RattlesnakeBob

Looking mighty good there Jim ...and still capable of doing a bit of work too I'll bet ...ok...not TOO hard a days work sure but !

Incidentally there were two of these parked in different meadows near to me ..The one had literally never been collected after an open cast coal site finished in the middle '70s and it sat sadly and forlornly under a hedge.... and the other was in the 'derelicts meadow' at the back of a local sawmill....Both sat in their respective slumber for over 30 years but sometime in the last 10 years or so, both disappeared

Hopefully not to the gas lamp but...more than likely so I'm afraid what with the way heavy steel scrap prices went

Well I'd just like to see them kept rolling using whatever modifications are ever needed to do just that .....keep them going....the alternative is pretty sad....because eventually they'd all be parked up for want of absolutely grade A original components that were no longer available........... and to me that's a horrifying scenario.

Lets leave it at that hey

 

If it wont start on 6 volts find the problem and sort it...

OK point taken ..but !... as with my old car ..

starter motor overhauled and in grand condition ....dynamo the same ..... all leads in good condition (and of the old 'fat' 6v type) ..all connections spot on and , as tight as tight can be ...and onto good clean metal too .... carb adjusted correctly and the timing on the distributor too ......plenty of fuel up to the carb and a primer pump fitted as well ......new spark plugs and caps, all leads fire brand new , coil the same , electronic ignition all fitted and working Grade A.... and a brand spanking new battery of the highest order amperage and cranking power......

and still!!!....

......whether hot or cold....you had to cross your fingers as she 'slug , slug, slugged' over and maybe and it was just maybe .... started ...

and ....................fit her up with the 12v assitor system I described ???

and it's literally one tiny jab on the button and she's away!... absolutely pronto too, hot or cold ,,,...So...my question is,

What else was I missing ? and what would you have done to my old girl without resorting to going over to 12volt ???

Not being funny in anyway ..just honestly asking ...what was I missing then ?

Thanks, Bob .

Gotta say when all things are considered ?....the second one in this thread looks like the one to go for All depends on the money though ...lets say the fella with it is being 'silly' and asking £10.000 ? ....and the one deep in the woods can be had for £10.00 ? ....

As I said though ..Auzz is a mighty big land so shifting her to wherever it is you live is gonna cost never mind the bit about getting her out of the swamp.

PS: ? .....those tracks sure will play havoc with any dry surface you drive her on though

you'd have to block them out somehow with some rubber or hard wood pads I reckon

Once again it was truly fabulous ! ...

I brought the entire family this time and everyone thought it was awesome...and yes !!!...even the Missus too!! Thanks once again for a wonderful event.

Oh boy what a find !!!!!!!!

never mind what it's worth .. I'm guessing totally here to say it but?... I'm pretty sure it would be worth at least the cost of rescuing her so ?.....

I don't have clue what the prices of crane / barge / lowloader/ hire etc would be there nor what kind of distance are involved because from what I hear ?... Auzzie land is mighty big !

Best of luck with your plan though !!!...I just wish I was able to be there to help !

PS: I know some may laugh at these ideas but .. what about getting there with a good toolkit and some new batteries and fuel and having a go at firing her up ?? I've seen some things dragged out of meadows and woods here int he UK that have amazed folk by firing up with a bit of tickling ? ...and!....ok straight off my head here.but what about investigating the cost of a load carrying helicopter to lift her out and take her to the nearest road and a low loader maybe ??? i know I know!..the cost may be a heck of a lot but ...it may work out feasable when you measure in getting to her with a Dozer etc etc ???

Just ideas..shoot me down as you see fit !

I was contemplating the total conversion and decided instead to do a 'half' conversion job ! let me explain !

The major problem with 6v as I see it is twofold.... firstly..starting ..and second...awful lights..... but..

I hardly ever use my car at night so I wasn't too worried and anyways the headlights aren't bad really anyways..

so !

the starting was the major / only issue I needed to address...

I used a 12 Volt 'assistor' system ......

the 6V still does all the other stuff on the car but the 12V battery whangs the starter over ....

using 2 power shut off switchs (such as a rally car uses) ...I put one in the 6v line to the starter motor and leave this one OFF........then re-connect the ignition and solenoid feed cable back to the battery side of that switch ....

.then plonk in a big hefty 12V battery (plenty of room under my hood)

Run the feed off this 12V battery down to the starter motor going through another cut off switch and you leave this one ON...

So !...

.when you turn on the ignition ...the 6v feeds everything it used to EXCEPT the starter motor ...when you hit the starter button ...the 6V closes the solenoid but 12V whangs the motor over !...simples! .

