Burrell Passenger Trolley - Superstructure

The first frame in position at the
centre of the chassis

Fitting threaded bushes. Left to Right
i) Parts prepared ready to insert bush
ii) Bush press fitted in place awaiting welding
iii) Weld complete showing welding fillet
iv) Excess weld filled flush

Tack-welding the frame using a piece of
heavy duty plywood as a template

Monday 23 October: Progress last week was not as good as I would have liked. I decided on the design of the seat and made a start on the tubular frame to which I will attach the side panels. The design is complicated by the need to make the frame removable to enable the trolley to fit on my road trailer with the Burrell.

I need to be able to screw M6 & M8 bolts into the chassis tubes. I drilled and tapped a M8 hole in an off cut of tube and, as I suspected, I was easily able to "pull the thread" out of the tube. Having confirmed that the easy solution would not work I decide to weld tapped bushes into the tube at the appropriate locations.

The frames are made from 20x20x2 mm steel tube, mitre cut and welded. The bottom of the frames will be bolted to the chassis using M8 bolts. Into the side of the frames M6 bushed are welded which will be use to secure the sides of the seat. These will be dismounted and stored "nice sides" together when packed on my trailer.

By the end of last week I had completed and fitted the centre seat frame to the chassis. Today I have been busy finishing the remaining two frames.

To hold the tubes whilst welding I clamped them to a piece of 3/4" plywood onto which I had carefully marked the outline. After tack-welding I checked each frame on my surface plate before completing the welding operation.

Thursday: I have been busy making stringers from 20x20x2mm tube to support the floor. I welded the stringers directly to the chassis. Welding of the penultimate stringer was brought to an abrupt haut when my welder packed up. I had to strip the welder to diagnose the fault and eventually identified a loose connection in the welding torch as the culprit.

The chassis together with superstructure.

Fitting the sides to the trolley

Wednesday 1st November: Banana Effect

I have been busy fitting wooden panels for the floor and sides of the trolley. After carefully cutting the sides of the seat to precise dimensions I was disappointed to discover that they did not fit. On investigating I discovered that the chassis had bowed raising the middle by 5mm compared to the ends. I remember Steve telling me that distortion caused by welding can cause a "Banana Effect". In this case the series of cross tubes I welded to the underside of the chassis to support the floor has caused the underside of the chassis tube to shrink bowing the centre of the chassis upwards. I tried jumping on it to straighten it but it would not budge so I have now profiled the sides to match.

Friday 10th November: This week I finished construction of the trolley and made a start on painting. I am painting the chassis black using Hammerite smooth. I used a brush to apply the paint to the chassis but as I was finding in hard to get a good finish I decided to use my spray gun for the remaining parts. After I had finish these I refilled the gun and gave the chassis a quick coat all over to improve the finish. Since I also found it necessary to give the Foden chassis a once over with the spray gun a I am coming to the conclusion that I cannot get a decent finish with a brush!

The Dulux colour cards together with my test piece
The rectangle on the right of the test piece has
been painted with the Dulux paint.

The same test piece taken in daylight
The main plate is painted with Phoenix Burrell
Maroon with a small rectangle on the right hand
side with Dulux Garnet Symphony 1

Thursday 16th: The trolley sides and running boards are made from plywood and I decided to use Dulux gloss paint applied by brush. For the running boards and inside I used black gloss but for the sides I wanted a colour close to "Burrell Maroon". My local B&Q offers the Dulux paint mixing service and I went along with a tests piece painted will the "Burrell Maroon" I obtained from Phoenix Precision Paints. Using the colour cards I determined the closest match to be "Garnet Symphony 1" Code 72RR 05/147 and I purchased 1/2 litre in gloss together with matching dark grey undercoat.

Yesterday whilst painting the sides of the trolley I also painted a small rectangle of the Dulux paint directly onto my test piece to check the colour match. Once dry I was disappointed to find it to be a slight lighter shade. I have since viewed the test piece under various lighting conditions and observed differing degrees of colour match depending on the environment. This reminded me that colour can be fickle and it is not simply a RGB number.

I have now given the sides a second gloss coat and shall leave them to dry for a few days before attempting to assemble the trolley. I am hopeful that when the trolley is united with Little Beastie on the rally field the colours will work together.