RattlesnakeBob

Adrian you don't have to answer this at all or completely but .....Have you kept an accurate account of what such a superb restoration has cost you ? Even if it only amounts to just 'what you paid for her , plus all the bits you've bought'.... I totally understand that calculating your time and what you should / could have earnt instead of messing about with her is probably very nigh on an impossible thing to calculate ( or admit here on the forum where yer missus might see it ! ) Just curious really and I don't of course expect you to reveal at all what it has actually cost ....that would be impudent to ask at the very least : )

truly superb stuff ...

great stuff .....some might say " well it's only a little trailer " but I applaud this as much as any restoration of something like a jeep or a tank ...well done ....When I was in my teens I worked in a huge old engineering company and they had literally dozens of similar trailers scattered around the massive yard for shifting big and small bits of stuff about behind little industrial tractors we called 'dumpers' ... All of them had come from ex ministry sales after the war including one of the 'dumpers' which I realised many years later was a typical David BRown ex RAF tractor with the huge thick cast iron rear mudguards . Good for you for saving something that so many would have walked past in complete disinterest

call me a heathen but .....a non 4x4 Landrover seems akin to alcohol free booze , non nicotine fags , decaffeinated coffee etc :) :)

Has anyone out there got a good name / contact / company etc for rebuilding /renovating steering boxs?... I'm doing some work on my old Hudson and the box is currently in pieces on the bench...Lots of wear just about every where although the worm and nut doesn't seem so bad, both the top and bottom column bearings will need replacing. The biggest problem is the inner race on the top end of the worm is badly worn so will require grinding / machining to a new size and bearings found to suite............(the inner races for the top and bottom bearings are integral to the worm )........ Any tips ? Hints suggestions welcome ......... I've spoken to a company in Birmingham called ICS who were very helpful and seemed quite confident of being able to sort it but before I head off up the M5 I just wondered..are there any others out there you've maybe used before ? Thanks in advance Bob

One I've used for years on Landrovers is.......a good quality heavy duty chain for locking up a motorbike......and an equally good quality padlock..............when you park the truck up , turn the wheels in full lock one way or the other preferably against a wall...........wind the chain through and around a spoke of the steering wheel and down around the clutch pedal as tight as you can get it to be ..stick the padlock through the links of the chain joing it together and bobs yer uncle.......... without removing it , a thief can't turn the steering wheel to roll it off your drive and they can't dip the clutch to drive it either......also you can concrete in a suitably hefty mooring type steel ring to your drive and wind another similar chain around an axle and through the ring... I always relied on the 'visual' aspect of security as much as anything else....I work on the theory that any would be thief would look at one of my vehicles and think to himself " oh bugger that , it;s gonna take at least half an hour to get all those chains and locks off.....I'll go and look somewhere else....." ........ and hopefully if they did start trying to snaggle the chains off?.... my dog gang is going to be making some kinda noise barking and a hollering and a snapping and a snarling ..........and I'm gonna be on the way down the stairs with my pick handle at the ready

Interesting thread ...... I admit to very rarely buying any magazines these days but I can very much appreciate the difficulties there are these days with keeping a magazine 'successful' whilst juggling cover price / subscriptions / sales / advert revenue / content etc especially when the internet has really impacted ' real paper' sales as it has ... I think some of the comments have been a little harsh as we need to appreciate this aspect of what goes into making a 'good' magazine...... and don't forget ......a magazine can't rely on the 'dedicated' always buying ....they need to attract new customers and even if they are only the 'glanced at it on the shelf in the newsagents and bought it once cos the cover caught my eye' kind of sales.......... Also there are new people coming to any hobby every week ...the kid that is into his hotted up Japanese hatchbacks at 18?.......... may well be into something totally different by the time he is 22 ......so I guess this is why the 'buying your first **** type articles are always popular .....even if the rest of us grumpy old men think " oh fer christsakes! not another article about how to buy a Jeep / Landrover / Tiger tank (though I'd just slip that one in ) etc !!!! everyone knows all of this already !" .....the truth is of course..... there are many people out there buying magazines every week, simply because they do NOT know all of 'that kind of stuff' already ........ The same can be said of course about 'clubs' and the kind of talk that goes around in them . Many years ago I was in the AWDC and a few years back had occasion to bump into some of my old mates that are still 'in' for a drink ...after a while I couldn't believe that the chat among them all , was exactly the same as it had been . getting on for 30 years before ..........Things had moved on but .....not by very much at all...... The same issues and arguments and opinions were STILL being debated and the magazine scene for 'enthusiasts' of any vehicles / hobbies etc is probably somewhat the same ........so I guess we shouldn't be that surprised to see / read 'the same old things' being 'gone over' periodically ......... Anyways ......! I wish John all the best . I haven;t bought CMV for a good few years but may well pick it up next year once he takes over ....... as long as it doesn't have an article on the front on 'Buying your first Landrover !' :) :)