...it's called a 'total loss' system in that you do need to charge up the 12V battery now and then as it's not being 'fed' by the dynamo ....

and should you ever find yourself with a dead 12v battery ?....then you shut that battery OFF...and turn the 6v one back ON...then you can start on 6v as you did before

Cost ? One good 12v battery that I already had ... a bit of cable (£7.00) , some cable ties (in the workshop already) and 2 cut off switches ....( about £10 each

Half an hours work and it can all be taken back out again to return her to normal should I ever miss the awful starting ! haha!

PS: Everything I have ever read says a 6V starter motor can take 12V no problems ....and in my mind?....the wear and tear on the motor is way less anyways because starting now is truly 'instant' so the starter motor isn't grinding over and over and over trying to start her up

Yet another absolutely cracking job she looks incredible

Just out of interest ....you say this is the 8th you have done...and I was at the Evesham show on the weekend and there were dozens of Jeeps there ......does anyone have a vague idea of how many Jeeps there are in this country these days? .....what with the massive number of Hotchkiss 'imports and those that were already here and the ones that have recently come in from the States ???? ...just a stab at a guess anyone ???

I'd like to have heard the 'debrief' the rude member of staff was given

So sorry to hear of your bad luck !

but...... A: Glad you were ok and she wasn't too badly damaged ..

and B: ? ....well...! at least it gave the wrecker something 'proper' to do whilst she was there !

Hope you get her fixed up soon !

An interesting post! Thanks!..

I have a 1946 Hudson Commodore with a straight 6 in and have had problems with her firing up .I too bought a mighty good high amperage battery and I also had the starter motor overhauled...checked the earthing straps etc ....but still no good.... I also fitted electronic ignition but... still no good ....it was exactly as someone said...

.......if she 'caught' on the first stab of the button you were OK..... but otherwise?.... it was very much a case of....."cross your fingers and hope the battery holds out 'til she finally fired".. (brand new ,very high quality battery don't forget and completely charged up too )

I knew the problem lay in that I wasn't spinning the motor fast enough...she was just labouring over very slowly and pulling every ounce of power out of the battery as she went..........

...I was at the end of my ideas and was contemplating converting to 12v ....but the thought of the hassle alone, and also of destroying her originality, never mind the cost put me right off..

.so ...... !

I trolled through a few websites and found that many American Hot Rod devotees have the same problem as for some reason, they also run 6v even though they usually also have very high compression motors ......I read and read and after consulting a good vehicle electrician with many years experience ....who confidently tells me a 6v starter will handle 12v no problems as long as it is just for the tiny 'burst' you need to start a well fettled engine.........

So I decided to copy their solution ........

I've rigged up a 12v 'assistor' system .....I have a very good 12v battery wired to the started motor with a cut off switch in the line ..the 6v is still there, but there is also a cut off switch in the main cable to the starter motor that stays 'off' at all times...but...the 6v feed for the ignition goes to the battery side of this switch therefore the ignition and everything else is always powered by 6v...

....the 6v also powers the solenoid to bring in the 12v to turn the starter the motor ..so... the 12v only turns the starter motor and doesn't touch anything else...

.Now ? one touch of the button and she is absolutely instant....from cold with no choke and only a small squirt on the primer pump ...it's absolutely instant firing and she ticks over right from starting....

This is apparently called a 'total loss system' as you do have to 'top up' the 12v battery now and then as it isn't being charged off the vehicle....the 6v battery still is being charged so.....should you ever get stuck with a dead 12v battery ? ..you simply turn the 12v system 'off' with the isolator and turn the 6v back 'on' ..then you can start her on 6v as normal ....

I do wish that I could get her to start reliably on the old 6v system but, as I've explained above......I'm right out of any further ideas as to why she won't....and I need her to start very reliably as she is used for weddings etc .I made up a new carrier for the battery and it's right alongside the other one so it doesn't actually look out of place and could easily be removed totally with less than half an hours work..........

Total cost?... Excluding the 12v battery that I already had 'in stock' ?

............a meter of new heavy battery cable £10+VAT ...2 battery isolator switches... £11.99 each incl VAT and a bit of insulating tape ....a handful of cable connectors (pennies) and about 3 hours work to make and then fit the carrier that was shaped out of some small 1" angle iron that was under the bench anyways!

Hope this is of use to someone else and .. very ready and willing to accept any further suggestions as to why she still isn't working well on the 6volt system

...If you're serious about a Ferret that's just about ready for the scrapyard ?

I happen to know where one is .......as I recall it's got the engine still in place ...and it's 4 wheels....and the turret .....and ...well ..that's about it really well OK ..there's a bit more of it than that but it's as rough as the proverbial badgers behind ...

