sirhc

Vince, It's not anti-condensation material, it's a spall liner. The idea is that the foam catches the fragments of metal which are sent flying around the inside of the vehicle when it gets hit with bullets. I did have a contact who was supposed to be able to get sheets of this stuff, but it never happened. As for removing the glue, have you tried petrol or another similar solvent? Chris

I have a video from the QOY which includes footage of my Sabre firing the Rarden on a range.

Yes, if it were possible to buy a deactivated Rarden cannon, but there are none around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T17_Armored_Car

They are! Apart from this one, which has been for sale for a while, and the one I've got, I don't know of any other spares.

Time for an update. We've almost finished making all the parts for the rear body. We did a trial fit a few weeks ago, and luckily it all fitted fine. This weekend was spent building new wheel arches. The old ones were a mess, but there was enough of them left to work out how they were build. We have made exact copies of all the bits, today in the rain and the snow we assembled them. They look pretty good, hopefully in about 2 weeks time the body will be in one piece rather than 50! Chris

I know where there are a few more in similar condition, dry stored since release. They are the owners retirement fund, so they're not for sale... yet. Chris

Vixen was a an entirely different vehicle, based on Fox but the hull was quite different. Vixen never made it past the prototype stage. Only 2 remain, one in the Tank Museum and one in Australia. The vehicle Adam is thinking of is this one: This is a Polecat, it's a Peak Engineering GPMG turret fitted to a Fox hull. There were several attempts to fit the Fox with different turrets in order to make it attractive to overseas customers, I have most of the sales brochures, but I don't think there were ever any orders. I don't know why everyone associated Alvis with the Fox, they were designed by Daimler and manufactured by Royal Ordnance. Chris

Not at all! They are great fun to drive, and if you have one that's been well restored you won't need to look for all the bits. You just need to make sure you look after it! The sad thing is, the vehicles which you see for sale are usually the poorly restored ones. Chris

I guess a similar thing happened to the Foxes that has happened to the CVRTs which came out in 2004. Some were bought by enthusiasts, others by dealers, but the majority of them went for scrap. Those which remain now command a high price. When it comes to Fox bits, it's easier to say what's easy to find. Basically anything common with CVRT you can locate, so thats the engine block, starter, carb etc, periscopes and the odd fixtures and fittings. The fans, flywheel, exhaust, radiators etc are unique. While they were around in 2003/4, they aren't anymore. All the Fox projects are gone, so are the engine spares, and there will be no more. When it comes to wheel stations or gearbox you can forget it. The gearbox has some common parts to Ferret, but the vehicle weighs twice as much, which is why I think they are prone to failure. The brake calipers are common to Stalwart, so you can get the pads though! Chris

Does anyone know where this is, and if it's still there? I image the photo is fairly recent as it's a Sabre, but I think it's pretending to be a Scimitar! Chris

Engine removal prior to disposal. What happened to the Foxes I don't know, but the engine packs were stripped down. The engines themselves went back in to stores, the rest went to a scrap yard. Luckily Helston Gunsmiths managed to buy the bits and sat on them for a long time. When they were offered for sale I went down there and spent a day rooting through all the stillages of spares. I managed to find everything except for an oil filter bracket, the aux drive flange and one pipe! Second photo shows our rebuilt pack, the engine was a recon unit I found on its own amongst several hundred CVRT take outs - most had holes in the side. The fan pack came out of a crate, the radiators were fitted with new cores. Stupid photos in wrong order, but you get the idea! Chris

A CVRT is very simple compared to a Fox, there's almost nothing to a CVRT. You can change an engine or gearbox on a CVRT in an hour or 2. To get the gearbox out of the Fox you need to remove the turret and the entire interior. It is only just possible to get it out the back, been there done that, but you have to remove pretty much EVERYTHING from the inside of the vehicle. Any job on a Fox becomes long and involved. I think Fox was withdrawn from service because it was a nightmare to look after compared with the simple CVRT. The Scorpion was withdrawn from service because the extraction system was ineffective and crews were becoming ill after firing the gun. This was around the time of the army reductions in the mid 90's and they had to reduce the number of vehicles. This is where the Sabre came in, Sabre is almost a Scimitar and it made sense to swap the turrets over. They got rid of all the Foxes and Scorpions and replaced them with 136 hybrids. I have never heard anyone say Fox was withdrawn because they had too many accidents. Chris

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/lsm/dhmg/mahon2.html

Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle

They did Mike, and we have one of those Ricardo Foxes. Chris

http://www.ekmpowershop5.com/ekmps/shops/greenmachines/daimler-ferret-master-cylinder-repair-kit-1170-p.asp

136 of the rest of them donated turrets to make Sabres, I don't know what happened to the others but I suspect they were made in to hard targets or melted down. 50+/- is about right, I've been tracking them down for 6 years and new ones to me very rarely show up these days. Incidently there are still TA regiments with armour... http://www.army.mod.uk/armoured/regiments/1638.aspx Chris

A well restored and maintained Fox is a nice vehicle to own. They are top heavy, but as long as they are driven with care they should be ok. They are fast and fun to drive but when something goes wrong it can be a pain to fix. Gearboxes are the problem area and as Lee said there are no spares. I've not seen one with a cracked hull, but there is an EMER with a load of modifications to repair cracks. Our vehicle has most of these repairs. As others have said, be careful with the ones at Boyes, if you want to know more about them PM one of us. My Fox site is back up and running here: http://www.sirhc.co.uk/cvrw/ and there are tons of photos of our rebuild here: http://www.sirhc.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=8 Chris

If you're felling nervous, try this dvd... http://www.ekmpowershop5.com/ekmps/shops/greenmachines/fv432fv434-power-pack-removaldvd-383-p.asp Chris

Hi Steve, As far as I know the only way to get to the starter is to pull the pack. Have you got anything you can lift it out with? Chris

Looks to be mostly radios from the tender list. Anyone need 70 351s?

You only need 2 or 3 boxes and a couple of cables. The IB3 is the heart of the system, this needs a power cable. Connect 1 or more CB2s to the IB3 with 12 way cables, these are the boxes where you plug the pressel and headset. If you get in touch with Green Machine Surplus they should have the boxes, cables and probably the installation manual too.

Try and keep away from pointing out that it's armoured and unusual. Fill out the form with as few details as possible, and the best bet is to take the documents to a DVLA local office. Deal with someone direct, it's much easier than explaining it on the phone. Take photos but don't show them unless you need to. Chris

Paul, They were all like that. Remember this would have been sent to Withams back in 2004, so has been standing since then. Infact it may have been stood several years at Ashchurch or elsewhere before disposal. The 2 I had both had electrical problems and the interiors were both awful, but they do clean up ok. Chris