Roel Rasker recreates a 1915 Stanley Mountain Wagon.
                                                                PART ONE

After the restoration of my Stanley EX in 2017​, I was looking for a new project.
The choice soon fell on a mountain wagon. These cars have always had my interest, since my first meeting with Peter Williams's mountain car at the Dorset Steam fair a few years ago.
 
First I started looking for an original mountain car. Because these were not available, or too expensive, I decided to build one myself. My preference was initially for a 1909 model with a wooden chassis with 3 benches.
To be able to drive the car in the Netherlands, however, I had to work with an existing old Stanley chassis. Otherwise it was not possible to get it road legal in the Netherlands
.
That's why I decided to go for a 1915 model on a 735 chassis. It was important that I could find an old chassis whose restoration to the original model was not possible.
In England on steamcarnetwork website I found a 735d chassis with chassis number. This was a great start to a big new project.

I could also buy a 20 HP engine in England. With this I already had a solid foundation. In the future I might replace this engine for a 30 hp engine but first I want to see if the engine is strong enough.
 
I had set aside 2 years for this project. But by working full time on it, I succeeded in half a year.
I did a size study on the basis of photos of a 1915 MW, which in my opinion was quite original, after which I made a dummy body with a bench in plywood.

​ 
These sizes were pretty good and with some minor adjustments I started producing the MW. Because this is a reproduction I naturally had some freedom to build the car the way I want. Among other things, more space between headboard and first seat, exchangeable seats, and a fixed propane gas tank for the pilot light. I also preferred copper gas lamps instead of electric lamps. The floor is completely flat so that the car can also be used as a pickup

 The convertible top is made of curved ash arches. The rest of the frame is made from various existing  parts. An upholsterer has covered the convertible top and also provided the leather upholstery of the four seats.

I had the bonnet and the fenders made at Vintage Wings in England. The fenders were perfect.

I still had a lot of work on the hood. The company could not make the louvres. That is why I made a steel mold and punch with which I could apply the louvres manually.

                                                              The EX Body

 I had the opportunity to purchases the body of the EX from Louis Biondi now deceased.
He and his brother had built quite a few different models Stanley bodies from original bodies he had acquired. Most of these bodies were built over thirty years ago and were finished into complete running cars and are still in the family collection.
 The original EX body is still in a storage trailer at the family estate, two far gone to restore into a finished car. I had the opportunity to go over it in detail and do several drawings and was allowed to bring the floorboard with the foot rest home for a more detailed copy for pattern work of the footrest. My EX body is as good and accurate copy as could be duplicated.
 Photo of the body as received was the start of a four-year project, and learning experience of Stanley cars in general and a very detailed study of the model EX.
 The body required replacement of some wood do to dry rot but in general was in very good condition. I had to build the base of the front seat. The original would have been a single seat. I built it as a two-cushion seat as the left hand side is the access to the water tank. I also had to build the entire back seat and all the hardware for the railing. I built most of all the metal parts and hardware for the car; we will get into those later.

The Boiler and Burner
​
The boiler is quite straightforward, designed with the ASME code in mind. The shell is rated 2500 PSI busting pressure well above the code’s 3.5 times working pressure. The heads are SA-516 grade 70 and are 3/8 inch thick per the minimum allowed for boilers less then 42 inches in diameter. The welding is PW-16.1 (a)The welded assembly was stress relived after welding. After tubing it hydro at 1000 PSI for well over eight hours.
The burner I cast in ductile iron and drilled it with 4000 holes. The venturi tubes are oversize from the original of 1-1/4 to 1-1/2.  The vaporizer and pilot, burner, nozzle are as the original and the fuel is as original gasoline.
The water level indicator is of my own design and was incorporated into a Stanley type gauge. Modern but very reliable and accurate. The Stanley EX originally used the bucket type level indicator.
The operation of this boiler is manual for feed water, except for the steam pressure regulator that turns the burner fuel on and off.

Springs, U-Bolts & Hardware

This was a main concern of mine. From all the information I could gather the springs should be 1-3/8 inch’s wide. I was unable to locate any manufacture of springs of this size. 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 were available. I decided on going with the 1-1/4 springs and I would add an extra leaf.
The Stanley springs are unique in the shape from what is on the market. Each leaf would have to be re-cut and re-arched. The main spring ends would also have to be reworked to give it the shape of the Stanley end. To do this a thick washer was obtained from the spring supplier with the square hole already punched. These washers had to be welded to each side on both ends and added weld material and grinding was needed to get the desired shape.
I ordered six springs so as to have four extra long leafs and some spare leafs if I mess some up in reworking them.
Each leaf had tapered ends both in width and thickness and had to have about three inches cut of both ends and reshaped to a round radius and tapered in thickness.
Each leaf also had to be re-arched; this was done cold by hand using a template.
About six inch in from one end a tab was welded on the underside of each leaf and ground to a little knife edge protruding down. A corresponding groove was ground into the leaf directly under it. This keeps the leaf from moving off to one side. The early cars did not have the tabs on the sides of each leaf.
I still need to make new bolts with a larger radius on each end to match the original.
This work took a little over a month to complete.  I would not want to do it again. 