Bob, yes we concluded the gas masks were of little use to anyone as they had no scrap value. They would have taken up space somewhere and so were tipped in the hole and covered over until we dug them out (well, until we dug out a heap of entangled brittle rubber, rotten canvas and rusty tin)

 

I have found 3 Lee-Enfield 303's at the bottom of a well where the Home Guard dumped them after the war on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

Actually I found 3 lengths of corroded, rusty orange oxide that could be identified as once having been three rifles.

Not a single bit of wood work remained and even after careful cleaning nothing really looked much like a rifle so they were scrapped.

In the same yard, there was said to be some grenades and ammo dumped in a pond but I left that alone...

 

After the war, the majority of stuff with any value was either scrapped for its metal or sold on.

I reckon many of the Home Guard units must have been largely left to themselves to decide what they did with the gear they had ....and I also guess there wasn't anything like the 'modern' restrictions or records kept, of what each unit actually had exactly either that there would be today?....

...on here somewhere from a good few years back , is the tale of when I dug up a stash of ammunition and a hand grenade in my own back garden! ....Mind you..exactly as you said ...you had a job to recognise most of it and the grenade was very corroded as to be just a lump of (albeit still 'live' ! ) metal....

I asked around the older neighbours and it transpired the former resident of my house , who had lived there all his life...was in the local Home Guard during the War ........so?....I guessed that's where it had all come from

This whole issue is one of those that as every 'new' generation gets to hear the old legends of buried goodies?.... they get all excited and fired up and start re-telling the tales to their mates etc that they've heard ...

........ and as always happens ........the tales get taller and taller down the line with every re-telling......

'Battlefield' dumping is something different altogether that we know actually happened...million dollar point for example after WW2.....and we've all heard of vast dumps across Europe and yes we've probably all seen a video of a tank being dragged out of a swamp etc in the East.....and most of us have seen the massive dumps after the US pulled out of Vietnam ...and also the dumps we and the US left behind in Iraq and Kuwait only recently etc....

..Deliberate dumping of kit in the UK is different thing though and........ in my opinion although it did happen ?.. .I certainly don't believe it ever happened to the extent many would like to believe it did...

...Someone mentioned earlier on here about gas masks? ...yes I could imagine thousands of those would be chucked ....and loads of other stuff that no one considered to be of any use...but surely anything that was sellable or usable in any way would find a new home..

So I really do have to conclude..... if you're looking for 'brand new Harley Davidsons, still in their crates' or 'complete Jeeps with a machine gun on the back!!' ?..

well... you're gonna be looking for a long , long time

Someone mentioned caravans earlier on?

Ironically a housing estate near me , built in about 1990 -ish?.... has a bylaw preventing caravans being parked on the driveways...but...nothing whatsoever about armoured cars !

so ?....... ..I'd say "park on" !

Possibly check with your 2 nearest neighbours each side of you and see if they got any objections ? and then... if not ? ask them if they'd consider writing you a letter of support ...if only for use should it get to that daft stage though...

but...generally........ I'd have to say carry on , remain polite in your dealings with the idiots (even if they are idiots) and stay on the high ground.....and you can't loose

PS: ......... a cracking end result regarding the armoured car though I have to say ! really awesome !

At Evesham last year or maybe it was the year before that ??? ..sorry I'm a bit hazy ! ...

anyways...there was an absolute beauty there with a new-ish modern big turboed diesel in and she was truly a work of art........ I'm pretty sure she hadn't been extended ? ... she was owned by a father and son team and was an exceptionally beautiful truck , in truly an incredible condition too

My ol' Dad who drove them in Korea and Malaya was mighty impressed and got quite animated ! He even clambered off his motability scooter to have a good look how they'd done it

Its heartbreaking in a way to think....from 1945 up until probably the 1960s ??? there were very similar yards all over Europe and the Far East doing the same with Shermans , Churchills , M10s , Chaffees , Panthers ,Tigers .you name it ....literally thousands of them were unceremoniously lamped up for scrap ..and the fellas doing the work then , didn't think anymore of what they were doing everyday than these chaps do here.....

The giant steel mills just outside of Caen was 'the end of the line' for thousands of fighting vehicles from Normandy alone through out the 1950s......whilst here in the UK..... Pounds in Portsmouth , the various yards of TW Wards and Cohens Scrap Merchants alone must have cut up hundreds and hundreds of fighting vehicles from WW2 ...

and..as short a time ago as the 1990s , Hurst Brothers were absolutely flat out lamping up Chietains.........

It's all just so much scrap metal after all ........

She looks cracking Jerry !

What an absolute beauty of a little car You must be very justly, very proud of her !

