Bonnet Insulation Templates

Starting work on bonnet insulation - cutting and checking templates for ceramic paper insulation which will be glued to the inside of the bonnet (Stanley's used asbestos, stuck on with wallpaper paste).  I am also going to add extra insulation to the boiler and smoke hood, so we have the same thickness as the temporary soft ceramic fibre insulation taped on to get the car on the road last autumn. 

It will all be encapsulated with a fibreglass, water activated adhesive cloth & painted with emulsion to finish off. However completing the insulation will have to wait until the weather is warmer & there is no chance of frost.

Its been a bit too cold lately to do much in the garage  - however bits and pieces for getting the car ready for the summer have been arriving.  Cans of cylinder & crankcase oil,  material for finishing the bonnet & boiler lagging, hide cream for the upholstery, and piston & pump rod packing. New hood bows are on order, to tracings of the profile templates I took from a sister car & measurements from the dummy bows made up over the winter. More tools and lagging are on the way from Vintage Steam Products in  the USA and the other day it was briefly warm enough to begin adjusting the nearside front wheel bearing, which had developed a tiny bit of shake.

Rolled the car out of the garage this afternoon to take some photographs from a distance, with battens laid on the dummy bows to simulate the hood line.  For comparison, here's a photo of a sister car (one of only two others in the UK) with the hood up.

Over Xmas have been working on dummy hood bows made up to measurements taken from a sister car.   Have now got them fitted using lots of blue rope to replicate the hood straps; the whole assembly looks about right, though the rearmost bow may need adjusting to get the end of the hood to match the slope of the body.  However a few more measurements and checks are needed to confirm dimensions before ordering a new set of bows.

Meanwhile been ordering spares for the pilot burner in readiness  for steaming up again in the spring.

 The main winter/spring job is getting a new hood made for the car so we can go out in dodgy weather. Over the last couple of months have measured the hood on a sister car, started to make a set of dummy hood bows to check dimensions, begun looking for an experienced coach trimmer to make the new hood and started sourcing a new set of hood bows.

Been rather busy with the car lately hence no posts lately - she is now drained down and laid up for the winter, after a few weeks driving around getting used to the car. Had a super weekend with the Steam car Club of Great Britain   at the Prescott Hill Climb autumn Classic and took her up the test hill a couple of times.

Took the car for a 15 mile run yesterday before the weather broke, east along the A4 from Marlborough and back via Ramsbury over minor roads including a 17% descent. It ran nicely - according to the Satnav max speed 35 mph (downhill on the A4), average 19mph, pressure oscillating between the low 400s and 500 all the way. Brakes fine.

Pilot light may have gone out once 3 1/4 miles out from home) still not 100% sure if it actually did but noticed fumes from under bonnet so shut down and pulled off to relight just in case. No problems for the rest of the trip. Have topped up the pilot fuel tank with Aspen 4T alkylate petrol (very pure non-additive, £18 for 5 Litres) as I can not get Hexane, so was watching pilot closely.

Checking the car over afterwards I noticed slight leaks from the fuel and water pumps, so jacked the car up in the garage and ticked it over slowly at 200-100 psi (with the burner off)  to check things out and tighten the glands  little by little until drips stopped.

Of course made a few mistakes........2 or so miles out  from home noticed a slight hiss and found I had not tightly closed the drip valve. When relighting the pilot did not follow my check list and forgot to open the pilot valve on the dash, which caused about 5-10 minutes of head scratching,