Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

May’s motor

A few years ago I had the pleasure of photographing the restored Fordson 7V and the Leyland Beaver owned by John Doe and during my visit I had a sneak preview of his next project. The rather forlorn Atkinson tractor unit parked in a corner of the yard would certainly require a lot of work to put back on the road but John assured me that as soon as the lorry was finished he would give me a call.

True to his word John telephoned in March 2011 to let me know that the Atkinson was now finished and had been completed in the livery of its original owner, May’s Motors of Elstead in Surrey. I arranged to visit John and he was able to tell me about the history of the Atkinson and the details of the restoration. In fact this vehicle had been rebuilt twice, the first time by May’s Motors themselves and the second time by John and his sons.

“In 1995 Jim Noyce, a local funfair owner, asked me to come to his yard near Farnborough to check over his ERF four-wheeler organ lorry prior to its scheduled visit to the Blandford Show. The work only took a couple of hours and so after a bit of a chat and a cup of tea I had the opportunity to have a look around the yard at some of the other vehicles which he had. These included a 1942 four-wheeled long bonnet Mercedes which was ex-German Army and still had bullet holes in the cab, a Scammell eight-wheeler, another ERF four-wheeler and the Atkinson Borderer Mk1. I thought that the German truck would make an interesting restoration project but Jim said that he intended to restore that himself.

“A few days later Jim turned up on my doorstep and said that if I wanted the Atkinson I could have it, but only on the condition that I would complete its restoration. The other condition was that he was going to keep the engine which he intended to use to drive a generator. I must have been mad because I agreed and returned to Jim’s yard a few days later to see about recovering the old Atkinson. It was not in good condition. The wood framing was all rotten, the back of the cab was corroded and the top of the diesel tank was rotting away and you could see inside without having to undo the filler cap.

“I work as a mechanic for Harrington & Jessup Ltd, a compost manufacturing business near Woking, and fortunately my bosses Mike and David Jessup and Peter Harrington are very understanding people. They raised no objection to me bringing the Atkinson back to their yard where I could work on it during my spare time although the first problem would be actually getting it out of Jim’s yard without it disintegrating. There was no way it could be towed but a friend of my son Shaun offered to help with his DAF truck which was fitted with a Hiab. The Atkinson was carefully loaded on board the DAF and then taken to its new home where it would undergo its second rebuild.”

Worked hard

May’s Motors had owned the G registered 1968 tractor unit from new and like most of the company’s vehicles it was worked pretty hard. During the early 1970s many of the firm’s drivers would start work at lunchtime on Sunday and would not return to the yard until midday on the following Saturday having covered hundreds of miles on long distance work. Having been on the road for some 10 years VPG 235G was due to be replaced and the company had received an offer of £6000 from a dealer, which was not a bad price for a well used MK 1 tractor unit. However the cost of a new tractor unit would have been around £12,500 and such a capital outlay, with the economic situation at that time, could not be justified. The decision was taken to upgrade the original MK1 to the MK2 specification.

Refurbishment

The original Gardner 180 engine was stripped down and completely overhauled and refitted into a MK2 chassis which had been chosen as the basis for the rebuild. Likewise the David Brown gearbox was also stripped and rebuilt and the original Kirkstall axle was replaced by an Eaton two-speed. A MK2 cab costing £2600 was fitted as was the larger MK2 version of the radiator. All the rebuilding work was carried out in the firm’s workshops and was costed at just over £6500, around half the expense involved in buying a new tractor unit. Given a new lease of life the Atkinson returned to road duties for several more years until the fleet gradually began the change over to Scanias. The Atkinson was relegated to shunter duties at Blacknell Buildings near Farnborough where May’s had a contract delivering wooden buildings all over the country. In 1975 Jim Noyes bought the Atkinson and he used it for around three years, then it was finally laid up in his yard where it spent the next 18 years rotting away until it was rescued by John.

“The first job was to strip out the cab. I tried to undo the screws securing the cab top panels but the plastic lining just shattered. The metal back of the cab was very corroded but I managed to cut away the bolts securing it to the floor and then I made templates of it out of plywood sheet. My brother Peter is a sheet metal worker and he used the templates to fabricate new panels and he also made new floor panels and a new diesel tank as the original was beyond saving.

“As far as the cab woodwork was concerned practically every section was completely rotten and would have to be replaced. As I was now an Atkinson owner it did seem appropriate that I join the Atkinson Club and through them I sourced the required timbers which were already shaped and jointed. This made the job of building the new cab frame much easier than I had anticipated.