I admit to being one of those that wouldn't bother nowadays to ring unless there was an idea of the price required...... I know honesty is the best policy etc and all that kind of stuff but...when I've rung up for something and find that the price being asked is ridiculous...... I find it hard to be totally honest and say " mate ...you gotta be having a laugh! get out of it !!!!" which is probably what needs saying..... but that still seems to me to be a bit rude (call me too 'old fashioned' or 'daft' or whatever you want) ..... My feelings are I guess , if someone is naive/stupid enough to think their item is worth maybe 5 or 10 times what the going rate is ?... then who am I to go and spoil their fantasy ? Plus...lets be honest .....if someone is asking lets say £10,000 for something you know is really only worth £5000 ?...then such a clown as would be asking double it's true value ?...is hardly likely to be prepared to 'haggle' as far as the 'sensible land' the rest of us live in ..... To be fair I've often tried to buy things off such folk in the past and have given up as the situation is obviously hopeless.........and in many of those such cases the item / vehicle etc that I've been trying to buy ?.. has stayed with the buyer for many years afterwards and continued to rot away ....( often to only end up being scrapped for a pittance of what he was originally asking despite repeated attempts to buy it......but that's another story all together ) To sum up ... I far prefer the 'old fashioned' way of , stating the price and then adding 'o.n.o.' to the end of it ....at least then a prospective purchaser knows what the vendor is 'roughly expecting' .... and you also both also know there is some haggling to be done

I don't know what the going rate for a derelict Landrover is in Canada but..... whether you buy it or not depends on .... A: How much have you gotta pay for it and B: are you ready willing and able to do all the work and also C:.... which is ...... Do you have any foolish crazy notions of getting your money back and making a profit ?... (Which if you are hopeful of ?.... brings me to suggest you should be seeking medical help instead of buying any more Landrovers )

Hey up folks :) ... There's a grand sale coming up on Saturday December the 3rd at the Ledbury Salerooms of HJ Pugh Auctioneers............ http://www.hjpugh.com/new.html'>http://www.hjpugh.com/new.html Follow the link and click for the catalogue of this sale .......work your way through 'til the good stuff starts about 3 or 4 pages in .......... Lots and lots of very varied itms of WW2 memoribilia including signs for 'Unexploded bomb' / 'Air Raid Shelter' etc etc... .lots of tin helmets of British and German variants , some deactivated Hand Grenades and inert Training Hand Grenades , lots of regimental badges , various items of uniform , a few deactivated Lee Enfield Rifles and also some wooden training rifles too and a few different sights of artillery guns...and !! what looks to me like a complete genuine WW2 Mine Detector in a wooden case too ! Gotta be something there somebody on here can make use of ? I've been to a few sales there and it's a brisk affair, they get through the lots fairly quickly and they seem a friendly enough bunch ......be thou wary of the buyers premium though!! Parking is a bit limited in their yard so you need to be there early-ish to get an easy enough space so you can load up at the end of the day with all your goodies! Also....... There are a lot of cast iron and enamel signs in the sale of various sorts ......perfect if you are setting up a 'period' type of display or filling a museum ?? ............most appear to be genuine although do look carefully because this saleroom often has a lot of 'reproduction' stuff mixed in among the items:) http://www.hjpugh.com/new.html

Sir !! I have to say I very much like your attitude and approach to things and do think we'd get on well

great to hear ! ...I can't fault a fella who keeps buying tanks

truly staggering prices......did someone really honestly pay 142,000 Euros for a Cushman Scooter ???? well over a hundred £ ?!?!?!?! ..... I am off to the shed to build some genuine WW2 ones .....

