Wiles Junior Cooker

[jack neville]

Before I got a chance to do anymore work a sale came up at Toolern Vale from an aging VMVC club member. His collection of Land Rovers, ex army trailers and other militaria included a Wiles Junior and Wiles Senior cooker and a large assortment of cooker parts. This included about ten boilers, water tanks, valves, gaskets, oven doors and grates and steamer bins and baskets. Most of it was NOS and had been parked under cypress trees and tarps for so long that a chainsaw was required to trim away branches before it could be uncovered. Most of the tarps and crates fell apart when uncovering the parts. I managed to acquire a NOS oven which only had a rusty bottom section that needed replacing due to many years in the weather. I also got a NOS tea urn in perfect condition and some NOS taps and valves and steam pipes.

[jack neville]

I also picked up two NOS boiler covers.

[jack neville]

The oven, dated 1971 had sat in the weather and water had gotten into the bottom via the smoke outlet in the top. The bottom corner had rustted out so I cut it off and welded a new bottom in it. The door had rusted shut but once heated up it freed open to reveal nice clean metal inside. Sandblasted and blacked and ready to fit. Under the brass plate was original paint.

[jack neville]

This allows me to fit a new boiler, oven and tea urn and taps and valves to my cooker and pass on serviceable parts to the second cooker. They will still need repairs but not total rebuild as was going to be required. My engineer friend in the meantime is going to make new stainless steel steam bins. My bins are useable but rusty inside and there was no steam bins with the original cooker. So I stripped the original cooker apart. Another example of why everyone should have a small excavator.

[jack neville]

I was disappointed with the rust to the chassis and boiler firebox. the extent of the rust was not visible before I pulled it apart. There was enough rust to fill a wheel barrow. Surprisingly though all the firebox heatplates were still solid enough to use.

[jack neville]

While I had the chassis suspended I stripped the springs and axle out. The shackle pins and pushes were all in perfect condition. Wheel bearings (Made in Germany) were good and will be reused.

[jack neville]

I am not sure what the wheels are and even if they are they wheels originally fitted to these cookers. File photos are not clear but they are 16" fitted with 6.00 x 16 tyres. File photos show bar tread tyres but I have not seen clear period photos of the rims. When stripped mine revealed a 53 date. I only had the two wheels on the original cooker and the later one had LandCruiser rims but a matching spare to my original.