sirhc

I believe the guy who built the one in Lees photo did 2, one was for sale, and he was going to keep one. Sell one to pay for the pair I guess. It looks like 43x to Stug conversions are quite popular!

The engine on the 434 has another shaft fitted which is used to power the hydraulic equipment for the crane, otherwise it is identical to a 432 pack. Same with steering box, wheels and tracks. Some of the suspension units are different as they can be locked out when the crane is in use. Chris

Yes the Striker has been back on the road for a while, it was at W&P a few weeks ago, sporting a missile! Chris

No need to drain the fuel tanks, that's a waste of fuel, and what are you going to do with the stuff you drain out? There is a collector tank under the floor plates by the back door. Shut off the fuel tap and drain this, if there is water or muck it should be in there. Chris

Neil, The difference between your vehicle and any British AFV is that you needed to buy one in that condition, because if you tried to restore one you would have real difficulty finding any parts. I struggle with some CVRT bits, and the British and Belgian armies have had 3000 of them for the last 30 years. I would hate to think what a road wheel will cost you, should you need one. If you do get it out on the road, no doubt you'll shed one every now and then like the rest of us. I think you'll need to own, drive and maintain the vehicle for a few years and then re-evaluate the situation before you can actually recommend it to a newbie. As for registering a 432, I did one, it was easy. If you have that nice blue piece of paper from the MoD (form 645) it becomes easy, thats all the DVLA are really interested in. ---- Back to the 434, I think it's a good project at the price, especially with the CES kit. It doesn't need to be displaying a plate to be registered. I rarely display my plates. Chris

It would not be worth converting one Mark. The pack is quite different, with the exhaust exiting on top of the hull rather than to the side. The instument and control panels are also quite different, as is the fuel system. I wouldn't write off a Mk 1, most were used as hard targets and the ones which weren't have mostly ended up in the USA, where petrol is cheap. There are not many good ones left in the UK. A friend of mine has his mint Mk 1 on milweb at the moment, it's the deep bronze green one we took to Beltring in 2006. If you want to stick with a Mk 2 then I'd go for the Mk 2/1 with the internal NBC pack as it takes up a bit less external space. We had both a Mk 2 and a Mk 2/1, both sounded great and ran well, but I find them a bit large and slow. They will do a steady 32mph, which isn't a bad turn of speed though. I also don't like not having a seperate brake, having to stop with the tillers is fine, but if they aren't set correctly or you pull one slightly more than the other you could end up in a messy situation! They are nowhere near as manouverable, fast and manageable as a CVRT. You will need some heavy lifting equipment to get the pack out, and a lot of strong friends should you need to do track bashing. Remember that it's not just pads to worry about, but you need to check that the pins and bushes are also in good order. Also watch out for rear idler hub failures, the guy who has our 432s has had a few hubs go and it's a big and painful job to swap one. Hopefully I haven't put you off, if you are still interested can I suggest you look at a FV434 instead? There's a decently priced one on milweb, now that is a much more useful toy! Chris

2 months isn't very long, only thing I think you'll find might be a problem is dead batteries. Chris

*HG5 should be NG5

Short video of some of the pics taken during the restoration... Chris

I think a guy on the Facebook Ferret group has it, I'll check later. It was on ebay with a low price recently. Chris

It was Retford, Nottinghamshire, and the dealer was AF Budge.

Try Wayne Meadows? http://www.milweb.net/dealers/trader/waynemeadows/index.htm

My local farmer is local to Nottingham, but he has a website... http://www.bosworthbros.co.uk/ Chris

Try calling some of these companies.... http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?ssm=0&scrambleSeed=17825945&keywords=blast+cleaning&companyName=&location=cambridge&M=0&x=0&y=0 Chris

Jon, Where in the UK? You won't be able to take it to a standard car place as they probably don't do blasting, and if they do it is unlikely they'll be able to do something that big. If you hunt around your local area there will be people doing blasting, we use a local farmer who has setup a blasting company in one of his sheds. Chris

SLR Mounts. Just sold all mine on ebay I'm afraid. Chris

CVRTs now safely back home. Chris

I am trying to get hold of Rex, but he either doesn't answer his phone or he says he'll call back and doesn't. We need the CVRTs back in the next few days Chris

Hi Phil, Try Hamptons, they had a Hippo and some Stalwarts in the yard, so may have some tyres. 01782614456.

Someone please put it out of its misery!

Tony, I don't know how many registration numbers were painted on Ferrets (and other British armour) but I always use self adhesive letters for my numbers. Most of my vehicles had self adhesive number registration plates on them when I got them. The letters are a standard size, and you can get them in most hardware stores. There is one in Paddock Wood, which has the complete range in white - usually they only have black. (The hardware store is excellent, worth a visit when at Beltring!) Chris

There are pics of our Spartan project here: http://www.sirhc.co.uk/gallery/ I will add Sabre pics when I get a chance, along with some from Beltring last week. Chris

Those are Mungas, not Iltis. Chris

This is a scrap yard, all 10 of these had less than 100 hours. Chris

Yes, they do come up for sale, there are hundreds of them about. The MoD just upgraded the 432s, the main modification being a new powerpack. Liquibiz have been disposing of them, they should have some left providing they haven't sold the lot to the scrap man. http://www.liquibiz.com/index.html Marcus Glenn also has them in stock, look under the FV430 section on his spares site. Chris