Thats a grand little machine for sure .. .....a crawler vehicle thats within most folks reach to yearn for I'd say small enough to fit in a garden shed and not too massive and heavy that you couldn't do any work on it without a gantry , a forklift or a hernia ....and also rinkydink enough to go on a normal sort of trailer to take to shows etc......and........it's got tracks so it's win win ! A mate of mine had something similar many years ago but very sadly never got around to restoring it and it went for scrap ....sacrilige I know and I should add , I never knew he was clearing his yard otherwise I'd have bought it .... ...his was called a 'Calf Dozer' ...now whether that was it's proper name or a name that folk just gave to mini bull dozers back then ? I don't know ?.....not sure what make it was either?.... but you sat on the front , right above the blade....a bit hairy in todays H&S obsessed world as it would have seemed very easy to fall off it 'frontwards' and end up under the blade it would have appeared very similar to this ....

although I totally understand the history of this particular vessel and applaud the fella trying to save her.. ....there is one very similar to this one ...( at least to my eyes) for sale in gloucester docks .....in very good condition and very useable and it's been for sale for about 2 years so far with no takers.....

I converted my Hudson to electronic ignition and it's wonderful ......lots better starting and very smooth running and the kit was superb and so easy to fit too... I fitted it in less than half an hour including very slight adjusting to get her running spot on .....I found the advert in an American car magazine and they claimed to be able to supply for any car ....so .... rang the guy thinking " lets see if he can supply one for a 1946 Hudson" and the chap was fantastic ...he asked if he could check his stock and rang back in less than 20 minutes to say yes he could do one for my car....he even wrote me out a personalised installation for my car as it is 6 volt positive earth and he also recommended a different coil which I ordered ...the whole lot came within a couple of days and I was even moved to ring him after fitting it to say how happy I was with how ridiculously easy and straightforward it was.... http://www.pertronix.com

goes to show there is still stuff to be found in the UK lying in yards and sheds......there does look to be some other goodies in that yard too Always beggars me though that folk can still something such as a jeep out in the weather rotting away

Excellent stuff You boys need to see this site.... ..... there is a whole community of folk out there that absolutely delight in stringing scammers along as far as is possible.......read a few of the stories in the 'archive' section..some of them are incredible and will have you in stitches Amongst many hilarious tales on there , my particular favourite is how one very clever fella managed to dupe a scammer into narrating the entire book of 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' to tape in his heavy African accent. By some very clever bull**** , this fella convinced the scammer that he was in fact a very well established and wealthy book publisher in London....and that he would pay the fella 'may thousands of pounds' as he could sell 'many copies' to ex-pat Africans living in the UK who would pay well for an 'audio' version of that story done in an accent that Africans could relate to I kid you not...you need to read them .... http://www.419eater.com/

now thats proper grand and a right useful bit of kit too !

Hells teeth that fella straddling the bike in the last picture is an absolute monster of a chap

A quick question .........do any AEC Armoured cars survive ?.. either as museum exhibits or , preserved and going out and about around the shows ?...especially the MK1 ? Thanks

Bought this old girl today ...well..... she's not that 'old' really compared to some of the other vehicles I own ! ha! She's an ex army 1985 Landrover 90 with a 2.5NA engine and is in a really cracking 'unmolested' ex army condition. Someone who I know and trust entirely fitted her with P.A.S. when she came out the services and he did a very tidy job too but other than that?... She's in absolutely 'bog standard' army condition , literally in exactly the same order that she was used by and came out of the Army. I shall be doing some research into her service record as soon as I get the time but as far as I can work out she 'retired' about 10 years ago and I know she has had extremely 'light domestic use' ever since... I wasn't particularly looking for a 90 but what attracted me to her is that she hasn't been messed about with at all and she really drives and feels as 'tight as a nut'....no slop, no clunking, nothing out or order and every does exactly what it should...... I'll get some more pictures up for your perusal as soon as I can but meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to owning a 'new' Landrover for a change ! src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h27/smiffy_2006/IMG_5710.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_5710.jpg"/></a>

