David Herbert

Graham, I'm sorry to be slow to see your posts. Well done! As Adrian said, I have fond memories of what was my first car which I bought almost exactly 40 years ago now. The amazing thing is that when I bought it it looked rather similar to how it does now ! It had had a hard top built onto it which had helped the interior to survive but was covered in green mould and had no brakes. It had been bought by a garage business with the intention of converting it into a tow truck (common on land rovers then) but they realised that it was not a good plan and it had just grown into the environment till I parted with £60 for it. I got it running and drove it home, still with no brakes (no, I wouldn't do that now). After a couple of weeks of fiddling I got it sorted and MOTd and used it as my personal transport for two years before selling it in Maidenhead to a guy who broke the passenger side windscreen glass with his head when I showed him how fast it would go over a level crossing during my sales pitch. The resulting concussion seemed to help negotiations so it went out of my life. I have no urge to buy it back but I would love someone to bring it back to life. If anyone does take it on I still have one very small part of it which I will give you. David

Goren, Nice photo! I think that a replica of that Dodge WC62 would be brilliant ! Quite easy to build and it would make a good camper too. The crawler tractor with a winch on the front is a Tractor, Heavy, M1, IHC TD18 (SNL G101). It is a IHC TD18 with a front mounted winch, full width seat for 4 crew, full lighting and a standard hight towing pintle. They were designed for towing artillery pieces but were too slow so were replaced by the M4 High speed tractor. David

I wonder where that was.... I see that they have all had their final drives removed. Canibalised for others or a way to imobilise them? David

Actually the nuts, plain or slotted, serve very little purpose as there is no force making the pins slide out. All they need is a washer and bigger split pin as was discovered a few years later... If they need greasing it is also easier to drill the non force side of the lever that they pull on than to drill and cross drill the pin, then you can let the pin rotate in the hole and equalise the wear on it and don't need the feather. But it does make them so much more interesting than the purely functional design that gradually evolved. Nice job by the way ! David

Thanks Dai, PM sent. David

Just like that ! :tup:: David

Pete, Thanks for your reply, PM sent. David

Thanks very much Richard, big help. David

I understand that there is an English language version of at least one of the T-55 tank manuals. Most Soviet AFVs have a description & operators instructions, a user maintainence manual, an overhaul manual and a parts list, all of which were updated from time to time. I have no idea which of these were available in English or if they were British / American translations or supplied with Soviet exports in the same way that the radios of export vehicles were labled in English. Does anyone know who published them or if they are avaiable to download from the net possibly ? I would certainly be interested in a copy if anyone has a spare one. Thanks David

I found this video on YouTube. Can anyone put me in touch with the owner please or give me a name ? I am not trying to buy it or sell him anything but would like to talk to him. Thanks David

Dan, It is quite possible to build up the journals with mig weld (no inclusions) and remachine the crank as if it is a new one being made from scratch. You can't do just one journal as the welding will make it warp but if it is all very worn that is not a problem. In the 60s and 70s this was a way that American hot rodders built engines with more or less stroke than standard, using both cast and forged cranks, and they were going to rev the nuts off their engines. Your crank is made of something rather like mild steel so should weld very nicely. The journals need a very good finish but do not need to be particularly hard on an engine that makes as little power as yours so this might be a way out. Great to see it moving forward again. David

I do not have Opel manual but my opinion is that the biggest force on the piston is from the power stroke which is downwards. If the engine turns the usual way with the crank moving down when it is on the left side of the engine, looking from the flywheel end of the engine ( looking forwards in a normal vehicle), the piston is pushed to the right side of the engine because of the angle of the connecting rod and so the split should be on the side with less force - the left side. The reasion for the split is not cooling but so that when the piston gets hot it does not get so much bigger so the fit in the cylinder can be closer when cold. I hope this is of some help, good luck! David

The big advantage of front drive on tanks is that the mud, stones etc picked up by the inside of the track when turning has virtually all fallen off by the time it gets to the front of the vehicle, so sprocket wear is much reduced and it is that bit harder for the track to be forced sideways off the sprocket which can happen with rear drive if it gets enough rubbish caught up in it. With relatively lightly armoured vehicles the extra bulk of the transmission at the front was a small increase in protection and also having the transmission at the front ment that the controls were usually more direct and adjustments easier to get to. Tanks have tended to have all their automotive components at the rear (and so the sprockets) since it was found that having the turret relatively far forward ment that the gun could depress more and less tank was exposed if one was coming out of a hollow in the ground. Not having a drive shaft connecting a rear engine to a front transmission ment that the whole tank could be lower and not having any automotive bits in the crew area made it a bit quieter and reduced fire hazard. However things like APCs, command vehicles, and self propelled guns need the rear half of the vehicle to be free of automotive components so they are still almost universaly front engined and front drive. David

