Rob.Brindley

Some more progress this week on both our Bedford MW and our BSA M20. First up, the MW: This weekend, all of the woodwork for the cab was completed! Our friend Mark has worked tirelessly over the last few weeks replicating all of the parts and getting a perfect fit. The bulkhead will be sent away for blasting shortly and then we can start on the metal repairs. Once the metalwork is complete, we'll refit the woodwork to it. The M20: Whilst Mark has been busy working on the cab, Dad and I have spent the time tidying up our BSA M20 ready for this years show season. Last week, we'd just got the base coat of green on which meant that, this week, it was time for stencils. On Friday evening / Saturday morning, I spent some time at work drawing up the artwork in Illustrator and then used our vinyl cutter with masking vinyl to produce the stencils: With the stencils produced, it was over the dad's house to start applying them. Relatively quickly, we had the census numbers applied: And after a few more hours work:

Thanks for the info @64EK26 & @fv1609, it's very much appreciated. It's been very interesting seeing bits and pieces of information slowly come together for our truck. I wonder what will be discovered next?

I've hear one or two stories about military driving tests... One of the lads I used to work with said his HGV test was basically a lap of the parade ground! Our ERM is 43 YR 07 - Unfortunately we know none of our vehicles military history. I'm hoping that we'll take to a show one day and somebody will recognise it and come up with a photo or story of a relative who used to drive it but that's a very long shot... I've yet to drive an MW, but I'm looking forward to having a go in ours when it's ready towards the end of the year.

So we've taken a short break from the MW project to work on our BSA M20. The M20 was complete and running but was looking very tired after years of neglect. The bike has been stripped, thoroughly cleaned and is now slowly going back together with a few new parts following a repaint. Masking and priming in progress: And now going back together.

Time for a big update! Mark arrived at 5.30 on Saturday morning to continue making the final few pieces required for the cab structure. As I've been away gigging with the bands for the last couple of weekends, it was really interesting to watch Mark working on some of the more complicated pieces. The main supports that run under the floor boards on each side are tapered, curved and don't really have a straight edge to work. After 3 weeks of hard graft, the woodwork for the cab is nearly complete. I think you'll agree from the photos that he's done a fantastic job and it's beginning to look the part. All of the time and effort is in the planning, measuring and detail work but with that now behind us, we should start seeing what looks like major progress in fairly short order. With the final few pieces made, we managed to lay out all of the pieces on our temporary work and everything fits a treat! The separate pieces need to be glued and screwed together and there's a joint on each side support that needs to be done to link it to the rear crossmember, but it's really exciting to see all the individual parts together for the first time. A huge thanks to Mark for all the time and effort he's put into this for us - He's done an outstanding job! On Friday, we received a phone call from John Keeling letting us know that our newly restored Radiator was complete and ready for collection. We'd taken 3 radiators that John had in storage down to P.K Radiators (Longton) with goal of having one done for our truck and the others cleaned out / repaired to have on the shelf as spares (There are 5 MWs in our local club so having access to spares is a great benefit to all of us). Unfortunately, we soon found out that all 3 radiators were severely blocked on would require a re-core. It was also found that the steel inlets / outlets were badly corroded / rotten. Of the 6 total inlets/outlets, only 2 could be saved - Just enough for one serviceable radiator. We're very grateful to John for allowing us to make one good radiator from the 3 he had to get us on the road and to Pete for carry out the work. The radiator looks superb and we're looking forward to getting it fitted!

Look forward to following along - Congrats!

