ArtistsRifles

Cheers mate - I will try that and see how it goes. Bit hard to do that Stu - I was away in Belgium all week with almost zero phone signal, let alone data. Only got home in the early hours of this morning.

If you can just pop it round the back that will be fine thanks Rob. If you see Stuart the farmer who owns the site let him know its there, he likes to keep in touch with what's going on! :-) Haven't had a chance to try the valve yet - next thing on the to-do list after making sure the silencer works. After that its a case of some interior cab work including letting a bug bomb go for a couple of hours as I am sick of having to clear a forest of webs before I can get in and work every week

I'm off to Belgium Thursday - got a weeks work rebuilding a Series for a friend so I thought I'd head up to the Militant today and try to get at least level if not ahead on the two Saturdays I'll miss. First job was to finish off the silencer. Popped it back off the vehicle and drilled out the 4 holes in the down pipe flange to take the slightly larger diameter studs.. Did the same to the ejector stub and used that to verify the holes were indeed large enough to fit the studs. Once satisfied the olive was coated in exhaust cement and the silencer slipped onto it. The rear hanger was then bolted loosely into place whilst the 4 securing nuts were tightened after which the rear hanger was tightened The front was then slipped into place and secured to the chassis hanger before the clamp bolt was tightened. I still need to get a clamp bolt for the rear hanger. Lastly the rear olive was coated in cement and placed in situ and the ejector stub slipped home onto it, the nuts being tightened to hold it in place. Last thing for the exhaust was to wrap an exhaust bandage over the pin hole in the down pipe until such time as the downpipe can be removed for a welded repair or replacement. Right now its probably in the most awkward place possible - just where the exhaust passes behind the rear front spring hanger. Next job was to sand down the front bumper and sides of the front wings getting rid of the loose pain and surface rust on the bumper and getting the wings ready for repair later. The bumper was no problem: The sides of the front wings was a different story. Plans to repair these with inserts of steel welded into place just bit the dust - look at the photos and you'll see why: Drivers side: Passenger side: As welding to fibre glass isn't really a valid option I think I am going to have to persist with the fibre glass and filler for now until such time as I can afford to have the wings re-manufactured - quite honestly the remanufacturing is waaay outside my skill levels!! Last job of the day - and thus no photos was to mark out the existing horn bracket to take the new Alette horn. Original one was held on by two of the outer ring of screws. This version has a wide dia body though so that was a non-starter. So I drilled two holes in the base of the support to match the new bodies supports and bolted the two together, Still need to clean out the inside face of the bumper so I can bolt this into position and then work out how to connect it to the loom. And that was it for the day.

All mine on Little Maud worked with a standard 1/2" drive so maybe I was lucky

Back over the old girl today and got some more done - not as much as I wanted but still - progress is progress. Went to fit the new silencer and found as suspected that the holes in the mounting flange on the downpipe and extractor stub need opening up to clear the new metric size studs. Unfortunately no one else was over today and the only external power socket available was about 6m short of the end of the 25m lead I plugged into it. So no way of drilling out the flanges. However I did get the silencer loosely hung on the mounting tabs below the chassis rails: Before anyone says anything - the paper is only there to protect the paint on the silencer whilst the studs are aligned with the mounting flange on the downpipe and will be removed before the clamp bolts are fitted. Part of the delay in fitting was that the manual says insert a rod into the opening of the silencer and if it only goes 3/4 the length then that is the "IN" port. If it goes all the way in that is the "OUT" port. Sounds simple - until I cut a length of wood down to fit in the dia of the openings and tried it - it went all the way through from both ends. So I picked one at random to be the in end. Hopefully this will not come back to bite me once it's all connected. The bolts that held the silencer in place had been crudely cut off in the past and it proved to be a nightmare trying to get the nuts to thread properly. So I took the old 4" angle grinder down to where the power point was and proceeded to grind the jagged ends off before returning to the Militant and using the vice on the front bumper to hold each bolt in turn whilst I finish off flatting them with a file and the chamfered the edges. Once done the nuts threaded on nicely I think I need to source another pair of 3/8" UNC bolts for the clamp bolts as the originals were pretty terminal on inspection.

According to the web site the research facility is still unavailable.

That's me still. Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it very much. When I get to the outer skin panels on the cab I'll drop a PM through. Right now - apart from the silencer right now its been the much smaller internal skin panels..

