1955 Commer Superpoise TB355

So I had a topic a little while ago, but it seems to have been buried in the forum amongst all of people's older work, and I sorta think it might be time to start fresh with my latest progress.

Most recently, I have gotten all of the brake cylinders 'worked on' at Power Brakes ( www.powerbrakes.com.au/ ) who did an excellent job, and I would highly recommend them if you need help with brakes for older, and new vehicles, as well as getting the rear shoes relined, the fronts were apparently done soon before the truck was left in the junkyard. New hoses were made for the front cylinders, and the servo and master cylinder are being worked on currently, and I will take the old rusty metal lines down when I go to pick that up, and they will make new ones.
While the hubs were off I inspected the bearings, which all seemed to be in near new condition, and so I repacked them, and also replaced the rear hub seals. I also painted the hubs, brake drums and backplates, and then everything was refitted.
I also fitted four new tubes to my four good tyres, and painted four rims to make it look, just that bit prettier.

I also replaced the generator with an alternator, and began to rewire the engine and ignition electrics to suit, a full rewire using a fuzzy wiring diagram from my head, with new fuse boxes and all new electrical items, all from Narva is to come, after painting.

Also, the temp gauge sender and wire was replaced by Gaugeworks, ( www.gaugeworks.com.au/services.html ) who also did an excellent job.

I have started to remove some of the bodywork, windscreen etc and will remove all of the body, cab, engine etc and get the chassis, axles and springs and their little bits and pieces blasted, and primed somewhere, and then I will paint it myself, with some sort of specific chassis paint, or acrylic enamels or something like that. I will take the cab and bodywork to be done professionally, somewhere that will cut out and replace rust affected areas, and then sand and paint the body, I think 2 pac paints for the shiny bits are the best option.

Everything was refitted and of course, a test run around our go kart track was performed, which was quite interesting without brakes, but now that I have wired it to turn off with the ignition key, the clutch and engine can be used together as an engine brake which works well enough....


Here is some pictures of said work....

3 wheels and hubs removed with one to go


All wheels and hubs removed


Wheels after painting, tubes replaced, and then reassembled


Removing front fender - the things are so big you have to climb on them to get to the engine!!


Alternator mounted, wired up and working!!


Refitting hubs, wheels and brakes


The test out on the go kart track


A photo from today, the truck as it is at the moment


And a video of the engine actually running and turning off with the key!!

Really impressed with your work so far, JBran, especially given it's a truck that doesn't get a heck of a lot of attention. Really impressed and inspired, mate. Well done.

AllBran
Gudday M8

Well dun

Mostly we hear of ppl gunna do a restore etc
n next thing 2 years haz tikd away n then......they think bout start n the project

U B full on
Gr8 effort

eye will B watch n for progress pix

Give till it hurtz
Thanx in advance

LOL

Cya

Your having a good crack at it well done just keep on plugging away at it I check most things and only post when I have something useful ? to add regards Paul

Good one JB! Sounds nice ticking over, and a bonus being able to key-start and key-stop! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

So lately I haven't done all that much, other than removing the other front fender, beginning to remove other front end panels, which is quite difficult as the only tool I have that can undo the bolts and nuts holding it all together is an angle grinder!!

Hoping soon, once I have figure out how to go about things, to remove the cab, engine and take off axles, springs etc and get the chassis, axles, springs and all their little bits and pieces (as mentioned in original post) and also the rims blasted and painted, or as for the rims probably powder coated

I also picked up the master cylinder and servo from Power Brakes (somewhat expensive fix, bit over $900) but the workmanship is top class, so hopefully will be worth it!!

So today I set about removing the front end bodywork to being looking at fixing rusted out panels. One really bright thing Commer did was make the cab and bodywork on a subframe (not sure if this was a common practice on trucks at the time) , which is attached to the Chassis in four places, two either side of the cab front, and front of body and rear of cab. The subframe for the front half of the bodywork is bolted to the cab half, which means that all of the front end bodywork can be removed by unbolting the front half frame, and the front mount leaving the cab attached to the chassis with three mounts.

In other words, much easier than removing each panel at once!!

I also turned the front rims around to allow better access to engine etc.

So today's efforts...

And to update...the tray has been removed, and hopefully the cab will follow soon..

JB looks like your really under way now and of coruse it looks real good so far the only thing I dont like is that your using 2 pack they didnt come in 2 pack in the old days . Dave

JB looks like your really under way now and of coruse it looks real good so far the only thing I dont like is that your using 2 pack they didnt come in 2 pack in the old days . Dave

Haha thanks, that ain't two pac though, just chrome from a spray can, with clear coat from a spray can!! That's only a temporary do, will get them blasted and probably powder coated later, hopefully in the same or similar colour, and if not, probably a grey or light grey colour.