You may remember the dramatic waterpump issue we experienced over a year ago with our '31 Talbot K78. The basis of the alloy fan housing collapsed resulting in (check here) the fan ruining itself, making good damage to the radiator and freeing the lower sitting waterpump from the last remains of its foothold.
Immediately we started looking for replacements. The parts section will bring you a lot (it brought us one of the very few still usable fans!), but not the waterpump. That is till today we found various good functioning waterpumps for sale varying in price from 18.000 to 68.000 Euros as they all came with four wheels, an engine and more.
So what to do? Mount an electric modern waterpump? Mwah, not really an attractive thought. In the middle of our despair we were visited by Dirk 'Model-T' Regter. He is an optimist pur sang and together we looked into the problem. Fact is that the pump itself had no problems. It's just that the crumbled mounting to the engine what is missing. So we started discussing the option to make a new cradle for the pump house that would fit with the original three nutholes at the engine side and hold the pump at the front. Dirk made photos of the engine, did measurements how much room there is and what would be need to make it work. Only a few weeks later he reported that his son (Dirk-Jan), who is a gifted engineer, and Dirk himself had a plan, they had made a set of 3D computer drawings (the most instructive one depicted here) and now were busy with lasercutters and similar machinery to create the new cradle. Two months ago Dirk came in proudly with the result. A high-tech looking sculpture of stainless steel plates and legs, all smooth and clean.
It took us another day to get it in place but the basic idea was untouched. And the result? Well you may have seen that we are now 1000+ km further down the road. Applause for Model T heroes Dirk & Dirk-Jan! You may think, what a lot of fuss to avoid using an electric pump. But I can assure you that it is a massive pleasure to see the old pump doing its works on a new set of legs!(photos and CAD sketch courtesy Dirk & Dirk-Jan Regter/Boon Edam)