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.

Prescott - great photos of a grand day out

Phill Kroll of Philmit Photography took some amazing photos of the Prescott Autumn Classic and has kindly given us permission to use those of our car

In the Cavalcade on Saturday - pity I look so grumpy, must be concentration....

Sorry about the unsightly insulation, it is being smartened up honest!

Keeping the heat in....

Finally started work on extra insulation layers for the boiler and smoke hood, and lagging the exhaust flue. Bought some low  temperature application adhesive so can continue work in cold spells. The finishing layer of  'diplag' covering bought from Vintage Steam Products in the US will have to wait until April, as its a water based adhesive material.

Exhaust flue with newly installed insulation is on the right.

End of 2013 Season and Winter Works

2013 saw us doing a lot of short, local runs, no long tours - have not replaced the old, too large, car transporter yet! Kelly Williams of the Stanley Register Online paid a visit in the summer & we were able to give him a short trip in the car. Photos of car at Prescot hill climb here

Total miles about 275, car running mechanically fine, doing about 11 2/3 mpg plus about 1/3 gallon to steam up on 50/50 petrol/diesel mix. The UK Stanley Steam car catalogue says a 15hp car should run 12-14 miles on a gallon of paraffin.

Being generous with the cylinder oil though, using about 1/3 as much as recommended in the Stanley literature.

The  Pilot burner gives occasional problems,  look like dirt in pilot tank. Plot fuel consumption varying a lot, clearly have not go the hang of setting it low yet!

Repeated main burner problems due to small particles of carbon clogging jets. Don Bourdon's article 'Stanley Burners' in the latest issue of The Steam Car (No. 61 Oct 2013 ) very useful. Looks like I was not cleaning things frequently enough! Thinking of installing a 'steam enema' live steam blow-through valve to help with cleaning!

Hood (Top) bows still on order, should have been read by now but are unfortunately delayed. Want to get hood  made up for next season, certainly by mid-summer.

Have not had much success with the original 3-tube water level indicator, which keeps reading high (ie water low in glass). Suspect its mounted about 1 1/2" too high. This is probably a job for another year, don;t want to risk damaging the low water automatic and pipework.

Only real problems are the cracked pilot tank and the leak in the top quarter of the main fuel tank. Have tried & failed to get the tank out - can not compress the new upholstery enough to clear the tank. Do not want to remove it at present so will live with the fuel tank leak for the moment - just fill 2/3 instead of full! The pilot tank is more of a problem, will probably fit a new horizontal tank on the running board where the prestolite cylinder (stolen in the 1940s) should be.

Prescott American Autumn Classic : a grand couple of days out

Prescott American Autumn Classic : 

Some great photo of our Stanley and other steam cars at  this event here, really captures the atmosphere.



















































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Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible....

Have not done much with the blog lately, so here is an update. Done over 200 miles so far this season, lots of relatively short jaunts from home. Had a bit of burner problems due to carbon from fuel building up in the vaporizer which heats the fuel - looks like this may be due to biofuel content in the 50/50 petrol diesel mix we are using. Several vaporizer cleans and changing to 97 RON petrol - no biofuel content - seems to have made all the difference. Showing and touring the car slightly curtailed by longer than expected hunt for a smaller and lighter car transporter. We will be at the Crofton Beam Engines Steam gala 28 and 29 September and then the Prescott Autumn Classic 5 & 6 October.