Jack's Stupid Bradford Questions - Part 1

[richard turner]

Are you still looking for ash? I have a small supply of seasoned ash if you are interested. Rich

[Jack]

Hi Rich,

The ready made a post fixed the issue, I have enough for my wheelarches having found a good length with close grain at a local supplier. However it is entirely possible that I will either screw something up or will need more than expected, so will bear you in mind if that happens.

In other news the exhaust was tested today, and to be honest it is really loud. It sounds like a harley davidson. A loud one. Still, it is easily modified to add a muffler if required! I'm sure it will help in getting noticed at local shows, as if we needed that!

Jack.

[Jack]

Another day, another evening in the garage, and more work to try and cross things off the list.

My enthusiasm for woodwood had returned, and the A post was on the agenda. The trial fit went well, now it was time for hinges. A bit of measuring up, some poking around with a pencil, and out came the router. I decided to play it safe and remove a small amount of timber first, see how it fitted, then have another go, and keep doing that until it worked. Of course, after two passes we were getting close - close, that is, to the end of my patience, which is usually about 20 minutes of concentrating on anything.

Luckily between jobs I had to remove the bolts from the old hinge, which still had a lump of rotten timber attached. Quick application of the blowtorch loosened the nut nicely, however it also set fire to the lump of rotten timber and burned my knuckle a bit. I hate blowtorches. Only minutes earlier I had though to myself that I should be careful here, with those hot nuts and bolts I could easily get burned here, forgetting entirely as I picked up the gas bottle that the end of the torch I'd just put out would be hot.

I also managed to take a few minutes to seal up the leaky top hose and refit the now working thermostat, so hopefully this evening we will have a water system topped up and leak free, so we can run the engine as long as we want safely.

I might have another go at the A post later on tonight, I think with a third pass the top hinge will be done, then on to the bottom hinge fitting in yet another test of patience. All the while I remain very much aware that I don't have another A post to play with, and that cutting off a bit too much will result in a door which doesn't fit...

Debate also began as to whether to fit piston type shock absorbers to the front axle in a bid to improve handling, while debating this and other things it was clear that there was a fair bit of play in the joint between the steering and the near side wheel, another job to add to the list.

Jack.

[ian Howell]

Jack: -

Your comment 'so we can run the engine as long as we want safely'; Yersss . . . Well: -

When I had my Bradford back in the '60's I found that it was generally the case that the engine could be run for some time before things got too hot, but eventually, without the benefit of a draft due to the vehicle moving things got fairly 'hot under the bonnet'.

Still, this should not cause too much of a problem as many stationary engines with thermo syphon cooling run quite happily with the 'kettle on the boil'.

Keep up the good work - as soon as the burns heal!

PS I have found that working with wood has the benefit that minor errors can easily be corrected by splicing in a patch of the same type of wood. Use a good waterproof glue of course - I prefer Cascamite and Bill Purves recommends Balcotan - and a few screws too if appropriate.

Welding doesn't work.

[george garside]

I may have said this already but one cause of Bradfords overheating when stationery is simply heat build up under the bonnet which presumably tries to get OUT through the radiator thereby preventing the ingress of cool air.

With one side of the bonnet open long term idling should be ok in normal British temperatures

george

[Jack]

Thanks Ian & George - currently she is sitting with no bonnet at all, and it didn't show any signs of boiling when we ran it previously so hopefully will be ok. I am planning to fit fan and thermostat for sitting in traffic, so might get on with that sooner rather than later to prevent trouble if we are running it stationary.

I managed an hour at lunchtime and the top hinge is in, now the challenge is getting the bottom one right so that it sits right before we do the final tweaking to get it just right. Time to get out of work and on with the next job. My self-distraction strategy is working, Keith suggested that after getting bored of door fitting I work on the dynamo. He clearly hasn't worked out which jobs I need distracting from and suitable jobs to use as distraction!

Jack.

[Jack]

Crikey, a whole month with no updates at all! I suppose knocking down the back of our house and building a fairly substantial extension is a reasonable excuse, it has certainly felt like a lot of time thinking about the Bradford and not much time working on it!

Sunday saw a busy day in the garage, with three of us all doing stuff on various vehicles (though not entirely sure what Keith was doing, but he seemed to be enjoying himself)

I spent the afternoon doing a lot of looking at things, thinking about how I would do some bits, and test fitting the rear lights. Not sure what to do with those, currently they don't fit like they should, and now starting to wonder if I look again for some kind of rear light cluster. I need sidelights, brake lights and indicators at the back, given that we will be using the Bradford on the odd motorway and dual carriageway I need to at least be visible. Suggestions welcome, ideally LED compatible suggestions.

Anyhow, lots of help and some hard work from Chris led to one new wheelarch, made out of thicker steel than the original and very sturdy. The original one flexed and wobbled when removed from the car, this one doesn't flex or wobble at all, which is good. On the downside it means I have no excuse for not getting on with the woodwork around the wheelarch now, so time for a bit of bravery and careful cutting.



Given the tools required to make one (a big bending machine, swager, ideally spot welder with big long arms) but fairly straightforward construction, this seems like something that JCS could think about stocking if there was sufficient demand. Many home restorers would save a huge amount of time, and I can't imagine there are many Bradfords being restored that wouldn't benefit from a new pair of arches. Now we have templates for this it would only be 2-3 hours of workshop time to knock these out, probably less if doing multiple qty.

