ArtistsRifles

My FFR has the TUAAM boxes festooned - I clean them off and they are back by the end of the day. :mad: The UAZ has one that goes from the top of the windscreen to the bonnet and covers the fuel can container and tail gate release at the back - both return the same day too. :mad: Got a couple of bug bombs for the Militant so next time over there I'll be using those to clear the cab. :cool2:

Give them a chance to review the last show - it only closed last Sunday and make any changes. If it still says that in a few months time - then they might have problems. I think it's about October time the new booking forms appear.

So would an idea as to expected price! I, for one, tend to view ads with no price as being in the "if you have to ask you can't afford it" category and swiftly move on.

Looking very good. :-) Nice idea about the rivets - pops would look a bit out of place in those areas. How close is the curve of a gas bottle to the curve on the original corner pieces? I look forwards to seeing the finished article. Did you decide if you are going DBG for the finish? Commiserations on the inside out part. Done that too often myself :-( Should have had a go on mine this weekend - but got grounded as the OH wanted to go out with her friends, daughter is down at Fleet visiting the boyfriend and once of our dogs needs constant care now. So spent my time on the Landie trying to work out why the fuel gauge is fubar. Should stand me in good stead for working out why the cab gauge on mine doesn't read. Got the bug bombs though to ensure the spider webs are a thing of the past in my ones cab when I do get over there

We had sunshine again today so I had another go. Dash is in pieces again - 3rd time in as many months. Good news is the lights are now working as they should with the I/R switch in the "Off" position. Not so good news is it looks like the problems is the switch at fault. As I flicked it on and off I heard the relay click then at one point as I moved from "off" towards "on" the relay clicked before the switch clicked over. So the lights now work as normal. I have a feeling the problem will resurface sometime in the future so I will replace the switch when it does. Bad news is the fuel gauge is still FUBAR. I tried disconnecting the feed to the fuel tap switches so in theory the circuit was dead and the gauge should not react at all when the ignition was turned on. So much for theory - the gauge still jumped to full. so something is earthing out on the gauge. Having removed the gauge from the cluster there was the expected no reaction. I think that, as much it seems unlikely the fuel gauge that was brand new OEM a couple of years ago is now faulty. Next problem then is going to be finding a replacement that won't cost an arm and a leg. Prices on the web seem to vary between £49 and £222!!!

New speedo arrived from Russia the Weds befor W&P so I fitted it and tested - all was OK. However on the way down to W&P on the Sat, just as I was approaching J5 on the M20 cruising along at 70 kph there was a god awful bang from under the vehicle followed by the sound of something banging on the road. Pulled over onto the hard shoulder PDQ followed by the OH who had seen bits fly out from under the UAZ - and who in turn was followed by a police car who had only seen the large fan of mud thrown up and wondered what the hell had happened. Closer examination underneath revealed the handbrake drum had exploded and the cloud of mud was from W&P last year, being dislodged by the flailing prop shaft before it dropped onto the road. Had to get recovered home by the RAC - coulomb have just removed the prop and carried on using the front axle but then I'd have had no handbrake all week which did not seem the wise thing to do. Waiting to hear back from Nick at Trappers as to the price of a new drum and prop shaft. Could have been a lot worse, at least it never emulated a pogo stick!! What's left of the hand brake. Front of Prop shaft

Aaaaand........... Problem time again - of the electrical variety which I hate. :-( The fuel gauge has started reading full all the time. Senders are not stuck, I've tried reversing the connectors - doesn't do anything. What with the acting up I/R system I am reaching the point where things will start to get thrown!! :-( :-(

As much as I would love it to be otherwise - I fear you are correct. From day one it seems there has been an undertone that the MV's aren't considered necessary (in a show named WAR and peace???) starting with the comments in the CMV article about MV owners being scroungers for taking their families for a week long holiday and then at the show the almost total lack of interest in anything not WW2. We can hope that the new owners will take the time to trawl the forums and get some idea of the feedback from those who did attend and make plans to address these concerns for 2017. but again I somehow doubt this will happen either.

