Sean N

"the 31,000 recorded mileage may well be correct" !!!

Chris, I'm not by any means a CMP expert so don't take this as gospel, but isn't it that the chassis rails are correct but the bracketry has been modified? I thought the CMP / Holmes should have a large flattish vertical bracket on each chassis rail, protruding beyond the end of the body, with a towing eye into which the hooks were ... well, hooked (when not in use). The towing pintle assembly is mounted between those brackets in a pair of slipper brackets that take the spring, which would put the forward face of the pintle about level with the rear of the body, and the fairlead rollers below. I thought the fairlead roller assembly was different as well, with a full width axle for the lower roller, but I wouldn't swear to it. If I'm right, your chassis is correct but all the bracketry at the rear end has been chopped about & modified; possibly only the pintle and spring being original. I'd have thought if you hunt around on the interweb and ask on MLU you should get some decent photos of the correct assembly.

TBH at that price it might be worth looking at other sources first. Also make sure it's returnable; I think yours is the type with three mounting bolts that mounts on the inside of the frame rail, while the common one mounts to the outside of the frame rail using large nuts on the outlets. The one they've got might be the latter as it's more recent & common, and they may not spot the difference.

I haven't tried for ages, but you always used to be able to insure on the frame or chassis number for vehicles that were as yet unregistered.

Well, at least you've made progress. Out of interest, what did they rush you for it?

I'm pretty sure I was at the Aston Down sale this came through!

Robert, I might be interested or able to help, I'm a member of a Vauxhall club in a different life (though older and rarer than Corsas). There are a number of likely clubs. PM me the details.

I'm not sure that matters. Appreciate you can't dilute the focus too much, but Centurion is a massively important tank historically, and there don't seem to be the number around that there were just a few years ago. If we can't justify Cent as part of armoured heritage we're in trouble, post war or not!

Yes, absolutely; I've seen some things in my 20+ years as - I think - a successful buyer. What does baffle me, though, is how often bidders play into the hands of corrupt practice, and how often auctioneers collude with practices that actually cost them money.

If they're the same as the Series 2 truck engine, possibly; if not, probably not.

Getting a gun to fit the better one and exhibiting it as a test bed would be really interesting. I always think it's a shame that unusual vehicles, often of historic interest, get converted back to conventional ones. If the ZR registered one, being early (and therefore perhaps historically interesting), turns out to be a reasonable proposition would it be practical to keep the nice one in test bed form and restore the ZR reg one as an early gun tank?

One thing I hate about auctions is you never quite know what's going on. I must admit I've never quite understood the people who bid in winks, tics and minimalist signals - it seems to me such behaviour enables shill bidding.

Bedford 28 yes, Gardner none so far apart from the LXB injectors mentioned above. Generally speaking, these are either new parts that I've acquired for my projects and am not now going to use, used parts the same, or kept from vehicles that were broken up (the usual 'I might need that'), or parts that came along in job lots I had to acquire to get something I wanted, and I've finally got round to sorting out. If I'm honest I don't know how exciting many of them are - there are a lot of odds & ends - but it'd be a shame to bin parts that someone might have a use for.

Tony, there are some Rootes bits but I don't know what they fit. There are probably some bus bits as well, but they'll be parts common to other things rather than specifically bus e.g. engine parts etc., for example I've got a load of new Gardner LXB injectors. Having said that, there are a load of seat cushions from a Willowbrook bodied Bedford VAS!

Hello all, should have send I need you to PM me your email address, as I don't think I can send it via HMVF. I've edited the original post. Neil, I think there are a few odd AEC bits, not sure if there's anything too exciting but have a look. I'm also still trying to sell that Mk1 Militant FV11008, if you know anyone who might be interested.

Some of you will be aware I've been having a bit of a sort out - see http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?45258-What-s-Sean-got-now I've come across a lot of stuff that either I've bought and not used or aqcuired along the way. I've got no use for it, so it all might as well go to good homes. The bulk is spares for British military and commercial vehicles of the 1940s to 1970s (mostly '50s and '60s), plus some odds and ends. There's anything from odd nuts and bolts to engines, gearboxes and axles, new and used. My focus has been on Bedford and Austin, but there's also odds and ends of a lot of other stuff; Rootes Group, BMC, Leyland, Thornycroft, Perkins, Jaguar, Scammell and stuff that's of general use. I've put together a list of what I've found so far, and I'm still digging! If you'd like a copy of the list so far drop me a message through HMVF, including your email address, and I'll sort one out.

That's a good thought, and one that didn't occur to me for some reason. There's also Facebook Groups if you want discussion, Google Plus, Google Groups, and other social media alternatives. People not using Facebook or whatever need not necessarily be a problem as you can set the privacy setting so non-users can read your content, even if they can't interact. Things to be aware of are whether the Facebook, Google or whoever layout and system works for what you want to do; they are very much designed to be used a particular way, which might or might not work for your purposes, and the options you get for layout, image placement etc. are pretty restricted. You also have to remember that, as Pzkpfw-e says, there's no such thing as a free lunch - and there's a saying that on a commercial site if it's not obvious what the product is, it's you. That means with social media you have to do things their way and let them into your life a bit; their interest is in leveraging your personal information and content. That might be a price worth paying, it might not.

Don't know Chris, it seems to have made those two very tail heavy...

I was once told by someone who should know that buying things in Russia is no problem, but you have to grease everyone's palms to get your purchase out! If that's still the case, eastern Europe might be a better bet.

Austin, give me a shout when you're ready, I haven't got anything major but I am coming up with Thames E4 parts while sorting, be glad to help out.

I think you'll struggle to get genuinely free hosting that hasn't got major catches - essentially, their costs are storage and bandwidth, both of which they'll want you to pay for somewhere. The traditional way of doing this used to be to use the free hosting that came with a personal internet account, but I don't know of any service provider who does that any more, or to piggyback onto a favourably minded organisation or company who were happy to support your organisation. I don't have any suggestions apart from that, I'm afraid, but if you need reliable free hosting it'll need a bit of lateral thinking.

Thanks Richard, thought it might be given the other Q4 bits I've found. I suspect that means it'll do the 2wd Superpoise of the same shape as well.

LV7/HR/HL/KR/CM (so Rootes Group, obviously) W10375 - Hose Top Water Pipe - 7" long, about 1 3/4" bore, and ribbed - ring a bell with anyone?

First photo looks like another case of smokey old Gardner as well!

Lot of truth in that. At auction it needs two to push the price up, but the flip side of that is it only needs two. I've seen plenty of silly prices at auctions because two buyers got into a bidding war, or because the buyer and underbidder were buying for different reasons to the usual market; particularly when the prices bid are silly money to Joe Public but loose change to them. The unfortunate side effect is when the normal market starts to look at these prices and think they put silly values on everything!