utt61

A little warmth applied to Araldite speeds the curing time no end, and makes it easier to mix. In my model-making days I used to use a 100 watt bulb (remember them?) in an Anglepoise to cook the resin to cure it, although obviously you have to be careful if your are working with plastics and/or resin kits - metal is fine. Warming the mix before use will make it runny and hence much easier to mix thoroughly, and also easier to apply in small amounts in the right place. The heat will also accelerate the curing process. I never used the "rapid" version, always the original with warmth, seemed much stronger than the rapid. Over the years I have used the hot Araldite method to repair rotor arms, distributor caps, apply aluminium patches behind unwanted holes in Landrover wings, just about anything you do with the stuff works better with warmth. If circumstances permit, a hot air paint stripper works really well for curing.

How wide is it?

Wayne, good work, and great to see one as far gone as yours getting restored rather than broken. Re. your gearbox/engine splitting problems, some thoughts based on my experiences with Landrovers over the last 3 or 4 decades:- 1) Sometimes the studs will be seized into the bellhousing with the aluminium corrosion effect, but I don't think this is happening in your case as you have some movement. If it is the case, unscrewing the studs can help. 2) alignment is important, as others have said support the gearbox and pull the engine straight out forwards in line with the input shaft. Violent wiggling sometimes helps. 3) I wonder if your clutch driven plate has seized on the splines of the input shaft - quite possible if yours has been dunked in salt water, especially if it's been in long enough to allow the bellhousing to fill (or without the wading plug fitted). If this is the case, then you don't really have any alternative to the brute force and ignorance approach, and use force to get them apart. However, if you remove the gear lever and its mounting bracket you may be able to apply Plusgas or a similar release agent onto the splines through the hole in the bellhousing (or at least see what is going on inside). 4) It is also possible that the spigot bearing has seized on the input shaft and is now stuck on the driven plate, but this generally wouldn't put up much resistance. I think it is unlikely to be the probelm in this case. 5) I wouldn't at this stage take the engine and gearbox out as a single unit, since if it is a clutch plate seizure problem it will be much harder to split them out of the chassis - at least at the moment the gearbox is firmly anchored and you can pull the engine hard and lever it etc without the box following. 6) I have never known any kind of sealant used on the belhousing joint and never seen any instruction to use it. The joint doesn't have to be 100% watertight, and there would be no point using sealant. Of course that doesn't mean that someone hasn't done so in the past, just that they shouldn't have done so! Seeing how far apart you've got them, though, my bet would be that the clutch driven plate has seized on the input shaft splines. Good luck, and keep up the good work!

I am sure that I have read somewhere that Unipower did also make timber drugs (pole trailers), so it may well be that this is what your friend has.

When I stripped the paint off mine many years ago I was able to get the top 7 or so coats off using a scraper (an old chisel), since the surface preparation used on the first military-applied overpaint was poor. The final stripping was done using significant quantities of Nitromors. Mine was ex-RM and during the scraping process I was able to uncover various markings including the commando 'dagger' on the back panel. Sadly a lack of space later forced me to sell the trailer, something I still regret. It was an original 15cwt type, and I also regret never finding out if it really did float.

The white marks in the roads are generally used for VASCAR speed enforcement since this requires two sets of marks which can be any distance apart. To use them from the air the exact distance between the sets of marks would have to be known (which is of course entirely possible but is likely to be more problematic). In the early days of VASCAR operation (and it has been in use since the mid-1960's) any object could be used as a marker, but the trend now is to paint markings specifically for this purpose on the road surface.

May I ask what primer you have used (and what under- and top-coats you intend to use)? I have had some issues with adhesion in the past even using two-pack etch primer on galv, yours looks more successful. Thanks.

