ModelWorks Foden Builder's Diary Please read disclaimer
Kit 17 - Ashpan

Thursday 10 April: City Link delivered kit 17 this morning after a failed attempt yesterday.  There is not much in this kit and because of my assembly sequence I will not be able to fit many of the parts.   This kit was meant to contain the crankshaft but this has been further delayed due to problems obtaining a satisfactory finish to the journals.  I cannot fit the ashpan as my boiler will be sitting on its foundation ring until I fit the boiler into the chassis. I do not plan to do this until next winter and only then if ModelWorks have made good progress delivering the 5 kits that are no outstanding to complete the Foden build.

While kit contents and title have deviated from the brochure I though it was still worth while trying to reconcile the remaining "brochure kits" against what is outstanding.    According to the brochure:-  kits 18 & 19 are motion kits 1 & 2; kit 20 are the gears and kits 21 & 22 are fittings kits 1 & 2.  Given the past deviations I was surprised to see such a good match.    Signifiant items, such as the roof, have been missed from previous kits and these will have to be made good.   The bottom line is that if Modelworks can recover and achieve a kit a month I should have all the parts ready to assembly my Foden once the rally season is over and my garage floor becomes available.

Firedoor on fullsize Foden C-type


Trial fit of the fire door

Saturday 19 April: I have recently made a bracket to mount on the smokebox of the Burrell which requires painting with heat resistant paint so I decided to prepare the fire door so that I can paint it at the same time.   I must be in a painting mood as I have also recently painted the hornplates.

As a comparison I have included a picture of the fire door fitted to a full size Foden. 

The firedoor is bolted to a backing plate that has already be welded to the boiler.  This is taped with 4 M5 blind holes.  I found I had to clean these up witha M5 plug tap and on one I chickened out going to the full depth as I could see the tap twisting and had visions of a broken tap in the boiler so I had to shorten the mounting bolts by 1mm to compensate.

As indicated in the instructions I had to file quite a bit of metal off the firedoor to enable it to clear the fire hole in the boiler as it opened.   I also had to file a similar amount from the baffle plate.  This was more difficult as it was hard to judge where it was binding.

I also prepared the mudhole cover for painting at the same time.  I found that I had to remove some metal from the underside of the clamping bar so that the nut could be done up tight before it hit the boss on the mudhole cover.

I wish I spotted this before "adjusting" the tiebars


Tie bars fitted between boiler and front axle

Thursday 20th November 2008: I am in the process of final assembly and needed to quickly fit the tie bars to provide stability to the front axle.  This should have been a quick job but I did something very stupid.

To check the fit of the tie bar I needed to set the front axle level.  Unfortunately unknown to me the axle dropped on the spring hanger so that it was in the wrong position.  When I offered up the tie bar I found that it was too short by 1/2"  This did not ring alarm bells since it states in the instructions that it may be necessary to adjust their length by adjusting the bends.  I found it extremely difficult to open out the bends.  The instructions suggested holding in a vice and using a club hammer but I found this totally ineffective.   I achieved some  movement by placing a scafold pole over one end as a lever but nowhere near enough.  In the end I had to resort to heating each bend orange red in which condition it was easy to bend.

When I got one tie bar to the correct length the penny dropped and I realised that the front axle was in the wrong position.  The irony was that the one tie bar that I hadn't got round to bending was a perfect and I spent another half day getting the mistakenly bent tie bar back to it's original shape.  One little niggle was that all three bolts were too short to engage onto the nilock bolts so when I finally fit the bars I shall have to use some thread loc.