eddy8men

that 2s3 looks familiar

managed to do a little bit more on the carrier last week. the under side is now de-rusted and painted and although it's no big achievement it's really nice to see a bit of green on it at long last. the 2 left hand suspension assemblies have been removed for blasting and painting, i was worried that i would be in for a fight trying to get them off but they slipped off as if they were fitted yesterday. the axle will need to be stripped down and de-rusted for although it was a new assembly it wasn't filled with oil so there is surface corrosion from condensation but at least the pinion backlash will still be factory set so it's just a case of wire brush then fill with gear oil. i had the controls professionally rebuilt and i'm pleased with the result, to be honest i doubt i could have set them up properly myself as the linkage is quite complicated and the tolerances don't allow for guestimating. i hope to get it looking something like with the tracks on by the end of the month but then again i am a little over optimistic at times :-D.

this one was on a polish auction site last year for about £7k but the ad seemed a bit vague and i don't know if it was a scam or what but i would think £15k - 40k from one of the old soviet block countries would get you a nice t34.

the good news is i live in manchester but the bad news is i have nothing running yet but you are welcome to come over for a look and if you want to see the cromwell restoration at bob's yard in wigan that can be arranged no problem. rick

thanks for the offer chris that's very kind of you

i've just got a nos axle for my t16 from groenwould in holland i wonder if yours came from the same stock, nice work by the way and many hard to find parts. you will have a very complete carrier when it's done. good luck with the resto rick

the tiger was over engineered, over weight, under powered and over width. if it wasn't for the fact that it had a decent gun it could almost be british :-D

picked up this bogie assembly at the weekend.

no doubt the missus found porn on your laptop and the old "my account's been hacked excuse" came to mind. good call, i've used that one myself too rick

sounds like a great show i'll be there with one or two vehicles :cool2: i went last year to the old buck airshow with the carrier and had a brilliant weekend looks like they've raised the bar again this year. looking forward to it rick

i'm planning on selling my t16 at the end of the month in order to fund the cromwell resto, you're welcome to come and have a look if you like. rick

i'm good mate but thanks for the offer. as for your next resto why not make life a little easier on yourself and buy a t16 at least that way you've more chance of getting spares a little closer to home and i hear all the best collectors have them :-D what ever you decide good luck with it rick

you're too late hoseman, kevin has bought them all !

andy you can see a piece of angle iron welded to the hull which was there to stop the high lift trolley jack slipping out as it lifted it up, once it was as high as i could get it i chained it to the bucket on my mini digger and shoved it over, quite simple really and now i can work on it with no great hassle and get a decent weld hopefully. rick

excellent work especially when you consider just how hard it is to find parts for british wartime armour in the uk never mind in the states. i take my hat off to you. although i do have one criticism with regard to the gauges, i believe they would look much better in my cromwell :-D all the best rick

that is exactly what i was looking for, thanks very much. lauren i will fit the 19 set on it's own as i'm a great believer in keeping things as simple as possible, maybe if i had more time i'd fit the 38 set but the season is fast approaching and i'd like to debut it at tankfest :-D thanks again for your help rick

thanks pierre although it's not really a new project as i've had it for a year or more but it's taken me this long to get round to starting it and to be honest i've had to crack on with it as i need to sell it to fund the cromwell restoration :-( which is a real shame as the more i talk to people about it the more i like it but money talks and bullsh1t walks and right now i'm walking ! i tried my hand at vertical welding and it turned out pretty diabolical so i shoved the carrier on it's side and will weld it from above which gives a better weld and has the added bonus of exposing the underside for de rusting and priming.

hi folks the time has come to start thinking about the finishing touches to the cromwell interior and the comms setup is a big part of that. i'd like to put an original 19 set and working intercom back in but i don't have the faintest idea of what boxes i need and where they all go, so if anyone could shed a little light on the comms layout i'd be very grateful. cheers rick

thanks adrian, i'll have a word with shaun as i think he had it a while back.

i think mine and another that was for sale from the same vendor had originated in scotland, i'm fairly sure shaun hindle had them once, i'll ask him next time i see him.

the tub was a little out of shape due to the sides being cut and the generally poor condition of the floorpan and sponsons not to mention the engine and chassis rails because of this i've had to pay attention to the lines before welding the plates back in, not really difficult but it does slow the job down. in the pics i needed to pull the rear armour plate before i could weld the rear sponson, so i welded a bracket to the back plate (it's actually a churchill track idler tension shim) and used a hoist to pull it before tacking it.

gordon the front idlers do hang on the 3 bolts you can see but they are quite substantial and have a backing piece on the inside of the hull, mine have been cut down by some bugger in order to remove the idlers no doubt.

removing the accumulated sh1te and rusted plate took a couple of days.

i got a mate to drop it off at my workshop the last week in january, the first couple of days were spent cleaning out all the crud and cutting out the rusted plate i then measured up and ordered the cutting list from the profilers. next we'll get welding the patches up.

hi fella's i finally got round to starting the restoration on my t16, i bought it a while back from a dealer in staffordshire with the understanding that i could store it at his yard until i was ready to tell the wife i'd bought another carrier but my little lad grassed me up a week later anyway :nono: