Norms Restoration of 1939 Leyland TD5 [1635]

Norman Julian 21 June
I have slowed down over the winter months and only doing small jobs.
Important ones though that won't do themselves.
Here I am making the new radiator cushioning rubbers and base plates that the radiator sits on.
I have been putting these off thinking they are going to be more involved more than they actually are.
I had these blocks of rubber left over from the doughnut shaped front engine mount for the AEC.
It was the step in the middle of the rubber that I was concerned about.
Sitting down and looking at it, I can't see why it has to be there at all.
There does need to be a gap between the radiator and the base plate to cushion it from vibration.
I'm thinking that originally there wasn't that step anyway.
I'm assuming over the years that the rubber has just compressed with the weight of the radiator sitting on it for 85 years.
This radiator probably weighs around 70 to 80 kilograms.
Anyway, I have made one (pictured) and it will work OK.

Norman Julian 28th Jun
I was wondering what to do with the bolts that hold the radiator in position on the chassis rails.
Pictured here are the 2 that are of this bus.
They have the "dome" head.
Unless I got these professionally made, I was going to have to look at other options.
I bought 2 UNC bolts to do the job.
I didn't care for having just the standard hex head, so I used a bit of imagination and built up
weld on top of the head to get the desired depth and then grounded it down to get the desired shape.
Unfortunately, now I had to paint it.
Don't mind the result.
For those that think I have compromised the hardened strength of the bolts, for the job they have to do I
don't think it will matter too much.
In any case I had to lengthen the thread on these bolts and using the die nut and wrench required a bit of
strength on my part to cut the thread and if it was going to twist it showed no signs of any problems.

Norman Julian
This picture shows the first one I did (left).