Ford Pilot Woodie

Brings back memories Geoff! Haven't read that for a while. A long long while

Your link above didn't work for me, but I still seem to have a copy of it saved, so have attached here in case the link also doesn't work for others. View attachment TartanRed4309conversionR521708_210111_185432.pdf

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Yes, it was a long time ago Jim, but the car looks pretty much the same today. Bonnet louvres, front fog lights, power steering, 3948cc V8 (with a few mods) and 205/55x15 tyres on 6” rims are about the only obvious differences. Thanks for posting the PDF, I wondered if the link would work. Did you notice the last sentence? The Westy was the next project.

 

Thanks, it's a good article; I remember reading it before so it's nice to read it again. Interesting that you had issues with the bodyshell. It's great that new shells even exist, but it's not surprising that there were difficulties with the tooling and the jigs. A good friend built a V8 GT from a new shell and being the perfectionist he is, sold it to a dealer before he finished it as he was unhappy with the fit of the panels. I lent him two or three bonnets before he decided that the shell wasn't straight. I did warn him as I had already found that a late rubber bumper shell, a genuine RV8 and a set of replacement chassis rails that I measured were all distorted with the nearside rail 1/4" higher than the offside. On my car I shimmed the crossmember to get the corner weights and camber how I wanted them.

 

I’m seriously impressed by your fabrication skills. I had a Ford Popular with almost identical rust problems. The pillars were like yours but 2/3 scale. I guess Ford kept a lot of design features going for nearly 50 years.

 

Thank you. I am very slow though!
Yes, Ford did seem to hang onto design features for a long time, perhaps too long in some instances!

 

I also at one time had a 34 Model B, which was the same but that was seriously far too gone for my skills.

 

Hi @Merlin Cat, not much progress recently, or at least visible progress. I've turned into a bit of a warm weather restorer as I've grown out of working in the cold.
Looking back at what I've posted will motivate me to do an update .

 

I don’t know whether anyone is interested in how I re-rimmed the Ford Pilot wheels. The background to the idea was that the Pilot wheels are 4” wide, an old non-safety rim design which are not really suitable for radial tyres, and the rims are riveted to the centres so they need tubes. Also, they look a bit spindly, in my opinion anyway. Welding new rims to old centres was a well-established thing in the 1960’s, think of reverse rim Mini wheels for example, so I thought that I’d give it a go, and I thought it a better solution than banding the existing rims.

Splitting the Pilot rims and centres was easy as you just drill out the rivets; I kept the heads to weld back on to keep the original look. The challenge was finding a modern JJ profile rims with the correct drop centre diameter – that’s the inner diameter of the rim at the central well, and that varies even on the same overall wheel diameter, which is 16” on the Pilot. Much measuring of cars in car parks suggested that the early Land Rover Discovery 7” wide rim might work, as might 6” rims off some IVECO vans and 5” rims from some black cabs. Wheels acquired, it was not a trivial, or quiet, job to split the rims and centres as they are pretty extensively welded together.



So, Pilot centres and various rims cleaned up the next challenge was to put them together so that the wheels are round, centred, straight and have as close to no run out as possible. The Pilot centres added another challenge as they are a wide 5 style, very like the Splittie and first Early Bays. Putting them on a hub, an Astra rear in my case, to true them up meant making a thick aluminium disc as an adapter;this also meant that I could set the inset to what I wanted. That threw up another issue in that the tyre valve ended up on the inside of the wheel, so the holes needed welding up and new ones drilling. Much faffing about, measuring with dial gauge whilst spinning the wheel, a quick tack with the MIG, some more tapping, faffing and measuring and then fully welding the centres to the rims and I ended up with three pairs of wheels in 5”, 6” and 7” width, with modern safety features and the correct JJ bead profile for modern high load rating radial tyres.



A final wrinkle was that some of the centres were missing the spring clips to hold the hub cap on. These are completely unobtainable so I made a hammer form to make some clips from some strips of spring steel, and duly riveted them on.



So, probably not worth the effort on a Late Bay given the availability of different wheels with the correct pcd, but maybe something there for Early Bays and Splitties?

 

Other bits:
stainless exhaust manifold that dodges around various bits of steering, suspension, engine mounts and starter motor



An awkward bracket under the front wing that supports the headlight - the grit blast place lost one so I made a replacement


The brackets that hold the lower front corners of the front wings had rotted away


...taking the corresponding bit of wing with it. Mildly awkward as it has a characteristic beading to it.



That's enough to bore you with for the moment

 

Great thread

 

Thanks!

 

Lovely project ! I used to work on a brown woodie with black wings when I was an apprentice .It part of the Sir Robert McAlpine collection and can remember helping to remove the engine and making up a tool to lever out the valve cotters or sleeves ??? (Was many years ago ) but ended up breaking loads . Best of luck

 

Yes, the flat head V8s had an unusual valve, valve spring and guide assembly which must have made sense at the time but is a nightmare to dismantle after 70 or 80 years
I wonder which car the McAlpine one is. As far as I can tell the only brown Pilot Woodie today is WVW76 and that has brown wings rather than black; I think that the two tone suits them. It could have been a pre WWII Model 78 or Model 62; interesting.

 

This was around 1988 so memory is a bit vague .It was a large commercial version with nothing in the back , we painted the wings black but cannot remember what colour they originally were ? The engine was sent away and fully rebuilt . It was sold from the collection a few years later and something tells me it was loaned to make a movie and used in a desert. That make 100% sense on your valve description. We had an original tool to remove the valves and guides but it was very worn so we fabricated our own and I remember a lot of levering .

 

Great fabrication skills and such an interesting project...love it! Keep the updates coming Doc!

 

Maybe something on making masking tape templates for repair panels and patches?