Trusty Cobra Sprayer

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  • #37531
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I’ve always wanted one of these but for some reason none seem to have come my way- until now, that is!

    Some years ago I bought the water tank carrier from a mate of mine. There was no water tank as the previous owner had thrown it away and used the carrier as a chariot; he used to stand on the floorboards and drive his Trusty along the road to the village shop when he started to get a little infirm on his legs. An early form of mobility scooter! So far I’ve done nothing with it because I didn’t have anything else to go with it.

    Last week Johnny Polish was going to a farm sale near Carmarthen to see if he could get some parts for his Series 1 Land Rover. I looked through the pictures and spotted a Cobra sprayer pump sitting on top of a pallet of old stationery engine pumps. Armed with a few quid Johnny secured the deal and I’m now the proud owner of a sprayer pump, so I’m getting there (sounds like British Rail in the 70’s- did they ever get there in the end?).

    A shame that the artwork had worn away on the perspex cover and just to help the remnants on their way some kind soul had stuck a lot number ticket over it. Never mind, it’s all sent to try us. The pump seems to work so I’ll take all of the other gismo’s off to see if they will work again. One day I hope it will be a nice little showpiece with the pump bolted to the top of the transmission case and the tank and carrier following along behind.

    Attachments:
    #37542
    charlie
    Keymaster

    Well done, glad to hear you were successful in obtaining this pump.

    #37544
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    For comparison purposes here are some photo’s of the pump with a different perspex cover or different layouts.

    Decisions, decisions! Now I don’t know which way to go with it!

    Attachments:
    #37563
    halfa
    Participant

    Great find ! I love the cobra emblem on the cover. Well done.

    #37564
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    The emblem on the cover is almost rubbed out on mine so I will need to find a way of reproducing it. The photo of the good emblem is a pump belonging to a fellow member but it appears that the logo is embossed or moulded into the plastic on his one, so not quite the same although the artwork is similar.

    Any ideas, anybody??

    #37804
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    A little update so you know that I’m not being idle! The pump is nearly back together but there are a couple of areas that I’d like to improve upon; the logo on the perspex cover is a definite piece that needs work and patience to make good but I also need to replace the face of the pressure gauge dial. The original is steel which has been stove enamelled then the numbers painted on- if I try to rub too hard to remove the rust stains the numbers come off as well. A paper facing glued over the top would be sufficient but where do I find one? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

    Attachments:
    #37808
    trusty-mad
    Participant

    Could you design one on the computer and print it yourself?

    #37812
    charlie
    Keymaster

    Could you get a good photograph of the gauge face and then photoshop it to fill in the missing bits?

    #37867
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I think I may just dig out my old engineering drawing equipment and re-draw the gauge dial on card with a Rotring pen. It can’t look any worse than it does now and I’m not damaging the original.

    Mr. Woollas has said that I can copy his artwork for the perspex window so it’s just a matter of getting to see him soon to take a decent picture that I can work on.

    95% of the work is already done but it’s always that little 5% that makes the difference between an average job and a great job. Let’s see if I can make the difference with this one!

    #38011
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    A combination of old skills and new technology has triumphed again! The pressure gauge was proving to be a bit of a challenge, but once it was all working the gauge face was copied onto a piece of white card with a Rotring pen and compasses and the graduations marked off. So that the lettering and numbers would look professionally done I then scanned it into my computer and used Photoshop to produce the letters and numbers, then reduced it down and printed it. It is now glued onto the original dial face and fitted to the gauge so all I’ve got to do now is to find a piece of perspex to make the gauge glass out of and then it’s onto the huge challenge of the Cobra artwork.

    Wish me luck, I think I’m going to need it!

    Attachments:
    #38026
    charlie
    Keymaster

    Looks good.

    #38045
    halfa
    Participant

    Great job on the pressure gauge. Whilst having some stickers done on my van recently I got talking to the guy doing it, who also makes signs for shops etc. I asked him about engraving Perspex and he told me he couldn’t see any problem with recreating your cover, he has 2 ways of doing it, one being a computer controlled engraving machine and he also has a laser engraving machine.

    #38051
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I’ll have to shop around locally to see if there’s anybody around here that offers the same service. Thanks for the info, it’s something that I hadn’t considered.

    #38288
    trusty220
    Keymaster

    I’ve been shopping around and found a trophy engraver locally that says he can do it; the trouble is he’s now away until 10th December and he would prefer to give me a quote to do the job first. I’ve done the artwork already and supplied him with both JPEG and pdf formats but the fact that he wants to quote me first sounds a little worrying!

    Here is the artwork. As an alternative I was thinking of ordering some blank waterslide transfer paper and printing it onto that if his quote is too expensive. We’ll see!

    Attachments:
    #38290
    trusty-mad
    Participant

    Looking good. Out of interest how did you manage to reproduce the artwork?

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