Scammell4199

Being quite a fan of Mossies i've done a bit of research in the past into 'flyers'. A good place to start is mossie.org

But by far and away the best place is http://www.mosquitorestoration.com

You can read the story yourself on the website, but basically this is a chap called Glyn Powell in New Zealand who made the moulds needed to manufacture the fuselage, (it is made in two halves), and then made a whole new fuselage, which went off to a group in Windsor Ontario as part of a static display, the second one!!! stay with me, went to a company in New Zealand called Avspecs who are fitting it out to flying condition for the Fighter Factory collection in Virginia, and now hes building one for himself!!!

As you'll find on mossie.org, there are several other contenders for flyable mossies dotted around the world.

Richard

I used to work at Abnormal Load Engineering (ALE) and was there when the Unipower was brought up from Alstom after the take over. Alstom had done the civilianisation work on it, including fitting a transfer box to slow it down in line with the Fauns which it works with and building the ballast body, which weighs 10 tonne unloaded!!

See below some photos I took of it outside the ALE workshops and also me and Dad posing with it.

The drivers reported that it was like driving a car!! and would easily cruise at 50mph, a far cry from the Fauns top speed. I've got some more photos of it working which i'll post another day. Richard

Right at the end of the Sunday at TankFest, for those of us tank geeks who had hung around long enough, they allowed us to climb up a set of steps and take a look inside the turret through the hatch in the side. It did look heighly detailed and immaculate.

I know exactly where the said reclamation yard is, I drive past it every day on my way to work. The T34 has been there for years and as I understand several people have tried, and failed to buy it. As for the missile at AA gun I wouldn't like to say, but they are like local land marks, and a good focal point for finding the yard. If you look a little way down the road there is a farm house right on the road, and theres a GMC CCKW parked in the yard in front of the house.

Happy hunting

Sorry not much progress. I've blasted and painted a load of chassis fittings and hope to fit them this week.

It certainly is a helluva blaster you wouldn't believe how fast it is.

I figured the crane weighed just over a ton, maybe ton and a quarter.

There is ballast on the front of the vehicle to hold down front end when lifting on the crane, but no ballast as such at the back, just the mass of heavy recovery equipment carried in the wooden lockers which mount on the outriggers on the crane structure.

There is a winch you can see it under the crane as its being lifted off, plus theres a photo of it on a pallet just after it came off, its rated at 8 tons.

Unfortunalty progress is slow since I work away alot see photo below, yes those tracks are as tall as me!

Also while i've got people interested we've just being given our marching orders on the barn we rent for the Scammell and Matador and have to be out by new year, so if anyone knows of any space available in the Yeovil/ Crewkerne area of Somerset please please let me know ASAP cos we're running out of time on: scammell4199@hotmail.com OR richard.fryer@sewardwyon.co.uk

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb164/scammell4199/200907VISIT026.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

Sandblasted the chassis at the weekend. See photos below. This was our first time at trying blasting on this scale ourselves, and I now believe its the way to go if you can get the equipment, much cheaper and you get the result you want.

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Clearing the mess up

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Darth fader with a blasting gun!

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Cheers for sorting the photos Lee, what did I do wrong?

Yeah its easy when you have the equipment, unfortunatly I no longer have the telehandler at my disposal, but I do have a whole Scammell spread to the four corners of the barn, so if anyone knows of a telehandler looking for a good home, or one I could borrow occasionally in the Yeovil area email me at - scammell4199@hotmail.com

Cheers

Yes it is, the matador is the next project!

I've put up here some photos showing me, my brother and dad stripping down our Scammell SV/2S for restoration the summer before last. Unfortunatly only minor works have been carried out since, because I had to go back to university. Now that uni is finished we hope to make considerable progress.

Lifting the crane off the back

Winch assembly out

More to be added as progress is made

Mod Edit.. sorted out the photos for you... Lee :-D

I am looking for a secure building where I can store and work on my Scammell Pioneer and AEC Matador in the South Somerset area. Any help would be much appreciated.

Richard

Rick,

Definatly can't etch brass plate. Send a drawing of the 'C' section you want to either of the below and i'll take a look.

Email: scammell4199@hotmail.com

10 Easthams Road

Crewkerne

Somerset

TA18 7AQ

Hi Rick,

Depending on what you want done I might be able to do it for you - for a price. I am an engineer and have a reasonably well equipped workshop plus a very well equipped one at work. Let me know on here if you're interested and i'll let you have my address to send drawings to.

