2008 at the Hammond Barn

[Grant Bowker]

Alex, thanks for the suggestions, I will consider the heat and shrink method, the screw and heave method will make more mess than it will cure. The large dings are cured, I'm now looking at small dimples that weren't really obvious until I started to sand on the primer..

[Bob Carriere]

Just running at a fast idle....... no throttle..... and only using the front axle as the rear shafts were not installed yet....... will do better for BB3...

BooB

[RHClarke]

Bob's BBQ is in the bag, summer is slowly turning into fall (climate change they call it now), and the focus at the barn turns to domestic chores. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to get up to the Bancroft area for the big show...maybe next year. Today, we rounded up more metal for the scrappers - you would be surprised at what Bob had lieing about - he was!

We wrangled a Rube Goldberg farm implement - brand name Dion, and nicknamed "Stephane" (after one of our finest liberal politicians) out of the brush and then Grant and Bob cut some odds and ends off of the device for future "artistic" welding chores. We took a break around 3 PM to quaff some of Canada's finest ales (it was quite hot - the beer evaporated rather quickly). A few short stories about CMP collecting later, we were back at it.

I ran the HUP engine again today (this time with the fan connected) and found that old engines like to leak ...everything - including water. Bob recommended that I "pipe dope" the bolts for the water pump (I'll be looking that up later on the internet). Frame clean up and a second coat of paint are in the offing - once the brakes are finally adjusted...and then the great mating of the body to the frame...check is in the mail...

Bob fiddled with his old tractor in preparation for "putting in the wood" - a chore for the upcoming weeks. Grant continued to work on his roof panel.

Between the great clean up and the day to day tinkering, it was a great day at the barn. Hopefully, the weather remains good this fall. Speaking of which, it's time to fill up the van - hurricane Gustav will be driving up the price of gas soon (oil execs love these storms...). More later.

[RHClarke]

"It's raining again..." If it's raining, it's the weekend. More of the rule than the exception here in Ottawa. Grant and Bob had plans to visit Kingston for the OMVA event on Saturday, but it looks like plans changed. Hopefully, the boys will fill in the blanks on Saturday soon.

Today, I got to spend a morning at the barn. It looks like Bob and Grant were busy - there were seven sets of rims missing their collars of 60 year old rubber...there were a bunch of sanblasted and treated rims sitting in the barn, and some wood got cut up in preparation for Lucifer. Grant's roof looks great - even in primer!

After taking stock of the boy's work, I tore down my radiator and attempted to fix the leaking waterpump housing. Taking Bob's advice, I gooped the bolts for the waterpump and retorqued. I also refilled the master cylinder and finally got some pressure (before bleeding). Unfortunately, time ran out and I had to hit the trail back to the city.

Just before leaving, I ran into Bob, who indicated that he might have a foreign visitor this week. I'll let him spill the beans on that item...more later.

[RHClarke]

Francesco (an Italian CMP enthusiast) and his bride are honeymooning in Canada. They are on a road trip from Montreal to Niagara Falls and points in between. Their itinerary includes many romantic stops, including Hammond!

Last Thursday night Bob hosted Francesco and his wife, and invited Grant and myself to stop by for some international CMP conversation. Bob and Joyce put on a wonderful dinner and we all enjoyed learning about the CMP hobby in Italy.

Prior to dinner, Bob squired the visitors around the barn. First stop - the famous cat house.



Francesco at the controls of "Lettie" - Bob's truck.


The tour wrapped up with a conversation about the difficulties in finding CMP roofs with hatch holes in Italy:


And so, Francesco holds the record for the longest distance traveled to visit the Hammond barn. I think that record will stand for some time to come.

It was a treat to chat with Bob's international visitors, and we are looking forward to taking Francesco up on his invite to Italy...

[RHClarke]

Despite the forecast, the rain held off. It was a warm and muggy day so we decided not to sandblast all of Bob's newly naked CMP rims. Instead, Bob fired up Lettie and took her for a ride. That freed up space in the barn for my HUP.

The rear brake cylinders need rough adjustment, so I pulled the axles and removed the hubs (which came off effortlessly - a stark comparison to when I first took them off a few (?) years ago). The end screws to the cylinders needed to be turned out a considerably long way. Pulling the hubs made sense as trying to move the screws out by 1/128 of a turn with a bent screwdriver thru the adjusting vents would have taken all day. After a final adjustment, I buttoned up the hubs/axels and replaced the really nice 10.50 x16 tires (that some continue to believe don't fit CMPs). We bled the brake system and finally got some pressure.

Next step in the HUP process - the Great Mating! It will happen this fall come hell or high water!

In the meanwhile, we moved my 3/4 ton ambulance to the back 40 for the winter. Upon return to the barn, Bob's neighbour Marcel, stopped by for some quick repairs to the bucket of his little John Deere. Bob and Grant fired up the touches and straightened the bucket to just about new condition, much to the delight of Marcel.

With that fun out of the way, I headed home to Ottawa to ward off the herds of "Green Shifters" and orange socialist door knockers that plague this city.

[RHClarke]

Saturday started off coolish - thankfully, it kept the local airforce at bay. We had an early morning visit from Guy Vapeur who regaled us with stories of the steam hobby and comparisons with our CMP network. We came to the conclusion that CMPers are more verbose and tend to post more photos of a "how to" variety than our Fulton inspired brethren.



Bob started the day off with some wood management (Oh, the fun some folks could have with that line...). The cool weather is upon us, so Bob moved two cribs full of wood taken from last years clean up.



By 10:00 it was hot. Lunch at Chez Marie was a welcome break from the heat. Grant joined us after lunch with a special delivery of more tubes and flaps for our future project vehicles.



I on the other hand, had some fun with the HUP. I finally installed the missing spacer (see next photo) the second nut and retainer on each of the rear axels, put some anti-seize on all of the wheel studs, axle bolts, and lifting ring bolts (rear set) and nuts (front set).



The brakes now work - thanks, Jeff/Bob/Frank/Grant and everyone else who worked on them. Wiring harness is now installed (hopefully correctly).





All that needs to be done is some paint touch ups, and the great "mating" of body and frame can get underway.

So, (and now the reference to the title) I decided to fire up the HUP. She runs and idles great! Except for some leaks around the waterpump and a new leak in the middle of the rad... We shut her down and watched the water slowly drip out of the bottom of the water pump and dribble out of a hole in the rad. Bob asked if I had installed a new waterpump gasket. I responded that I don't think I would have reinstalled the waterpump without one, so the worst case scenario popped into our heads - cracked block!

Off came the rad (properly marked for leak repairs). Off came the fan and belt. Off came the waterpump - guess what - NO GASKET! In my defence, it has been three years since I first took the pump off for painting (and put back on the motor just to keep things in one place). A case for keeping notes...So, we cleaned up the housing, removed the backing plate and cleaned it up and installed the new gaskets. We reassembled everything except the rad - the leave pass expired and I had to hightail it home as it was pressing 6:00PM. I carefully noted "Fix the rad" in my project notebook...