sirhc

Looking forward to my Sabre being tax exempt next year, in a couple of years time hopefully the Fox and Scimitar (1975) will be too!

Final job for today was to fit a better set of sprockets and some track. I've got a few days off next week when I hope to get some plumbing done, get the engine in and hopefully assemble the completely stripped turret ring... maybe even get that bolted in too!

Not a lot happened for a while, but today was a good day and I did a bit more. The handbrake was assembled and the brake calipers fitted. I also took the TN15D gearbox up to the farm and put it in the hull. This had been thoroughly cleaned and drained of oil first. There is no access panel to drain it once in the vehicle! No matter what I do I can't seem to keep the water out, and to top it off my wet vacuum cleaner died today!

I decided to fit the final drives first, these were fitted by putting a bar through the middle and having a person lift each end while the 3rd person put the bolts in. It worked out ok, but was heavy work! With the final drives on, we lifted the hull onto some wooden blocks and fitted the wheels. It had been sitting on 4 wheels, which caused it to keep sinking into the ground!

I finally got round to starting the project in about November time. First job was to give the hull a good clean out. It came up quite nice after some degreaser and a steam clean.

Time for some updates. I was lucky enough to win a number of lots in the tender sales last year which enabled me to start ticking off bits on my wanted list fairly quickly. Thanks to Andy for the use of his van, it has had most of the parts I've bought for the Scimitar in it so far!

Withams got the whole fleet, there are loads of them in the yard.. I wonder how many have been sold on?

Modified for film work? I'm sure there was one that looked like this around a few years ago.

The first thing which comes to mind is a fluid flywheel filler plug. I don't have the Fox parts book with me right now, but it looks like it's the right part number in this photo I have of our flywheel.. Has the hull been drilled to let the water out? It's possible that whoever did that may have tapped the holes and fitted this as a drain plug. Chris

You can't neutral turn an FV430! Chris

Hi Tim, There are a few more of these hulls which made it out of Withams alive, and I think at least one is up and running already. Hopefully I'll be able to get hold of the last bits and pieces I need to get it complete before the summer. Chris

It would be great to have an ESPIRE, thanks for the link! Chris

I would love to have it there, but probably not this year as there's a lot to do and not enough time!

Which ever one you decide to buy, if it goes in a container make sure you fill it with spares. Wheels, track, engine, gearbox, service items, as many bits and pieces as you can afford.

Andy - not sure about brave, more like stupid! :nut: After a year of it sitting and sinking into the mud I have recently started building the Scimitar, I'll update as I go along. I still need loads of parts, so if anyone sees any turret related stuff, I need a mantlet, side bins, gunners sight and more. I do have the engine and gearbox, and pretty much everything to get it mobile, so I am getting there! :undecided: Chris

Final snippet of history I have so far on this vehicle. The hulls which were stripped had a sticker on the headlamp giving details of what the parts were being used for. The headlamp was smashed on mine, but inside the front bin we found the broken glass with sticker still attached... The parts from 07FD04 were used to build NG50AB. Thanks again to Plain Military, here is a picture of that vehicle... I would love to get the turret etc back from this vehicle, but I don't think that's going to happen!

Here are a few photos of the up-armouring package. It is fitted with the cheese grater armour along the sides of the stowage bins, but it also has a belly plate fitted. I don't know what this lot weighs in at, but it is supposed to be bonded to the hull so not possible to remove. The most annoying thing about it is the armour plate covers up all the drain plates for the engine and gearbox!

I knew finding parts for this would be a challenge, there were diesel parts going through the tender sales and a couple of weeks after buying the hull I bid on a number of lots which had bits and pieces I needed. Amazingly I won all the lots I needed. I was very interested to find out the history of this hull as I suspected it had been used in Afghanistan. I put in a request for the Merlin report and got a reply very quickly. Thanks to Peter Hall for translating it, we believe it has seen service in: The Gulf (1990 - 911) - QDG Bosnia / Kosovo (1993 - 2003) - Light Dragoons & 9th / 12th Lancers Iraq (2005) - Light Dragoons Afghanistan (2006 / 07) - Light Dragoons It went through the 235 upgrade programme in 2009 and became a "Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Full Tracked Scimitar (DSL) (E-Spire) Mine and Ballistic Protected 30mm Gun Bowman" .. the replacement cost on the Merlin report is £457198.85 The final posting before being stripped was the Land Training Fleet which is a training unit based at Warminster. I figured it may have been used on Salisbury Plain and asked the question on the Plain Military forum. Many thanks go to Andy Brend who had photographed the vehicle in use on Ex Pashtun Dagger 29-1-11! Not only did he supply me this photo and a few others, but he even had some of it at DSG Donnington in January 2009! I hope to one day find some photos of it in theatre, but unfortunately it's often hard to read the registration numbers with dust and extra camouflage, bar armour etc fitted.

I think it's about time I start a blog about my current restoration project. This is one of the diesel Scimitar hulls which Withams were stripping and scrapping about a year ago. The hulls were what was left after stripping the vehicles to build Scimitar 2. Pretty much everything was stripped from them, engine, gearbox, electrics, final drives, turret, turret ring, wheels, track and more. I asked about buying some bits from them and ended up buying one of the hulls, which was a massive gamble. Diesel vehicles are rare in private hands and the diesel upgrade parts are highly sought after by overseas governments who want to do diesel upgrades. In order to free up some money I had to sell my Lightweight Land Rover, which was painful as I'd owned it for years, my Snatch project which I'd just finished collecting bits for, plus both the Sabre projects we were doing. One was nearly finished and went abroad, the other is being restored by Paul Donovan who is doing a brilliant job. Here are a few photos of the hull at Withams, and once delivered.

It could be worth greasing the threads and exercising it up and down, get someone to assist with the barrel too.

They are designed to be fitted to a Wolf, TUM HS. If you had a Wolf it would be fairly obvious where all the fittings go as they line up with existing brackets etc. Fitting it into a standard TUM you'll probably just have to make it up as you go along. They are also designed to line the inside of a hard top, so I don't know why you'd want to fit one inside a soft top? Chris

Those pads are very annoying, it's not so bad if the last person didn't do up the bolt next to the hull too tight, but almost impossible if its very tight. How's the gearbox working out? Chris

James, I've had one blasted for about £300 but it was stored on the farm where the guy does his blasting. I needle gunned my Sabre and it took ages. If its an empty hull sand blasting is the way to go. Chris

I've done some work with a company who can produce a rapid prototype in wax and then use it to produce an investment casting. We've also had laser sintered stainless steel rapid prototypes produced.. But it's not cheap! Chris

The Spartan is the best CVRT variant for giving your mates a ride... not a lot of space in a turreted vehicle for passengers, and only one hatch in the cupola on the Sultan etc. These would look good in the back of yours.. Chris