​

                                                      CAD Drawings in JPEG

photoalbum\rolly\axle\4.5 BC Stanley Front hub as machined.jpg    
photoalbum\rolly\axle\axle assembly-a.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\axle end.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Left Spindle.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Perch pole and spring casting.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Perch rod end.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Spindle Pin and Parts.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Stanley Hub Cap.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\Tie rod ends & small parts.jpg   
photoalbum\rolly\axle\U bolt.jpg   

                                                                 
​The rear end as built was modified slightly from the original. I have included the drawing as was original, and as modified.
The axle ends were modified and built with five inch tapered keyed ends, and the drums were made to accept them. The bearing are deep grooved sealed ball bearings and are arranged so when the wheel is installed, tension and preload is applied to both the inner and outer bearing. No side thrust from the wheel is against the planetary gears. The gears used are original.
The inner brake band cleaves and bolt was modified per the drawing so as to facilitate the ease of adjustment. The outer brakes originated in 1907 and I modified them by bonding brake lining material to the bronze shoes. All castings are 85-55-06 ductile, the axle tube is 3/16 - 4130 and the axles are 4140. The front axle is the same except for the spindle castings; they are A-148 structural steel 110,000 Tensile and 90,000 Yield and have tapered rollers for bearings.
​

                                                           CAD drawings in JPEG

photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Brake cam actuator rod.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Brake cam-3.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Brake parts.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Brake parts-a.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Center yoke.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\cross brace casting.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Gear.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Modified axle end.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Modified brake band attachment bolt.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Modified Brake cleave as built.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Outside brake shoe.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear axle assamble-a.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear axle end Hub.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear axle yoke spacers.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear axle parts.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear axle yoke spacers.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Rear Perch pole and spring casting pattern.jpg
 photoalbum\rolly\r-axle\Truss Rod.jpg
  

Assembly of the front and rear end together with the perch rods is quite straightforward.
Caution needs to be taken to keep the rear end from bowing and also to keep the wheels square to each other.
The tie rods needed some forging to copy the original. The rods are 3/8-OD with 9/16 hex stock slipped over the rod and silver brazed in place. The ends of the rods are then forged in a die to a larger diameter to ½ inch to enable them to be threaded to 7/16-20.
The perch rods I used are hickory as I was lead to believe by others was as the original. Other builder of reproduction Stanley’s are using 4130 steel aircraft tubing.
The Yellow paint used was computer matched to old paint on original borrowed drums, it was wet sanded to remove dirt and oxidation. It matched up to John Deere Yellow TY25641. John Deere has six different shades of yellow paint. Other brands also had a match.
The wood wheels are original Model EX wheels and needed a lot of epoxy and finish work. New wheels are still available.

                                                  CAD Drawings in JPEG

 photoalbum\rolly\running gear\EX running gear.jpg

photoalbum\rolly\running gear\Perch rod cross brace bracket.jpg

photoalbum\rolly\running gear\perch rod cross ties.jpg 

 photoalbum\rolly\running gear\EX running gear.jpg

photoalbum\rolly\running gear\Perch rod cross brace bracket.jpg

photoalbum\rolly\running gear\perch rod cross ties.jpg

With pressure being applied to get the car finished we were instructed to skip some of the much needed work. So after 5 months we commenced final assembly .

Final assembly of the new gas box containing two propane gas bottles, including an auto change over device. When one  propane  bottle  used as the fuel for the pilot runs out the second one automatically takes over.
The new electrics box was finished . It housed a new battery, fuse box, switches for turning on the 12 volt spark system, this system keeps the pilot on irrespective of conditions, so no jumping out to re-light the pilot. The spark runs constantly whilst the car is running. The box also contained a port for plunging in a 12 volt compressor which was also also installed in the box, a battery condition indicator gauge was also installed. 

Final checks to pipework and burner installation.

Check, bleed and adjust the newly manufactured and installed braking system

Install the refurbished and lacquered lights. Complete the wiring and check that all 12 volt LED lights work.