On the run down to W&P the red brake light suddenly started coming on with an attendant loss of braking function. Got so bad the it spent most of W&P just parked up waiting for the journey home. I checked underneath and there was no sign of fluid leakage again so I assumed the master cylinder had issues. ON the Sunday coming home with the Sankey hooked up I suddenly found I had no lights what so ever. All the fuses were intact so I wound up driving home on hand signals. Once home I had a play and found that with the I/R switch in the ON position the lights work!! In the Off position they don't - the exact opposite of how things should be and its currently driving me nuts because on the way down the lights worked normally with the I/R switch in the off position as they should! Ordered a new brake master cylinder which arrived today so once the rain stopped in the afternoon I went to fit it. Got the two pipes out OK and the two securing nuts onto the servo but would the master cylinder budge? Would it hell. I managed to create a small gap between the cylinder and the servo face so I soused it in penetrating fluid and left it a couple of hours. When I returned I wedged a screw driver into the gap and proceeded to welt the cylinder with a 5 Lb club hammer. After 3 good belts it popped free. So I cleaned up the surrounding area and fitted the new cylinder, bolting it to the servo first then fitting the pipes. Once done I filled the reservoir to the Max mark and looked for any possible leaks around the pipe unions. Fortunately there were none but after I finished I noted the level had dropped to maybe 5mm below the Max mark. I tipped off the reservoir to the Max again and - thus far it is sitting holding at that level waiting for a chance and an assistant to bleed the brakes.

Hitch on the UAZ had been adapted to a standard NATO one. Soviet towing eyes and thus the hitches are smaller than NATO ones so its not advisable to hook a NATO trailer to the back of a Soviet light vehicle. Trailer was a wide-track and the driver was ex-RE and more than familiar with the vagaries of hitching up Sankeys.

Pretty much every one I spoke to throughout the week - be it re-enactors, MV owners or even traders - felt the new owners were swinging the focus of the show too far away from being an MV and Living History show that the public come and enjoy to a county type show where MV's are almost an afterthought. I know the new owner is into running gun shows - but did we really need adverts for such shows everywhere?? I did speak to someone from the original organisers way back when the show started whilst up at the armourers on the Tuesday and he was less than happy at what had been done and the reactions he'd been getting from everyone on the military side. Vlaanderen - its all we can really do. I hope it remains open for us to use. Not as close to home as the Hop Farm but a bit easier to get to - especially when the Militant starts making the run.

That doesn't actually say the race course is NOT being built on - it says there is a development afoot for a 12,000 home estate the area for which includes the race course: "The new proposals have now been revealed as incorporating the land around and including Folkestone Racecourse - which closed to racing in 2012."

I would have guessed at Aden myself - probably too young for Egypt/Suez.

It was a UAZ 469 - but not mine (mine blew up its handbrake on the way down). The driver is also a member of the Red Alliance though and a friend. Apparently they were heading home at about 40 to 45 mph when the UAZ lost (literally) a rear wheel, driver attempted to compensate and get over onto the hard shoulder but the Sankey he was towing had other ideas. Driver is OK - minor injuries in the form of cuts and bruises.

