Tilley PL53 restoration now finished

Hi Every one a few weeks ago Shedman/Steve offered a ww11 steel tank TilleyPL53 for sale in the trading post and i was very fortunate to buy it,and to restore it



Here in the above pic is the condition it arrived as it is missing the glass globe the wire guard had to be silbrazed and the bottom ring where the globe sits was missing,two of the air buttons were missing there front covers,



Here is the lamp stripped down ready to be fettled,even though this lamp ia over 70 years old and has a steel tank the the tank was in very sound solid condition with very little rust,




Now on to the tank at this stage i have cleaned out the inside of the tank and have sanded down all the old paint and given the tank a key for the paint to adhere to better,i wanted to preserve the original decal, so the glass bottle contains artist's latex masking fluid, the idea is to paint it on to the decal and when the tank has been painted the latex masking fluid can be rubbed off leaving behind the decal with out any paint over spray on it,but this did not work out as the masking fluid had dried up, so i used sellotape covered the decal and very carefully cut around the decal and any parts of the decal that were missing,but sellotape would stick to firm to the decal and when removed could very easily damage the decal more by removing more of it, to over come this i removed the strength of the sellotape by first sticking a strip of it on the fabric of my chair and removing it that way it would only just stick to the decal so when it was removed it would do no harm to the decal,



At this stage the tank has had three thin coats of primmer, i all so removed the sellotape and reapplied it in the same procedure when i was ready to apply the top coats just in case it hardened on the decal making it harder to remove which would damage the decal



Here the tank has had three coats of humbrol airforce blue matt enammel and three coats of clear humbrol varnish as this colour is only available in matt, the varnish was added just to give it a bit more protection and all so protect the decal,with the advice from David and Neil in a earlier post i wanted the paint to be original as possible and this colour is what i chose.



Here is a close up of the decale i have painted in with airforce blue the parts of the decal that were missing,this way it makes the tank look as though the paint is original



This is my airbrush i used for repainting the tank it is a single action airbrush made by Revell which is ideal for model making



Here is both parts of the carry frame it has been derusted and has had a couple of coats of Plasti kote chrome spray paint



Here are the two airbuttons and wire globe guard a purchased from Base camp these were sold as new but old stock so the guard had a little surface rust



Here is the guard is has been rubbed down and the surface rust removed i have sealed it with a few coats of metal laquere and polished the air buttons , thats it for now folks more to come and sorry this post is a little bit long drawn out

 

The colour looks like a good match, Bryan - nice one!

I'd never thought of touching in the areas where the decal is missing - an excellent wheeze...

 

Good to see the great progress. and very interesting to hear about the cellotape decal protection; that is really inventive! Well done. It is so good to see another old lamp rescued, and I have another one ready for rescue, this time a brass tank PL53 with decal complete. I have also got a line to another one in my local area, so will certainly rescue them all. Very best to you and good luck with the rest of the fettle. Steve.

 

Looking good !! 8) 8)

But i know your just warming us all up for the final pics Brian !

Good job

 

Hi David Steve and Longilily thank you for your compliements i have just fired her up for the first time and will show the remaing pics in a moment

sorry and by the way a very happy birthday to you Longilily

 

Hi Lampies now back to the second installment of the PL53 restoration/fettle



Here is the upper burner assembaly it has been stripped down and cleaned out and buffed up



Here is the control cock cleaned up and ready to have the new washers fitted which are superb quality viton purchased from Ross/spiritburner, i would like to come clean at this stage, all the seals were not in good condition so new ones were orderd as i very much doubt it would be able to hold pressure, i took a big gamble and in some ways a foolish gamble as i started working on the tank/painting it before i did a pressure test on it, so if there were any leaks i would have to repair the leaks and repaint the tank but being as the tank was in very sound condition i took tyhe gamble rather than wait for new seals to arrive but it paid off,



Here is the seals ready to be fitted to the pump, i had a big problem with this pump as when the seals were changed, i assembeled the lamp and carried out a pressure test, i pressureised the tank and immeresed it in a bowl of water the tank was 100% leak free yet there were bubbles comming from the pump i tried all over the weekend by changing the spring swapping the pip holder with one of Stus which he makes so the old type pip can be used in the modern 246b but the dam thing still leaked i thought may be the tube it self was faulty IE the soldering or being made of steel may be there was a leak from the tube wall i then checked to see where the leak was comming from by pressureising the tank removing the pump rod and pouring some water in the pump tube to see where the leak was comming from,it was comming from the NRV port so i come to the conclussion the seat where the pip is pressed against is slightly worn one side and the pip can not make a perfect seal, i was lucky there was a female brass pump tube for sale on the bay which is stamped Tilley Hendon, which i did win for a very good price and it arived today,so i was able to finish the restoration even though the original tube is a plain steel one and i want the lamp to be as original as possible i do much prefer the brass Hendon one it realy contrasts beautifully against the painted tank



Here is the lamp fully assembeled



Here is a pic of the brass Hendon pump tube fitted it does look so much better than the original steel pump of the period but i will keep the original and see if i can make a repair to it