,Final check for new rear box and water tank pipe work prior to the box being upholstered.

Finishing pump pit and bulk head controls and gauges. This was followed by pressure testing the systems. 

With the car finished as instructed  we did one road test and the car was then taken away.
Five months of hard work was now over and complete but not to our satisfaction. Although there are no genuine parts on this car could  still be one of the the best replica Model 85 Stanley's  around.

                                                                 Steering

The steering was found to be in a very dangerous condition. We concluded that the steering was  incorrectly installed by the then owner when the car was first constructed in early 2000.
The pinion to segment mesh was just connecting on the tip of the segment resulting in extreme wear and load to both the segment and pinion. We recommended to the owner that a new segment and pinion should be installed in place of the existing pieces, or that the pieces should have a non destructive test to check for cracks etc. in the units. Unfortunately this suggestion was refused.

                                                            Boiler and Burner.

With the steering complete we turned our attention to the boiler and burner.
With the new boiler ring complete we inspected the boiler for installation.
​Although the owner had himself installed a new Bourdon boiler and burner a few months earlier we discovered that the installation had been incorrectly done (this had lead to some of the major fires the car had recently had). 
As can be seen below an attempt to seal the burner to the boiler was made but failed, note the fire damage and damage to the recently fitted new burner.

As can be seen we saved the burner outer skin, although we did have to weld in some new sections to replace the burnt areas and replace the inner skin correctly including new insulation .
The boiler was re-drilled and tapped with NPT thread in the correct places. We plugged the incorrect tapped holes, but this was a problem as the holes had been drilled slightly into the boiler shell itself meaning the plugs hit the burner inner skin not allowing the burner to fit correctly to form a seal. We did overcome the problem successfully.
So we were now satisfied that the boiler, which had been re-insulated and newly skinned on the outside with stainless steel (rather than reuse the burnt galvanized sheet as used before),and the newly refurbished / repaired  burner were ready to be installed.

                                              Spare Wheel Carrier and Siphon Hose

A new design of siphon hose carrier was installed to tidy up that area. We also installed a mirror on the frame work to allow the driver to view the water level indicator for the water tank.

Above as it was.

New design of siphon hose carrier plus a rear view mirror was added to the new frame to allow the driver to view the water tank level in the indicator tube.

                                          PART ONE   
The restoration started as a tidying up of the car. It ended up a full nut and bolt restoration.
After a very detailed inspection of the car it was obvious that major work was need to all parts of the car. The owner agreed to have the work done by my company on an hours and parts costing.It was impossible to quote a price from the outset. Basil Craske  UK
The entire car was then taken apart .
After completely taking the car apart we commenced the major restoration work.

• Stanley Model 85 full restoration.
• SOME OF THE WORK CARRIED OUT INCLUDED
• Repair Boiler,Burner, and Smoke hood.
• Repair exhaust and fit new feed water heater.
• Recondition engine, axles, and steering.
• Repaint body and chassis.
• Fit new Calimer wooden wheels with new tyres.
• Fit New hydraulic brakes back and front. Patterns were made so the drums suited the callipers, and the drums then cast and machined.
• Lacquered brass work by Rick Britten in America.
• Refurbished upholstery.
• Propane gas pilot and regulator fitted.
• Entire systems re plumbed in copper piping.
• Many new mods fitted,to include steam donkey pump,full electric light system, and an extra water tank.

First job was to dismantle the engine.

During the dismantling it was discovered that the main gear as well as the eccentrics were loose on the crank pin and moving slightly back and forth, the reason for this was the key-ways were wider than the key, this fault leading to crank pin wear.
A new crank pin was made and a new key way cut . At the same time balance weights were made and added to the crank in an attempt to stop the engine vibration which occurred at around 40 MPH. We were informed by many steam car friends in America that this was the method used to overcome the problem.
The pistons were also found to be loose on the piston rods, the piston rods were also loose on the cross heads. These problems were fixed by tightening the nut holding the pistons in place and then locking the nut in place. New rings were also made and fitted.
The piston rods were only held in place in the cross-heads with a split pin. We fitted a lock nut and reassembled the rods to the cross-heads and then locked them in place again using the lock nut with thread lock and a split pin.
The bores were honed and the valve faces in the block re-faced. New valves were needed as they were found to be too badly worn to re-use. New valves were cast and machined and then lapped in.
The engine was then assembled.
When we timed the valves it was discovered that we could not get a full valve opening. The reason was found to be the brass fork which operated the D link movement needed the stop re-machining to allow more travel on the D links. Once done we were able to set the valve timing. This was done in full hook up.
Once satisfied we fitted the end and steam chest covers. The engine was run on air and it turned over at 90 PSI without trouble. ​

The chassis was next on the restoration list.