Silencer went in for modification last Friday and I picked it up today. They've done a nice job on it it. As soon as I got it home it was out with the wet 'n dry and the entire thing was rubbed down to remove any remaining loose surface rust and then Jenolite was applied to neutralize the remainder. Once that had dried thoroughly in the (luckily) hot sunshine a coat of VHT exhaust paint was applied - satin black. Hint - for a Militant silencer a 500ml spray can is barely enough to cover the entire silencer. So I have another can on order to apply a second coat before fitting which hopefully will be this Saturday. When it came off only one of the olives was present - between the down pipe and the silencer, the one between the ejector stub and silencer was missing so luckily the guy I bought the silencer from had a spare one. The one that was on was badly coated in carbon deposits so I cleaned those off with a sanding pad in the angle grinder and gave that a coat of Jenolite too. Am I right in thinking a coat of exhaust paste/cement will be required once the system is reassembled??

Without being able to look at mine I'm taking a guess here - but would these be suitable? https://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct.asp?sg=2&pgCode=040&sgName=Hardware&pgName=Washers+%26+Wipers&agCode=0717&agName=Wiper+Arms+for+Plain+Shafts&pCode=040.111

A thought springs to mind - has your control panel and shunt box been moved at any time?? Mine has the twin ammeters in the dash and when I got it the control panel was moved to the front face of the rear bulkhead behind the drivers seat and the shunt box had been moved to the same side of the bulkhead behind the passenger seat. These are now relocated back into the correct positions in the rear tub. Should be a set of brackets that the control panel goes onto behind the driver whilst the shunt box bolts to the tub side opposite. After moving them back I had some initial problems but by judicious use of terminal cleaner and by tightening connections they were solved.

Mine is the trusty old 2.25 4 cyl lump Richard - and 3 bearing at that!!

Had they advertised it for spares they most likely would have made more money than they got in scrap. Sometimes you have to wonder at the mentality of those operating breakers yards.

Interestingly (or not depending on your point of view ) - my '74 109" FFR has a top speed of 50 mph flat out with the timing correctly set and running a Zenith carb. Although at anything over 40 it starts throwing coolant out of the overflow!

One of the tanks on 55 FM 58 leaked like a sieve when half full so when I had to rebuild her 4 or 5 years ago I used one of those frost tank repair kits. Bit of a long job in winter as it has to be washed out with the cleaner then water then allowed to dry thoroughly before the sealant can be added. Certainly worked though - not had a leak since. Runs on base unleaded only.

Another day - another head ache!! Cracked on yesterday with the window winders, cut the bosses down to about 2mm on the new winder mechanisms, first with a cutting disk in an angle grinder then filed them flat to approx the same height. Then went to fit the passenger side one. Cue start of the headaches. First off- something is fouling the horizontal bar the winder mechanism bolts to on the door. With no mechanism fitted the glass slides up and down freely. With the mechanism fitted I have to use something (e.g. a screwdriver) to separate the arm from the door bar.. Going down works OK albeit with a resistance until the winder arm drops below the door bar. Looking at the old mechanism it has a straight arm whereas the new one has a crank in it. Next problem is the lower left screw cannot be accessed with the mechanism in place. The only time the quadrant clears it the glass has dropped too far and blocks access. Either I cut a new hole in the quadrant, thus weakening it, to allow access or I put the screw into the hole before fitting and let the quadrant retain it until I can get a nut on it. This means the doors cannot be completely reassembled properly until I can resolve these issues. At the moment I am thinking I might have to reuse the old mechanisms - cleaned up the drivers side one works fine and the passenger side one has a notchy engagement making me think one of the smaller crank teeth has sustained damage somehow. Went to fit the replacement horn - and found I had left the bloody mounting bolts at home 60 miles away So - a busy although not very productive day. Still waiting to hear from the local engineering firm as to when they can do the silencer mods for me.

Now that IS interesting!! It's got me thinking now.... Item 5.1.1 - Rifle racks - were on the rear cab bulkhead behind the engine in the drivers side. Item 5.1.2 - Water jerrycan - no idea where in the cab that could be stowed safely. Item 5.1.3 - Works ticket holder - lives in the pocket on the inside of the drivers door. Item 5.1.4 - Vehicle jack - we always carried that in the tool locker under the load bed on the rear drivers side. same with the 2 part jack handle, wheel brace, tool roll and interstart lead. Item 5.1.6 - Pick axe helve - no idea where that lived now, I always though it was on the head board. Not sure where in the cab that would go Item 5.1.7 - Machete and sheath - not sure where this would be carried unless in with the crews personal kit. Item 5.1.8 - Map case - not sure where this would live as we never ever carried one, One of the upper shelves (Item 5.3) would seem likely. Item 5.1.9 - First aid kit - went in the bin down by the passengers feet. Item 5.2 I guess will be the two storage boxes behind the crew seats and above the batteries (missing from mine) Padlocks were issued as vehicle sets of either 3 or 5 depending on whether GS or Tipper. Each set was keyed alike and marked per individual vehicle because the keys lived on the vehicle set.