So, another week has passed and we've made some more progress on our MW restoration. I've also put about 30 miles on the Jeep this week - All seems to be ok. I'm looking forward to show season (And some warmer weather)! Update from dad on our Facebook page:

Whilst we've unfortunately had to make the decision not to take the MW to Holland in September, that doesn't mean progress isn't still being made! On Friday, Mark Elden came over to measure up the woodwork required on the cab. Whilst we repaired the bed ourselves, there is some more complicated joinery required on the cab and we welcome the input of somebody with a little more experience than ourselves. Whilst the original door frame looked ok on first inspection, when we removed the door skins, we found it to be full of wood worm. Hopefully, we'll make a start on new door frames this weekend with Mark's help. With the door skins removed, we're planning to CNC cut new skins (With Gaz's help). We've also made a start removing all of the ancillaries from the bulkhead and started to clean up the metalwork. It's going to be a lot of work, but we're looking forward to getting it complete over the next few months! For the first time in (we think) 40 years, the passenger side screen was opened after lots of gentle persuasion and lubricant. With the truck now not going to Holland, we also made a start on our BSA M20. The plan is to have it ready for Foxfield Railway - War Wheels in May and it will definitely be in Arnhem in September! With the weather being nice today, it was also time to bring the Jeep out of winter storage and go for a run.

So, it's been a couple of weeks of slow progress, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened... With the bed returned to John's farm, there was a few bare metal pieces that we wanted to prime before they started to corrode. These were removed last week, primed and left to dry. The order for our canvas has gone in to Frank Brown, the deposit paid and we're looking forward to receiving it in the not too distant future. We had to take some measurements for Frank and this was again completed last week. Unfortunately, we've had to make the decision that our MW will not be going to Holland as planned in September. One of our daily runabouts has let us down which means that funds allocated to the MW restoration have no got to go towards replacing it. Whilst it is a setback, we should still be able to have the MW completed in time for next show season. This week, we removed the brakes from the chassis and have sent them to Monty's War Restore for overhaul. With that job done, we set about completing an inventory of the engine parts we have here and have boxed them up ready to send them over to John / Chris who are working on the engine for us. Next week, we start making some progress on the cab!

Today was a very important day as the next phase of our restoration can really begin! On Friday, after work, Dad went over to the farm to start preparing the cab to be lifted down from on top of the shipping container it has lived on for the last 10 years or so. By the time I arrived, the cab was safely on the ground and cleaned. I'd spent a hours this week building a pallet at work to transport the cab safely to Dad's house. We transferred the cab to the new pallet and went to collect one of John's recovery trucks ready for the move. First thing this morning we arrived at John's farm and loaded the cab. The cab is surprisingly light and can easily be lifted by 2 people, but we used the Forklift to load it before securing with several ratchet straps. With the cab loaded it was off to sunny Werrington to deliver the cab and load the bed for it's return trip to the farm. With the cab taking up much less space, we should be able to work on our BSA M20 project in tandem with the chassis! The bed was loaded using the winch and we returned to John's farm by mid afternoon. The bed is currently in one of the barns, only a few feet from where the cab had been stored. A huge thank you must go out to John and Motor Clinic for all the help and assistance transporting the bed / cab to and from home. On to the next phase...

Firstly, sorry we missed last weeks update. I wasn't feeling too well so I kept away from Dad. However, that doesn't mean nothing was done! Dad had a busy weekend mounting the rear rub blocks and cleaning up / priming & painting the cab canvas framework. I've been away gigging Friday / Saturday this week, but Dad got the final few bits of metalwork for the bed done. It doesn't look like a huge amount of progress, but it's a few small, time consuming, jobs crossed off the list. Today, we test fit the tilt frame on the bed and then took a trip up to the farm to speak to John about returning the bed and getting the cab up to Dad's garage. All being well, this should be completed by the end of next weekend!

You can buy inline load resistors (usually quite cheap (£6 ish)) that will solve that problem for you. Just fit them inline in the indicator circuit and the vehicle will see resistance that it's supposed to.