​The back axle was taken apart as cracks were spotted in the axle case tubes. The entire axle and cases were taken to a local non destructive testing company. Many cracks were found, this resulted in new axle cases being made using the original castings, once they had been re-removed from the axle tubes and tided cosmetically.
Excessive clearance on the planet gears with around 20 thou clearance was discovered. Add this to the 25 thou clearance on the main engine gear to diff gear answered the question regarding the noise from the back end when driving the car. Combined to this the engine problems and excessive clearance on the cross-heads to piston rods etc I am sure you can guess how noisy the back end was.
New brake back plates were made and installed, as well as new wheel cylinders . A new brake drum pattern was made and castings ordered.The new brake drums were machined and fitted; the old brake drums were badly worn, cracked and far too heavy.
New brake adjusters were also made as it was found that the ones on the car must have failed in the past and were welded up solid?? So no adjustment was possible.
All the painted parts of the rear axle were sand blasted and primed ready for a top coat of paint.
The axle was then reassembled with 3 thou clearance set on the planet gears.
New hand brake linings were fitted to the band brakes.

                    The front axle was next to restore.

A damper had been fitted to the steering to help stop the steering shake.
​New king pins and bushes were manufactured and fitted. The damper was removed. At the same time mounting brackets were fitted to allow the mounting of the newly purchased calipers . A disc brake pattern was also made and from this discs were cast, these were then machined and fitted. New wheel bearings were also installed.
The tie rod ends were very loose so were reset to the correct clearance, the same job was done to the steering drop arm .
Later tests showed that the steering damper was no longer needed as the steering had no shudder and was now quite light to steer.
More information regarding steering improvements will be discussed in later articles regarding the restoration.

The front axle was assembled and checked and passed, it was dismantled, shot blasted and primer paint applied ready for top coat paint. It was then reassembled.
​The perch poles and chassis tie rods were checked. They were then shot blasted and primed ready for top coat paint. The entire chassis was then assembled ready for paint. New nuts were made for the perch pole rods' threaded ends. These were then nickle plated.
The customer, following our advice, had already purchased and fitted new Calimer wood wheels with Stanyweld rims from Coker tyres. Five new white wall tyres had also been purchased.
The wheels were prepped for paint.
The old wheels were made of cast aluminium , the spokes being very thick and not just out of proportion to wood style wheels , but also weighed 4 times as much as a wooden wheel.
With this the engine and rolling chassis were now finished.
We now turned our attention to the body.
First thing was the the removal of the hood (top) and the seats from the main body.The leather upholstery was then removed along with the 2 swivel seats that are fitted to the long wheel base body on this one of the few true 7 seat Model 85 Stanley`s made.
The boiler ring and steel sections around the burner bay were removed, this was made of 3/8 thick steel 3 inches wide.The sizes were well over spec leading again to excessive weight being added to the car.This steel work was remade to the style of the model 70 Stanley, but a different boiler mounting method was used. The Model 70 was the style of car used to create the Model 85 from. The 85 was ,to a point, an enlarged Model 70 . This created a very large, comfortable 30 hp car.
All the fitting , gauges , brake lever, pedals,copper piping, air tanks, water and fuel tanks etc were removed leaving a bare body.

The wooden body was also split in many areas, again needing repair. The section under the head light mounting fork brackets was split. We cut out that section. We then added a threaded plate to that area each side of the car to accommodate the headlight mounting brackets, wood was then put over the plates to disguise what we had done. We did the same to various areas of the car where splits in the wood were discovered.
The bulk -head on the driver's side had in the past had many gauges added to show such things a steam chest pressure, fuel line pressure at the burner forks and much more. These had been removed leaving the standard gauges as used by Stanley. This meant that many holes in the bulkhead needed repairing properly. Major work was needed around the area where the sight glass gauge was fitted and plumbed. A major fire in that area had caused bulk head damage especially around the hole the sight glass plumbing went through. ​​
We also found an area at the rear of the car that was soaked in fuel. It was discovered that the pressurized
​air fuel tanks had been leaking, maybe for some years. Fittings were found to be leaking . These fittings were not visible due to them being inside the mounting box the two tanks sat on, which also meant they could not be accessed either.

