Hi all, my latest side quest is helping a mate tidy up his (dads) FV432 and make her bit more of a convincing fake 432/30. Mechanically she's pretty sound, good tracks and road pads, had the engine swapped out a while ago. Starts and stops as she should but aesthetically the old girls getting a bit tatty. The exteriors not too bad, a few little bits to sort out here and there..
The interior is really showing its age, the lining is hanging off in places and water is getting in round the periscopes and hatch seals
The electrics arnt in the best state, ive seen a lot worse but the damp has not been kind to them. The junction box for the exterior telephone hand set needs a bit of love, corroded and broken terminals, I havnt delved into the rest of the wiring yet. That can be a treat for later.
We spent an hour or so cleaning up all the contacts to get the interior lights working, the next task is going to be sorting out the hatch and periscope seals, try and stop the water getting in, after that we can start thinking about populating the very empty turret with all its comms gear
Without another 432/30 to copy its going to be difficult working out what goes where. I found the paperwork for the fox turret fitted to sabre but I would imagine there would be some differences as there's a lot more room in the 432s Hull compared to the sabre but I'm sure we'll work it out!
Any way I'll keep you all posted next time we've done a bit of work, hopefully show ssomedecent progress!