I had a reply from one local engineering company who think they can carry out the work on the silencer. Had to send them photos and measurements and am now waiting to hear back from them. I had a day off yesterday - entertaining too as I was up in the audience of the Beeb's election debate in Cambridge (and got paid £50 for the privilege!!) - made a change, Beeb looked after the audience prior to the debate and after. Today it was crack-on time with the parts at home. After getting the OH to empty the washing lines (its amazing how effective the threat of covering their sheets and towels in Deep Bronze Green is in getting them away from the TV and clearing the lines. ) I strung the two exhaust clamps up between two of the lines on twine and gave each one a coat of deep Bronze Green: Now I have to wait 16 hours for the paint to cure then they can have a second coat - its resin based so should be a bit more resistant to chipping than enamel. I also need to cut down the bosses on the winder mechanisms - but I need a vice to hold them in so that will have to wait until back at the Militant.

Cheers Rob I had a good day out Sunday and it was great to meet up again and see the red beast in the flesh so to speak Be great to have at least 2 Mk 1's there next year - if only to offset the all Bedfords If I'd known it was open to all marques I'd have brought the FFR Landie up on the Friday. Must admit to being a bit miffed at the local company - I've had work done there in the past and they've always been good. That said I did not recognize any of the crew there now so maybe a change in philosophy. Oh well - their loss. I've followed your suggestion and have e-mailed a few fabricators in the area to see if it the kind of job any of them would be interested in taking one. Failing that its Plan F and the DIY approach. A absolute last resort because I haven't touched a MiG welder in 20+ years.

Ran the replacement silencer down to the local exhaust fabricators this afternoon to get the flanges swapped over. Became pretty clear they were not interested in the work when they insisted the vehicle be brought to them. Cue cynical laughter as the access way to their workshop is so narrow that the wheels of the Militant would be running over the parked cars either side. So I need to find an alternative solution. Made me feel slightly pee'd off so I came home and attacked the silencer clamps getting all the crap off them and giving them a coat of etch primer ready for a couple of coats of Deep Bronze Green.

No progress to report this week sadly. After 10 years unemployment its a case of weighing fuel usage against what I want to do and this weekend I wanted to get up to the AEC rally both for inspiration and for parts hunting. So no trip to the Militant on Saturday. What I did manage to get done was coating the exhaust clamps and ejector stub in jenolite - they are now inert and can be painted ready for when the silencer has been modified, Sunday though was a good day - lots of inspiration drawn from the vehicles on display as can be seen from the photos here that start with Robs Militant: http://s34.photobucket.com/user/ArtistsRifles/library/AEC%20Society%20Rally%202017 It was nice to wander around in the sunshine chatting to other owners then go shopping. Came home with a good silencer that just need the mounting flanges swapped over - cost the bank breaking amount (not!! :cheesy:) of £40. Same seller let me have a foot brake air valve on approval - need to get mine out and compare the two. If it fits mine then I send him the money, if not I send him the valve back. One of the things I love about classic motoring is parts suppliers are more than happy to do this to help out. So all in all a good weekend. Sobering to realize that the 2.5 hour journey in the car would equate to nearly just over 4 hours in the Militant And that's without the 1.5 hour drive to get to where the Militant lives

As far as I can remember the only major differences on the Mk 10 to its predecessors were the addition of IFCS and Stillbrew composite armour. Maybe Richard F knows more??

Nice looking vehicle. :-) Been a couple up for sale over here - at around £10K if I recall correctly - certainly a head turner

So was I - unfortunately the cab is still in bits. Hoping to get her to W&P though.

Back in the Seventies on one of the big NATO exercises a US tank units was crossing the rail lines - railway company was supposed to have cut power to the overhead catenary - and hadn't First tank over had its aerials touch the catenary lines and somehow grounded out frying the crew. I thought it was meant to be impossible to happen - I was wrong.

Another says work done - sadly no photos this week as it turned into a race against time to get the work done and the canvas cover pulled back over before heavy rain set in. Both inner faces of the doors have a coat of Deep Bronze Green using a resin paint normally used on Traction Engines - I thought this was better for resisting the water and thus any future corrosion. Inner surfaces of the inner door skins likewise have a coat of this paint as do the door cap's so next week should see the doors reassembled with working window winders and that will be another job crossed off the list. The work wasn't helped by the kind souls one horse box down who decided to sweep it out sending dust and debris flying through the air. One oddity I noticed for the first time today. The door glass on the passenger side has a metal cap on it that sits into the top window channel - but the drivers side door glass does not have this capping, being just the edge of the glass that seats up into to top channel. I suppose at some point in the past one of the doors, or just the door glass has been replaced. Pity they didn't do it like for like. On the parts front I've managed to get the proper horn assembly off eBay - Lucas 24v Altette so that will get a coat of sating black when it arrives during the week and can also be fitted next week - another job done. Just leaves the silencer and possibly the air leak still from the brake pedal valve (been soaked in WD40) to make her useable.