PAT FARRELL 
I am glad to read that this model 85 has finally received its needed restoration. I was aware of most of its problems. Jeff Theobald had kept me updated as his model 85 had progressed. Then Barry followed up with his reports. We have had our model 85 since Carl Amsley first built the body for it in 1998. First on the road in 2007, driven often, it has been most pleasurable to drive ever since. The biggest improvement on our model 85 were the additional counter wieghts added to the crankshaft. Our steering dampener has been welcomed too. Cast iron brake drums and GGA lining were also a plus. Yes... Our 85 has been a journey too. but has been well worth the experience. After 11 busy years, our paint is still perfect and in show condition.

PETER TURVEY
interesting to learn of the engine vibration problems above 40 mph. Our lower geared and smaller wheeled Model 607 may have the same issues above the low 30s, so perhaps engine rpm are about the same when vibration starts. Symptom is hook up and reverse pedals shaking: the hook up dogs are a good fit, no slack or shake there so vibration seems to be transmitted from engine movement. Some have suggested valve face wear as the cause which seems unlikely given the low mileage since engine rebuild with no lubrication failures.

Note the fire damage as well as wiring quality.

Note the oil soaked sections all over the body as well as diff and other areas needing repairs.

                              Now we start the body repairs and paint.

With the the car completely disassembled, the body was steam cleaned in an attempt to remove all the oil and dirt.
Once done we then looked at all the burnt areas to assess what needed replacing by cutting in new wood. We took the decision to rub down the body with 180 grit paper. This took a few days but did reveal some more de-lamination problems.
Repairs were then carried out by cutting in new sections of wood and repairing many small section over the entire body.
With these repairs done, sanding of the body continued in an attempt to get to an acceptable surface finish to allow sealing of the exposed wood areas with a coat of West sealer.
The sealer was then rubbed down and a coat of primer was applied to the entire body. The body was allowed to dry for a few days allowing for some shrinkage of the primer.

We found whilst preparing the body for paint that the car had been painted after full assembly. This was clear under the seat bases and under all the steel fittings and steel framework.

Under the seats we found no paint or sealer, as was the case in many areas. Water ingress into the wood had caused a few problems.

Once primed and ready for paint, checks were made to obtain the line detail as used on the model 70. This was done with the help of Alan Blazick. No coach line painter could be found to do the detail work for the lines on the body,chassis, wheels etc. It was decided to do it ourselves by using special low tack tape cut to spec. A local company was commissioned to undertake the work. They cut low tack material into the very thin lines, the sizes for the car and chassis ranged from 1/16 of an inch in increments of a 1/16th at a time up to 1/4 of an inch. Shaped sections were also cut for the wheels and spokes.

When the primer had been prepared for top coat we painted the entire body, doors and seats all separately with a base coat yellow- the colour of the lines.
Once applied we then taped the lines using the low tack tape. The tape colour was black which helped us get the detailing uniform and accurate. The idea here was that after the top coats were applied that the tape was removed revealing the painted yellow detail lines. Line width was determined by tape width.
Once the tape had been applied the seats doors and body were painted black again in base coat. The black also gave an excellent base colour for the green paint used for the balance of the main cars main colour.
Once the black had dried, sections of it were taped over , the sections taped over were all the areas that would be black on the finished paint job; moldings around the edge of the seats for example.
Now we painted the body and seats etc green again in base coat green. When dry we removed the taped areas revealing the black and yellow detail lines, all in the Matt base coat. The odd touch up took place to make sure the finished job would be to a high standard.
Five coats of lacquer were applied to the painted body sections giving the gloss to the paint job.
This was slow baked at a low temperature. When dry all the painted areas were wet flattened and then polished using a slow revving polishing mop and various cutting compounds. This now gave us a high quality gloss finish with the added benefit of the detail lines being sealed in place, so no lines could be polished away when keeping the car clean and presentable. The same paint system was used on all the painted parts of the car and chassis etc.

With the body now finished and ready for assembly along with the chassis we turned our attention to the wings (fenders) and bonnet (hood). These were in very bad condition . The bonnet had been severely burnt leaving bad heat distortion. The wings had also been damaged in the past leaving them with numerous dents and twists to their shape.
As one can imagine the wings needed a large amount of work to include reshaping- in some areas heat shrinking was needed. All the splits were welded up and filed into a flush finish. Some areas were leaded to achieve the final finish required prior to painting them black, again using a base coat and lacquer. The bonnet was a major challenge. We tried to source a new bonnet but none were available. The top lift up flap was twisted and badly heat damaged, as was the rest of the bonnet. Heat shrinking was used to get it back to a workable shape. The pressed leuvures were reshaped by hand both on the flap and sides. A minimum amount of lead and filler was used to achieve the finish shape, as we had to consider the heat in this area. Over a hundred hours were spent on the bonnet alone.
Once finished the bonnet was painted using the same method as used on the body.