The Skeoch project

When a devastating fire ripped through Burnside Motor Works in Dalbeattie on 23rd December 1921 it turned a young car designer's cherished dream into a financial nightmare in the space of just a few hours.

Several exchanges by phone and email by the various parties interested in recreating the Skeoch Cycle Car culminated in a meeting that took place at Edingham on Thursday 22nd February 2018.

It becomes apparent that the items left to kick-off the Skeoch project are less complete than anticipated. The nine copy drawings do not completely describe the car, there are significant component details missing.

On 7 th March Geoff Allison & Alan Mazza travelled to the home of Archie & Betty Sinclair (the daughter & son-in-law of James Skeoch) in Helensburgh where they were met by Fiona Sinclair who handed over the letter transferring title of the whole Skeoch project to Dalbeattie Men’s Shed, at the same time parts of a 1928 Riley 9 car were donated to the Shed for fundraising purposes.

Attracted by the Skeoch project the Shed had a famous visitor on Thursday 24th May; Sir Billy Connolly, with a film crew from 7Wonder, recorded a piece for the upcoming Billy’s travelogue around Scotland.

On receipt of the side frames from Paterson Engineering the basic frame was assembled , allowing measurements to be confirmed for the design of the Gearbox rear support, chassis drop arms, running board & rear spring supports – drawings of these parts were sent Patersons for laser cutting from 6mm mild steel plate.

Drawings for the bulkhead supports added to the Paterson Engineering job list. Removal of the engine cylinder head allowed the crankcase seals to be tested – they failed – confirming the need for a complete strip down and rebuild.

A new member, Dave Higginbottom, has brought computer aided engineering, CAE, skills to the project. Dave is building up a virtual Skeoch and converting the imperial aluminium casting drawings into metric CAD drawings and .stl files. The virtual Skeoch can be viewed from any angle on screen, assisting layout and confirming measurements.

Members of the UK Model T Ford Owners Club visited the shed on 20 th September with 5 vehicles. Inspection of both the Fords and the Skeoch prompted lively discussion around similarities and differences in the two designs, it is possible that some Model T parts can be adapted to fit the Skeoch and Richard Varley of the Model T Club offered to bid for some of them on our behalf at an upcoming vintage car auction.

Professional supporters make valuable technical contributions. CAD design and drawings of the most complicated aluminium part,the engine & gearbox support together with CNC files and an aluminium billet are with Alan Young Engineering, Auldgirth for CNC Machining.

Early in the  month Danny Melville of Hexagon Metrology visited the shed with state of the art 3D scanning and metrology equipment. Danny 3D scanned the Skeoch radiator badge & the Model T Ford front axle, he also accurately determined some key dimensions on the engine and gearbox:

Using files from the 3D scanning by Hexagon, Tim produced our first 3D printed, red on black, Skeoch key fob, and we send Skeoch themed Christmas cards to supporters of the cycle car project.

The festivities are behind us and work on the Skeoch picks up on several fronts. Patterson Engineering cut and folded rear spring supports from supplied .DWF & .pdf drawings, the parts are now with Jas P. Wilson for welding.

We now have enough data to complete the rear axle/hub/suspension/wheel design. Early in the month work commenced on fabricating radius arms (by member Donald) and stiffened rear spring supports (by Patterson Engineering).

Dave Dickinson’s donated front axle and radius arm from an early Austin 7 was delivered, minus a few fittings, enough to allow finalisation of the front wheel hub and front spring designs. Keith Dennison donated a contemporary Browne & Barlow carburettor, missing a choke slide, Donald will make a replacement.

A piece of software discovered by Dave Higginbottom designed to colourise old monochrome photos has revealed more detail on a profile picture of the Skeoch (see image) and revises our understanding of the tyre and coachwork finishes.

It doesn’t feel like a year since Billy Connolly visited the Shed and saw the bare ash frames laid out to begin the Skeoch build, but the time has fled by.

Sunday 9 th June was cloudy but remained dry and warm, this combined with the added attraction of veteran, vintage and cherished cars made for a record attendance at Wm Kennedy’s Orroland Lodge annual open day with the Skeoch display front and centre.

To prepare the Skeoch chassis for Orroland a number of components had to be fettled to compensate for shortages, such as a missing trackrod link, errors, such as misaligned mounting  holes in one of the front wheels, and trial parts, such as the 1⁄4” leaf rear springs.

Work continued on fixing the snags revealed during preparations for Orroland, then in the 2nd week of August, Bill Simpson arrived with a prototype exhaust for the car, returning a couple of days later after having tweaked some of the compound curves to clear the engine crankcase and to leave space to fit the steering column bottom journal.  This then allowed the donor Model T Ford steering column to be offered up for alignment through the engine firewall down to the steering rack, and at the rear end work started on the rear brake actuation controls.