Not directly related to being locked out of the forum, but is there a forum guru out there who can advise please.... I access HMVF in one of three ways, from my PC at work via a wired connection straight out the the internet, from my home PC via BT Broadband (again a wired connection, not wireless), or mobile via Vodafone 3G wireless. Access to the forum from work or via Vodafone works perfectly, and pages load quickly at all times. If I try to access it from my home PC though, every page times out (although sometimes after refreshing two or three times the page will load) with the message along the lines that the server at HMVF is taking too long to respond. This happens every time, without fail! Apart from the connection method, the other significant difference is that the work and mobile PCs are running XP Pro and XP Home editions of the OS respectively, the home PC is running 2000 Pro. In all cases I am using the latest available version of Firefox (I haven't tried using IE to see if that makes a difference, must try that). The home PC is older and slower than the others, but not by that much. I am also a member of various other forums which all work fine; this only happens with HMVF. All other webpages I have visited seem ok too. Does anyone have any ideas why this might be happening? It's a pain because it is completely impractical to access this forum from home at the moment. Thanks.

Passed one place yesterday with diesel at 144.9 ppl (in the West County), the highest I have yet seen. It now costs me £100 or so to fill the Defender and I use two tankfulls a week :cry: If you really want to depress yourself, work out how much of your income goes to the taxman overall - income tax and NI, then fuel tax, road fund licence, insurance premium tax, then VAT on all these taxes and on everything else you spend. It gets depressing.

Not so; a vehcile taxed as historic can be used for load-carrying provided that it is not done in connection with a business or trade, nor for profit nor reward.

Photos on some of the reports show that it is an FV434 with a trailer, and that is is parked in a sort of layby area adjacent to the highway. It is not on the running lane of the highway and is not on the pavement. It looks in good and tidy condition. If I understand the width issue correctly, it is only overwidth if running with the original silencer box on the neaside, and all the photos show it from the offside so it is not possible to tell. I strongly suspect that it is unaltered from demob and is techically overwidth. Reading between the lines there is clearly more to this story than the simple (and inaccurrate and generally moronic) reporting has stated. It seems that there is something of a running feud between the MV owner and the neighbourhood and that this is just the lastest chapter. Sadly, many people reading this story will conclude that the person in question, and probably other MV owners, are little more than delinquent sociopaths who don't care for others. It will do no-one any good. Personally, given the choice of looking out of my window and seeing a tidy FV434, or seeing the usual assortment of Novas with absurd exhausts, white vans, etc, I know which I would prefer. Time was when people would have thought it was fun and unusual to have a vehicle like this parked in the street; how intolerant and selfish, and generally loathesome society has become!

I remember reading somewhere (probably on direct.gov or VOSA websites) something along the lines of "VOSA considers that self-adhesive numberplates are probably non-compliant with the current regulations" (I can't remember the exact wording but that was the gist). This suggests to me that there is some doubt as to whether self-adhesive numberplates are legal but this has not yet been established by the courts. If s/a plates are considered illegal, then it is possible that painted plates might be similarly illegal, unless the fact that they are invariably white on black and on pre-73 vehicles means that whichever regulation the s/a ones fail to conform to is inapplicable anyway, which seems quite possible (it's probably something to do with retro-reflectivity or the revolting euro flag or something). It is worth noting that in the very early days of Land-Rover, Series 1 vehicles were supplied with a plain black panel of numberplate size fixed in the appropriate place, specifically provided so that the reg no could be painted on. Presumably therefore in the late 40s/early 50s there was no doubt. Personally I would have no hesitation running with painted numbers on a vehicle for which black/white or black/silver was legal, provided of course that the plates are well executed.

I have a P6 surplus to requirements if you want to do a P6 conversion. I bought it to put in a Coles Milo diesel electric crane I bought with a stripped engine, but sold the crane before doing so. It was originally the propulsion engine out of an RAF snow blower (one of those with twin from axles) and is supposedly very low mileage. I have heard it running and it seemed excellent. It would also comes with the stripped down remains of the original crane engine (missing the crank, conrods and pistons) plus the gearbox from the snowblower. Feel free to PM if interested. I need the space!

As far as I know you would be OK with this, since the military registration is meaningless and hence is just part of the decoration of the vehicle. Others in this forum may know better, though. As a matter of interest, the law requires you to display the reg no in the correct layout and in the correct place, but does it prevent you putting lots of registration plates on your vehicle (one is real, the rest are just the livery, honest officer). Covering the front and rear of your car with different number plates might be a way to fool speed cameras!

