mick garner

John Dews is a great bloke, bought my Ferret off him 5 or so years ago, and he seemed to know absolutely everything there is to know about them and Stalwarts!!

Hi all, For those of you that I talked to a fair old while back about the Stolly Mk1 eroding away in the field near our house, at last, it has gone. I went up to the farm today, and according to the farm owner he was sick of it cluttering up his yard, so he told the owner 'I shall get rid of it' basically. LUCKILY, it wasn't scrapped, it went to Nick Mead for £375!! It's a shame we couldn't have got our hands on it, but I am extremely thankful it went to someone like Nick. According to the farmer, a man came along before Nick came to fetch it, and somehow fired it up, even after at least 15 years of standing!! It purred away like a sewing machine. Very typical of post war Brit kit!! When it came to move it, all 6 wheels were seized solid, and it was actually dragged along the ground (all 10 tons of it!!) and put on the transporter using a rather large winch!! Anyway, good to know it wasn't scrapped. Thanks and Regards, Mick.

Ha ha nice one Oddball :-D

I used to have a Japanese officers sword type thing that the father in law gave to me. It was a bit beyond cleaning up really, and very pitted.

Oooh in my Jimmy I would of said the whole population of Sandy? :-D

Its really good to see the engine being worked on now, its very pleasing to see its still in pretty good shape. :-) That steering column bracket is very well done :-)

Hey Grasshopper, Sounds a right beast! I wish you and Nick especially luck with it. I don't know if its the same with other members but I can't see them pics. And when you copy and paste the URL in it doesn't work. :cry: Thanks and Regards, Mick.

Jack in the first few posts you sound like Victor Meldrew! ha ha. MV's forgotten for a little while, doing the brakes on the Series 3, doing up sons bedroom, and slowly me and the boy are getting stuck into the little Bonser industrial truck. Quite busy really! Mick. The list of things that annoy me is so endless it would take me days to write it up :-D

Ha ha somehow don't think I'll be trying that in mine! :-D

Tyler I would estimate about 400kg

There isn't. Thats pointless! Even got good tyres on it as well!

Whoa what a beast! I bet its lovely to look down over a snout that big when driving along! Keep up the good work and I wish you luck. Best Regards, Mick.

ha ha I think you're all wimps! We go along fine well over 40 with no window, no goggles or anything, even in winter, I just can't be bothered with wearing all the extra gear! 8-)

Only thing is, sometimes if you take the law into your hands it can go vastly wrong and you'll be the one in trouble not them! :-( The law these days can be pathetic still, they don't seem to be bothered about anything, thus they can't do anything and as David said they are restricted in what they can do a lot. Maybe a bit too nasty and a slightly different case, but I know the father in laws mate caught a burglar in his house so he hit him with a shovel and then his wife stabbed a pitchfork through the guy! :evil: The burglar survived and they served time in prison as far as I know. I find some of this a bit stupid because basically all you are doing is defending what is rightly yours.

Ian, I remember seeing this truck at Tilbury Fort probably with a previous owner, and I actually asked the guy how it came to get its name. It was a few years back now but I'm sure the guy said they named it after one of the MVT club members or something, so theres the kind of story on that one!

Used to adore the looks of my closed cab Jimmy. I think the one that would closely follow would be a Diamond T 980.

Neil I think its probably a case for the 12 bore :-D :evil:

We got pulled over by an armed officer and told to take the Bren off the Ferret, I explained that it was deactivated and showed the deac certificate, I also made a point that I would be concerned if there was a Bren gun out the window of my Mondeo, but on the ferret its in keeping with the vehicle. Still, I didn't want to argue with him and get into trouble so I went home and took it off. :-( What I find odd is that before that we had always had a good reaction from police, who were just generally interested in the vehicle. It only takes 1 cocky copper eh?!! Best Regards, Mick.

Mike you sure it hasn't got something to do with the camera? :dunno: Best Regards, Mick.

the only word that comes to mind really is 'heap' :-D

oh dear she is looking sorry for herself.

Well done! Good you got rid of that garden in the back, I would like to save this wreck of a Stolly in a village near us but the bloke won't sell up. :-( I don't know why because he'll never put it back into action again. :dunno: Its a real shame, as it has all of its swim gear, even the swim board in place! If we did get it, it would be a very expensive project. On talking to the guy, this is what was wrong with it the last time it was used(many years ago): Groaning gearbox Dodgy Wheel Station Repair Needs new tyres Exhaust Brakes and all will need doing obviously Various other jobs And of course.... we don't know if the engine is seized. :cry: Oh well, such a shame to see it rot. Thanks and Regards, Mick.

Neil stop, I'd like to own a Stolly but that just sounds too good to be true! I might also say, listen to the song of the exhaust as the revs come up, then hear the groan of the transmission as it rips itself to bits going along the road! Still you can't beat us post war owners, we could kick that WW2 ass!! :evil: :-D

Well obviously its not good for you either Jack because with hills you're always going up and down the gears anyway, and as we all know this sucks the petrol up keep on slowing down and then accelerating again. Regards, Mick.

Hey David, yep Salvage Squad done a Stolly 'restoration' a while back, it was nice to see the programme on a Stalwart, but they didn't show you enough of the mechanical bits really, it was mainly concentrating on re-fitting the swimming gear and getting all sand out of it where somebody had sandblasted it. Still the swim bit at the end was quite good! Thanks and Regards, Mick. P.S Jesus Neil thats the sort of thing you see in movies! I feel sorry for the poor fella in the bloody thing!!