simon king

Is it to give more clearance for fitting traction chains around the pair of wheels perhaps?

Does anybody know the dimensions of the weight and dimension cards onto which details were chalked to assist with loading onto ships in the run up to D-Day. These were either taped onto the outside of vehicles like tanks or placed in the windscreen of cabbed vehicles.

thanks

In addition to the knowledge available here, there is an excellent resource for information on Jeeps used by the British Army at the Facebook British Army Jeep Research page.

If you have not signed up, it would be well worth your while. It is a very friendly, well managed group.

Still haven’t got a composite picture of the two together.....

Just don’t use M4938625, as there are a couple of those around already😂

That’s the same pump as fitted to my MWR.

1 hour ago, Duson said:

Well done Simon, fantastic restoration. I wonder where you got he dash two-pin socket from, is it a replica?

Thanks for that. The red and black sockets came from Paul Beck Vintage Car Spares in Malvern. They are reproduction items.

Another step forward. Windscreen back on.

Hi Jim

are you using standard gaskets or the copper sandwich ones available from Norman Aish?

If the standard ones, are you sure that they are orientated the correct way as apparently you can put them on the wrong way - leading to a leaky join between the head and manifold.

simon

No....that post war body has been transferred from a trailer chassis on to the back of the CMP chassis. It is therefore non-original..

I am sure that Trading Standards at Hull City Council also be very interested to hear of your experience with this firm.

Somebody I know had similar problems with this same company a few years ago. He got the item eventually but I seem to recall him waiting years rather than months for the said item.

It became a standard greeting to ask him if he had received his item yet.......

Thanks Adrian, was interested to see how this progressed. I guess that’s the answer.

Any progress you can report on this detailed restoration?

On 1/21/2020 at 6:12 PM, Richard Farrant said:

The were jeep body kits coming in from the Philipines about 40 years ago with no real details to them, nothing to make them recognisable as Willys or Ford and no one seemed bothered then, just get it on and use it. I remember a friend buying one at that time. Could be one of them.

Those were the Genmarc bodies. The firm’s name was a contraction of General Marcos. I guess their primary intended use was for jeepney taxis.

Thanks Richard, that's useful, just got to get my frames repaired now

Richard, I was thinking of putting a thin spacer under the central post so that it would be possible to remove the binnacle without undoing the central post. It is still retained by the 4 c/s screws across the top, even if it is not trapped by the L-bracket at the bottom of the post.

Do you think it’s workable?

John,

If that part number on the drop arm is 1031864, which it appears to be on my tablet, then that is the drop arm used for the first 4000 Bedford  MWs suggesting that the column might be from an aeroscreen MW

Recent little projects have included refurbishment of the previously gutted MWR-specific CAV control box to maintain the original outwards appearance whilst adding a modern unit within the shell linked to the original connections and a rework of the manifolds to reinstate the heat control valve, replacing the two nuts and bolts through the holes in the sides of the manifold.

Been a while since I posted on here, but progress continues, even if life tends to throw a few curved balls at me along the way.

Progress (woodwork by me, metalwork generally by others) has included

Completion of 19 Set installation

repair of the three original lockers

build of a new offside rear locker to match nearside locker

build of two new metal bins of the correct size

build of three battery frames to match the one original

build of two operators seats to match one original

build of new frame and cover for charging panel

strip down of cab, and repairs as necessary - all holes drilled and dowelled

build of new gutter panel

obtained/made correct Bedford pattern seats and mounts including adjuster mechanism

repair of battery box

refurb of instrument binacle, including commissioning transfers for CAV switchboard

repair of generator footstep box

repairs to radiator panel

repairs to radiator shroud

repairs to front wings

build of new can carrier

stripdown of engine compartment -where work continues

Some photos of progress

With my luck you wouldn’t want to!

The jeep will be refinished as M1501912 the next time around in case by some chance we ever attend the same show.....although would anybody actually notice? 

Pete, I feel some empathy as we both ended up with a Jeep carrying the same British census number, you by research and me by choosing a number at random, based on the age of the vehicle. As you say always two ways to skin a cat.

The jeep was a ground up restoration from a bare chassis, but my Bedford, because of its distant and open fronted, rough floored, location has to be a bit by bit restoration. Much as I’d like to strip it to a bare frame, it isn’t practical. The result will be the same... I hope.....but will take longer. Flexibility and the ability to develop alternative plans are therefore always helpful as well.

The Christmas cracker joke metaphor.....”how do you eat an elephant.....one bite as a time” also pertains. I also treat individual parts, such as the manifolds or areas such as the driver’s cab or the engine compartment as an individual restoration project to be completed before moving on to the next sub project. Some of the smaller sub projects can be brought home to work on. On long projects, it gives you a psychological boost to complete sub projects rather than feeling the whole thing stretching into infinity.

Just the views of another old fart to be used or ignored as appropriate.

Have you got a body for the Matador, or perhaps a lead on one? Alternatively, is your current plan to build it from scratch. There seem to be a lot of metal fittings in that body.

Does anybody know how to integrate a Lucas RB340 voltage regulator into the electrics of a Bedford MW?

What terminals on the RB box need to be connected to what wires in an original pattern MW loom? (I have gone for standard MW wiring)

I have built a RB340 regulator into the shell of the original MWR Lucas Type 142/1 box and now need to connect the new regulator internally to the terminals of the original box. I could and can wait for my auto electrician to advise, but I would like to at least try and get the control box buttoned up and painted if at all possible 

Terminals on the RB340 are  Earth, Dynamo, Warning Light, Dynamo Field, Battery Pos  which is linked to Output to Fuse Box.

Any assistance from Bedford electrics experts would be welcomed.

thanks

MWR fitments need clarifying for posterity if nothing else...

Engine generator uses type 142 on the engine bulkhead

Auxiliary (battery charging) dynamo uses type 141/2 in the rear body

You can buy laser cut steel discs on eBay and then easily make your own support legs with steel tube