Chris Hall

Bump, D BAR and SKN sold, Sequential  ZGBs and DD Brens still available.

8 minutes ago, steviem said:

I thought the embossed was right for a 45,? Not ordered anything yet though. The one posted posted is embossed 

It maybe, I’m not totally sure which order they run in. Maybe the transfer one was an interim before the embossed.

it looks good but it would be good if someone who has bought one could comment.

Are you aware (if you’re trying to keep factory condition) that’s there’s different versions? 1st were pancake style, then I think it was plain in the style you posted, then an embossed plate spot welded to the can and then I think a transfer type. If you’re aiming for a specific production date then this one may not be correct.

I can see it’s obviously some sort of scam but I can’t figure out how? Do they ask for a securing deposit? The seller had good feed back going back years. Do they really go to this level of preparation and effort? Or have the scammers hacked a genuine account and added their own details. 

I also broke down the bogies as far as I could but 2 arms are seized and 2 cluster won’t split down but I will win.

I will try and get a photo of the right idler as it has some battle damage, namely a bullet hole with a corresponding strike mark and then another strike mark a few inches further on. I thought at first that something solid had got into the idler wheel but the hole and deformed steel leaves me convinced it’s battle damage.

I’ve not achieved much recently but I pulled the tarp off to get to some other parts. This photo shows where I’m at, at the moment. Next step will be to get the cab floor out so I can look at what I need to replace (I suspect the whole floor and supports). And after that, remove the whole cab.

Just seen this article of a Spitfire wing washing ashore in the Netherlands.

https://theaviationist.com/2020/10/14/spitfire-fighter-aircrafts-part-washes-up-on-a-dutch-shore-75-years-after-the-end-of-wwii/?utm_source=vuukle&utm_medium=talk_of_town

Not that one, but likely from the same yard. The overgrown brambles are just like those I cut out of the engine bay. My track had both fenders but was missing the right vertical engine cover.

Got the second post off today. It was a lot harder than the first. It took the 20T Jack pumped until I physically couldn’t pump it any more. And then it took 10 minutes of heating with propane before it gave up with an almighty bang. It moved about a 1/4” but the rust chunks flew about 6’! Scared the pants off me, I actually thought the bottle Jack had exploded.

so that’s the whole back end stripped. Next is the front and then repair the frame. 

Should clean up nicely with a bit of light oil.

Got the rear cross member removed and then moved onto the job I’ve not been looking forward to, removing the idler posts. 

As the split pin was corroded to the point the head was gone, I couldn’t pull it out. The access is so limited there was no way to get a punch in there to push it through, so I decided to  just remove as much exposed split pin and just undo the nut. It needed 2100N of pressure but it went in the end, it’s damaged the threads at the end but they aren’t really needed and the post is that worn that I think I may need new ones machining up anyway. A cheap Chinese 20 Tonne bottle Jack braced against the opposite post soon had the first out. I’ll attempt the second tomorrow.

The post fits into a bracket on the out side of the frame and then passes through the frame into another bracket attached to another cross member. The photos below will hopefully explain it better.

Sorry the photos are out of sequence as some failed to upload correctly.

Hopefully next week I’ll have chance to ring around the wholesale traders.

Today I managed to get the seized bolt out of the bogie frame and get it removed. I then made a start on removing the rear cross member. Some bolts I had to grind the heads off and some I had to chisel the nuts off. One nut was so thin it was like a washer and practically fell off.

It got dark before I could remove the last bolts so that’s tomorrow’s job.

8 minutes ago, Jerry Jeep said:

the other 6 wheeled jeep

Does that run on Carlsberg too?

I notice the bottom radio jeep runs on a special brew. Can’t be cheap to top the tank off.

if Carlsberg made jeeps...

I’ve looked at this listing too and it looks a very good deal. I’m not to sure the jeep police will like the tread pattern as I think the bar grip is a little heavy duty compared to the original. Being quite heavy/chunky, the ride could have a little more vibration. If you compare to some of the other jeep bar grip tyres available you will see what I mean.