We got back after a week there on Sunday afternoon. Vehicle-wise it proved to be an "interesting" time. On the way down my UAZ handbrake drum decided to explode at roughly J5 on the M20. I heard a massive bang from the underside and just had time to think "what's been thrown up" when a banging sound followed. So I headed for the hard shoulder followed by the OH who saw the bits of metal fly out - and a police car who saw the massive fan of mud appear in front of the OH's Citroen. Had to be covered by the RAX as. although I could have continued in front wheel drive by removing the prop altogether I;d have had no hand brake! Once home I had to remove the Sankey from the bush growing around the nose, remove all the Stolly parts from that, put all the tentage in the Sankey and take all the personal kit from the UAZ and put it in the back of the Landie - then put the Stolly parts into the UAX for the time being. At around J7 on the M20 the red light ofr the braking circuit started coming on and braking got progressively worse. No sign of leakage at the wheels so a new master cylinder has been ordered now. For the journey home we hooked the Sankey up, went to check lights and found we had no lights at all. So for the trip home not only was it done with minimal braking ability it was also done on hand signals for everything. Since discovered the IR switch has mysteriously inverted function so that "Off" is now "On". It was not a good year for the UAZ as on the way home a mate lost a rear wheel off his and ended up flipped over two carriageways. Luckily he escaped with minor injuries. :-( As for the show itself. - the atmosphere between the attendants was the usual fantastic one. I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the week and as always it was with great sadness we had to pack up and go home. We have a fairly wide-spread group - Belgian, Dutch, German and Swedish this year as well as English. It was very obvious that a lot of people who were regulars were missing - both exhibitors and traders. Especially the heavy stuff - and the types that were there were also reduced in numbers. The arena events as printed in the program upset many people - all the usual events for vehicles, esp the Post War ones were gone. The Armour runs at the start and close were there but instead of the usual vehicle events there were things like time trials - instant insurance invalidation for most and model tank exhibitions. The only formally scheduled PW event was on the Thursday and was billed as "the biggest and heaviest" - make of that what you will. On the Monday night I did speak with one of the arena crew who said they were trying to get the old style program reinstated and on Tuesday there was an event for the Landrovers added. However the programs published on social media thereafter reflected only what was in the printed program so I am guessing the organizers put their foot down. A pity because this led to another group of owners saying there was no point in returning next year. Yes, vehicles were roaming more freely during the day - but even I question the wisdom of tracked armour trundling around with no walker(s) and the public there in full force. There was a general feeling that if you weren't driving tracked armour in general and WW2 in particular then you weren't exactly wanted. I can't help but think the new owners are going to be in for a surprise in 2017 when it comes to vehicle bookings. Organization wise - seemed slick enough although at times there was a lamentable lack of knowledge as to what was going on. - marshals were directing vehicles that looked civilian even though actually military to the car park. The booking in process was a bit more streamlined - but when I went to finally book in the info they had was a lift of last years and not what I had sent in. Still had the OT-90 listed as one of the vehicles which really to me was a bit of a slap in the face. But in fairness the lady behind the counter was happy to amend the date without problems. On leaving on Sunday the traffic direction was very good. Food wise there was a better selection this year with two dedicate food courts at least. Prices still sky high though - burger, fries and a tin of coke set me back £10 in one of these. It was cheaper at the two vans in Living History - breakfast bap and a drink was £5. Ice cream was £3.50 - vendor my daugher spoke to said he was embarrassed to charge that but he had to to cover the pitch cost which had gone up "a lot" this year. Never made use of the formal entertainment - but the show laid on for charity by the Red ball Express folks was first class - two great singers topped off by a very nice burlesque dancer The toilet issue - they were cleaner this year - the Ghurkas did sterling work in keeping them so going by the ones for Living History. However they were not manned 24x7 and at night the water to the handbasin taps in the only normal WC was turned off so it was impossible to wash the hands. Showers were always clean and most of my group wandered over between o4:00 and 06:00 to beat the rush. The portable Turdis units could have been pumped out a bit more regularly. At least a third were overflowing on public days. One thing that did jar was hearing someone ripping a stripe off the Ghurka in charge of the Living History loos for putting hand towels in the urinals only unit because it did not have sinks, only hand sanitiser and putting 2 loo rolls in each loo because - and I quote directly - "its a waste of money". Had I not been in one of the loo's at the time there would have been words with whoever was acting like an ass-hole because the Ghurkas did do an amazing job. As for the future - 2017 is the last year of Rex's negotiations I believe. After that it seems to be open to interpretation - I was sure I had read that the County Council had authorised construction of a few thousand homes on the site but over on FB the opinion is that the plan has then been rejected and the site was still available and a lease arrangement might be negotiable. Personally I think 2017 will be the crunch year - if the organisers ignore the lessons of this year and continue trying to transform an MV show into a county/gun show then its the end of the road.

