Valley Axe Man

A few more recently acquired Leyland brochures with a bit of help again from John JMD, a what I'm guessing has just been a missed printed version of the export 344 brochure that has photos but no text.... A brochure for Leylands combination pickup hitch and drawbar that came more widely available with the change over from Nuffield to Leyland back in 1969, prior to this most of the production tractors had the common swinging drawbar with an option of pickup hitch.... A winsam cab pocket brochure again from the change over period of Nuffield to Leyland, and a pricelist from 1980.... Now this is interesting as when new my 472 would have been £11809 for the basic tractor, then an extra £304.80 for the cast back wheels and another £154.60 for the set of 8 wafers.... So even if I spend the same again as what she cost me to buy it'll still be a cheaper tractor than it was brand new back in 1980

Reeto time for a brew... Right hand inner wing plated up with afore mentioned folded sections, mudguard offered up and a happy medium was found then marked for the mounting bolts.... whilst the clamps were holding everything about where it wanted to be out came the welder and everything given a good slack handful of tack welds.... Sanded up ready for final weld up once I borrow a little mig from work, holes drilled for the mudguard, almost time to chop the rot out the left-hand one once I get a 2" strip put in behind the door striker plate as during this morning's progress I unearthed a little bit more tin worm 👍

Memories are the one thing that will always be with you John👍 good to see you keeping one alive in 32nd scale... You maybe don't see it yourself but hell your good at what you do with a scalpel and rule 👌

Thanks for sharing your photos Smithy, looks good weather for the job. Hope you had a good day looking about

Yet another cracking build John... I'm no fan of the triple triangle brigade but must admit that it does look well 👍

Aye good to see you too Barry, had to admit was one or two nice blues there... But was lacking....

Cheers Smithy, aye I think there was something from most Main brand stables really... Was a few gaps like they could have had a few more tucked in as one of the sheds was a bit empty...

No bother John, aye it good to see a few folk, just takes s bit of getting back into after all the no shows over the past 2 years... Good that things are getting back to normal though

Wasn't a bad day, hopefully this year's shows will be a bit back to normal although lacking in a few Bathgate blues and Gainsborough golds but guess that's just my preference..... Was good to have a catch up with a few familiar faces, didn't find owt in toyfair this year though, but you can't have everything.....

Few photos I took yesterday on our trip down to the show with John JMD,

Gemma's been back out with the silver paint giving the roof another coat this afternoon....

Gemma got first silver coat of paint on roof this afternoon 😉

Used to be free entry to toyfair on the Sunday if you showed them your wristbands from the tractor show 👍

Just goes to show you not lost the knack Justin 😉

Looks good Justin 👍

Cheers Smithy, aye Gemma is taking to doing a bit of work with the spanners 👍 but no I don't play tricks on her... I save that for the Muppets at work 🤣 best ever one was putting black insulation tape in between the welding lenses in the welding helmets of the apprentice's, then get them to have a go with the mig and they can't see anything but yet you put the helmet on and weld blind... It was fun for hours 🤣🤣 especially when we squashed a spider between the lenses... Poor lad crapped his pants when spider appear before his eyes when he started welding 🤣🤣

Thanks John aye we making progress, still a ways to go but making a list of bits to keep eye out for next Sunday 😉

Shhh don't say owt but could be part of her Valentine's gifts... But yes you hit the nail on the head they are stunning builds, I'm sure Dave will like one down in the cabinet if John agrees 👍

Then set about the side window lower support, basically a piece of 1" box section so out with the grinder and cutting disc, the rot cut out and a new piece welded in... The bent repair section in one of the previous posts goes under this piece of box and across to the inner wing panel forming the top on the inner wing.. and the lower flange carries the bolts to fit the outer mudguard to... anyhow that will happen be next Saturday before that gets attacked and welded into place.

Meanwhile I put a skim of filler in the A post corners to fill the profile between the A post and lower front panel of the cab that I repaired a week or so ago,