Zero-Five-Two

Selection of photos of the other goings on recently, as well as painting the cab. First off Diesel Security. I have this paranoia that some nefarious little Creature will stuff something in the tank while I am at a show. I have heard several stories of this happening to people with disasterous results on the way home. This is the original design with fairly easy access to the filler And this is the modified version. I adjusted the door ages ago, but have now extended the front plate, so only way to get to the filler is to open the locker door. Now it's painted green, it looks original too. Wont stop the determined diesel thief, but does make it a good deal less accessible. Had to manufacture a mounting plate for the rear number plate, as the original had long since rotted away First off, make a plywood template, and cut out the tin plate to fit Cut wire and fit to inside of folded edge Tap over to roll in and paint in primer Cut out hole for light unit and have a trial fit of number plate. Obviously this is the Military reg and for show use only. Civilian number plate for traveling home just fits over the top. Note the wing nuts holding it in place Close up of wingnut fitting. Last bit, fit light unit and paint DBG. Speaking of DBG, checked out the cab this morning, still looks impressive, paint has hardened off well, but I don't like the rust marks in the front bumper so I think that will get a bit of reworking. But not this weekend. I didn't fancy getting into too much work today as I'm away on holiday for the next two weeks, so just had a bit of a trial on cleaning the tank, see what works best. Used a mixture of sanding discs and wire cup brush on the grinder. Having been extolling the virtues of Silverline brushes on another thread, I can't say the same for their sanding discs. I started using 80 grit, but the abrasive bit separates from the velcrove backing, before it has sanded very much. Quick visit to local paint shop and picked up some 40 grit mirka discs which worked much better. Still took a couple of hours to get this it cleaned off. Couple of coats of Bondaprimer finished the job. Took most of the day to get this far, and that tank is going to take some time to get it all cleaned off. Nice job for the coming winter months

Gotta have a bit of faith in your own abilities. Not sure about the double stack of batteries, though, you might have trouble clamping them down

Few pics of her unmasked. Well pleased with the job

Did get a couple of runs in awkward places, and a little overspray on a bit, but they will polish out. It was one of my better jobs

Looking good, surprising how much a clean up and fresh coat of paint can transform something

Couldn't have got a better one, perfect temperature too. Being sunday there weren't any buses or people coming in or out to stir up any dust.

Hands up who wants to see a Tanker in Deep Bronze Green? Been a heck of a lot of work over the last couple of weekends, flatting off the primer and touching up the odd dink and chip that has occurred during fitting. Started early this morning with final DA-ing of the last bits Then dust off, wash off and tack rag all round. before masking up The patient is prepared Got to start somewhere, actually I started on the roof, but this was the most difficult bit, especially with the second coat, trying to spray one side without sticking to the other side. There was also a bit of laying down on the job too Have I missed anywhere? Nearside finished View from the top Offside looking very shiny. Paint is still quite wet at the time of the photo, but it was still shining after we had packed up. Appears to be drying nicely. Can't wait until tomorrow to unmask it and see how it looks once it is properly dried. Well pleased with the days efforts. Spare wheel carrier can go back on now, along with the tool bin that is currently underneath the thing. Start work on the tank after that

You just need to get the right ones. These cone shaped ones are awful. When spinning the wires tend to splay out sideways, giving limited cleaning capabilities, and bits of wire then flick off in all directions. These Silverline ones are far and away the best. The extra metal ring holds the wires straight and you can really dig in to heavily rusted bits. I use 65mm ones, there are bigger available, but they tend to put too much strain on the grinder. They do lose the occasional wire, so goggles, gloves and a decent pair of coveralls are essential. Ear defenders and a dust mask are a good idea to.

Having had the verniers accross mine, it is 7/8" and the fine thread is about 1.5" long. The one in your picture looks like it would do, nicely. I'll send you a PM

Many thanks, Gents, appreciate the assistance. It's one of the best things about this forum, there's always someone who can help you out. I will have a proper measure up of the thing today.

Yes mate, it is. Service line at the front, so not a major disaster. Union on the pipe is good, and I do have a spare short thread fitting. But it really needs the longer bulkhead one with locknut to mount it onto the chassis. I could replace the whole thing with a modern one, but I'm trying to keep it as original as possible with the fine thread

Hoping someone can assist me with an Air Pipe Union Problem on my Tanker. Pipe connections and unions use a very fine thread, as shown below, making it very easy to get a problem. As you can see in the second picture, I've had a bit of an issue while removing the lock nut. Thread inside the nut is in a similar condition The ideal solution would be to find a new union and lock nut, if anyone has a spare. Or, a tap and die to recut these or make new ones, I'm not sure what size it is, even. Measures approximately 7/8" diameter. Thanks for looking, all advice gratefully received

Apparently it starts and runs, they are asking £3,500

That used to belong to forum member 16SVT. But that was 5 or 6 years ago. He was trying to find a cab top half for it. Guess he never found one and passed it on.

