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Ad Lovely pics, I dont think your too late... it was revived in 2022 by myself and a few others and we managed to figure quite a lot out! 03 FD 45 is not a Falklands CVRT, the destroyed Scorpion was 02 FD 76

@B series Would the Berliet GCB 8 KT 4x4 be listed in the sales at all? Would be nice to know when it was moved on. Thanks

Managed to get hold of a Berliet GBC dash layout, and knocked this up. A friend used to work at FVRDE, and still remembers the 4x4 Berliet GBC - complete with the switch on the dash to change from petrol to other fuels

The cupboard shelves and side plate on the axillary generator cabinet are painted and on there place, that's a extra bit of interior work that has been done. Rear generator panel still need some sanding before I can start to paint the panel together with the window frames.

Look forward to following the restoration, I also have a Matador that’s waiting its turn to be restored.

Wasn't this type of engine also to be found in a Thornycroft LMD?

No springs on the cab mountings!

Clerveaux castle; https://www.visit-clervaux.lu/en/patrimoine/battle-and-castles-museum Diekirch; https://www.visitluxembourg.com/place/national-museum-of-military-history-diekirch

After Miltracks, I am going to Luxembourg, and wonder if there are any 'Battle of the Bulge' related war museums that anyone recommends in the country?

Yes, Best of luck. Looks like a great project.

A list of type numbers from Wheels of the RAF book from 1983 by Bruce Robertson Its good enough but is missing a few numbers - but note the RAF never seemed to use any Type numbers in the 4000 -4999 range, nor any with less than four digits

Great to see another british heavy being rescued. We've very nearly finished a nut and bolt resto on our Pioneer. I've driven it a bit round the trading estate and yes its not the easiest thing to drive. Will get it out on the open road in the next few weeks. We are also about to start on the resto of my Matador. I have a suspicion that the winch clutch is welded up, but haven't dug too deeply into yet. It would be good to have a get together of british heavies at a show sometime. I take it you have tried Matador Matt for any bits you need? Best of luck with it. Richard

Realistically, when was it last on the road?

After a lengthy period away while we did things that were not even remotely military vehicle related we've found another project. We did a Pioneer earlier (Here) but never really liked driving it on the road because you always felt you were fighting the gearbox. Talking to a few people with Matadors suggested that they were nicer things to live with as well as looking quite good (the Matadors rather than the people who owned them) so we managed to track one down that had the makings of an interesting project without being ragged to death in a forest. This might be a bit dull for a few weeks because it hasn't arrived yet but bits of it has so that is a start. I can't tell you much about it because we don't know much about it yet other than it is a Matador, it was an RAF one and I seem to remember that it is quite a late one. It was de-mobbed to Moray Council were it worked as a gritter which seems to have been the cause of its biggest problem namely fairly grim corrosion to the chassis rails at the rear. Nothing that can't be dealt with in one way or another. I'll fill in the details as they come in. One minor problem with the new project was that when it was converted to a gritter it lost its winch but fortunately a winch from another Matador was part of the deal. We popped down to pick up a truckload of loose bits including the winch and given that there wasn't much to do over the bank holiday we took it to bits. Normally this would have laid in the workshop until it was nearly done so it seems a bit odd starting a restoration here. Anyhoo, on with the oily bits. As usual I didn't take my camera out until it was too late so the winch is already in pieces. The winch had a fair amount of water in it for a while which has done for the bearings on the input shaft. This is the outer race of the NDE roller bearing. And this is one of the outer races of the DE taper roller bearing. None of them are useable again. The roller bearing is no real biggie but the drive end bearing is a double row taper roller and they don't come cheap. We may look at replacing them with a pair of taper rollers back to back which is standard practice and a fair bit cheaper. We shall see. You may also notice that the worm has suffered in a couple of isolated spots but that will just get fettled. There is no way that is being replaced. Just to show they are isolated spots. It has just gone where the worm was in contact with the wheel. The eagle eyed will notice that the thread for the bearing retaining nut is a bit mullahed at the end. Whoever had rebuilt it had not torqued the nut up properly so it had only been held in place with the split pin. This had given up the ghost eventually and galled the threads up. The nut had to be machined off rather that risk completely buggering the thread. The damaged section will clean up just fine. We were surprised how heavily these winches were constructed compared with the one on the Pioneer. I assume this is why they were handy for dragging trees out of woods. It really is a beast of a thing. Next problem was that the clutch had been welded up. Correction, the clutch had been welded up twice. This required a spot of delicate grinding to avoid causing any more damage to the splines. As you may spot an earlier attempt to remove welds had been less than scalpel like. I looks like it had been welded up, someone had removed the welds, found out why it had been welded solid in the first place and welded it up again. However, the scars will TIG weld up and with some fettling it will all look good again. The best that can be done with this is just tidy it up. The spline at the end isn't doing very much anyway. So once the clutch was removed (eventually) it was possible just to unscrew the retaining collar and slide the drum off. Nope, the drum would not turn at all on the shaft. The only thing we could do is drill through the retaining collar sideways to take out the screws to get it off. Even then the bloody thing would not shift. Careful application of a Monday hammer showed up the problem. The bush which is supposed to be in the drum is very firmly seized to the axle. You can probably make out where the bush has been rotating in the drum. Heat did nothing to free it so it will have to go in the lathe to waste it away. What is slightly annoying is that the bush requires a sizeable chink of cored bronze to make a new one. And for completeness, the drum. This will need to go in the boring machine to clean out the lands for the bush because they are a little worn. The bush has clearly been seized on the axle for a long time. Might take the opportunity to tidy up the surface for the band brake. There are still a few bits to collect for the winch so if anyone has anything lying around we would be interested to hear what you have. Yes, yes. The details of a winch are endlessly fascinating but what as we actually talking about here ? Surely you have a picture of it? Well, not really. I have some happy snaps of details but the barn in which it has been living does not lend itself to photographs which illustrate the essential Matadoriness of the wagon. The only one I have that looks like a Matador is this one here and that doesn't show much as all. We should have it in our shed in a few weeks time.