My door fitting went reasonably well (compared with previous attempts) with it now lining up reasonably with the bodywork. Just need to get the A post finished off with a bit of careful sanding to get the top of the door bang on before finalising the door fit. I can now see the milestone, just not entirely sure how far it is away...

Jack.

[StevenGray]

Hi Jack
Original D type lamps available here http://www.s-v-c.co.uk/product/st51--d- ... ck--pair-/ not led though, if you browse the site there are standalone indicators which you may find acceptable.

Cluster type herehttp://www.s-v-c.co.uk/product/flat-led-cluster--pair-/ (LED type) might only be 12V though

Steve

[george garside]

you can get led ''bulbs'' online to fit standard car bulb holders.

from a safety point of view you need much more rear illumination than can be provided by a 6w D light when running at Bradford speed on a motorways as many drivers don't anticipate a slow vehicle as even hgv's run at near 60mph. If you put safety over absolute originality there are some wonderful and very discrete self adhesive strips of led lights in various lengths (available online) . They come in red or yellow and even in flashiing versions. I have 2 strips on the back of a 45mph motorbike as rear running lights and they are much brighter than the original rear lamp whilst using very few amps.

A strip the full width of the van just above the rear gutter would blend bin well as would one just below the back doors. (THE STRIPS ARE ONLY ABOUT 6MM WIDE)

I also have a cree led front running light on the bike , about 2" diameter , 30w equivalent output for .8 amp consumption!. It was about £15 on ebay and came from china in 5 days, painted red would make very good rear foglight

loads of led vehicle light stuff on ebay

george

[StevenGray]

from a safety point of view you need much more rear illumination than can be provided by a 6w D light when running at Bradford speed on a motorways as many drivers don't anticipate a slow vehicle as even hgv's run at near 60mph.

Whist good illumination is a must for motorways on its own its not nearly enough, As HGV's run pretty well on the 60mph limiter even up hills these days mixing with them is defiantly not for the feint hearted, at best a Bradford is gong to be doing 40-45mph on the flat and as little as 25mph in second up the hills, the closing speed of 30mph seems to be even faster than it really is (around 45ft per second) or one tractor and trailer length per second.

I find myself spending more time looking in the mirrors just in case, and only use a motorway if there really is no other suitable route, adding a Slow Vehicle Sign and a flashing amber beacon seems like a good idea under these circumstances

Steve.

[george garside]

The CC Bradfords I have owned would all do an easy 45/50 on the flat and 55 with the odd touch of 60 with but a little assistance from wind and or gradient and would also climb at around 35mph in second. This was more or less the same as 'the motor' magazine found when they tested one in 1952.

I would however agree with the idea of a flashing beacon for motorway/fast dual carriageway use.

george

[StevenGray]

The CC Bradfords I have owned would all do an easy 45/50 on the flat and 55 with the odd touch of 60 with but a little assistance from wind and or gradient and would also climb at around 35mph in second. This was more or less the same as 'the motor' magazine found when they tested one in 1952.

Maybe I should put a CC engine into my CB then.

My speedometer tells me I can get upto about 60mph on the flat which of course I believed until the advent of GPS navigation systems which also tell you the speed at which you are traveling.
Up to 30mph the clock is pretty accurate over that I would be better taking a guess, at 40 its really about 36mph at 50 its about 42mph 60 its about 50mph
On automobile-catalog.com I found some data sheets for Bradfords albeit for the utility which of course would have had a slightly higher Kerb weight it gives the max speed in 2nd as 32mph and a claimed top speed by Jowett of 53mph with a theoretical top speed of 61mph, 4000rpm makes the eyes water thinking about that crankshaft flexing.
Maybe the speedometers have always been rather optimistic.

I certainly don't remember the CC that my dad owned being that much better than my CB

[Jack]

After weeks of building work, the small matter of Christmas, and all sorts of other things getting in the way, I finally got back into the garage for a bit of playing with the Bradford.

The midsection of the exhaust was straightforward, but needed gunking together, and I decided to put the leftover high temp paint on just as a bit more protection - though the separate components are all very simple (and as a result cheap!) there isn't going to be another chance to protect things and make them look pretty too.

As always with these things, a simple job took an hour to sort out, with old rusty exhaust clamps blasted clean and painted, threads on old U bolts stripping, and the replacement clamps not being quite the right size.



Of course the other advantage to the simple components is that if I need to replace any of them in weird and wonderful places it will be straightforward.

The tailpipe was apparently the smallest size that the company sold. Some of the pipes they had were big enough to fit my head inside, but regardless this is still quite loud but all a bit of fun and easily put back to stock.

[Jack]

Question: There is a threaded end on the brake cross-shaft (pic page 14 and 15 in the CC Manual) which then bolts on. This is currently hanging loose, can anyone confirm how tight this needs to be? There is a felt seal in there, so assume it just needs to press on the felt a bit, or does this need to be adjusted more precisely to make sure the brakes work right?

I can take a photo in the next few days, hopefully you can understand what I am waffling on about.

Jack.

[StevenGray]

Hi Jack
The brake cross shaft should be free to turn in the nut plate, the felt seal I think should fill the space between the nut (screwed end plate) and the shoulder on the shaft,
I think that the felt is so that you can keep the thread lubricated by flooding the felt with oil, after all the outer end is open to the air. Its not on my Bradford, probably disintegrated years ago.

Exhaust looks nice, probably sound like a Harley poddleing down the road,

Steve