriate  burner control valve settings seems to have reduced our carbonisation problems.

Now that the car is laid up for the winter we are fitting the  new top bows, made from measuring up a sister car here in the UK. The first trial fit went OK, now the bows need to be finished off, painted or varnished, and resin bonded into their metal sockets.

 The car is booked into David Nightingale Coachtrimming for a new hood to be made in March.

There are also a few small maintenance jobs,  including fitting a stack blower to quickly clear fuel vapour if  the pilot burner goes out, after a rather alarming bang when the car was standing in the drive just prior to the last run of the season. This mishap also slightly damaged the smoke hood, which has now been been repaired by steam car experts Julian and Justin Goold.

What we have got up to in the Hols....

Sorry about the hiatus in blog postings, pressing family matters have taken over during the last few months - so here is a quick update.

Fame - the Veteran Car Club awarded us the Mercedes Benz Racing Trophy for 2013 - given for best performance of an Edwardian car at a Vintage Sports Car Club event - for our showing at Prescott Hill Climb.

Insulation problems - after the first test run in May, all the lovingly applied new boiler insulation fell off - the glue used to temporarily hold it in place failed and in the process offgassed and wrecked the ceramic paper insulation.  Gave up and re-insulated with double sided aluminum foil superwool instead, which does a fine job.

Carbonisation - still having problems with tiny particles of carbon repeatedly  blocking the burner nozzles and killing the car's performance - the 'steam enema' installed during the winter is helping to keep the problems under control. Probably need to start experimenting with kerosene fuel instead of 50/50 petrol/diesel.

Cylinder Oil consumption was deliberately set high by the restorers, now cutting it back from about 40 miles per litre to the Stanley recommended level of one (US) gallon per 400 miles - roughly 100 miles per litre. The cylinder oil pump adjustment is very sensitive, got it to about 88 miles/litre at the moment.

Hood (Top in US parlance) - slow progress, the new laminated bows arrived in June, and will be fitted to the top sockets asap; will also get the car booked into the coach trimmer again f or the hood to be made up.

More fame - we were awarded 'best car in show' at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum  Classic Car show in June.

Keeping the heat in

Now that the weather is warming up,  we can finish fitting and tidying up the bonnet and boiler insulation - the spray on glue and water based 'finishing cloth' can only be applied in warmer weather. The 3mm ceramic paper insulation on the inside of the bonnet has now  been glued in place and sealed with a couple of coats of emulsion paint. Back in 1914 Stanley's would  have used asbestos stuck on with wallpaper paste.

More layers of insulation will be added to the smoke hood on top of the boiler as well.

Pressure Gauge details and dates

The pressure gauge (right hand of the two) is now back on the car, complete with bevelled washer ;

 Having reinstated one original feature, I have deviated from another another - instead of a clear indirect reading water gauge glass, I've put a red-line one in. This will make it far easier to see the water level. 

More details - All the Ashton Valve Company gauges on the car have serial numbers; on the Steam Car Club of Great Britain Website there is a list of Ashton Gauge serial numbers and dates.
The Steam and Main Fuel Gauges date from 1913, and the Pilot Fuel gauge 1914 - the year Stanleys changed over to kerosene fuel with a separate petrol tank for pilot fuel.

An obsession with detail?

Original features often vanish during repair or restoration; photos of sister cars show a small beveled washer between the boiler pressure gauge elbow and firewall

The boiler pressure gauge is the right hand one in this photo of restored sister car #7712 in the USA. This car also has its electric gauge lamp, long since vanished from  ours, and the indirect reading water gauge between the fuel and boiler pressure gauges. 

This  pre-restoration photo showed that the washer and gauge glass fitting had vanished from our car

When the car was dismantled, a ring of discoloured paintwork was found where the washer fitted. Spares and accessories for Stanleys are relatively easy to come by; Vintage Steam Products in the US supply a wide range of Stanley spares and accessories, including a stainless steel reproduction of the missing washer, and with the pressure gauge off  to avoid it freezing in the winter, it was a good time to order a  replacement.


 During restoration we also sourced an original Stanley water gauge fitting from T Clarence Marshall of the Marshall Steam Museum, whose father was a Stanley dealer.

Bits and Pieces

Parts and fittings for modifications and repairs are arriving from Stanley Specialists J R Goold Vintage Steam Engineering. Today's delivery was valves and pipe fitting for installing:

A Steam Enema - live steam line to blow the fuel vapouriser clear when it gets clogged with bits of carbon - a problem throughout last season.

The new Pilot Fuel Tank - replacing the original one which developed a hairline fracture last year. Work hardened 100 year old brass and 2-3 gallons of pilot fuel (very pure petrol or Hexane) at 20-30 psi is not a good combination.