doug fleet

Hi to everyone that was following this restoration. I haven't posted in almost 18 months. I have had to rebuild my land rover which is nearly finished . But the matador is still in the shed waiting for me to carry on . thanks Doug.

So much progress since I last looked in. looking very good .

That's coming on well . Looking rearly good .

well that's the last matador post for a while as its now back down the other end. I need to sort out some other stuff so will be back later in the year . the last 2 photos are of the trailer build number as some one asked for it . I haven't given up just need to sort my land rover out .thanks for looking Doug

Here we have this weekends work . got the back all cleaned up and primed . Measured up allthe wood as I have to take some up for repair . got hold of aload of 2nd hand wood off an old artic trailer . my thoughts are it shouldn't look to good which is not the look I want . so worked out how to cut it all to get the best out of it . 1st very small problem is the old wood is 4inch wide and the new 5 inch wide so as long as I start in the middle and work to the out side it will be ok. 2nd is the old is tougne and grooved and the new isn't . that could be a problem , but depending on how many and where the supports are it might be ok. . I spent the afternoon unscrewing all the screws in the wood which apart from 4 or 5 they all unscrewed .

Cleared off the back today ready to clean up and replace existing wood with aged but complete wooden floor.

So I think its fair to say the trailer served with the 5th Infantry Brigade and maybe at some time served with 19th Infantry Brigade .there is more imfo on it for the 5th than the 19th . once again big thanks to you both Doug.

no I don't , I would think mid 1950s . is there a number stamped on it anywhere like a chassie number . if so where . does anyone know. there is alliminuem plate on the A frame with numbers on it .

Hiya , yes its good to see that its all good inside and as its grease and not oil it has saved the brake shoes . evern I was surprised at how thick the grease is on the top of the shoes and how hard it is .. its all the grease and oil that was all over the hole lorry that has kept it all these years .

hiya . thank you very very much for the imfo . would the 19th infrantry be with the 48th Gurkha at the same time , sorry to pick your brains but I just don't know .would the markings be on there at the same time or at different times . . once again thanks for the help.

this is one of the back wheel hubs . got the brake drum off and started to scrape all the grease and mud out of it . the side of the brake shoes have olive drab paint on them so got to be origanals . you can see just how much of a build up of grease and mud by the last photo . well back at work now so back to weekends only .

hiya as it was made in 1942 I would think its whit . yes on the N/S the wheel nuts are left hand thread

hiya yes I thought it was an anchor at first but couldn't work out why it would have an anchor on it .

got the underneath of the back wheel arch cleaned up and primed today so just the wheel hub and brake back plate left to do . then its the last bit to clean up and that's the fuel tank .the last few photos are of my 1ton trailer which I have been giving a bear metal repaint . can anyone tell me what the I/D markings are on the back of it . was trieing to sand it off carfully but it didn't happen .

well I started today cleaning the outside of the n/s . sanded off the crimson to see if there was any ID markings left on the olive drab. but apart from what looks like an arrow pointing down wards there was nothing . so sanded off the rest back to bright steel . put a wire brush on a grinder to clean up the rivet heads . got that all primed up . cleaned up and primed the engine oil and jerry can holders that bolt on under the armour.. got the N/S back wheel off and started scraping the muck off.

yes those brake shoes will see me out that's for sure. I have had a few land rover box's out over the years . hope you have a good xmas

After getting the brake drum off last weekend I found out why it was stuck . it must of had water in it as there was some rust pitting in one area which I think must have been at the bottom and maybe in the grass. Everything is free to move and theres loads of life left in the shoes. So everything was cleaned and primed and is now ready to have the wheel fitted. then we can move it to get to the other side .

All good progress going on here . looks good

nice to see a bit of progress . keep the updates coming .it nice to see other peoples progress

i will put the photo on next weekend with some others . spent all day warming up and hammering that back brake drum I couldn't move . well after a lot of heat . WD40 and hammer. it got to the stage where it either brakes or its coming off so out came the sledge hammer . I didn't take a big swing at it as I was laying underneath it but slowly it started to move and I got it off with out any damage thank god.. its a good job I did as it had leaves inside and it looks like something was living behind a brake shoe. other than that it all looks ok in there.

that's nice to hear . that means there cant be much left to clean off and prime . I just want to get all the dirty stuff done so I can get the riveting done and chuck some top coat at it .

Only got half a day today . So finished off the outside of the drivers side .I carefully sanded it off just incase there was anymore ID Markings , but there wasn't . so now all the outside is done on the drivers side .

hiya if you still want photos of a Dorchester there is one being restored in the restoration blogs on here under my name . its not as original but there is some photos of the one in duxford of the inside of it .

thank you . as you know you have to keep chipping away to get it done .

had a good day today . got underneath the rear wing cleaned up and 2 coats of primer on it . I didn't clean up the plate across the back as I have got to take that off to replace some angle that rivets the back to the sides. started to clean up the off side on the out side . you can see some of the olive drab paint still on there. you can also see there were lots of bits welded on the side in its army life . don't know what they were for .found the rear tyre pressure written on the side so got a photo before I cleaned it off .so got some of it primed up on the out side . I now need to cover the front of the other matador to protect it from the grinding sparks before I carry on down he side .