Jim Clark

Sunday 30th September. Up at 7.00 for roll call then breakfast, all the meals were provided by the 2nd Armoreds own WW2 field kitchen for the whole trip and very good it was. Feeding 120 plus men is no undertaking with 2 hot meals each day. At 9.30 there was a talk by a local historian who told us about the fighting in that area. 11.00 there was an organised trip to the Liberty museum in Overloon, I can recommend any who has not been before to visit the museum as it is very good. I took loads of photos of a couple of exhibits as I am restoring the same vehicles here and needed some info on missing parts. 14.45 we had our hot meal and the broke camp at about 17.00 for a short run through the villages and woods to our camping area, on the way we were attacked by German re-enactors which was very realistic. As we made our way to where we were camping we passed a camper van parked in the woods I think that was the first time the earth had moved for the amorous female inside as the 2 Sherman's rumbled passed, mind you the bloke was a bit hacked off having to stop his antics and move his van to another part of the woods.Makes a whole different meaning to the command "we have been ordered to pull out" Jim.

Friday 28th September, All the British contingent and vehicles assembled at the Copemans farm and then drove to Harwich ferry port. My Sherman ,a Jeep and a Harley went straight to the port from our workshop to save time. We had permission to drive the vehicles including the 2 tanks onto the car ferry, it did cause a bit of interest from other travellers driving through the check points. Saturday 29th september, After the night crossing we docked in the Hook of Holland port where we were met by 4 lowloaders provided by the Dutch army. They moved us to Venlo where we met up with other members on the trip from Belgium,Holland and the Czech republic. We set up camp at a Military Vehicle rally organised by the Dutch MVT. here is a link to a video of us leaving the ferry, plus other footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKOcNJu5blY&list=UU5nVv3PqvcJkrztEkBvceow&index=1&feature=plcp If you go onto Youtube and type in "7th on the move" there is loads of footage on there.

This trip was well documented on the reenactment forums and on 2nd Armoreds own forum. Each year they normally do a trip somewhere in europe. last year they drove from Cherbourge to StMalo in france I did not do that one but I did take the Sherman over to the Czech Republic for 10 days in 2010 for the liberation of Pilsen and Pisek celebrations. Jim.

Ok tim, will post pics and a bit of text about each day of the trip.

Just returned from an eight day tour of the Peel Marshes area near Overloon in Holland . I joined the "Second Armored in Europe's" trip recreating the 7th Armoreds route. We drove all the vehicles on to the ferry at Harwich for the overnight trip to the Hook of Holland. The column consisted of 2 Sherman's, Halftracks, GMCs, Dodges Jeeps and Harley outriders. We would meet up with more vehicles and crews from the continent in Overloon. I drove my Sherman a total of 103miles on the roads and forest tracks with only two minor faults,a fuel pump leak and a stud coming loose on the exhaust manifold. The second armored group has a strict code for clothing, equipment ,vehicles and their markings. As we were retracing the 7th Armored 31st tank battalions route I had to remark my tank also change the name to "America First" which was the name of one of the tanks which was knocked out near Overloon. The other Sherman owned by Gavin Copeman was marked up as "Able Abe" another Sherman knocked out in the battles in the Peel Marshes area. In total there were about 120 of us on the trip and we were all fed from the field kitchen which travelled with us, we lived under canvas in the woods and marsh areas where the battles took place. I have loads of photos if there is enough interest. Jim.

£300 for the Saturday road run and I put another £40 in for the Weymouth parade on Sunday Jim.

Sorry about the title Joris, I did think of useing the other birds names in the title but I thought Blackbird might have been racist, Wren may have upset the Navy, Thrush could have irritated someone, Robin would have started a police investigation. I suppose Wagtail might have been a better option. Jim.

Sorry to disappoint you pmw Degsy , we always check vehicles and equipment for nests as the wildlife seems to love it around here. Hi Bernard, you are right the Magpies are a pain but a .22 or 12gauge seems to even the odds a little. The nests are a work of art, each of them perfectly constructed. Jim.

Over the last few days we were amazed to find in and around our worshops and yard eight different breeds of birds nests. Consisting of Sparrow, Blue tit, Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Thrush, Great tit and a Wagtail all within a few yards of each other. Here are some photos I took of their locations. The Robins nest is in our workshop in the rack of nuts and bolt, they dont seem bothered by our movements or the noisey equipment. The Blackbirds nest is in the corner of our store shed. The Wrens nest is in the roof of one of the M4 HSTs The Great tit has made its home in the exhaust manifold of a Waukesha motor. Under the barrel of an artillery piece we found the Thrushes nest. And last of all the Wagtail found a perfect spot in the corner of a Diamond T chassis Jim.