There is a discussion going on on another forum (non-MV) which I belong to on the subject of the couplings used on Sankey-type 3/4 ton trailers, specifically which trailers have or had rotating coupling rings (and consequently the potential problem of bending the drawbar - or rear crossmember of the towing vehicle - under conditions of extremem articulation) and which have or had non-rotating rings (and hence require a rotating hook on the towing vehicle). It was my understanding was that:- - All the 'narrow track' trailers had rotating eyes - All the 'wide track' trailers had non-rotating eyes - All the current 'Wolf'/Penman style trailers have non-rotating eyes. However I now understand that many of the late disposal narrow tracks had non-rotating eyes. If so, was this an official service modification, or were the last ones built like this?

There is a novel based on the idea of a crated aircraft - "The Fighter" by Richard Hough - which I remember reading many years ago.

My copy of this arrived yesterday - one of the most intersting books I have read in a long time! Well worth a read. The story, for those who don't know, is that of Ernest Cox, an eccentric but very able engineer who decided that - despite never having salvaged a vessel in his life - he would buy and salvage the German High Seas battle fleet at Scapa after the world's salvage experts had said it was an impossible task. Starting with 25 destroyers he bought for £250, he then did it! In the process he set records for the greatest number of vessels raised in a short time, and the largest vessel ever brought to the surface. A staggering achievement. Mind you, I can't help but feel that if he was a member of this forum he would have restored the salvaged vessels rather than scrapping them!

Classic! What a numpty!

There are actually three garages in CM at present - coming into the village from the Blackmoor Gate direction there is a filling station on the left as you enter the built up area, then about halfway to the front there is Hansons Garage (no fuel sales now, just car sales/servicing) and finally there is Lovering's right down towards the seafront. They are all on the left as you head towards the sea. I *think* that Hansons is what used to be Middle Garage, but no-one seems to know for sure any more, hence my hope that there was a DT expert here who might know.

I hadn't heard of that one before but now have a copy on order. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Speaking of this - excellent - book, there is a photo in it of a DT signwritten for "Middle Garage" Combe Martin in North Devon. Does anyone know either what became of it (the DT) or where exactly in Combe Martin "Middle Garage" was? Bearing in mind the nature of the roads in and out of CM even today, it must have been quite something to meet a DT coming the other way!

Somewhere I have a print of this photo which is, if I recall correctly, less cropped at the bottom. If my memory serves me right, it is an armoured bulldozer of some kind working in the river. If I can find the picture tonight I will check.

This is an interesting question and i am not sure that anyone has a definitive answer. I believe that to be eligible for HV tax status the vehicle must not make journeys on the public highway in connection with any trade or business, so engineering plant which is used for commercial purposes at a single (off-highway) location only, but which is being driven to a rally (for example) may legally be eligible. If, however, it is travelling from one location to another to carry out a commercial operation, or is carrying out a commercial operation on the public highway, then it is probably not. Load carrying is definitely not the issue, since it is entirely legal to use a vehicle in the HV tax class to carry a load provided the load is not being carried in connection with a trade or business (yours or anyone else's). So your HV-taxed Diamond T can tow your Sherman on the road entirely legally (provided that it complies with any testing/insurance/driver licensing/hours requirements etc) provided your are doing it in a private capacity, not for reward, and not in connection with anyone's business including your own. Another question which I have never seen answered: if a show is being organised by a commercial concern (some county shows etc are), and you are attending with an historic vehicle, then your journey could be construed as being in connection with the organisers' business and hence a commercial journey, which would potentially impact your eligibility for HV tax status and your insurance. I like to think that it wouldn't be considered thus, but it seems to be yet another rather grey area.

I don't know - have many been found ? I thought most of the Olympic Stadium site was the former Stratford Loco Works and Stratford Loco Shed area, plus Temple Mills hump shunting yard, but I freely admit that it is an area I don't know well so may be wrong.

Sorry, I missed the last question in your post. Anything which is used commercially is not eligible, together with (I think) some other classes of vehcile. If you visit the DVLA website you will find a list of the classes which are eligible. I know that 'mobile cranes' and 'engineering plant', which are normally taxed in the Special Vehicles class, are eligible provided that they are not used commercially, since the last vehicle I had reclassified was one of these.