[Humber-One-Ton Tom]

Further to my last message - trying to raise a group effort to get this red truck between a few of us (a guy on the yahoo group wanted a manifold - I have one already......Waltz, you may beven get the axles cheaper or get more bits for your money....)

I thought I should set out what I am doing with my wreck of a truck, 02BK09.

I know that this appeal is a bit unusual, but the thought of a usable engine & 'box going into the fragging machine keeps me awake at night....really!

As I have said, right now I don't have a pot to piss in. Flat broke. They take whatever I earn. But they can't stop me messing around with Humbers!

Sorry, I know that's not really anyone's business but my own, but it does explain why I didn't just buy that bloody truck for £250, sell a few bits on and get mine running with what's left, etc. etc. And it also explains why I am messing about with a pile of scrap that was once 02BK09.

But it's a funny old world. Within a week of being forced to sell 02BK32 (still gutted - I loved that truck) I got the wreck of 02BK09 for free. I also have free use of the land she sits on. Foor as long as it takes. Weird, huh? The catch is that she is blocked in - no vehicle access in or out. When she is done I can remove some fence, build a ramp, take down a second fence (I will need permission) and drive her out. But it will be a major operation. But she is safe where she it and I can work on her. I was originally chasing this one as parts of 02BK32 but I had to let that one go just as I got this new one for nothing....

It is not just because I am skint and this is free though....I am really obsessed with the soft-skin Humber, I hate to see any get scrapped. There is a blue one on the Yahoo group site that got scrapped in 2005 that still gives me nightmares - she was so straight that with a bit of plod and a lick of paint she could have been used. And if only I could have got the Axe-holder for 02BK32!
O.K. - I think that I have established that I am a nutter.

So what of 02BK09?
The plan is to get the front straight, tidy up the scuttle, make what's left of the cab secure, remove the destroyed cargo body (but it's all flat panels - in time I may re-build it if a better one does not come along...)

De-rust & paint the chassis - then gice the whole chassis a mechanical once-over - brakes will be dead but main parts should just need cleaning & re-lubricating as mileage is low and it's all sealed.

Engine & gearbox are pretty-much dead; the plonker who left it there took the selector-plate off the gearbox (and lost it!!) and it filled with water. He also took out No.1 spark plug and left it out for 10 years....you habve to be a special kind of moron to be able to kill a B60+ 'box like this, when one thing these trucks have going for them is that they are WARERPROOF!! Mounts also missing. Rad is lost (Probably weighed in...)

Eventually she needs new engine& 'box but in the meantime I may get this one running as a challenge....but it will never be a good engine. If she can crawl around the field under her own power it will be interesting and I will learn more about how these things tick in the process!

So I will end up with an open-cab, battered, Humber. Short-term stick mekeshift body on back to make road-legal, long-term want cargo body. As funds allow I will replace the engine (I have not given up on the red one - everything to get me rolling is there!)I would really like it to be something that looks like a battered version of the prototype 03BK52 as in Les' old photos -

And I will take her off road places you would never take a nice one. Show the Landrover & Toyota boys what Deep fording is really all about.

And it will be one more Humber still in the world.

I will take the oportunity - now all my cards are on the table - of appealing for ANY old Humber junk you were going to throw away. That old bit may look like rubbish to you but odds on it is better than the bit on my truck - your door may be rusted out, mine is rusted AND bent....a quarter-tin od old congealed Nato paint to tidy it up a bit...

Hope that no-one is offended by this frank discussion of my situation. hey, I know we should just talk about trucks.

Regards,
Tom
Portsmouth
UK