Saving Old Seagulls

Good work mate!

Nice one keep up the posts

Glad you have matching G clamps Might leave mine as is as a part of its history....

Mine has marks that indicate its history.. some of them are really deep and can't be hided but it's OK, couldn't have been 75 years old without a wrinkle!

What do you say about the color of the block? Is it OK or too shiny?

One would imaging that more than a few Sds took a bullet in WW11.....bound to be a few furrows

Something interesting that I realized yesterday..

I dipped the pipe, that transfer the water from the block to the exhaust, into a caustic soda solution (NaOH). It had some gray remains of paint and I wanted to remove it in order the copper to be appeared. But..! The gray remains did removed but another layer appeared. A shiny one. In can't have been zinc. Zinc is highly dissolved in caustic soda. I assume that it must be tin platted. I am posting this because I think there is an argue whether some parts are zinc or tin platted.

Several people (including me) have seen this bright layer on ealry cylinders ,which I would take to be tin, because as you say, zinc would disappear with caustic. I deont hav an epxealntion why this latyer was applied - I believe tin can be applied hot as well as by plating, so whether it was part of the casting process?? I only think of tin being used to generate a lubricating surface or in contact with foodstuffs.

didn't answaer th other pats of yoru question - pipes and other fiitingw wer chremom plated.
Just been reading up briefly on tin/cast iron - apparently tin can be added to the molten iron in small amounts for varous engineering reasons such as strength and machineability, but no refernence to tin remaining as a surface deposit on the finished casting.

Could have been as protection to copper? This pipe is made by copper which would have been green if there isn't that layer.

The block on the other hand must be zinc plated. The layer I have found was gray, it wasn't shiny at all. Unfortunately I didn't test it and now is painted. I only removed rust from the surface (small areas). Regarding to the condition of the block I could assume that it was zinc plated because it wasn't rusted. Or it has only some surface rust in small areas and that's all. Not even close to other well rusted blocks.

I may have a clue why tin could be used on copper pipes. Because you can bend them and the tin remain intact. Chrome I doubt if it could.

Wouldn't they chome plate after the pipe was formed to shape?

Rusty SD with copper return pipe.

I believe the tin plated water pipe came on engines around 1946. I have a 1946ish SDP with the same pipe fitted, but I think the SDs should have the copper pipe. The copper polishes up well..

Playing with a good friend's lathe..






Now playing with the worn threads of my gearbox..















I was worried about the thin point so I used good lubricant and start tapping with tap No1. Back and forth all the time to avoid as much as I could stretching the sensitive region. Thanks God everything went well.

So now what is left is to restore the tank and to zinc plate the shaft's housing. I have a torch (map gas) but it's not hot enough. Don't know what to do about that but I guess I will figure out something.

Nice repair Stelios. It's good to see the pics of the work in progress. I have fitted helicoilsls, but have not had to fit a threaded bush.