Best regards

Richard

Question for any of the MVT Essex members on here.

Whats the deal with this barn you manage? Presumably you don't rent it commercially at that rate? I am assuming one of your members owns it and lets you have it at knock down rate. Reason I ask is i'd like some better storage/ workshop for my Scammell Pioneer and AEC Matador in the south somerset area and was wondering if I couldn't arrange a similar deal with a land owner in my area for myself and some of our area members if I knew how to go about it. My current rent is 20 pounds per month, but the barn has half doors on it so its open to the elements and bird droppings - not ideal for paint spraying! I could afford more but can't extend to commercial rates which is why your arrangement sounded so attractive for what you're getting.

Thanks in advance

Richard

I bought some of the stencils for my Jeep from Adrian Robins - 01793853446 and made some myself. Regarding technique, you can buy the flexible magnetic strip found on the back of L-plates from Cromwell Industrial Supplies, cut it to length and use to hold stencil on panel locating it as close to the edges as possible to make sure it is held tightly to the panel, giving a crisp, clean edge when painted. Then just spray either with aerosol can or paint gun, 2 or 3 coats does the trick. I found it best to let the paint really dry well, overnight or longer, before taking stencils off.

Happy stenciling

Richard

Plains weekend? What plains weekend? Can someone enlighten me please. Thanks in advance.

Richard

The first spraying I ever did was my Willys MB, and I just learnt by trial and error. I use a 3 HP Clarke compressor and a Devilbiss Finishline suction fed HVLP gun, the compressor keeps up with plenty in reserve. There are lots of variables to deal with: Air pressure, paint viscosity, fan width, distance from panel, trigger pressure (affects paint flow rate), speed you move gun over panel, temperature, humidity the list goes on. Make sure you have a good filter in the air line to trap water, you can also get mini filters to go on the gun air inlet to remove the last traces of water. If the pressure is too high and /or the gun is too close to panel, the paint can be blown around once it is on the panel making it look like it has run - urgh. A nice day and clean, dry greasefree surfaces a must. On the Jeep I used an etch primer and OD from Rex Ward and the result has been really good and one which I have been complemented on. On my Scammell i'm going to put a couple coats of deep bronze green in between primer and top coat, because gloss paints and less porous than matt paints and this will help keep the damp out. Other than that practice makes perfect, happy spraying.

Clive,

I like that shade of green you have there. Where did you get it?

Richard

Don't forget also the small numbers that all german armour was produced in compared to allied, especially american armour. Some 48-49 thousand shermans were produced '39 - '45 and how many exist in preservation today? In contrast about 1300 tiger 1's were made and now i think about 6 survive, with only 131 at bovington in running condition. Plus with german armour being so thin on the ground, any spare parts you are lucky enough to find will cost the earth plus a bit, making restorations extremly expensive, as the sdkfz foundation and bovington have found. Many parts for german armour restorations now are made new, which is insanely expensive especially when you get into drive train parts.

In reference to the WW1 tanks what other people in this thread have said is true, i know someone who regularly crews at bovington and they have said that the WW1 tanks are now so old that every time they are run something literally falls off or breaks. It is marvellous to see these old beasts running but i'd rather see then static than not at all.

Being a mechanical engineer i can say that Tiger was hideously over engineered, lucky for us. But to see it running is fantastic, and a first class restoration, bravo ABRO.

Conqueror is quite something, it has to be one of my favourite tanks, even though i've never seen it running, apart from the ARV, the sound the ARV produced was quite something.

If there are so many WW2 allied tanks available begging for restoration can someone please give me one. Currently have a Willys MB, Scammell SV/2S and AEC matador but would dearly like some allied WW2 armour.

Hi all,

I converted our jeep to 12 volt for two main reasons, better starting and more powerful lights. For those who crave originality like me, you can get your 6 volt generator rewound to put out 12 volts, this cost me £205 at the lucas rewind centre in yeovil, somerset. Take the guts out of your 6 volt regulator housing and you can very discreetly mount a 12 volt regulator from a mini or something like that inside. Different coil, condenser and light bulbs and the jobs a good one. Starter doesn't need rewinding, it can handle the extra voltage for the short periods of time it operates for.

Anyone wants more details email me at: scammell4199@hotmail.com

many thanks Kewelde i'll check it out

Does anyone know where I can buy thick (about 3/4" thick) cork sheet from to cut grease retainer seals out of. Its for the front hub seals on my Scammell SV/2S.