Friday, May 6, 2011

Another Missing Part Located

Original wasn't a bad fit, despite being of unusal Pedigree.
When I first bought the van I quickly realised that the fuel cap that was fitted was unlikely to be the genuine part. The words "Pal Chicken in Marrowbone" printed on the side was the give away.

I wasn't really sure what the cap is meant to look like. On Charlie's Victoria J. Van Blog he shows a really nicely shaped polished brass fuel cap, but his J is a bit older than mine and has a number of other differences. Anyway I measured the thread on the filler pipe at 2" and 16TPI, which is actually a reasonably common fuel cap thread.

Not long after a cap was listed on Ebay in the UK, described as being for an unknown Morris Commercial, and measuring 2" with a 16TPI thread. I really only stumbled on it because the seller only listed it for sale to the UK not on ebay Australia. Luckily he didn't take much persuasion to agree to post it to Australia. I took a gamble and 'won' the auction. A week or so later it turned up.

Chrome is a bit pitted and needs re-doing
You can see the brass showing through inside
Anyway I hadn't made a mistake measuring the thread and it fitted quite well, although the finger grips bump against the panel that covers it on the inside when I try to screw it on. It will only need a small adjustment to make it fit. Mike from the MCJTV yahoo group tells me he's seen similar caps on other J types, so I reckon thats one more missing part found!  I'd be interested to know whether it really is a J Type cap though, or off another model, does anyone know?
Rough condition matches the rest of the vehicle.