Bayonet Fuel cap

[JERSEYMAN]

I guess if a deposit was paid up front then one would recoup the money pretty much right away, I would happily purchase six caps so all we would need is another 34 buyers before we start..... Anyone brave enough to take up the challenge? My hands are tied here at the moment so I'm out.

Still a cheap hobby though.

[Charles uk]

It's always taken me years to get my money back on custom made Seagull & Marston no longer available parts, you had the last pair of Marston transom screws last week Rene, so 6 or seven years to break even on those,
Marston & SD coolie hats still got some,
Seagull offset spanner tool kits, still got plenty of those,
Marston puller tools, it took John 5 + years to sell 10 of those, his margin on those won't have covered the interest.

The problem is that if the fuel cap total required deposits paid, falls to 32, the price will probably rise to £56.00, that is getting to be a very expensive fuel cap.

[jerseydave69]

Also, Jerseydave, if you need a cap I can lend you one until the correct cap comes along, they always do, just PM me, I'm a few short myself but only use one engine at a time.

By the way, was that your pretty varnished dinghy with a seagull on the back parked down at La Haule slip this afternoon? Very nice.

Thank you for the very kind offer Rene.
I have a 102 tank that I have restored with a screw cap. So until I find the bayonet version ,I will use that one. It will also give me time to paint and decal the original tank, in time for the bayonet.
It wasn't my boat down La Haule. I would of loved to have seen it though. I did see a seagull on the back of a boat last weekend though in St Aubins
bay ,I was going to motor over and see it closer ,but thought not,as the guy was fishing at the time.
Thanks again Rene

Dave

[JERSEYMAN]

Well I had a couple of hours spare so I thought I'll fabricate an air valve, pretty basic machining, the original were made completely of brass with the visible parts chromed but due to being in Jersey and with no nearby chroming facility I made the visible parts in stainless, Just a bit of fun at the moment but when I make a batch they will be in brass then chromed. The knurled turn screw seems to have come in two sizes from the collection of caps I have, a larger diameter thinner one like the one I made with a diamond knurl and a lesser diameter slightly fatter one with a straight knurl. I put the wrong knurl on as the only diamond one I had was too coarse. Next I'm going to make the dies to press the brass discs, five parts, two to press one disk, two to press the other and one to press the whole lot into the cap, the brass discs are quite deep so I may have to press them in stages meaning I'll have to make an intermediate die.
I'll keep you posted with my progress as time allows,
All good fun.

[Hugz]

To say I'm impressed is an understatement....Wow

[Charles uk]

Nice piece of work Rene!

[headdownarseup]

Nice work Rene, i like that a lot.

Are we going to make air breathers to fit into regular flat top fuel caps with all the necessary washers and fittings, or have i missed something!

jon

[JERSEYMAN]

That's the intention Jon, but at the moment I'm just making some parts for the caps that I already have but not complete, once I have the brass washers made then I'll look into caps, it would be nice if I could find some brass ones but it looks unlikely so I'll probably contact ceandess and try to buy some unplanted flat top steel caps which are pretty much a perfect match. If all goes well I'll have a few available.

[jerseydave69]

Wow , Amazing workmanship Rene, It looks amazing .
If you do get hold of some un-plated caps on order , I would like to purchase at least one of them if at all possible.

Dave

[Adrian Dale]

A man of action while other talk.. my guess is you will have a lot of takers me being one

AJ

[headdownarseup]

And me!

I could use 2 right now, with maybe 3 more in the future.

There's plenty of interest in this already. Make a few and see how quick they'll go...

jon

[JERSEYMAN]

A good response but I still have to make the tooling to shape the brass splash guards, I'm going to try to make a few complete caps which will be perfect clones but I have seen an easier way using the complete modern ceandess caps but with the air valve fitted, when fitted to the tank they would look identical to the original and even when removed, would look very close with a steel splash guard instead of the correct brass ones. Much cheaper and easier to produce. That may suit some people if originality is not major issue but when it comes to restoring a Marston...that's a different story.

[headdownarseup]

Near enough is good enough for most of us that (ahem) dont own one of those really old seagulls that start with the letter M....

as long as they look good and almost identicle, that'll do for me.

jon

[Adrian Dale]

A journeyman asked his apprentice if the piece he had machined was in tolerance

the apprentice replied, "its nearenough"

to which the journeyman retorted, " nearenough is not good enough boy"

After thought, and a re-check the apprentice reported, "its spot on sir"

from the journeyman," that's nearenough then boy"

[JERSEYMAN]

Well, mixed results with making these brass discs, I made several pressing tools but still getting a crease, you were right Charles, more thought needed, I'll get there in the end