Marvellous to see such an 'unusual' vehicle being renovated and used again . I guess everyone would love a tank or something else equally as exoctic but I can well see the attraction and the practicality of having a crane ! For many years I had a Coles Argus (think it was an Argus ?) on my yard. I still have the manufacturers plate on my workshop wall, she was built by the 'British Crane and Excavator Corporation of Sunderland' and was serial number 22094 ..........so I think that dates her as being an early 60s model? Supposedly rated at a 6 ton lift she would and often did get called upon to lift much more. Her personal 'best' was a lift of very nearly 11 tons but to do that ?.... and to any H&S fellas out there please don't read or at least please ignore this bit ........ I ran the one side of her up onto a ramp made of railway sleepers, 2 high......... then slewed her round to that side so that the whole crane was tilted backwards before I started.....then we backed the low loader under the jib and away you go .. It's the 'point of balance' that will stop a Coles Cranes lifting more... The actual lift hoists / motors etc seem to be capable of lifting way more than their factory rating of 6 tons or whatever they may be. In the case of this big lift all I did was hoist the load up so that the low loader trailer could pull out from underneath her...I certainly wouldn't have tried slewing or 'travelling' the crane with such a load on the hook. The only time I very nearly came to proper grief and had her over?.... was due to what you mentioned above , unlevel ground ....Ironically this was with a very small, (probably less than half ton) load on the hook. What happened was ......... Travelling across my yard with a small cylindrical tank on the hook one front wheel went into a particularly deep pothole which caused her to 'dip' suddenly and unexpectedly sway that way ....this caused the small load to swing in that direction like a pendulum........then as the offending front wheel came up out of the pothole this caused the crane to lurch back the other way ..with the effect that the load which had swung way WAY out of the 'circle of lift' ( for want of a better description) came swinging back in the opposite direction and going WAY out of the circle of lift to the other side .....She lurched so badly that she lifted the 'outside' wheel each time the load swung....acting automatically I lifted my foot off the travel pedal which then also caused the load then to swing 'forwards' violently on account of how suddenly I had stopped and then to come hurtling back to wards the cab and colliding violently with the RSJ frame we'd thankfully cobbled onto the front of her many years before to protect the radiator and cab from such a foreseen but unexpected event ........It all got very hairy as I couldn't decide whether to abandon ship out of the open door or to stay put or to try and leap out of the window to my left and make my escape across the top of the engine housing .... the way the load was swinging and the crane lurching I couldn't actually decide which way to try and go as the way my luck usually runs is whichever way I went would surely have been the way she finally decided to go over Thankfully things did calm down as the weight of the crane finally overcome the exaggerated effect of the pendulum like swinging load..... but it was a very 'interesting' 30 seconds or so and one that I will never forget The lesson that day I guess was 'Be thou aware of complacency' .....When setting out to lift what we know is a big load I think we'd always be careful ......but it was the complacency that day of it being a very small load and shifting that little tank from one side of the yard to the other was something I didn't even think of ... .. So ...you are very correct to wary ....watch out for potholes and any other discrepancy in the ground you may lift and travel over !

Def agree....the worst I 've ever encountered was a very tidy Series One Landrover in a local garage that had been used as a little tow truck for many years before being dumped in their back yard. I must have gone in there a dozen times over the years and asked about it over and over....... only to be continually told "No!! it's not for sale" I'd always say the same thing "well.....here's my number please don't forget to ring me if you do decide to sell it one day !" I left them with very fair offers in cash many of the times that I dropped by ....always polite too.....about 15 years ago the garage was sold up for demolition and development for few houses and on hearing they'd closed and were clearing the yard etc I hot footed it up there.......too late...The fella that owned it actually said "oh that old thing went to the scrapyard weeks ago......you should have come by if you wanted it ! We can't keep everything just in case somebody wants it you know ! " At that point my previous politeness very nearly deserted me Against that I should say I have had some small chunks of luck over the years. I acquired a wonderful and pretty much complete BSA Bantam in a load of scrap that I was picking up ......the fella said " here! chuck this on your truck whilst you're here !" I didn't argue with him

I really don't know why this attitude persists but ...I have several theories ..... One seems to be bordering on almost 'jealousy' that you may , just may... turn their pile of scrap into a gorgeous and valuable vehicle and they either can't be bothered to do it themselves or lack the money or ability how to. Another which is just as bad is when you are trying to buy something off them of.... "I saw one of those at an auction last year and it sold for £20.000 !" But..... they always seem to ignore the obvious fact that the one they saw had been restored or at least didn't have a cab in pieces on the floor and a tree growing through the chassis.... With the old vehicles I've owned over the years I'm always 'amazed' at the number of folk who will come up to you at a show or wherever they see it to specifically tell you, " I cut 2 up just like last year!" ......... that particular one always baffles me because it's as though they're proud of having destroyed something! Ah well ....like someone said above .........you can't save them all