Ivor Ramsden

Hmm, the important words being "if everything is free..." I've got a bofors barrel to remove and I've got a nasty feeling that it's going to be as stuck as a very stuck thing.

How did you rotate the barrel, Rob?

Saddo that I am, I googled this and found the story here:

http://www.saga.co.uk/lifestyle/people/real-lives/my-story-a-small-holding-at-cassino.aspx

One of the old boys of the Manx Regiment, the 15th Light Ack Ack with the 7th Armd Div, told me a similar story. When they were in the desert they were using Morris CDSW 6x4s to tow their Bofors guns. The rear body of these things consists of a series of side lockers for ammo, and a lidded "well", accessible only from above. The chickens were kept in the well and provided them with fresh eggs.

It's wonderful hearing stuff like this because it never gets into the official histories. When our CDSW restoration is finished it will be decorated with a few chicken feathers to give an authentic touch. I don't want to be criticised by the farmyard fowl equivalent of rivet-counters so does anybody know what colour Egyptian chickens would have been in 1941-43?

Hi Tobin,

I've got a parts book for the C8/AT Mk III from Sanction no. 1961. There were 800 vehicles starting at 1961/C8/AT/7043 to 1961/C8/AT/7842(I'm guessing at this last number because there are some pages missing which unfortunately include your vehicle - the last number in my book is 1961/C8/AT/7564.

The vehicles in this parts book were supplied to Contract No. 294/V.4171. I can't find any reference to cont. V.4171 in the Chilwell lists so I can't help you with a definite serial number range but the parts book is dated March 1942 which should give a rough manufacturing date for your vehicle.

To try and work out your serial number:

The Chilwell lists give some serial number ranges for C8/ATs:

L4305025-L4306053, cont. no. V3950. These are listed as MkIIIs

L4310918-L4310937, cont. no. V3950. These are listed as MkIIIs

L4549636-L4549854, cont. no. V3957.

L4566669-L4567268, cont. no. T322

L457269-L4568068, cont. no. T322 This is a batch of 800 vehicles - I'm wondering if it is the same batch as contract V.4171, in which case your serial number might have been L4567976, assuming the vehicles were serial numbered in the same sequence as their chassis numbers.

L4571261-L4571760, cont. no. V4538

Bovington might have the contract card for your vehicle.

Phew! I hope some of this makes sense!

apologies to Ivor R as he already replied on the morris club page but, as he knows, other morris owners on there are not helpful unless you are a paid up member

I don't know how many people actually use the M-C club forum but it's not many. There are plenty of questions asked but seldom any answers. If ever I answer a query on there I don't get an acknowledgement. Maybe accessing that forum leads to an early death and there's only you and me who have been on it and survived?

Me too!

This isn't MV related but I just had to share it. This guy complained that his Discovery's brakes weren't very good. The disc was so worn that a piston had popped out.

This is what happens when you don't have an MoT test...

You are not alone! The quality of many aftermarket light units is very poor. In the past we've had many problems with similar S**tpart lights and also with premature corrosion of the reflectors on headlamp units. It's not hard to put stop/tail bulbs in wrongly because the mouldings are crap.

I've started re-using old side/tail/indicator lamp units from Land-Rovers that we've broken, but using new lenses where needed. If they are working after 20+ years the chances are thay will continue to work.

Situations like this remind me of a story about an air show in the US at which there was a Dakota in beautiful condition, resplendent in pink paint. Some type of camera-bedecked plane spotter made disparaging remarks about its colour scheme to the owner who retorted with a magnificent put-down line which I hope I'll be able to say to somebody one day:

"And what colour is YOUR Dakota?"

We used to have a volunteer at our museum, an armchair Spitfire "expert" who would insist on flaunting his dodgy second-hand knowledge by spouting to RAF veterans who had actually flown or repaired the things, rather than listening to them and learning from them. Thankfully he's no longer with us but there's no way to avoid uninformed or misinformed twits on the net, I'm afraid.

Clive, I have to admire your restraint in the posts that you put on the website that you linked to above. Give them the true facts and maybe, just maybe, a few of the twits will learn.

One thing's for sure, they'll never realise that they are twits.

Only recently I questioned a stated fact in both Rover 1 driver's handbooks dated Aug 68 + Aug 69 and parts book dated 1976 refer to the dynamo as being a C40T.

Now the User handbook is a Rover publication 605498 but is Army Code 22178 . The spares book is the "restricted" one by the Ministry of Defence so is in fact not a de-facto Land Rover publication (they possibly had input).

Now I was aware that a Lucas dynamo with a suffix T was one with a tacho drive on the rear bearing housing. I don't believe that this is correct , sometimes one tablet of stone is cribbed from a previous tablet of stone.

