Commer Superpoise Restoration

G'day people

I am restoring an old Commer Truck, what I beleive is a T series Mk III of 1955. I am not entirely sure though. And so I have quite a few questions, I will list them below.

Does anyone know of any ways to clarify the model and year of the truck.
Also I need to know the location of the important numbers, like the engine number(s) and the chassis number etc (mainly where on the chassis is it?).
And also, are the bolts and nuts used on this truck, replaceable with modern nuts and bolts, like Zenith brand?
Whereabouts, if there is one, could I get a workshop manual?
And how do I get the water pump off?
And finally, how do I remove the fuel pump?

we need pitchers first up!

yeah the chassis no is in the cab on a plate and if you go to commer nz there is a link with all the different chassis nos with all the info Les

This is the website, JBran, that Les mentions. You've probably found it already?

www.commer.org.nz/Commer_Connections/Home.html

Would love to see some photos.

g'day mate,

Is the engine a side valve or does it have an overhead cam?

love to see some pics!

Phil

This may seem a stupid question, but how do I upload photos?

when you hit reply, up above in the icons you will see an 'img' button. you need to click it, this will appear-'img img' with brackets around it.

then you need to copy and past the direct link for the picture inbetween the two 'img' bits like this

'img'Direct link(obviously it would be a web address)'img'

before this, you need to go onto photo bucket though or some other photo sharing site, and open an account its like a storage place for pics. its really easy to use. you upload your pics to it, make the album public and that is it! then you can copy the direct link. www.photobucket.com .

this is what the direct link does

and this is what the link should look like when copied...
'img' i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z402/shortpoint/IMG_6420.jpg 'img'

hope this helps you! it sounds complicated, but its pretty easy

phil

when you hit reply, up above in the icons you will see an 'img' button. you need to click it, this will appear-'img img' with brackets around it.

then you need to copy and past the direct link for the picture inbetween the two 'img' bits like this

'img'Direct link(obviously it would be a web address)'img'

before this, you need to go onto photo bucket though or some other photo sharing site, and open an account its like a storage place for pics. its really easy to use. you upload your pics to it, make the album public and that is it! then you can copy the direct link. www.photobucket.com .

this is what the direct link does

and this is what the link should look like when copied...
'img' i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z402/shortpoint/IMG_6420.jpg 'img'

hope this helps you! it sounds complicated, but its pretty easy

phil

Ahk thanks mate. Pics will be up soon then!

Re nuts & bolts. The brand is not relevant, but what is is the thread form and the grade of steel. The Zenith ones you see in the hardware stores are made of plastic and are to be avoided except for woodwork on trays and light bodywork.

I am not sure what the Rootes group used but the pommy trucks of the 50's often used BSF (British Standard Fine) and Whitworth. However from the middle of WW11 they were moving toward standardisation of UNF and UNC until the early 70's when the push was then to metric. (and there are so many variations of metric pitch it is anything but standard). There are catches here as some components used metric and BA.
As a side point AEC was metric before the war and for the sake of standardisation converted to imperial! So, find a tool shop and buy a pitch gauge (like a pocketful of miniature combs) and a little book with thread charts.
As far as the grade of steel goes use high tensile throughout either grade 5 or grade 8. High tensile bolts are marked by 5 or 8 raised dashes on the top of the head. The nuts are also marked. For important locations use hardened washers. They can be plated or not depending on the luck of the draw, but generally small sizes are plated and larger sizes are not. Make your purchases from an engineering supplies outlet, phone around as some will offer box prices (about half price) if you buy just one box of a particular size and still be happy to count/weigh out the rest or your order. Whitworth are now considered obsolete so may be hard to get in high tensile and UNC is close but should not be mated to a Whitworth component. If you need BSF you will probably go to specialist suppliers who advertise in magazines such as Restored cars.

Re nuts & bolts. The brand is not relevant, but what is is the thread form and the grade of steel. The Zenith ones you see in the hardware stores are made of plastic and are to be avoided except for woodwork on trays and light bodywork.

I am not sure what the Rootes group used but the pommy trucks of the 50's often used BSF (British Standard Fine) and Whitworth. However from the middle of WW11 they were moving toward standardisation of UNF and UNC until the early 70's when the push was then to metric. (and there are so many variations of metric pitch it is anything but standard). There are catches here as some components used metric and BA.
As a side point AEC was metric before the war and for the sake of standardisation converted to imperial! So, find a tool shop and buy a pitch gauge (like a pocketful of miniature combs) and a little book with thread charts.
As far as the grade of steel goes use high tensile throughout either grade 5 or grade 8. High tensile bolts are marked by 5 or 8 raised dashes on the top of the head. The nuts are also marked. For important locations use hardened washers. They can be plated or not depending on the luck of the draw, but generally small sizes are plated and larger sizes are not. Make your purchases from an engineering supplies outlet, phone around as some will offer box prices (about half price) if you buy just one box of a particular size and still be happy to count/weigh out the rest or your order. Whitworth are now considered obsolete so may be hard to get in high tensile and UNC is close but should not be mated to a Whitworth component. If you need BSF you will probably go to specialist suppliers who advertise in magazines such as Restored cars.

Thanks for that, I will probably avoid Whitworth because they need specific spanners/sockets etc and are a general pain when you don't have those specific tools.

Here are some pictures (finally)


The tray, with the back of the seat (it has been on fire at some point), and the rotted wood from the tray on the ground next to the right wheel, on the left hand side of the picture


Inside the cab. Not pretty. Probably going to need some major re-upholstering


The left side of the engine


The right side of the engine


The front of the Commer, sorry for the bad quality. Currently the right front wheel, the front bumper and the bonnet, and at the time of this post (11th of February) the radiator, fan, and water pump have also been removed