By popular demand I am putting on a second 40s dance here at our workshops, it is on 5th May (sorry for the short notice) Billed as the "Red Ball Motor Pool 1940s Bash" tickets are £6 which includes food and soft drinks. There will be an honesty bar again for those who like me need a bit of dutch courage to get up on the dance floor. If you are interested give me a call on 01454 261100 to reserve tickets. Please note 1940s dress code to keep in the spirit of the event Post code GL13 9DR Hope to see you there Jim.

Here is the Waukesha 145GZ which is fitted to the M4 HST, if any M4 HST owner is looking for one I have some in stock. This one is going into My M4 Jim.

Hi Joris thanks for your interest , I will post more photos over the next few days as a lot has been done to the HST in the few weeks. i just dont get time to get onto HMVF to post updates. Jim.

I cut the fittings from the old rear panel and welded them into the new one. This was then welded into the rear of the HST, and the towing pintle fitted along with the air brake palm fittings. All the brake air pipes and cylinder have been fitted, I had to make new clamps to replace the old ones. The engine oil filters have been fitted along with the Torque converter fluid filter. The front bumper has been temporary fitted to its side mounts. I had new wiring looms made up, some to sell to other M4 HST owners and some for my own HSTs. I have fitted mine and had to make loads of "P" clips of different sizes to attach the loom to the hull. As you can see all the wires are the same colour but they have numbers on the ends of the cables to show where they fit. Jim.

Work has progressed on the HST since my last post, I have made all the hoses for the gear box and torque converter and fitted them. The air tank was like a pepperpot so I cut out the ends and had a new cylinder rolled. I then welded the ends back in plus all the other fittings. The dashboard was rough so I stripped it of all swiches and instruments, sandblasted it then painted it. All the switches and gauges were cleaned and checked and are ready to refit i will post more photos tomorrow if time permits. Jim.

Jack I am on step No4 now, Glueing both halves of engine together, but I have run out of glue which has slowed things up a bit. You did realise its 1-35th scale didnt you? Im trying to down size with all this credit crunch thing. Jim.

Thanks Alastair, yes it is quite heavy but we have the forklift to do this sort of work. Jim.

Sorry, what I should have said was !" diameter x 3" long. Jim.

Last weekend I gave the hull 2 coats of red oxide and then top coated it in our own light olive paint. I have not refitted the rear panel yet because it is easier to get in and out of the hull to do all the fitting up. When the paint was dry I fitted the transmission, this is held in with four 1inch bolts. Jim.

I had a new rear panel pressed up out of 4mm steel It was then trimmed to shape to fit the rear of the hull. I then marked out all the holes and fitting positions for the pintel hook, winch rope exit hole etc and cut them out using a plasma cutter. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. I cut all the fittings and fixtures off the old rotten rear panel to use again and welded these onto the new panel Jim.

Not a stupid question at all, I dont label things as if you have taken something apart its just reversing the procedure. Having said that if the vehicle you are working on has been modified or chopped about ( like this one has ) it makes it a bit more challenging. If I get stuck I do have another untouched HST in the yard to have a look at. Jim. Forgot to say I do take loads of photos of stuff as I remove it, this helps routing cables and pipe work etc

The box sections on the hull were pretty rotten so I made new ones and welded them in before putting the new side in. The mounting for the towing hitch was also moved by the previous owner,it had been fitted upside down beneath its correct position. I cut it off cleaned it up and rewelded back in its original position. jim.

With A and E 2012 coming up soon I thought I had better start on the M4 HST again. I know its been 2 years since I last posted on this thread, but other projects and work got in the way. Anyway here is an update of the progress I have made. Last summer we blasted the hull and all the running gear ,transmission etc. The bottom 6inches of the side was perforated over about 7 foot so I removed the center and rear wheel stations to cut out and weld in a new length of steel. The rear panel had been cut out by the previous owners so I had a new one pressed up out of 4mm sheet steel, i will post more pics of this later when I have uploded them. Jim

We did try my Mack pulling Jasons trailer with my tank, the problem is the Mack does not have enough gears. Jasons DT has 12 forward gears (4 in the main box and 3 in the splitter box) my Mack has 5 and like the GMcs etc the gaps are just too big. Second third and forth were no trouble but to go into fifth the revs dropped below the turbo boost and it struggled to gain speed. Once the turbo came in she was away again, what I need is a couple more gears in between. I could change it for a more modern box with more gears bit I would then loose the winch and front axle drive. Lets face it the DT was designed for the job and the Mack was not. Jim.

Hi Degsy, not exactly sure of true fuel consumption because all of the trips I have done were following Jasons DT,trailer with the Sherman. So the trip to Brixham of 120 miles took about eight hours returned approx 7mpg, but if I had done the same distance on my own the journey would take about four to four and a half hours so my estimation it would do approx 10-12 mpg because the running time of engine is less. It probably uses the same amount of fuel crawling behind the DT as it does at 30mph with light throttle.It has so much grunt you dont need to change gear much and it pull like a train I hope this makes sence. Perhaps I will take it out for a run and do a more efficient check. Jim.