Tony Graves

hi, a few photos of a diamond and rogers trailer destined for the new museum at catz to sit alongside the m26 and trailer, the rogers trailer has brake drum problems so i have put mathew of paratrooper vehicles in touch with a mate of mine in the uk who has some drums, hope of interest, tony g.

hi, recovery fleet for gatwards of maidstone left to right, land rover and austin k9,my old diamond 981, and right geoff gatwards favourite truck which never let him down his petrol engined aec matador, note all with trade plates. the second photo is my old diamond with regular driver ron, excuse me i cannot remember his last name, hope of interest, tony g.

hi, i wonder if any of you bedford guys might be able to help me, i have a friend in france who is restoring a bedford mw water tanker and is looking for a good replacement 28hp engine for this vehicle, you can reach me on hmvf or my number is 0033231101198, thanks, all the best, tony g.

hi, just a couple of shots of my spare rolls c6, i fire the old girl up three or four times a year just to keep the oil up and around, it is a good runner and never fails to start, hope of interest, tony g.

hi, i think this is vehicle in question, as previously said , this truck belonged to drinkwater sabey, the crane is not original but the a frame behind the cab and the two restraining cables attached to the bumper are original, this design was intended to lift heavy chemical containers for the chemical unit attached to the american forces, hope of interest, tony g

hi freeland, the pictures bring back many memories, been there done it now retired, i wish you all the best with your diamond, looks fantastic, just a word of caution, have you had the heads off before you sprayed the engine?. with the hercules it is wise to fit new or aneal the old gaskets before total restoration, at least two people on this thread have had head problems after a restoration like yours, the hercules was not a good engine and it would be easier to mess with the motor now than when everything is fitted around it, look forward to seeing the finished project, all the best tony g.

hi freeland, just wiping the sweat away , good decision, well done, hope you have many happy hours with the old girl, all the best tony g.

hi, in response to the previous letter the hercules engine revved at a maximum of 1600 which at normal road speed ie 23 miles an hour gave an output of 201 bhp, the army introduced in the fifties the rolls royce c6 143 series direct injection engine which pushed the road speed up to 29 miles an hour but kept the same amount of torque for the differentials, as was quoted quite rightly by the previous letter be happy to plod along at 23 miles an hour and enjoy it, all the best tony g.

hi freeland, i find it difficult to understand why you need to increase the speed of your diamond, i have been dealing with diamonds for nearly forty years and have heard of horrendous tales of changeing engines that are not compatible with the way the diamond 980 981 was designed, a good friend of mine ran dawes recovery at swanley and they fitted a nine speed fuller gear box to the original transfer box to increase speed, as you probably know every turn of the wheel the propshaft turns eleven times, so every 50 miles or so the intermediate propshaft would fly off in all directions, i have a friend who has a set of high speed diffs, ok on the flat but useless on the gradients. personally i would leave well alone or if you still want more speed i suggest you change vehicles, hope of some help, tony g.

Hi, spotted today, diamond t 980 981 tools on ebay, apparently very rare, all the best tony g.

hi kw573, i had a similar problem with one of my diamonds, it turned out to be a bad earth, hope of some help, tony g,

hi arcot1751, if you go on google and 60 minutes australia you will find it, hpoe of interest, tony g.

hi dirt, if you go to any good bosch agent with your bosch american lift pump they will supply an equivilent lift pump with new banjos and copper washers, it would have cost me close to 200 pounds to have my old one serviced and with no guarantee of success, hope you have some luck, keep in touch, tony g.

just finished filming with an australian crew on the lancaster i found three years ago in france, it centres on navigator ron conley who was part of the crew of eight that went missing on the morning of june 6th 1944, the programme is called 60 minutes australia, and the mystery continues, hope of interest, tony g.

hi dirt 71, you can use the modern bosch lift pump which fits exactly onto the three studs of the main injector pump, cost is approximately 70 pounds, the problem with all this pump gear is now 70 years old plus and the new bosch lift pump works perfectly, hope of some help, tony g.

hi, the film kellys heroes was based on fact, none of the bullion was ever found and many people died even after the war who were involved in the robbery, a friend of mine many years ago investigated this mystery and managed to get access to documents pertaining information to this robbery, there is no doubt that this robbery took place but crucial names and dates funninly have been tipexed out. this robbery in ww2 until the brinx matt debacle at heathrow held the guiness book of records title. hope of interest, tony g.

hi all, have just returned from the uk and made a trip to essex to scavenge a few pieces from a diamond that now is just a wreck. i clearly remember trevor williams using this old girl and it is such a pity that it has ended up like this. the chap who has it now is quite accomadating and is willing to sell anything off it for a price, the photos include the diamond as it was after conversion by dial holmes, the crane on it is holmes 750 and before sawfords of maidenhead bought it it was changed to a w45 gear from a diamond t 969, the eight tyres on the rear are all good and all the same pattern, i think for 500 pounds they will be sold, hope of interest, tony g.

hi, i think that blue diamond wrecker was once owned by graham booth, and had a leyland 680 in it, i have not heard from gra for ages i hope alls well with him, all the best tony g.

hi, fesm ndt, the kits are about two euros and you require two kits per vehicle, supermarkets have these in stock and i think this only applies to france. this law has been introduced because of the huge amount of deaths on french roads due to drink driving. hope of interest tony g.

hi all, the question of breatherlysers in france, people who travel to france who do not have the kits in their cars or vans will no longer be fined 11 euros, but it will be illegal not to have the kits in your vehicles, this is the latest news, hope you can understand it , i cant, all the best tony g.

hi all, on one of the first imps tours to normandy i believe it was 1982 we came across this yard not far from arromanches with several jimmies and dodges straight from collection yards absolutley original condition, also there was this diamond 969 wrecker in immaculate condition and fantastic cab change. in those days everywhere you travelled you came across yards and farms with ww2 trucks parked up, hope of interest, tony g.

just popping down the garage luv, i took these shots on one of the many imps road runs from radnor park in folkstone, on this occaision rod cadman decided to join us with his sherman tank. near rod and rexs home they were building a new by_pass and rod passed his track laying licence on a cat d8, nearly at the end of the road run the sherman was decididly short of petrol so rod drove the tank straight onto the forecourt, the mayhem this caused was hilarious, the manager thought the tank was going to disappear below ground, but all went well and we continued on to the pub, hope of interest, tony g.

hi all, going through some photos this weekend i found these i took in the mid eighties at horseshoe green garage at cowden near edenbridge kent, the owner also had an explorer the crane of which ended up on the constructor. the constructor had the meadows petrol replaced with a leyland 680 power plus, it was in beautiful condition and on the inside drivers door was a hand painted figure of robin hood, presumably the truck belonged to the sherwood foresters. not long after i took the pictures the constructor was sold and disappeared and the explorer was cut up, perhaps someone out there knows of its whereabouts, i believe the owner retired and the garage closed, hope of interest, tony g.

hi all, i bought this old girl i think it was 1984 for 500 pounds after laying in a field near sevenoaks in kent.it was bought at a military auction from the reme by dick pettman the well known jeep parts man and sold to a recovery agent and never used. it took two years to restore and fitted with a closed cab i did many hundreds of miles with it including many trips to normandy. it had bad oil pressure and eventually the crank snapped in three places, such are the joys of diamonds, hope of interest tony g.

hi chevy, the material used was webbing, about 1.16th by inch and a half, i have divided many diamond cabs and the material was always webbing, hope of some help, tony g.