Mk 1's had the same problem...... :-) :-)

Weather was crap this morning - rain and high winds but by mid afternoon the sun returned. So I thought I'd get on with a simple -ish job. Fitting the Mil Reg plates. I say simple -ish because whilst the front plate is a smooth wipe clean type the rear is the old raised lettering type which made aligning the mil plate bit trickier. However it all worked out quite nicely. I had to super glue a stack of three washers together to make the spacer need to lift the plate off the Civvy one. When I get time I will replace the civvy plate with the wipe-clean type too Front plate ready to take the mil reg Front Mil Plate on Rear plate ready to take Mil Plate Rear Mil Plate on Going to run some black paint around the edge of the front civvy plate and put some black foam stuck to the back of the rear Mil plate to tidy it up.

The chalk number stencil was- IIRC - up to the individual unit. Problem with them was as standard they were for two axle vehicles (Landrovers, Bedford etc.). If you want to apply it nothing is stopping you. Again from memory the lines run: Chalk Number Front Axle Weight Rear Axle Weight All up Weight Back in the day I recall seeing them applied on the first two lines the then stencil was dropped after the paint dried to add a second Rear Axle Weight and then the All Up Weight to cover tri-axle vehicles. Bit pointless really as the only times I ever saw anyone chalk any data on they just took the vehicle weight and divided it by the number of axles..... :-) Which was even more crazy when you think the idea originally was for air transport so the load masters could position the vehicles safely. Wasn't the norm to apply them to doors either. They tended to get the squares, circles, triangles etc. Chalk number was usually just behind the front doors.

Try sharing storage with a tracked MV when the rest are all bus owners....... Not something I would ever do again with any military vehicle

I was kind of worried that might be the case with those pipes when I saw them. Unfortunately another item on the long list of things I don't have access to is an oxy-actelene set up..... Can do a hot air paint gun and thats it That said - I rang the guys who do the bus and commercial repair and restoration up at Gt Yeldham when I finished They are going to pop down after W&P finishes and have a look at the welding required so I'll bounce the heating off of them. Hoping they will do what they've done in the past which is allow access to their facilities for the owner to get their hands dirty and they just get involved in things like panel forming and welding etc. In this case also heating up of unions :-) Incidentally - the 3 securing bolts to the chassis member - am I right in thinking that they are Whitworth threads? If so that would explain why none of my spanners would fit!! Passenger door frame is also pretty terminal along the bottom edge for the reasons you give. Both regulators are BER so replacements have been sourced - morris minor units? Locks/handles might also need replacement - I'll know for sure once the doors are apart. Possibly I can refurb them - lots of slop in the handle movement though and the lock on the drivers door doesn't work. Drivers door is certainly in better condition than the passenger one. I am loath to take anything like that apart at the moment in case measurements are needed to rebuild anything that decided to crumble I was thinking maybe it would be worth investigating fitting a rain seal to the top edge of the door to minimise the amount of water that gets in. I know it won't be as original - but what MV ever is. 6 months in service and its builder would be hard pressed to recognize it sometimes. What I could REALLY do with right now is a way of getting the bloody spiders out of the cab at least - if not off the whole vehicle!! Getting a tad monotonous having to clear a ton of webs before any work can be done in the cab.

I had similar problems with dates. The kind soul in DVLA who did mine when it was first registered (not by me I hasten to add) used the Cast date and not the build date. So instead of an L plate registration I have a Y plate. Had to jump through several hoops to get permission to use the historic tax rate of £0.00 when mine qualified.

