robin craig

Very thorough, thank you for taking the time to post this all.

what an absolute gem.

We have one out here that is doing the same, we have no clue either

Saracen are you located in the UK?

Maybe I missed it earlier, but yours is an ex Belgian vehicle then just to be clear?

It is in the background in this video but we have seen it elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm67CBXBK2c

There is a tracked tug / shunter seen in the background of some of the tank chats and diaries.

Can anyone shed some history on it and perhaps show some walk around pictures. Is it ex MOD?

You can see in some of the early 1970s pictures the change away from DMS boots and puttees to a higher leg boot and no puttees and elastics to blouse the trouser legs to the top of the boots. I do not know exact dates of issue or authority for that. Some troops would tell of being allowed to use black Doctor Marten boots in place of DMS boots until enough NI Patrol boots were available.

There was a whole saga over the amount of foot mileage the troops were carrying out on patrols that was the trigger for all of this.

In most units the NI patrol boots were not allowed to be worn for regular duties once outside the NI theatre. Again as a generalisation, they were tolerated on exercise in some units. Them and the NI gloves with the padded bars across the back were what is described today as Gucci kit and you were "hard" as  you had done an NI tour if you were wearing them. Woe betide anyone wearing NI kit who had not been.

It was always every young and keen soldiers desire to add just a smidge of personalisation and to stand out in an otherwise uniform world once back on the mainland/

Congratulations,

time to get it insured and taxed and ridden, riding still doesn't get old, you fee alive riding.

Have fun

Quite honestly some of the Fox / Polecat design is a nightmare as you found out. Watch out for the fuel change over tap in the floor which if similar to our Fox was put on by someone who stripped the threads and then forced it into association.

Watching with interest

Clive,

I would like to thank you for all the great bodies of work you have been responsible for like this one. You have done so much for our hobby in the way of explaining such technical matters.

While I have never met you in person I have read your materials for a great number of years and have always been amazed at the level of research you  have undertaken to arrive at the finished body of work.

Thank you so much for doing this. A quite fascinating read and well worth the time to understand.

Thank you for the replies, no I had not joined that group but have now. Thank you

I am being asked questions that I cant answer, so I come to you all for knowledge.

Specifically we are talking about British or commonwealth usage of their own produced steel jerry cans for fuel. We are not talking about the American style.

When were nozzles first produced for them and what did they look like? What were the evolution and what does the modern British military use? The only one I have ever seen ex MOD looks very much like this web image.

Over to you

I am very curious, what kind of money is that worth as it stands assuming running and serviceable?

Patience is a virtue, great news, hope you post lots of what you are doing

Thank you sir

Asking for a friend, can anyone ID this set up please and point out which is which and was this experimental?

somewhere i have a brochure for one, give me a few weeks to find it

I would agree with Terry wholeheartedly.

The supply has dried up and the red tape to buy seemingly innocuous parts like an oil filter from the UK is ridiculous.

Hopefully, technology allows someone to start making pattern parts of a reasonable quality. How expensive is something if there are none to buy?

Simon,

I have a bit of experience with them. They are a terrific machine, we have a 6 cylinder diesel here at work. They are a superb machine but as Terry says tracks and drive sprocket condition are to be looked at closely. The road wheels can de-laminate. There are 40 road wheels, I have done seals and bearing parties a few times and a power pack out once. Like anything, they were designed for a job and will you be doing that job or something different. The petrol vs diesel debate is obvious. Talk to Tony about his experiences.

Simon Brown, thank you for explaining that to the rest of the gang, I am salivating out here on my slow download speed internet on our island, the model tab crashed once already.

Yes, so Simon is going to have full vehicle inside and out that I can use to make up scale drawings of everything.

As I am from the Airfix generation there is nothing like a challenge and "insert tab D2 into opening A5"

Peakrec thank you for those photos, you didn't happen to touch base with the owner did you? Would love to connect with other owners.

The vehicle that Simon went to measure is owned by Tony Knott who is on this forum and I would like to thank him for allowing Simon to go do his thing.

While initially I was not a fan of Facebook I have to admit having gone to the dark side and actually benefited from that hugely.

I am a member of Ottawa Valley Land Rovers here in Ontario, Canada and it is through the generosity of its members far and wide I have secured a whole bunch of parts at little or no cost. A huge debt of gratitude is owed by myself to folks like Bruce Ricker for a whole set of sprigs, And rew Jones for a steering wheel, seat parts and a windscreen assembly, John Havey and Ringo the attack dog for a set of wheels and 7.50 X 16 tyres, Michel Gagne and Vern Fairhead for the rear door.

Knowing the existing 6.50 X 16 tyres had to go and they others should go on led me to pull the existing wheels and tyres and take them and the donated set to a local shop and have all of them dismounted and a survey of the wheels done. We found some rotting some of the wheels and selected some of the originals and a couple of the donated ones as the best set and I took them out for sand blasting and painting.

I chose a gloss finish using an NOS part with a Deep Bronze Green on it, we had found that as the base colour on the original FV wheels

The tyres have now been mounted and maybe soon they will go back onto the vehicle to make it roll again.

I was privileged to be allowed to use the float trailer from work to go get the vehicle, thanks to my boss for that.

My aims are as follows:-

1 To secure the vehicle as best I can from any further degradation

2 Gather parts and information to aid in the restoration

3 Finish my garage to allow restoration to begin

So for those of you who don't know me, I am way more busy than is healthy for me, I cant sit still and one interest isn't enough, so it seems. No is not a word that I like to hear.

Things have developed in twists and turns that I can not believe.

Firstly, I took off the hoops and parts that were put on it to make it into a soft top. This was done by PA Blanchards who sold the vehicle to the first owner here in Canada as he wanted a low mileage clean LHD S3 vehicle and chose this one. This is not a theory, I spoke with Nick Blanchard by phone who recalled it. I also have the paperwork for the sale at the time that is noted to that effect.

The donated hard top has gone on, the side panels aren't right but I have located a pair of those. A rear door was sourced locally and is strapped in place.

Well, where to start? I guess if you have not see anything before you need the back story on the build up over four years before I finally landed the vehicle. That can be read here

So, what next, I guess the best place is to post a picture of what the end state will be one day, this pictures was passed to me by someone whose name I have now forgotten. There are  many interesting details I have picked out which I will highlight later.

From memory Crouchs also had a pile of them