1949 Dennis F1 Fire Truck Restoration

I bought some hose off Harvey Hoses here in Brisbane that has the wire moulded into the rubber and you can bend it without kinking it, I used it on the bottom radiator hose for the Reo.
Don also has a good piont, take your old hoses down to an Auto supplier and ask them if they will let you go through thier hoses to find a match. The top hoses on the Dodge with the 6V53 in it are Cyrsler CL V8 bottom radiator hoses, look great.

Fellas, I'm doing up an old Nissan forklift for a mate, and it has a H20 Nissan engine in it. The H20 is regarded as obsolete, and radiator hoses are ex-Japan.

I went along to my automotive parts supplier, thinking I'd be able to find the right hose, or one near enough.
I can tell you this much .. after poring over the MacKay hose book for more than 1/2 hr, we were no closer to finding a hose after that 1/2 hr, than when we started!

God almighty, I had no idea there were so many tens of thousands of radiator hoses .. and all just a little bit different!
We tried hose after hose after hose, and never came close. I ended up settling on a top radiator hose from another model Nissan that was close (just needed a chunk cut off one end) .. but the bottom hose, we had to go with the corrugated, spring-reinforced job.

Even then, the first one I got was slightly too big in diameter .. I had to take it back, along with the new water pump, to ensure I got the precise diameter required.
I've made a point of keeping a record (as Don suggested in another thread) of the substitute hose P/N's, so there's no hassles when it comes to replacement in the future.

A spare parts shop in Sydney we deal with has silicone hoses 48mm with 45 deg and 90 deg bends which may suit.

www.mrmotorparts.com.au/products.html

These are probably vailable from other distributors.

Only problem is they are mostly in garish colours which doesn't quite fit with traditional black rubber.

When we did up our Dennis Ace radiator (similar setup to Bugly's) we just used a fairly soft straight hose, and put an internal spring, from another hose we found in the spares bin, at the bend and it has held up OK.

Hi from the UK
We have one of the very few F1s in captivity in the UK...its a 1954 model and was new to the soap manufacturers Joseph Crosfields Work Fire Brigade in Warrington, After the brigade was disbanded in the late 1970s the F1 was presented to Cheshire Fire Brigade and is looked after by our Heritage Group.
The original Dennis petrol engine was damaged by corrosion so a diesel Perkins was fitted. The fire engine although some 57 years old had only 10,000 miles on the clock.
I would like to post a photo but I cannot find an attach button on here ????

See the thread on posting photos. You can't attach, but can provide a link to another site (Flickr, Photobucket, etc)

BTW, what model Perkins did you use? Have a friend here who wants to repower an Ace.

Hi from the UK
We have one of the very few F1s in captivity in the UK...its a 1954 model and was new to the soap manufacturers Joseph Crosfields Work Fire Brigade in Warrington, After the brigade was disbanded in the late 1970s the F1 was presented to Cheshire Fire Brigade and is looked after by our Heritage Group.
The original Dennis petrol engine was damaged by corrosion so a diesel Perkins was fitted. The fire engine although some 57 years old had only 10,000 miles on the clock.
I would like to post a photo but I cannot find an attach button on here ????

Gidday Bazza -

The Cheshire F1 sounds great! C'mon ... where's the photos (plural, meaning more than one!!!)

Cheers - Bugly

Another progress report on Dennis

BugLeigh
Gudday M8

L@@kn Good

RE: them thar rubber mounts

U dun good
but all rubber aint the same

th@ rubber U got could perish n brake down
any petrol, oil or tooo much ultra Violet rays may bring dem rubbers to a short life

spose it may B ok for few Yearz

Best o luk
LOL

Cya
[ch9786]

th@ rubber U got could perish n brake down
any petrol, oil or tooo much ultra Violet rays may bring dem rubbers to a short life

spose it may B ok for few Yearz

Aww Swishy ... British steel doesn't leak oil does it?

Maybe u just gotta pour a bit of beer over them occasionally to keep them clean.

Not that you want to waste too much of the stuff, but you get probably get a few dregs left over in them Darwin stubbies after a session.