1 hour ago, Surveyor said:

Same thing happens with me, you about 2-3 hours away, are you looking for it formed or just ready for you to shape?

Just looking for plain straight sheet to cut, drill and counter sink as required. 

Thanks Jonny, I actually need the plate to repair some of the armour and to fabricate some parts. For the rear armour I have the original fold down sections (one needs a 6” piece welding in) and the front left and rear right sections. I’d need to buy the rear left, front right and rear panel. I also have an M16A2 rear door, the panel to the left of the door and 3 of the 4 side armour plates of an M3.

I’ve already had some parts from BAIV and will be looking at their M16 rear boxes and likely the missing armour too.

1 hour ago, OzH said:

Fantastic thread Chris..

I'd love a halftrack... Maybe one day!!

Well I always thought that, and then one day I did a search for Halftrack parts and couldn’t believe how many NOS parts are out there. My biggest bug bear restoring the GPW was the lack of quality repro parts as the NOS parts were drying up. 
 

The only real issue is tracks which are now available as newly made but aren’t cheap. Oh and the cost of shipping stuff isn’t cheap.

Sorry the above was posted yesterday in response to surveyor but the forum crashed and it’s just posted it now I’ve come back to the page.

I’m in Lincolnshire. It just appears that true 1/4” steel isn’t popular in the U.K. it’s likely that being metric means that 6mm is the preferred size.

Anyone know any company supplying 1/4” steel plate/sheet?

Everywhere I find either has 1/4” thick steel in narrow strip or supplies 6mm as 1/4” rather than a true size. I would normally be happy enough with 6mm but as it’s to weld to 1/4” plate, I think the .35mm difference will be visible and difficult to mask.

Today’s efforts were short as I had a laser tag party for my god twins. I decided at my age it was best to hang around in the rear and pick them off long range. 82 confirmed kills...... but they were 8 year olds so I think it was a little unfair.

Anyway, I gave 3 hours this afternoon to more stripping. The idler assembly is now off and I focused on the bogie frames and it was all going well until the last bolt wouldn’t budge. It was the first nut I removed, and I remember trying to knock the bolt out but decided to come back to it. That bit me in the ass in the end.

So I’ll try again another day.

20 hours ago, Listerj123 said:

If you don't mind me asking was this in the UK 

It was a French scrapyard that the previous Dutch collector bought it from. I had it shipped here on a Dutch trailer with an English tractor unit and a Polish driver. A truly European effort.

And for interest, I think this is my track (the one on the left, not the one in the middle) in the scrap yard. I had to remove the remnants of a thorny vine from the engine bay, under the cab and coming out in the rear bed. It was about 3/4” in diameter and still had some extremely sharp thorns. I didn’t swear too much honest.

The idler posts are an absolute ball ache so I’ve been leaving them for now and just soaking with oil. I tackled the bogies next. 
 

To remove the bogies I needed to have the track on stands. I got some medium height stands from the net and they are more than man enough for the job. To stop the volute springs extending as I lifted the track up, I used a ratchet strap to retain the crab and bogies in position. I then removed the 16 nuts from the assembly while there was weight on them.

With the bogies off the ground, it was time to fit the spring compressors and retract the crab off the bogie arms. You can see them fitted here, they’re simply 1” x 8TPI NC of 12” lengths with nuts to compress the spring. In the crab there’s a spring seat for each spring. The compressors (threaded bar) screw into the spring seats and then the nuts are screwed down to compress the springs. If only it was that simple!

I couldn’t get the compressors to screw in and it was suggested on another forum that I should run a tap into the spring seat to remove any rust and dirt. So I did and very little foreign matter was removed. And the compressors still wouldn’t screw in. I then realised the tap I screwed in was actually at an angle and that angle stopped the compressors entering the seat squarely. So I had to tweak the crab a bit to get it and the spring seat square......and of course it was frozen.

lots of oil and using a hammer, then a bigger hammer and finally a bigger F***ing hammer freed it up and the compressors slipped in like a you know what.

you can just see in the above photo that the crab is just clear of the bogie arms and as I’ve removed the ratchet strap, the bogies have dropped to the floor.