As for the gallon of petrol. I remarked to the young women behind the Tesco petrol ststion counter I remember petrol at 35p a gallon. She looked puzzled and said 'How many gallons in a liter?'.

Haha Tony I know exactly what you mean ...

Whilst at senior school from '72 through to June '77 I worked at a petrol station as the pump attendant boy (a job that has disappeared entirely by the way ! ) and in about 1976 I think it was... I recall the garage had a 'special offer' on 4 gallons of 4 Star petrol for a few months..... If you bought 4 gallons , they would give you 5p off per gallon making the cost ?............. £2.80 for 4 gallons

Having my usual occasional day dreaming wander through Milweb ..pondering on what this weeks non existent Lottery win would be spent on ! hahah ... I see first off , an M36 Jackson Tank Destroyer (very nice) and then later down the page , a T34 (also quite nice) ....Now what I noticed is that both vehicles are advertised as being 'ex Nato' or 'ex reserve' stock

So my idle question for today... for anyone that might have an idea or actual first hand knowledge of..... is this ....

.....Which countries ...either in Europe and elsewhere around the world ......still hold ex WW2 vehicles 'in stock' ????

and ........what may those vehicles be ?

If you tap in 'money then and now' to Google there's a load of great calculators where you can 'convert' money one way or the other to and from what it was worth in say 1943 to today or reverse ..makes for some sobering thinking I can tell you ! One of the things I did was put in the value of my first 'proper' wage packet on leaving school in 1977 !.......Oh my !.....

I wasn't very well paid at all back in those days , as none of us probably were on leaving school ....but...... I know of very few kids able to earn such money nowadays in equivalent terms .... Wages have definitely not kept track with inflation ........

Mind you ......to put it in perspective ..... I dearly wanted a new Raleigh Chopper Bike when they first came out in about 1967 I think it was ... ..in comparison to what my Dad was earning in those days?......It's no wonder I never got one !

Oh ...and try putting in what a gallon of petrol cost in 1977 ..... .......I tell you this ...someone ,somewhere ...is making a lot of money off us

PS: this is one of the best ones I've found ........

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html

 

They were producing 1500 guns per day at that time so if I'm correct, your gun would be from the first week in April (Give or take) 1943.

 

Total LB production was 876,794 although official records state 876,886, a 92 gun diffrence. So the last serial number produced should be G76,786 or G76,878 which would make it Mid Sept 1943.

Holy Moly !!!!!!!!! 1500 a day !!!!! and nearly a million made ?!?!?! where have they all gone??? :cool2:

Just to clarify ...is that total production amount of just the MK3 or all the Stens ever made? ...Thanks !

Anybody remember the "Norbury Tank Man" and his Abbot etc?

He caused utter chaos in South London for many years with his AFV shenanigans which included:

 

• Disabling the Abbot in the middle of Brixton to block the road.

• Reversing into a mates car then saying "It could have been another yellow and pink tank"

• Sticking the gun through the doors of Streatham police station

• Decorating it with 6 foot plastic pigs in police uniforms and the slogan "Oi Rozzers, we're not going to take it any more"

 

He ran a fastner company on Acre Lane SW2 and commuted from Norbury in the Abbot.

 

Not a nice man.

I gotta say ..he sounds like a fella with a good sense of humour to me

Firstly I most sincerely apologise to anyone that may have wished to come for this very short notice !

This coming Easter Monday see's another magnificent Coleford Festival of Transport .

If you are into anything that moves on wheels (and occasionally on tracks too!)......... then Coleford is the place to be this Easter Monday.

It's reputedly the biggest 'Transport' Festival /Rally held in this country on a completely hard surface .....the entire town is closed for the day to all traffic so ,the streets and town carparks are literally full of everything you can think of.......There's usually a really good turn out by the ex-military boys .....and also Classic , Rally and Sports Cars , Off roaders , Motorcycles , Lorries , Customs ,Tractors and even some Steam Engines appear now and then ...

If you can make it there you will certainly not be disappointed . There is also always a cracking selection of Auto jumble stalls amongst many others selling just about anything vaguely related to 'transport'.....If you have any nature of old vehicle or are rebuilding one or 'fighting the good fight' of keeping one on the road or are just sort of ..well you know... ..interested?...? Then you will certainly find something of use or interest to you:) There are also displays by the local Rescue Services etc and also lots of club stalls to keep you interested.

PS: There's always a small fairground and some kiddy rides as well to keep your brood happy if you drag them along for the day and the local churchs do a cracking job of serving up tea and snacks and cakes etc to keep you all going through what will be a very long day! I do hope to see some of you there to put names to faces . I'll be in the American Car Section this year with my old 1946 Hudson Commodore 6 Sedan so please come by and say hello