I doubt that a T genny was ever fitted by Solihull or the REME , but I am probably wrong on that issue too.

Aha, Britpart meets Fulltilt, eh? It's strange why they got the dynamo spec so wrong in the Rover 1 publications, it's not as if there would have been any likelihood of a rev counter being fitted, is it?. I wonder if tacho-drive Lucas dynamos were fitted to any other MVs around that time, and that's what caused the confusion?

A lot of non-genuine replacement Land-Rover parts are poor quality. It might be better to find a second-hand valve because original ones very rarely leak.

Try a wanted ad on here.

The earliest change I can find from High Gloss DBG to Matt IRR NATO Green is in the May 1980 publication of DGFVE Spec 341 for Rover 0.5 Tonne Series 3 which required two coats applied wet on wet.

Thanks, Clive.

From 1949 the only Bronze Green that Land-Rovers have been factory-painted in is Deep Bronze Green BS381:224.

The vast majority of MoD Land-Rovers were supplied in DBG, but some were in Light Stone. I don't know exactly when they stopped supplying to the MoD in DBG but I'd go along with Ruxy and say that it was late 70s. Did they go to Olive Green before they went to NATO Green?

This is all too modern for me - I've only just accepted that there are Series 3 Land Rovers!

I'd forgotten about this thread! No problem with the link, Roger.

I keep looking at a pile of rust which used to be S2A lightweight 41FG45 and thinking I must start its restoration.

Richard, have a look at this thread:

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?11338-any-idea-s-on-these-rear-lights&highlight=rubbolite

As with all museums, the IWM's objects aren't disposed of lightly. Some of these items could be duplicates although I doubt that the armour falls into that category. The IWM summarises its approach here:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/managing/collections-review/disposals

Thanks John, exactly what i was looking for.

 

Are these Rubbolites available from anywhere or is it just a case of searching the Autojumble stalls?

 

Thanks again.

 

Richard

None of the vintage car parts dealers seem to have them any more. I've picked a few up on ebay. The most I've paid was about £22.

Things coming on a pace at the mo. Day got off to a real bad start with the gales and a Guinea Pig making a dash for freedom! Safely recaptured.

Congratulations on getting it moving.

Guinea pigs and Land-Rovers, eh, me too. Maybe we should start a Pig and Lightweight Forum?

we live in a would of rust, dont make em like they used to :embarrassed:

I hope they never make Land-Rovers like they used to in 92-94. They keep us busy doing re-chassis jobs, though.

with you on this one, for me S1 landrover would fit the bill

It certainly will. I can see a lot of 1990s and 2000s Range Rovers falling foul of the operative electric seat mechanism requirement!

However, here in the IOM we don't have an MOT, which is NOT good. Some of the things that my son and I work on are a bit frightening. This was in regular use until we condemned it:

Thanks, Bill. They seem to have been very camera-shy.

My son's bought a Land Rover 101. It's a GS Milan version and it is an awesome thing. I've driven just about every Land Rover product going but for overall fun this really is the cat's pyjamas. And it's not mine so I don't have to put the petrol in! It's like driving round in the front room - the windscreen is nearly the size of a set of patio windows and the V8 noise is just lovely - like an earth-bound RR Merlin! It will take weeks for the to wear off. Can anybody enlighten me as to the Milan fittings? We've got no intention of restoring it to the Milan spec but I can't find any pictures on the web and it would be nice to know what would have been in it. It's been stripped to bare metal and has been painted in its factory finish of Deep Bronze Green which looks very nice although it's in need of some touching up, which will happen very soon.The reaction of other drivers to it is much the same as the reaction to the Morris C9/B, i.e. "What the fxxx's that?"We need a few bits for it, so I've put an ad in the "wanted" section.

Welcome, Chris!

I'm sure you'll find a lot of help on here. Somewhere in my collection I've got a 1962 ex-MoD S2a. Let's see some photos of yours on here - I don't seem to be able to get on facebook right now. Edit - I've seen them now. V good!

I'm a regular visitor to Malta - maybe we could meet up sometime?

When I was searching for a Morris-Commercial C9/B SP Bofors for our museum I found three - Cobbaton, Firepower, Isle of Wight - then ours turned up in private hands.

Another one, heavily modified as a crane truck, came up for sale last year. I don't know what happened to it but it was missing most of its specialised kit - the jacks etc - which would have made it very expensive to restore. That's 5 survivors out of about 1700 built.

The British Ordnance Collectors Network forum is a splendid resource. Have a look here:

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/27615-Consolidated-List-Of-Containers

edit: Dohh! I see Adrian's already provided a link. Sorry.