Has to be AEC Matador. As a kid I bought loads of the Airfix models of them, and always wanted a real one. Into Militants now, but still love the old Mat. Might get one one day

Been studying my Mk1 Militant parts book, and that does look a lot like the one in the picture. Book is too old for NATO stock numbers. Steering column number is listed as M0337 if any one else can take identification further. As John1950 mentioned earlier Forum member Hutch from Ireland is having major problems with his militant and a new column could solve all his issues. I'll give him a shout in case he hasn't seen this

I've been using Bondaprimer for a long time now, with excellent results. Usually do 2 coats. Have to put a grey under coat on top of it, though, before the top coat otherwise it tends shows through on corners and edges

At the Weald of Kent Steam Rally this weekend, a varied show of not just traction engines, but cars, tractors, commercial vehicles and an ever increasing selection of Military stuff too. These 2 in particular caught my attention, The show is held on private ground at Woodchurch, Kent. Geezer that owns it collects vintage planes and uses this Bedford as their refueller. Cat D7 and Onions 8 cu yard scraper, was one of the show entrants. Cat isn't ex Military, just painted green, but the onions certainly was, there is various markings all over it. I trained on these during my apprenticeship at AAC Chepstow 1976. Nice to see it being used, bought back lots of memories

Snapped these 4 at the Weald of Kent Steam Rally this weekend. Not military I know but a Matador is a Matador.

Thanks Richard, it was watching Paul do the other one that pointed me in the right direction. Looking forward to going to Woodchurch, but not with Tanker. I intend getting her in DBG before she is seen in public. Will be tarting up the Timber Tractor tomorrow. We'll have a chat at some point over the weekend

Hope the new job and parking facility work out alright for you, but good to see you are still making progress with the old girl, even if it is a bit slower than you would like. If you are struggling with the wiper linkage and spindles, you could try these people; Transervex of Bootle. They mainly supply the bus and coach market, but have a massive range of parts in stock and can make/repair to order.

Not achieved much since the grand run out, in the great scheme, but a fair bit of smaller results, have kept the progress going. First up, repair the damage caused by urolling the spare wheel into the blast skirt a while back, Tried straightening it up on the truck but it wasn't happening right, so whole lot had to come off and back home to the workshop. Couple of hours of panel beating, bit of heat in the right place and a fresh rivet in the end made all the difference. Tiny bit of filler in the hammer marks and a fresh smear of Bondaprimer and it looks like new. Awaiting a touch up of under coat here and I can bung it back on ready for DBG. One of the issues picked up on the run out, the other week, was the lack of charging from the dynamo. Timber Tractor came in handy here for diagnosing the problem. Spent half the weekend charging up and down the M2 between the Tanker at Swanley and the Timber Tractor on the farm, calling in at the home workshop on the way. Raided the control box out of the Timber Tractor, then up to Swanley and bunged it into the tanker. Start engine and it all charges nicely. Rush back down to the farm, put Tanker control box into Timber Tractor and get no charge. Proves Tanker dynamo and wiring are OK, so get both boxes on the bench at home and compare the two. Tanker box on the left. Bit dirtier than the Timber Tractor one, but nothing obviously wrong. Had a similar problem a couple of years ago and had to get an electrician friend of Richard Farrant to sort it. I watched while he cleaned and adjusted the contacts on the coils in the right hand side of the unit. He explained that these control the warning light on the dash and subsequently the charge output. Contacts on the tanker box were very black and not actually touching enough to make a connection. Thought I was on a winner, quick clean up and reset the gap, all looked good, so rush down the farm to try it. No change, still not charging, so back home to try again. Put a meter across various terminals and found very high resistances between contacts in the coils on the input/left side. Striped out the two contacts and although they were a bit discoloured, they seemed OK. But further testing with the meter and I found the highest resistance was where they mounted onto the frame. Careful cleaning here as they are quite delicate bits, resistance cleared, then back to the farm once more and try it again. Success this time, so refit Tractors original box, and back out to the M2 to refit the Tankers box. Pleased to say it is all good, nice 28 volt charge at anything above tickover, just as it should be. No idea how much diesel I used on this little jaunt, it's 50 miles each way, but I did get the result I was hoping for.

AEC Militant is roughly the same size as a Hippo, and has the same 1400 tyres. Handbook for the Militant shows two sets of pressures for normal road use. For the short wheel base gun tractor: 47 psi Front, 67 Rear For the long wheelbase cargo: 50 Front and 95 Rear. I find with my Timber Tractor, that when she is first run out at the beginning of the year, after being parked up all winter, the ride is very hard and bouncy. But after a good soaking of the leaf springs in WD 40 or similiar, plus couple of hundred miles or so of driving to shows etc in the spring, she calms down and becomes a bit more respectable. Took the Tanker out for its first test run recently and that was quite a hard ride. I'm expecting that to improve the more use it gets. So your Hippo may be the same, suspension has got to get broken in so to speak. As for tyres getting warm, it doesn't really happen. 1400 tyre is a big lump of rubber to get any heat into as it dissipates out too quickly.

Looking beautiful in the DBG. Please excuse my ignorance, but what are the front markings, 163 and XII

You would have thought it would be, being fuel related, but no, all standard chassis earth. However, handbook states electric to be isolated when loading or discharging fuel.