1947 Jowett Bradford Utility: 'The Power of Retro Rides'

Both excellent and educational as always Chris,
Thank you

Nice work.
(PS despite proceeding like a man moving in treacle while on a high ledge,I still cracked that screen. Never mind, I have another to practise on now)
You must be nearing the end of this job now?

Right then - back to it:



Fitted new glass channel to both the front doors



Then sorted the drain tubes for the side sliding windows



Excess water drains via these rebates via a brass sleeve



The old rubber tubes had rotted so these were replaced - they simply drain through the floor of the van

Spent much of the day altering the headlamp brackets to get the headlamps to sit at the correct angle to the wings







Completed the wiring harness for the offside headlamp and got everything connected up - cannot test anything at present has all the switchgear is disconnected on the dashboard



The harness travels through the wing and into the headlamp bowl which is original and pretty standard for the era



The lamp beams will require aligning once I have the switchgear back together but the front end of the van is now starting to look the part - I have made what I hope is a final list of trim bits and ordered them this evening - I had hoped to source much of this at the NEC Restoration Show but it would appear that most of what I was looking for is all slow moving stuff that the exhibitors / stall holders left at home

Just amazing. I love flicking from page 1 to to these shots to experience the massive transformation.

Started to sort the wiper motor & spindles out



They cleaned up ok



It's a tandem wiper system so the drive is only on the motor spindle



The nearside wiper arm is motioned by a drag link from the motorised offside wiper arm



However the wiper arms supplied by the van's owner are too short to provide a suitable sweep & clearance from the windscreen rubber so this is something I shall have to sort



Next was to fit the main floor to the van which I had previously cut to pattern - I gave it a light coat of finishing oil first



Once dry I cracked on with the fitting of it



The rear two coach bolts being critical has these bolt the body to the chassis at this point



Opened another package to find a whiskey box



However no bottle but a pair of rebuilt 6 volt trafficators



The offside panel is new and required drilling for the trafficator fastenings



Tip for drilling through a painted panel is to always apply masking tape over the area to be drilled - it prevents the drill from slipping across the paint



The plated machine screws look a bit bright so I will paint these in black



There is a box cover that goes over the internals of the trafficator but I will leave these off until tested



I need to polish the paint on the panel before fitting the nearside trafficator









Dug all the interior coverings out of the loft - this is 'millboard' a cross between a hardboard and a compressed cardboard - one side has a slightly grained finish to it - the original has all been warped by damp at some stage - I kept them for patterns so one of the next tasks is checking the coverings for fit prior to cutting the new ones from the millboard sheet that I collected at the restoration show

I learned something new about wipers in this update. I did wonder why the vans that had two wipers had a link and why some vans only had one wiper. I imagine twin wipers was something of a luxury on commercials of the period and the link was a cost effective way of updating an old van. A neighbour way back when had a Series 2a Landrover that had two wiper motors, one for each wiper, so they always had a unique wiping pattern between the two of them. I don't know if it was an owner upgrade or factory, but the linked wiper solution certainly makes more sense.

My immediate neighbour purchased a new Land Rover Discovery a few months ago and likewise everything is an option - so 50 years on and nothing has changed when it comes to purchasing a new Land Rover - well maybe slightly it came with 3 wipers and not the one has standard

Load of stuff turned up pretty early via UPS so that meant I could keep going with the glazing



Needed to get the nearside rear panel polished first before fitting the glass



Cleaned the glass up with the machine polisher and a fine compound after I had scraped the paint and other debris off it



Then fitted the rubber and inserted the string for lipping the rubber over the window aperture



Fitted



Then fitted the fixed pane of the side sliding glass - I had sourced a rubber of a thinner profile that would look ok all the way around the aperture - the original factory fitting utilised two mismatched rubber sections that were joined in the centres - this new rubber section makes for a better appearance



I had sourced a new window channel for the sliding window section



Which was duly cut to length then several drain holes drilled on the bottom channel to allow it to drain rainwater into the rebate and then down the drain tube



With window channels installed - the sliding window could be fitted





Then a check made on the fit of the interior metal trim (yet to be painted)



Then repeated the process for the offside sliding window



The windows are little stiff in the channels at present but will free up with a little use

Next was to cut, shape and fit the window weather strips to the front doors



These were originally held on with bifurcated rivets but these just lead to rust forming around the apertures that the rivets travel through - I took the option to bond the weather strips to the door skin



Don't know where the day goes when fitting things like this back together - turn around and it's 19:00 before I know it



Offside weather strip also completed - I went & collected the cream paint for the interior trims so I should now get all the remaining painted parts completed over the next few days with the exception of the wheels which need to go for sandblasting

Alex - They are tightish fit between the ash frame aperture on the inside so they stay where they are put - I tend to work around the van and always leave the next window adjacent out until the one that you are fitting is completed - that way you can use the adjacent window aperture to reach through and apply pressure to the window being fitted when required - then you can utilise the door aperture on the next window to be fitted