“I stripped out the front axle but found that a lot of the parts were useless and I had to source new king pins, bushes, front hub bearings and two track rod ends. I also discovered that the brakes were worn out but I managed to get new linings from FRM in Aldershot where Gary, Andy and the rest of the gang fitted them to the old brake shoes. The brake chambers were seized but I recalled seeing a chap called Dave Tromans selling brake parts at Gaydon the previous year and he supplied everything I needed including brake lock actuators.

“Turning my attention to the gearbox which I stripped down and was pleased to find that nothing seemed to be badly worn apart from the input bearing which was replaced and I fitted new seals and gaskets. The clutch was also in good condition and only needed a new spigot bearing and a new release bearing. The Eaton two-speed unit was also found to be in good order and only needed the replacement of a retaining plate and my brother Peter made up a new one.

“The chassis was stripped out to bare side rails and my sons Sam and Shaun spent a few days cleaning and degreasing the rails and the cross members – these two boys get all the best jobs! Peter made new flitch plates and when everything was cleaned all the parts were undercoated before being re-assembled and with everything back together Shaun applied the top coats. The springs were taken apart, cleaned and reassembled with new pins and bushes.

“Good progress was being made but there was still the question of the engine which Jim had retained. A few years ago you’d get a decent Gardner 180 from almost any truck breaker but nowadays they seem to be getting scarce and many have been sold abroad. I decided to call in to see Jim to find out what he had done with the original engine. The answer was nothing and after a brief consultation with his son, also named Jim, they decided that they would sell it to me and with the deal agreed the Gardner was brought back to Woking to be reunited with the rest of the tractor unit.

“I managed to get the engine started and ran it flat out but it had a lot of back pressure in the sump so I decided to strip it down completely. Removing the heads revealed that number six bore was scored, as was number six piston, so off came the block. Fortunately Jim’s brother had a new block, two new heads, a new set of genuine Gardner pistons, con rod shells and gaskets and he agreed to sell the lot to me. The pistons were minus the rings and I had to buy a rather expensive new set. While the engine was being assembled I sent the pump and injectors to S & S Diesels in Bishops Waltham to be reconditioned. However although they were able to deal with the injectors the pump proved to be unserviceable but they offered me a reconditioned one from their stock. I thought that their price was a bit on the high side so I searched around and found a second-hand pump. This did prove to be a bad move as I had to do so much work repairing the delivery valves and the lift pump that it would have been much easier and in the end cheaper to buy the reconditioned unit I had been offered.

“The engine was reunited with the chassis, and the gearbox and axles fitted, but the original wheels were badly corroded and the tyres perished so I had to source a new set. I managed to get seven 11 x 22.5 wheels and tyres and once the wheels had been painted and fitted I now had, at long last, a rolling chassis all ready for the cab.

“Mike Jessup used his Manitou loader to lift the cab while Shaun and I, assisted by my other two bosses Peter and David – see I told you they were very nice people – guided the cab into place and bolted it down. The wiring loom looked a little suspect in places so I arranged for Brian and Tony, the electricians which the company uses, to check it over and once they were satisfied the loom was fitted. New glass was fitted to the windows and all the rubber seals were replaced and then everything was rubbed down, masked and prepared for painting in May’s green livery, a job which was completed by my sons, Mike and Shaun, while a local professional signwriter completed the lettering.

“The last remaining job to sort out was the missing fifth wheel which Jim had removed and scrapped many years previously. Eventually I found one at Tony Buckley’s yard in Leighton Buzzard and once this was fitted the Atkinson was ready for testing. The lorry hadn’t been given a decent run as yet and so on the eight mile journey to the Test Centre in Guildford I held the brakes on to bed them in a little. Annoyingly it failed on just one thing – not enough brake on the rear axle service brake which was rated at 48%, just below the 50% minimum. So it was back to the yard, an adjustment was made to the air pressure and the load sensing valve was re-set and then back to the Test Centre where it passed without further difficulty. The lorry was completed in time for its rally debut at the HCVS meeting held at Max Cafe in March and hopefully it will be out at several more events during the season.

“A lot of people have been involved in this restoration and I am grateful to everyone who has helped in various ways but special thanks are due to my bosses, my sons and to my old mate Bob Gosden for all his help with the welding.”