Back up to Sible this morning for a bit more work on the Militant. Checked the cab - and yes - the bloody spiders are back!! Got to find a way of banishing them - at least from the cab!! And it doesn't end there! Next job tackled was the passenger door. Not matter what I had tried it would not open from either inside or out. Last time I was up I soaked the hinges in penetrating oil just in case. but it still would not open on just the handle today. Must admit I was kacking it a bit fearing perhaps the cab was distorted on that side. I slipped the end of a pry bar under the lower edge of the door lip and, with the handle held down, exerted gentle but increasing pressure using rags between the bar and the body. Slowly the door began to move and then I heard a ripping sound. I wasn't expecting this and wondered if there was any fabric involved in the door shut so stopped and shot round to the drivers door just to confirm. There wasn't so I kept applying the pressure, the door kept moving slowly accompanied by this ripping noise and then the door popped open. The reason for the sticking was plain to see and I admit is stunned me. More bloody spiders webs,. So thing they had gummed the door in place - all along the top ed and down the lock side. The inner door panel needs replacing as expected - I think I need to do something about water sealing it as I suspect the window regulator is rusted solid. For sure the lower edge screws are looking like removing them will also remove the bottom edge of the door. Having that sorted next task on the list were the sheeting lockers under the front of the load bed. Two of the three Tee locks were free but one each side wasn't releasing. Again last time out they were pumped full of penetrating oil and today, grudgingly, the keys turned. The pry bar was required again to get the gates to open - this time the problem was corrosion and eventually I had both of them open. Interestingly both lockers had two arc-shaped pieces in that I don't recognize. Any one else seen them before?? Once these were sorted it was up onto the front bumper with a mallet and persuading the radiator cap to undo. Looks like one of the next investments is going to be a large bottle of blue antifreeze - before winter gets here. :-) With that done it was time to get under - the air distribution valve that is leaking needs to come off and be stripped down to stop the constant air leak. Although the system holds air currently that constant leak drains the air tank within a minute of shutting the engine down. I do not feel it would be safe to take on the road with that problem - not for long distances anyway - so I guess W&P will not be seeing the Militant this year. Bummer :cry: :cry: Any way - slid underneath with the tools and the penetrating fluid , cleaned off the loose muck then coated all 3 unions with penetrating fluid as also the 3 nuts/bolts that hold it to the chassis member. I did have try at undoing the unions but it was a no-go. Interestingly - as I was crawling out I noticed this: Looks like I have a 24v feed to the rear of the vehicle - maybe for a flashing amber beacon?? If so it will make fitting one a lot easier. That was as far I could go safely working solo so I packed up and headed home to do some more on the Landie and UAZ.

LED's for the Landie also arrived today so after I got back from the militant I fitted them. [/url] All went well till I got to the indicator repeater. For some odd reason it broke as I pulled the bulb holder out. Cue turning the air blue!! However a few minutes with a tube of super glue rectified the problem. It should hold till I can replace it. So now the dash is all back together - and I checked in twilight - I now have panel lights!!

LED bulbs arrived today - and are too large to fit the apertures. Sales info said they were 12mm dis max - reality is nearer 12.5mm. Oh well - put them to one side, might be able to use them else where and fitted the old bulbs. Fitted the new holders to the speed and connected up the feed wires the went to fit the speedo into the dash. ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The new speedo casing is a larger dia than the existing hole! I am seriously pissed right now - this must also cast doubt on the calibration too :mad: :mad: :mad:

Finally managed to source a pair of bulb holders to fit the new style speedo head! As i ordered them I noted the availability of LED buls so as I am fitting these to the landie I thought I give them a whirl in the UAZ too. Bulb holders arrived today and are now wired into the vehicle. The original bolt-through connectors for the feed have been replaced with Lucars to match the holders and, as the holders now have a separate earth terminals, not earthing through the casing like the old ones did, I have made up two short earth leads with lucars one end and ring terminals the other that can be fitted over the clamp bolts for the speedo. Again now just waiting for the bulbs to arrive and it can all be bolted back together.:-) Photos to follow when the bulbs arrive. Also have a clutch plate on order from RussianSpares.com which I hope - desperately - will arrive before W&P so that it can be fitted at the show. Still no sign of the remaining two doors, door tops, latches and handles. :-( :-(