Not many of those about for sale. could it be out of a fire engine?

CHRIS l think a e- mail to SELEX may shed some light there are no other parts in the box only what l have mentioned WALLY

hi, i use rtv silicon rubber for the resin moulds, most in 2 part moulds and low temp vulcanising rubber for the metal moulds. thanks

I need to re home this b 81 straight 8 rolls engine from commercial vehicle thus without governer . in Suffolk Hailsworth 07540227148

Thank you Adrian and Mike. That is all the info that I need. I have made it work in a slightly different way. John

If it's a BOC Pug, I have one with a long and short track. I can measure and photograph it in the morning but it's an Aluminium extrusion, about 6" wide with four raised ribs. One about 1/4" in from each side for the drive wheels and a pair with a 1/4" gap between them in the centre for the support wheel.

Breaking down the NATO Stock Number a bit... 5965 = 5965 is a Federal Supply Class that contains components such as headsets, microphones, handsets, and speakers that are used for aviation purposes. 99 - is the code for UK categorised items. (i.e. we own that entry.) 330 2287 - is the specific item within that class. LHS appears to have a 3.5mm audio jack fitted (which is very odd for the military), RHS looks like a Clansman multiway connector with a cover fitted - maybe for a microphone or the connecting cable... is there a connecting cable in the pack with the headset? They're obviously for a noisy environment, but not _that_ noisy... maybe helicopter passengers rather than flight deck crew (which had extremely large hard-shell earpieces with liquid-filled seals to keep jet noise out). :-) It's 16 years old, but might be worth asking Selex if they have any information that would help. (The £300 price tag is typical for MoD kit - it covers all the costs of the design, build, transport and storage, etc.) Best regards, Chris.

Would be nice if we could travel back in time. This is a 1947 advert from Rockhampton QLD. for new Morris 'Desert Buggy' engines. 100 quid was a small fortune in those days.

I'm sure that many of you are familiar with these two photos (thank you IWM) which were taken at the REME workshops in Dhekalia, Cyprus in the early 50s (I would think). But, I am not sure I have ever come across a photo with such a wide range of interesting kit in it. Every time I look at it I seem to find more. So, what vehicles and equipment can you see? Not military, but, is that a duck-egg green Morris J4 up by the entrance to the camp? What is the very bright stone-coloured 4x4 lorry with its back to the camera facing the long grey shed on the right, a Matador, a Karrier K6? The quiz goes on!

Hello John, This is supposedly a Bantam 3, might it use a similar track?

Dear All, I have been given an old but little used oxy/propane cutting machine to overhaul. The owner bought it new but unfortunately the track was lost and the machine was put to one side for many years. Does anyone know what the tracks looked like? Particularly the cross section that the drive wheels ran in. John