Billy has progressed a little. I had the sides and top welded together and then did some beating to be finished by a friend Keith Hodkinson who used to do this for his living.I made and fitted the sub-bonnets and the firing door. The body is now in primer. I am waiting for the weather to improve here before the next coats go on.
I have made the strange bonnet clips as are evident on the old pictures. I eventually worked out how they were made. There is a stellate (starshaped) spring which is about 2inches in diameter. This must be the same spring as Whites used on the throttles. So I made one of these with an aluminium disc with running out to a wedge as in the picutres. When fitted this made a very good quick release bonnet clip which I am sure will stay in place as the damper works well. This of course was repeated for the other side. I still have to make some small clips that were on the sides of the sub-bonnets presumably to stop the bonnet lifting at high speed.
I have now moved on to making the water tank. The top,sides and baffles are made from galvanised steel but not yet fitted together. I plan to make the bottom tomorrow and then start puttung it all together. This is not the easiest of tanks to make as one's first effort as it fits into the rounded tapered nose of the car to the left with the right side cut away for the "air blaster". Each joint is folded over(1/4inch width) and then over again and soft soldered as the original.

Looking good Bob - I can see Goodwood approaching!

Mike

Thanks Mike.
I am now on the water tank. This is a whole new ball game for me. I have not done this type of tinwork before. I am using 22 gauge galvanised steel as White used for their tanks.
My friend Harold first made a wooden pattern to fit in the odd sized space in the tapered nose infront of the front fire wall and behind the front axle. This is cut off to fit the body shape on the front left corner and has the right side removed to fit the "super-charger" door mechanism where the forced draft will go into the venturi.
I then started drawing the panels and allowing for the folds or double folds on the edges, cut them out and beat them into shape. The various holes had to be cut for the lid, the water take-off with filter and the air breather. I then tinned the joints and am now in the process of flattening the joints down - When the pictures were taken ,the top joints are still going down. I hope that all the curves will be smooth when they are all flat. The edges fold over the opposite edge and then both fold again to flat. This is a long slow process with my kit!
The tank should hold 23 gallons when full by my calculations(about 250 lbs with the tank). I have baffles going in across the tank and front to back.
1.3.11 The tank is now finished and holds water -24 gallons. This makes the tank weigh almost 280 lbs when full- That is quite a load behind the front axle when racing. No wonder Billy started slower and usually overtook the other cars on about lap 4 of 5 with the 1 mile tracks. Also it took time to warm up the steam engine.



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 03/01/11 04:05PM by steamcarbob.

Looking great Bob!

Cheers
Jerry
(Canberra Australia)

Billy has just come out of the workshop with the bonnet painted. My son Michael helped me with that as I have done no spraying before doing the undercoats. It is not the final coat yet, that will probably go on last thing before completion. I have a problem too with the water tank being a little tight on the front left corner but hope to resolve that soon.
Next I need to complete my engine and chain rebuild of my 1902 White model "B" Surrey for this season's shows. Then I will be on to steam generators for my Model "L" , Model "F" and Billy.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 03/18/11 02:32PM by steamcarbob.

I am sorry my pictures did not attach properly. I am having a little computer problem!

That is absolutely stunning. Many thanks for sharing your work with us.
Cheers
Mark

Hey Bob,

That really looks sharp! Great job!

Are you going to put a racing number on it?

For that matter do you know if White had a standard racing number for Whistling Billy or just used whatever number they were allocated for a given race?

Caleb Ramsby

Thank you for your comments.
The number for the race was changed most weeks and Billy raced over 7 years. Often in the early years the number was tied onto the fuel tank and its mountingsalthough I see that the No 36 was on the side on one of my pictures.
The bonnet seems a large white area at present but that was not always so. When Billy landed in the pond with Webb Jay's accident in September 1905 it looks as if the area around the chimney and water filler were painted black. I expect that this area will be heat damaged -time should tell!
Also at times there were some body bulges initially for the modified thermostat and then for an enlarged steam generator. At one time the bonnet was made out of two parts probably because of a damaged nose.
In the rebuild after the 1908 accident, the nose was flared at the bottom prossibly to try to keep the nose down. The bonnet was then lined probably with gold paint defining the sides and nose. I might try this and also paint the name on the side. If it looks wrong, I plan to put another coat of paint on when the car is nearly finished anyway.




Edited 2 times. Last edit at 03/20/11 05:30AM by steamcarbob.

Wow! it looks good, have you run it yet?