Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[Mike Cecil]

I seem to remember at 16, it was those painted sinners I was after!!

And Jack O'D was, when I was first starting our in MV restoration, the chief exponent of the 'puff of paint' hiding a multitude of sins!! (I'm sure Keef W can add to that comment!)

But enough of that .... very good job Rick , and some powerful images (of Jill) for us all to show our wives! (and that's me on the receiving end of the frying pan!)

You probably explained this somewhere back along this thread, but what made you choose Light Stone/Portland Stone as the chassis topcoat? Is that the colour you will use throughout?

Best regards

Mike

[Dinty]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this rebuild thread, I also have a T/A wife, coffee maker etc etc cheers Dennis

[lynx42]

When you re-cant a story like this one it is easy to get things out of order or to miss some photos you want to show.

This has happened here. In post #104. the steering box had been refitted but without photos. Well I found some.

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One of the three holding bolts had sheared off many years ago below the steering box mounting face. Plenty of heat did no good. I had to carefully centre punch the broken bolt and then gently drill it out using about 4 drills of increasing size until the thread was just visible and then I taped the remainder out. That took about 4 hours to do.

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I then was able to pull it all apart and get the bearing sizes for new bearings as mentioned in post #104.

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Re-assemble was straight forward. I had to set the box up with the steering shaft in the centre where the steering wheel would have been at mid position. I tightened the adjusting screw just enough to remove any play between the roller and the worm, then replaced the lock plate and tightened up the lock nut.

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There is a bit of a trick to remove or replace the roller shaft cover. (The red primed one in this photo.) You have to turn the adjusting screw in the centre of the cover in a clockwise direction until the screw driver slot is clear of the cover. The cover is then slid off sideways off the end of the selector shaft. Re-assembly is done the reverse way.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

Post #113 mentions the petrol tanks being in place. The Lynx has two tanks of 12.25 gallons each. These are protected in armoured boxes one on each side of the chassis.

The left hand tank was still in position but there was no sign if the other one. After I had purchased the speed boat at auction, I was allowed to completely go through the storage shed and look for what ever belonged to the Lynx. Almost straight away I found another fuel tank up in the rafters. It was not until some time later that I realized that I had two Left tanks and non for the right side. This tank from up in the rafters was in excellent condition not like the one which had spent the last 45 years+ out in the open.

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It had some numbers stenciled on one end, maybe some-one can decipher them for me.

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The general condition inside was very pleasing to see. It was nice and shiny inside as well as out.

Rick

[lynx42]

More on the fuel tanks.

The 6 bolts holding the fuel level sender unit came out easily and the sender looked good. Fortunately for me it had a brass float not a cork one.

There is a condenser attached to each sender unit and these were a bit beyond it. I hope the ones I replaced them with will be OK.

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The filler cap was still in place and anchored with a snappy little clip and chain.

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The bottom of the tank was also in excellent condition but it took me a while to remove the drain plug.

Regards Rick

[lynx42]

It is interesting that the armoured tank covers have a removable cap so the fuel can be drained from underneath. Three bolts and the cap is off. I had to fit captive nuts to both armoured bases to bolt the caps back on.

The right tank as I said was missing, so I had to modify the original left one into a right one. Not a big job?? Well not really. First I had to unsolder the filler cap and reposition it in the correct place up the other end so that the armoured lid would shut cleanly over it. Then I had to solder a patch over the hole left but removing the filler cap. Sounds easy doesn't it. That done, what to do about the drain underneath? It was in the wrong place for the removable armoured cap mentioned earlier. Well I cheated this time as I could not work that one out. I replaced the drain plug with a shorter one but the tank has to be removed to access it.

Why did I choose to modify the original left one to be the right one? Well it had sat outside for many many years and had a good coating of rust building up inside it. With the filler cap out, the new hole drilled and the sender unit removed it gave me a chance to get at the rust.

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The sender unit on this one was a bit ornery to get out. Two of the bolts ware sheared of but fortunately there was enough shank to get a pair of mole grips onto them.

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Here the right hand tank is floating in the molasses tank to get rid of the outside rust on the bottom of the tank.

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The inside was a mess so I covered the holes and sank it into the molasses tank for a few weeks. I took it out a couple of times and after placing about 1kg. of square shaped nuts into the tank, rolled it around on the lawn for an hour or two then put it back into the molasses. I repeated that about 3 times and a lot of rust build up was removed. I left it floating in the molasses to clean the bottom outside and when I was happy with it I gave it a good rinse out.

POR15 is my choice of tank sealer and after soldering on the patch and the filler cap, I sealed the sender unit hole and poured in them metal cleaner/degreaser followed by the metal prep and finally the sealer paint.

I did that with both tanks and they should be good forever.

Regards Rick

[lynx42]

The tanks were completely stripped back to bare metal so I could see if there were any pin holes. I pored methylated spirits into them and sloshed it around and there was no sign of a leak. Why metho? Well it is very fluid and will quite quickly get into any seams and escape to the outside. It then evaporates quickly as well.

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The underside of the tank before treating. You can see how well the molasses works No sign of rust anywhere.

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POR15 filling the rust pits.

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A coat of POR15 was painted onto the outside of the now right tank and then the tank sealed inside with POR15.

Regards Rick.