If you're in the UK, I can supply at £110.00 + vat inc postage. Don't want to brake forum rules and I'm certainly not looking to advertise our business but I know we fit supply these regularly so I can vouch for their quality. Rob

Not looking for business but I work in the automotive trade. This is what we supply for 24v vehicles towing 12v trailers: 160502 Trailer Connecting Unit (hc-cargo.co.uk)

Working on a school night? Yep... After work, I headed over to Dad's to give him a hand painting the tilt frame. There's a still a few small MWR specific parts to be added (Curved brackets used to store the aerials, aerial mounts and gun clips) but these will be added at a later date. Right now, it's useable so we can turn our attention to other things. The next major job is the brakes... Before we can return the bed to the farm (To make space in the garage for the cab), we need to get the brake lines made and fitted. Once the brakes lines are in, the bed and tilt frame will be fitted and we can start the next major piece. There'll be another more in-depth update this weekend.

After completing the bed, today we turned our attention to the tilt frame. As our truck was used as a recovery vehicle in the 60s, the original tilt frame was removed and discarded (Along with all the brackets that attach it). We were unable to acquire an original set so we took a trip down to Norfolk to collect a set from an OYC tanker. The OYC bars were both wider and longer than an MW so they required cutting down to the correct size and welding back together. The welding was all completed a few weeks ago but we put it aside whilst we worked on the bed. Yesterday, we spent the afternoon priming the wooden parts and swapping out the placeholder coach bolts for the correct size. Today we spent the morning cleaning up the welds, removing 80 years of corrosion / surface rust and giving it a coat of red oxide prior to painting. The sum of a busy weekends work...

After 6 weeks of hard work, we've finally got the bed to the point that it's ready to head back down to the farm and be mounted to the chassis. In total, just over 400 man hours and £1000 in materials has gone into making this happen. I hate to think what it would have cost us if we were paying somebody to do the work for us... To recap, All 4 crossmembers unfortunately had to be replace. 1 floor plank, 2 planks on the body, 2 planks in the tailgate and the wheel boxes had to be replaced. Where possible, all the original material has been saved - We estimate that 70% of the original wood is still here! There's a few little jobs left to do like refitting the latches on the hatch and attaching some of the metal brackets (when we get them), but we're very, very pleased with the results! Now it's time to finish off the tilt frame. Personally, I can't wait to see the bed and the tilt frame mated together in one unit!

Mid week update: As we fell short of our goal last weekend, we (mostly Dad) have had a busy week of working in the garage each night to catch up. With all of his effort and a little help from me, we've managed to get back on track. The major job that needed completing was a repair to floor. We'd had to replace one of the floor planks that runs width ways (closest to the hatch) as it was badly damaged. Whilst it fit perfectly either side, we soon realised the the original planks next to it had worn / sagged significantly between the main support beams that run the length of the bed. Dad first cut a small channel into the original plank and gradually shaped the piece used to fill the gap. Once they were shaped correctly, the piece was fixed in place with screws, glue and nails - And a little weight added to keep it in place. Once everything had set, some fibre glass was added to help smooth the gap and hide the edge. With the Fibreglass set, it was rubbed down ready for paint. In an effort to keep as much original material as possible, Dad came up with a plan shape a piece of wood to try and fill the gap as best as we could. The piece was secured with a mix of glue, screws, and nails and it worked out very nicely! With the floor repaired, I went up after work tonight and painted the remaining parts of the floor and Tailgate. Whilst rubbing down the external faces of the rear tailgate, we discovered some evidence of red / white stripes from it's days as a recovery truck in the 60's. For the first time in over 40 years, the 'Kiwi's Kab' name has been removed from the bed. We've decided to keep the name so this will be re-applied later by a sign writing friend of ours. Next time you see it, it should look substantially different!

