Ivor Ramsden

After a long period of silence on here due to building a Nissen hut at the museum in which the Morris will live, I thought I'd do an update.

If you've read this blog before you might remember me mentioning a certain reluctance to start on the part of the truck. It would start best if I took off the air pipe between the filter and carb and blocked it with my hand. After pondering long and hard I reckoned that the choke flap mustn't be working right. On these things the choke cable disappears between the carb and the block and is completely inaccessible for examination, never mind for adjustment so I took the carb off and sure enough there wasn't enough movement on the cable. This was easily fixed by shortening the outer cable and now the choke works as it should. Even better, and to my great relief, the engine now starts almost immediately every time.

When we got the truck the fuel supply was by gravity from a jerrican placed on a passenger seat. I stripped and rebuilt the original Autovac but I never reconnected it because I suspected it might be part of the starting problem. However when the engine was running the Autovac seemed to be filling with petrol as intended so I removed the jerrican and reconnected the Autovac which works perfectly. They are so simple, why are people reluctant to keep them in use?

I need to find a better oil pressure gauge now because this one sticks at 45psi, which isn't much good. It's a standard 2 inch Smiths one.

There's more work to do. I've located a Bofors gun and mounting which will replace the replica gun and weirdly modified original mounting that's fitted on the truck. The replica is pretty good but, well, it's a replica! The mounting has been increased in height by about 8 inches by the Norwegian military and throws out the whole appearance of the gun. I'll keep you posted.

Towards the top of the photo you will see with the excessively long outer choke cable. The cable tie that fixed the air pipe to the carb has been replaced with a rather more period fitting.

It's got a sand channel fixed to the side but judging by the lack of visible bodywork and the separate mudguard, I think it's a water tanker.

The coat and overtrousers were made of the same rubberised fabric as the groundsheet, the coat is fairly similar to the type used in WW2 - looking at getting reproductions of both made. .

Have you ever worn one of these rubberised fabric coats? We've got a WW2 one which is incredibly heavy and very stiff, although I suppose the stiffness could be due to age.

Here are some MWs playing "bit parts" in photos of Manx Regiment bods. They're a bit small because I've cropped them fom larger prints.

These droolworthy photos have recently come into the museum. I used to spend hours looking in my reference books to identify things like these but now I post them on here and let the experts give me chapter and verse!

They are associated with No 30 Squadron, which was using Blenheims in 1938-39. What can you tell me?

Manx Regiment's Bofors guns in the desert, 1941-1943.

Manx Regiment Bofors guns in Eritrea, 1941.

Here's the Museum of the Manx Regiment's Self-propelled Bofors. It's fitted with a replica gun on a genuine but weird mounting which is about 8 inches taller than any other that I've seen. We're looking for a more appropriate gun & mounting if anybody's got an incomplete Mark 1 Bofors gun going spare. The mounting should be a Mk 5 but we can modify anything.

Here's ours, at the Museum of the Manx Regiment. It's on a Mk 3 carriage which has got over-run brakes on the front axle. It's missing a few bits, mostly the brass instruction plates.

My 83 was a GS with under bonnet but no wheel arch

 

 

My 82 GS is the same.

I went to that museum as a brat. I was only about 14 so it would have been about 1969. I remember there being a Guy Quad Ant there and my dad was in ecstacy because he drove a Guy Ant in the RA in 1943 and he hadn't seen one since then. You could climb in and on most of the exhibits and they were suffering as a result; I remember everything being dead rough so it was probably a good thing that the museum closed and everything was sold off. There was a lovely Seafire with its canopy lying on the floor at the side. It's flying again now in the USA, I believe. The Percival Mew Gull that Alex Henshaw flew to South Africa and back in an unfeasibly short time in the late 1930s was there in a pitiful state. I nicked a broken bit of the plywood covering from it, even though I didn't know the significance of the aircraft back then.

The Lanc was open and I've got a photo of me peering out of the cockpit. There was no supervision - a bad person could have done untold damage. What a crappy way to run a museum, but it was a long time ago. Thank heavens things have changed.

I'm sure somebody will identify the bikes. I was thinking that "Zu..." was most likely the name that the rider had given to his bike. On enlarging the original scan there is what appears to be the top of a letter "L" after "Zu". Zulu, maybe?

These were recently given to the Manx Aviation & Military Museum. They are too good to keep locked away in the archives. Enjoy!

Sounds like a top chap mate ! I hope you can sort out this trip for him ! Thank him for all that he did from all of us please !

Couldn't agree more! Best wishes to the old boy. Can you post some of his reminiscences here?

It looks more like RAF blue than Navy dark blue to me. Possibly used by the RAF post-war.

When did diff painting come in?

Rear diffs were painted white during the war, I don't know just when this started but the earliest official reference that I can find is 1943.

Your Rover 8's diff should certainly be white.

I think so, these early RAF vehicles with the headlights behind the grill are very rare - only 200 were delivered like that. I've also had the remains of a 1952 RAF 80 for many years and I'm very tempted to restore them together. Am I insane?

It's not mine, so I don't know. It belongs to a guy on the land Rover Series 1 Club Forum. I'm very jealous of it. I'll just stick with my ex-RAF 80 for now ...

Thanks for the tip, Hanno. I've had a look and there's nothing in the Pat Ware book on RAF Land-Rovers but there are some good photos of Army S1s.

I got the "kit" through the Land Rover Series 1 Club Forum site, I don't know if it was on Milweb previously but the previous owner has had it for several years. It came with a V5 and the original buff log book, which is nice. It was demobbed in 1958 which is early compared to most Army 80s.

Clive's photo from the Air Publication shows it on split rims. This is interesting because the Army 80s didn't have split rims originally although some were retro-fitted. The description of the vehicle in the AP also mentions split rims. My period factory photo is a bit unclear in the wheel area but I think it's on split rims too.

I've just got the dismantled remains of one of the first RAF 80" Series 1 Land-Rovers for restoration. It's a mid 1950 one, RAF number 23AA70 (they started at 23AA06). It was supplied in RAF blue but it looks like it was used for crash rescue as it's got several coats of red paint over the blue. I'm short of reference material, does anyone have any period photos of RAF Series 1s?

Right now I'm at the standing and looking stage but I'll be doing a restoration blog once I get started.

This is what it looked like when new, and what it will look like when I've done.

Pictures as requested.

It's fairly early, a 1949 vehicle.

A Series 1 Land-Rover has an Anti-Aircraft Command sign on one side and a white number 380 on a RA red/blue square on the other. Does aybody know what unit used this number? It was probably applied in the late 50s.

Is there a good reference for post-war AoS marks anywhere?

Thanks Alan. I should have posted an answer to myself months ago - I eventually tracked down the key cards for the truck at Bovington, although it took a fellow C9/B owner and forum member to tell me and provide me with a copy, as the staff at Bovington said they'd only got the contract cards!

Having said that, they were very helpful and friendly, as were the people at the RA Museum and the REME Museum. Hats off to them all.

Rick

 

sorry not been in touch but my operation on my spine has stopped me dead from even opening doors or even lifting a kettle so time is something i have now

john

My sympathies. I had an op on my spine last September to fix a bust disc which had left me good for nowt for 5 months. I kept away from vehicle work until January by which time I was as good as new so long as I didn't do any silly lifting. To prove I was better I restored the C9/B. I hope your recovery will be as successful as mine.