18 CHROME WHEELS TIRES WITH TPMS RR03

After a long period of inactivity, 2011 has at last seen some progress in the restoration of this 1971 A.E.C. Mandator tractor unit ,which I have owned for a number of years. New to a Lincolnshire general haulage company it passed when relatively young to Abbotts Coaches from Blackpool. They removed the 5th wheel coupling and fitted a platform body with concrete ballast weights and added a towing hitch to the rear. It went on to serve the company as a towing vehicle until the closure of the business. It was sold to a dealer at the disposal auction. I bought it from him and took it to an AEC rally in "as purchased" condition. Whilst the cab was complete and functional it had been patched-up many times during its life and would have required a substantial rebuild to make it right. I decided to return it to a tractor unit format and replace the cab. I was lucky enough to source an ex-RAF aircraft refueled cab at a very reasonable price and restoration work began. The chassis was shot- blasted and painted, a replacement 5th wheel, new rear mudguards , a new lower front panel and a good set of 10.00x20 tyres were fitted .The replacement cab was added and repaired where required. The roof was not the best so a Hatcher fibreglass sheet rack/illuminated signboard was fitted to hide the metal repairs. That was as far as the restoration got before it was sidelined due to other things happening in my life and subsequent purchases absorbing available funds! Elsewhere on my photostream the results of prolonged outdoor storage are illustrated from the day when I finally dragged the lorry out of the bushes ready to re-start its restoration. I negotiated special dispensation at Reliance Bus Works for the admission of a lorry into this bus and coach-mending business and it was accepted on the basis of being an AEC only!! In reality the proprietor, Martyn Hearson could not really say no because he had been the voice that had kept telling me to " do something about that Mandator" and what little amount of work would be needed to finish it off!! So I duly towed the lorry to his yard and said I don't want it back until it is finished, the deadline is in good time to be able to attend the 2012 AEC rally.
This image was taken just prior to my departure overseas for a number of months and shows the (slow) progress so far. Work has concentrated on further repairs to the cab including door restoration and fitting genuine rear lamp brackets with correct style light units. I have supplied various new and secondhand parts that will be required as work progresses. A workshop extension at RBW will allow the Mandator to be kept inside, hopefully before Winter sets-in and I am promised that its restoration will be able to be accelerated accordingly. The lorry will be finished in a livery which will reflect the livery used by my family's removals business from 1968 when it was considerably "modernized".

In the south part of Wichita. Stands an old Amusement park. Joyland is it's name.
When I was a kid, we went there every summer. We got a certain number of tickets for every A, B, or C on our end of school report cards.
We rode the "Scrambler", the haunted house ride called "The Wacky Shack". We rode the bumper cars and the "Zipper". The "tilt-a-whirl" and "The Paratrooper". There was the train ride and of course all the games at the penny arcade that always cost more than a penny.
If we were REALLY brave, we rode the "Roller-Coaster". You know, some guy got killed on that thing! Sure! Maryann's sister's best friend Margret knew this girl that knew this guy that was a second cousin of this guy that knew the guy that stood up and... well, it was just too awful to tell about!
We rode the rides, ate cotton candy and corn dogs. We drank big tall paper cups of coke. We ran around and rode the "Ferris wheel" and the "Kiddie car" until our mom's said it was time to go home.
Years later, we took our kids to Joyland. We walked around from ride to ride and watched our children do just what we had done. We talked not of school and Janet's goofy curls, but of work and houses to buy and mortgages to pay and kids to raise.
And you know, a funny thing happened. We noticed, Joyland was A LOT smaller than we remembered. We had out grown the rides and the penny arcade and we had fallen in love with Janet's curls and asked those girls on dates, then more dates and then marriage. We had grown up. We still had Joyland, we still went, but we were the Moms and the Dads.
Now, we had out lived Joyland. People got tired of the little park that seemed so big to a youngster. We had been to bigger parks. Prettier parks, more sophisticated. Parks that cover square miles and have their own hotels.
Now Joyland sets empty. No more laughter or the sweet smell of corn dogs in the air.
I was sad as I walked around outside the locked gate. All I could hear was the occasional car pass by and maybe, just maybe... a left over scream of joy on the midway.