A bit more about the 6pdr recoil cylinder: there is a big clevis mounted on the piston rod which would normaly be connected to the breach ring of the gun. This faces the front of the tank and a tow rope is fed through the ring that is welded to the top of the original hull to the left of the driver's hatch and connected to the clevis. Thus the BARV can drive up to the casualty, hook on and then tow in reverse without having to turn round in the sea. Also the driver will have some direct sight of what is going on which makes things easier. Stowage: I have no idea what the hooks on the back are for. They have clamps to retain whatever is stowed there but are the wrong shape for anything that I can think of. The track spanner hangs almost verticaly from the piece of pipe welded on high up and about a foot to the left of centre. To either side of the exhaust vent on the roof of the engine cover there are clamps for hollybone (V shaped) drawbars and pieces of round bar forward of the clamps to drop the ring at the apex of the V over. The round bar on the RH side is further forward than the LH one because longer hollybones were used with British tanks and shorter ones with Shermans. This was because the towing eyes on Shermans are closer to each other. Connecting up a hollybone in the sea would be almost impossible but it may be that once recovered to the beach the BARV was expected to be able to take the casualty further. If you search for Sherman BARV on YouTube there is a REME film about their use but I think that it was made post war. David

Does this mean that the Thornycroft is going to be grey? I suppose that photographic evidence might justify sepia . David

As Adrian says, the cylinder is the recoil mechanism from a 6pdr AT gun (not the AFV mount). Recovery at sea is much harder than on land and it ment that you didn't have to be so carefull to take up the slack gently. Also the flared shape of the superstructure was so that a wave hitting the upper section would be deflected away rather than just flowing up the sloping side and onto the top where the hatch and air vents were. David

Pounds were primarily ship breakers and dealers. Because they were big enough and used to working with heavy scrap they were able to get involved with scrapping tanks and could bid for large contracts. What made them unusual was that they took quite a lot back to their very large site in Portsmouth and did very little to them. Most of the big scrap dealers processed their historic artifacts into scrap very quickly, usually cutting it up where it was purchaced from. Some of the millitary spares dealers bought parts from Pounds to sell into the international arms market but mostly the tanks suffered from being at the seaside too long. When I first went there, virtually complete Churchill VIIs were £3000 and Centaur Dozers and engineless M10s were £1800. I tried to by an M10 but the price magicaly went up to £2500 which was obviously crazy so I walked away. There seems to have been some inflation since then! Pete Gray was one of the first collectors to buy from Pounds and accidentaly got his M10 (which still had its engines) to tow start in the yard when it turned out to be in gear as they moved it with what is now the Cadmans BARV. David

I have always wondered how the pattern is printed onto pretend wood trim in cars, Now I know - brilliant ! David

Those are all very good questions ! The BARV was as you say a stripped out M4A2 with almost nothing inside it. The commander had a sub floor to stand on with a ladder down to the actual floor of the hull, all built rather in the style of a ship's engine room. The homelite aux gen was retained as was the fire extinguisher system and of course the propeller shaft ran down the centre of the floor in its tunnel but virtually nothing else remained. The openings for the hull hatches and the vast majority of the turret ring seat (could be all of it but its a long time since I was in one) were there but with little armour glass windows fitted in front of the driver and co driver (no hull m/g) so that they had some idea where they were. However the view was a bit like looking through a key hole. I do not know of any others than your list but one other one was extracted from Pounds yard in Portsmouth and rather crudely converted back to a tank about thirty years ago. This spent some time as a gate guard in the Channel islands before coming back to the mainland and being rebuilt again as a gun tank by Carl Brown. This time it was done much more convincingly with the correct turret and the remains of the BARV welding ground off propperly (a huge job). As you say, if 60 were built and only used on the British beaches it would have been a bit crowded and they would have shown up in photos more than they do. I can not agree or disagree with the figure of 60 but it does seem a bit high, I would have guessed that ten or fifteen would have been the likely need. Can anyone else add anything to this question? As for disposal, the Bovy one and the Cadmans one were both in Pounds yard 30 years ago with the one I refer to above. There may have been more cut up by Pounds before then but I saw no sign of them. Also I have never seen remains on a range other than the ex Pounds, now Bovy one which was put onto Salisbury Plain relatively recently. However don't forget that after the war there were fields full of Shermans cut up where they stood with no attempt to salvage parts at all. There was simply no demand for that many tanks. David

QUOTE: Gustaf.....I was looking at a restoration of a 4WD model B chassis that has one tire missing, but there is so much else missing that I think that I might do better to save my energy for another project.... QUOTE Any chance of photos of the FWD model B. I have always had a soft spot for them. David

I would agree with you Gordon, but having seen it close up there is no sign of where force has been applied to it anywhere, and no way that I can see for the chassis to be stressed in a way that would make it crack there. That seems to me to only leave a crack/fault in the metal itself. Anyway, it's sorted now! David

I have always wondered how to get hold of liquid Nitrogen as it is a really good way to shrink parts that would otherwise have to be pressed into holes with an interference fit. Do you have any idea what a reasionable charge is for 'borrowing' what one would need? Also I suspect that the safety aspects must be taken quite seriously which might be a problem. Someone here must have experience of this. David

I see a 'Q' too. David