And now here is the PL53 running i am very pleased with this lamp and i have realy enjoyed the restoration,i would all so like to thank Steve for generously giving us all a chance of owning the lamp and thank David and neil for there very valueble advice given in choosing the original paint colour

 

Great job. That blue looks a little too blue and not quite grey enough. Mind you the originals we see are all 70 years old and maybe they were this colour and the paint has faded. Looks near enough for me. ::Neil::

 

Hi Neil thank you for your compliement,when i put the first coat on that was my exact thought the colour looks to blue and not enough grey, but then as you say the colour we have seen would have faded over the 70 years it would be fantastic if some one would come accross a Steel tank PL53 that had been in storage and never been out of its box so we could see what the original colour would have been like

 

I wonder how much of that is an artefact due to the vagaries of digital imagery, lighting etc., etc. The colour looks different in all the shots so it's not really possible to know what it actually is in natural daylight.

I'm basing my comments regarding colour on the way it looks in the penultimate image, which seems near enough to me, too...

 

I agree David the colour does look different in each shot slightly,but i must admit i am not the best at taking pics lol by the way i forgot to mention and take a pic of the bottom of the tank which i painted in jet balck gloss like the original which you showed earlier

 

Nice job mr optimus. The lamp looks fantastic and having never seen one with original paint on it looks fine to me. I have a steel tank EX100 but this appears to be painted silver. Does your steel pump have a brass knob on it or is it made of steel as well? Mine was missing, so I replaced it with a brass one I had spare.

 

Hi Mathew thank you for your compliement yes my steel pump had a brass pump knob and unlike all the other brass knobs the top of it is rounded/convex the brass pump knob on my Guardsman and the pump assembly i have fitted on this lamp the top of the knob is concave, i was unable to use the original steel pump on this lamp as i just could not get the pump valve to make a seal i will need to do some extra work on it at some stage, but i much prefer the fancy brass pump on this lamp

 

A great Job Mr O and a great set of pics

 

Thrust Tilley to make life difficult for us it would have been much easier if they had used the same knob. But then I have also fitted a guardsman one to mine, so if two lamps we know of have this type then...

 

Pump knob on AL8 I put in lamp Gallery with steel tank & pump is convex also you have a nice lamp there

 

A fine restoration!

 

Hi Brian, where do you find the time for all your very fine restorations? Another well executed revamp of a lovely Old Lady, well done!

All the best,

Wim

 

Hi Ozzy Mathew Graham Jeff and Wim thank you all for your very kind compliements, it is very satisfieing and enjoyable restoring a lamp stove that would at one time had been scrapped, but thanks to CPL and CCS we have all learnt skills and tasks to bring our collection back to life with out useing it as scrap parts

 

Hi Brian

What a little cracker 8)

Well done mate looks really great , nice resto on the fount decal & the colour is superb , just like the bottom of a Battle of Britain Hurri or Spit which was what this lamp may have heard in its early life 8) makes you wonder where Tilley got the paint from maybe the "Air Ministry"

Well done again 8) 8)

Best regards Stu .

 

Hi Stu thank you for your compliement i think you are spot on regarding the colour,i think this paint could be a close as we can get as the paint is called airforce blue,i wonder if the Air Ministry supplied tilley with the colour

 

Hi Brian

You never know they may have had some enterprising erk ( Airman ) who dropped off a Matador truck load that was on its way to the aicraft factory at Hendon up the road a ways 8) for ten bob , a cup of char & a wad ( cake )

Stu

 

It would have been rather more complicated than that. My old dad was a chemist and director of a paint manufacturer in Birkenhead and I know a little about how the MoD dealt with paint. OK dad only supplied the Admiltary but I dare say the procedure would be similar. Paint firms had to be registered as approved which meant they had to submit paint to be tested for quality and only if the product met the standard would they be added to the list of approved makers who could tender to supply. The tender would specify a British Standard colour and then a contract to supply was issued. So if these Blue Tilley lamps were for the MoD, which seems likely, then Tilley would not have chosen the colour or the supplier.

As a rider to this Dad's company supplied the paint for the Ark Royal which was built in Birkenhead and as a contractor he got tickets for the launch and he took me to the shipyard to see her go down the slips. ::Neil::

 

Which Ark Royal?

 

The 1587 one, I'm guessing...

 

Ho Ho! She was the fourth I think. R09 anyway and launched on my 7th birthday in 1950. ::Neil::

 

I served on her Neil. A good happy ship and we never ever stopped painting her. She must have weighed about 20000 tons heavier when they scrapped her!. Steve.

 

Aaah ! Hence the 'popeye' avatar 8) 8)

Bet you have some stories

 

They were the days Bucks , Vixens , Phantoms & Gannets 8) 8) i was on 12 sqdn Honington at the end of the buccaneers

This is low flying at its best 8) 8) 8)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0-xnaRSL6g&feature=related

Best regards Stu .

 

We certainly seem to have some brave souls amongst us (If i was wearing one, i'd take my hat orf )

 

Aye, rum, sodomy and the lash - never did anyone any harm...