eddy8men

great pics thanks for posting. rick

a long hard road but worth it :thumbsup: all the best rick

just seen this gearbox for sale on the internet and wondered what it is from,at first i thought stug but when i looked into it it's the wrong shape. i assume the large spur gear was a postwar mod to give it a civilian use. funnily enough the design and castings remind me of a churchill gearbox so it could also be british. any ideas ??? rick

i wonder if jack could book them for A&E 2012, it would be a tight squeeze to get them all in the cromwell with me but i'm willing to give it a try :cool2:

alastair if you fitted the turbine right first time round you wouldn't have to keep going back to fix it all the time

the way i see it is the decision has been made, it's rubber or nothing ! so all those with steel tracks have to switch to rubber or get towed on a trailer. that's about the long and the short of it. rick

i'm not one to give up easily and if it can be done then this forum is the place to get the answers on how to do it and even if we don't get to drive on the road then i'm sure i can get someone with a war time rig to tow me on a trailer, i know of a fella in yorkshire with the only scammel tractor and 30 ton trailer combination known to exist, now that with a cromwell on the back would be something worth seeing. don't give up on the cromwell yet as there's more than one way to skin a cat. rick

buggar !!! now that poses a problem or two for those of us with real tanks i haven't given up hope as 432 tracks are about right on width and guage so it's a possibility or i could twist somebodies arm and tow it behind a diamond t with trailer or maybe just have it as a static display which is possible as i will have the tank in dorset for tankfest anyway so it won't be such a hassle as bringing it from manchester, we'll see and if all else fails i'll just bring the carrier and save myself a fortune. watch this space ! rick

welcome to the forum and well done for saving the truck parts from the scrapman. rick

glad this thread got resurrected as i bought a daf about 3 months ago but things haven't gone to plan as i bought it from a tosser on ebay who told me the v5 was in the post and that was nearly 3 months ago now, i'll probably speak to the dvla and see what they say. so my plan to get a useable truck has fallen by the wayside for now. when i get some money together i'll buy one from withams as the daf just makes more sense if you intend to use it regulary and i don't intend to show it, just use it to move the carrier around. with regard to the fuel i'm going to try making my own bio deisel and see how it goes. rick

adrian sorry mate my mistake, got my rebates and chamfers confused ! funnily enough i was at bob's yard today having a word with the spark and i notice the rebate you mentioned, the thing is i hadn't even realised it was there before. i would say we'll probably end up fairing it in with body filler as it's hardly noticeable. as for kidnapping me, to be honest that will only speed up the restoration as i won't be under bob's feet so much which will leave him free to get on with it without anymore technical suggestions from me. see you friday rick

adrian the rebate was filled with weld when the filler plates were welded in, which was handy as it saved us having to v groove the plates, as for body filler over the weld pits i couldn't say as i've not put any thought to it but if it's in an obvious place or particulary deep then yes but other than that i wouldn't bother. alastair you are not alone in being surprised about the size of the filler plates, i also thought they would be bigger as the cromwell ring is 60" and the charioteer is 66" but this can be explained by the fact that the charioteer ring sits on top of the roof plates where as the cromwell is built in to it. rick

alastair thanks for posting the video, all good stuff. rick

cheers mate, she's looking good and i'm sure it was worth the wait. all you've got to do now is find all the missing bits and get it all working. simples rick

a few close ups of bob's ring the fella you can see drilling bob's ring, is colin a close friend of his.

turret basket

no new camera, bob has been keeping a record of the restoration for me here's a few of the centaur hull getting a bit of attention

nice pics guys, shame about the steel tracks not allowed on all the route though (makes me a bit nervous about the cromwell on A&E ) rick

i have few options open to me with regard to the centaur, i can leave the turret off and convert it to an arv which would be alright with me as i served 14 years in the reme or i could use a mocked up turret or an original and put it to back to a gun tank but using a meteor so it would be a cromwell, i would like to use a liberty but they are as rare as rocking horse sh1t so it will have to be a meteor. i'm also considering getting 5 or more turret rings made from my original before it's fitted, this would enable me to get the centaur back to a gun tank and would help any other restorer's with their projects. rick

no worries steve, preserving our armoured heritage is what i'm all about :thumbsup:

yes the tank is in amazing condition even the brake seals were still useable which is something that i thought would have perished years ago, i guess i just got lucky. the engine has been rebuilt already and is waiting to be refitted, the gearbox is also done and hopefully next week if the weather holds the hull will be blasted and primed and the refitting can start. the only hard part is the turret which is in a bad condition and will need to be patched on the roof but it's no big deal and can be done with a little time and money. the only problem i have is the main gun which i cannot find, maybe i will be able to get onto the ranges and swipe one but if not i can always make a dummy up until something better comes along. next year i think i will be driving it :cool2: rick

thanks for the pics, i'm glad that the project is still coming together nicely. rick

good luck with the resto, the fodens an impressive beast alright. the 2 leads you mentioned are for the crew boiling vessel which is like a big blue kettle and was standard to fodens and many other vehicles, you might want to keep hold of them as the bv is the best bit of british army kit ever invented good luck rick

come on stu don't keep us all in suspenders, where are the pics ! all this words and stuff is great for the intellectuals amongst us but take pity on the rest of us and let's have a butchers at it. rick

my bren carrier has the name welland, i'll have to make an effort to get down there next year. rick