Thanks Andy - we're really enjoying working on the truck and sharing the porgress as we go. Both the forum and facebook have their merits, but it will definitely be easier to look back here once it's done and follow the progress more easily. I've also started putting together a book (nothing special) that we'll keep in the truck at shows for people to look through if they're interested. We're lucky that we have time to work at the minute. We've put in 9 or 10 hour days every Saturday/ Sunday and worked most Friday nights since we've had it. I play in a couple of bands so, come Spring, I'll be out on the road most weekends. Got to make the most of the time now and try to get all the jobs that require 2 people done before I'm not available much. Will put up another update on Sunday evening. Rob

Go pour yourself a drink - This is a long one! So, it had to happen eventually, didn't it? Today, for the first time since we started this project, we failed to hit the target that we'd set for ourselves. Bugger. It's Frustrating, but it's certainly not a lack of effort that's caused us to fall behind... Unfortunately, combination of small jobs taking slightly longer than planned and (possibly) marginally under estimating the size of the tasks came back to bite us... Our goal had been to have the entire bed in green when we finished tonight. As you can see from the photos below, that didn't happen. Anyway, here's what did happen: On Friday, Dad joined me after work to cut the final wooden pieces for the bed. The two lower planks on the tailgate needed to be replaced - One had rotten in the lower corner where it looked like the bed had held a little water at one time or another and the other had been damage beyond repair. We also cut the 2 rub blocks that mount at the top of the tailgate and the 4 small upper rub blocks that mount on each corner. Saturday morning, we had a few jobs that required our attention. First thing, I started rubbing down the inside of the bed ready for primer. There is a small repair that needed doing on the floor towards the tailgate so I started at the bulkhead and worked backwards. The plan was to repair the floor later that day and paint it before we left for the day. It became obvious quite early on Saturday that we weren't going to get all of the primer on and, therefore, no green on Sunday. Again; bugger. You may recall that we fitted the wheel boxes last week. After fitting, we decided that we weren't happy with the screws that we had used, so I ordered some more ready for this weekend. With the boxes removed, we also took the opportunity to paint behind where they mount. This was one of those jobs that took a littler longer than expected... With the wheel boxes back in, I painted the angle iron and we moved onto the floor. Whilst I was rubbing down the bed, Dad was busy repairing the short planks that sit either side of the hatch. These planks had some small bits of damage (some from 81 years of abuse and some caused by used when we removed them to replace the crossmembers), but we wanted to reuse them in our efforts to use as much original material as possible. This again took a little longer to do than planned and wasn't helped by the cold temperatures prolonging drying / setting times. That said, they turned out well and were secured in place with the newly arrived screws. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Henry F. Phillips for ridding the world of slot head screws... With the floor planks now back in permanently, we tried the hatch (which we test fit last week). Of course, now it doesn't fit... We've deliberately given the underside a very thick coat of red oxide to help protect it over the next few years and I guess we didn't leave enough room to allow for that. So, it was out with the hatch, trimming it down slightly and, after if we attempts, it fit once again. With the hatch in, I rubbed it down, painted the underside and we called it a day at about 5pm. We hadn't even looked at the tailgate repair at this point. First thing this morning, Dad painted the upper surface of the hatch and then it was on to the tailgate. First job was to drill out the old bolts and remove the metal capping piece that protects the edge of the planks on either side of the tailgate. We hadn't planned of replacing the metal pieces but, as we removed them, they just crumbled to dust... Thankfully, it's a piece we can fit later so it didn't hold us up much at all. Once the old planks were out, it was time to fit the new ones that we cut on Friday. The planks went in very easily, fit well (we must be getting good at this woodwork stuff!) and were bolted into place quite quickly. However... There is a strip of metal that runs the length of the bottom plank. Fitting this on the new plank proved a little tricky as it required straightening and we managed to snap 3 screws whilst trying to attach it... Whilst I rubber down and painted the inside of the tailgate, Dad started trimming the rub blocks that mount on the upper edge and these were secured on place by end of play today. We still intend to have the bed in green before next weekend... All being well, Dad will have the floor finished off tomorrow / Tuesday night. I'll go up on Wednesday to rub down and give the final few parts a coat of red oxide. On Friday, we'll flat it down on paint in green. Wish us luck.... Rob & Paul

Another long weekend on our MW today but we continue to make good progress! First thing Saturday morning we were joined by Ian and Paul who came up to give us a hand getting the bed the correct way up again - Thanks guys! With all the rot removed and the crossmembers replaced with solid oak, there has been a noticeable increase in weight! With the bed the correct way up, I set about rubbing down the bed whilst Dad was cleaning up the floor planks that we removed to install the crossmembers. Once the planks were cleaned up, we did a test fit of the planks, hatch and wheel boxes. The two latches on the hatch were seized solid but, after an hour long argument, they finally relented and were removed from the hatch so we can clean them up properly and reinstall. The wheel boxes were coated inside and out with red oxide and, once I'd finished rubbing the bed down, I managed to get one side primed before close of play on Saturday. Today, we carried on where we left off yesterday - Rubbing down the front and left side of the bed before coating them with red oxide. Other than the tailgate, the outer faces of the bed are all primed and ready for some green paint! There was a couple of placeholder bolts that need replacing for the final items and then all over the oversize bolts were ground down to the correct size. With the bolts ground down, we then turned our attention to fitting the wheel boxes. We first had to make the angle iron pieces that attached the boxes to the floor and the piece that protects the top inside edge. All of these pieces were cut to length, drilled, countersunk, cleaned with a wire brush and then the faces that would wouldn't be able to see after fitting were coated with red oxide. With the parts made, the outer floor planks were also coated with red oxide and fitted. This allowed us to position the wheel boxes and fix them into place. (We still have to fit the screws that go through from the outside of the bed into the wheel boxes to fully secure them). I've bought some parts back with me to clean up this week and Dad will continue to do bits and pieces until next weekend when we can put another shift in. All being well, the bed will be totally complete and back up at John's farm by the end of the month! Rob & Paul

I work in the aftermarket automotive sector and we've seen a huge increase in trackers being fitted to Land / Range Rovers. A lot of insurance companies are either refusing to insure without them or charging extreme premiums if you refuse to fit them. I did hear that Landrover we're looking at offering their own insurance scheme to help combat the problem? Of course they could just try and stop them being so easily stolen in the first place...

A quiet couple of days but the lower side of the bed is now painted in British Olive Drab! We'll turn the body the right way up on Saturday morning and then we can get the centre floor planks / wheel boxes back in and paint the exterior.

Day 8 of the big Christmas push - It's been 8 solid days of hard work but we're really starting to the results of all our effort now. First thing this morning, I started rubbing down the front end of the bed whilst Dad was repairing the floor at the rear. Once the repair was finished, he continued rubbing down whilst I started to coat the underside in red oxide following him around. Whilst the paint was drying, we turned our attention to repairing the last corner. This had been left open to repair the floor damage as there's a piece of angle iron on the inside that covers it. We also had to fit the new block that we cut yesterday and countersink the bolts as they're hidden behind the metal trim piece that Dad made yesterday. Corner completed, we painted it with red oxide and packed up for the night. We're on track to hit our goal for our return to work on Tuesday. Green tomorrow!

Day 7 of the big Christmas push and it's been another full day of hard work! First thing this morning we met at my work to trim the replacement plank, cut the small centre crossmember that goes under the hatch, one of the rear blocks and a few other smaller pieces. We got back to the garage at about 10.30 and Dad set about fitting it. This one involved multiple test fits as it was our first attempt at a tongue and groove fitting. After going on and off a few times for trimming, the plank now fits a treat! Whilst Dad was adjust the plank, I started painting some of the new components that we'd already fitted with red oxide. We want a nice thick coat to help protect the truck for as long as possible so, in-between helping to test fit the plank, various parts had multiple coats. With the plank it place, we then started to fit the new centre crossmember, using the old as a pattern. This is also notched slightly, like the other crossmembers, and has a couple of deep countersunk holes drilled through for the bolts / nuts to sit in. On the plus side, we're quite please with how much original material we've been able to save. Red is new replacements, everything else is original. Tomorrow, we'll start rubbing down the rest of the underside and giving it a thick coat of red oxide.