RattlesnakeBob

Can only agree with all that's already been written above..it's doing a good impression of a pre 1950 80" .. and even if it's actually in a dog worse state than it appears in these pictures it's worth grabbing by the neck very quickly.... 80" and other Series Ones..... they only acquired that name after the Series 2 came out by the way..before that, the 80"s and the 86"s and very late 88"s Series Ones were simply sold as / known as 'Landrovers' ......... suffered greatly throught the 70's and '80s and even into the 1990s ...their problem was..... there were a lot of them about.. .they could be bought cheaply as most folks wanted one 'a bit more modern' so consequently fellas in the All Wheel Drive Club and lots of other off road clubs bought them up by the hundreds and after usually modifying them.... proceeded to batter them to death in Trials and Safari Events Here I will hold my hand up and admit I must share my part of the blame....I found a gorgeous and very straight 1955 Series One 86" languishing as a disused breakdown truck in a little garage in Ross on Wye ....promptly fetched the 2 Litre Side Valve motor out for a much more exciting high compression P6 Rover V8..which I then 'tuned' ....fitted a full roll cage..chopped off the front wings ..fitted competition springs , shocks etc too and........then beat her to a slow death ..a few years ago after eventually realising my mistake... I attempted to track her down , only to find she had been unceremoniously scrapped as part of a farmers clearup in about 2003 .ah well........ Thankfully ...around (I'd guess) 2000 ish.. folk suddenly realised the 'Series One' (of all wheel bases but especially the 80") had become a rare beast .........So ..prices have been on the up ever since.... This one appears to be fairly straight and un-molested as they say in the trade and even if she is actually rotten underneath and needs a new chassis I would definitely grab her ..... Looking forward to watching you work on her and thanks for sharing !...Incidentally ...I'm chuffed that Series Ones and 80"s are still out there to be found ...so give yourself a pat for finding her !

Hey Joe it must make you mad knowing every single one of them was built over that side of the Atlantic .and.....how many were made??? Jeeeez! .... They do appear for sale here in the UK relatively regularly but they are always up around the £300,000 ..£s !! whether anyone is actually getting that sort of money though is a matter that some of the tank boys on here may be able to comment on I did read somewhere on the 'unit cost' of a Sherman at the height of their production and as I remember ..I think it was about $30,000 dollars ??.. ...I guess they weren't 'cheap' back then when you consider what wages were in 1945 ?? . Going off thread a little I know and I apologise in advance ......... ..........have you ever seen the article in I think the magazine is called 'Home Mechanics' about a scrap dealer fella up New York way who bought about 1500 (?) of them in one go after the war? they were brand new and had only traveled as far as a Military arsenal where they had sat unused because the war had ended as they were built.....I think he bought them in about 1950 (?) and once the deal was sealed he was responsible for moving them pronto off Government property ..he managed to do it and even advertised for ex Armoured US Army Mechanics and drivers to come and have a job working for him....anyways..sorry to digress a bit but it's a cracking read......someone on here may be able to find a link to the story for you oh...I think..not sure...but I think his 'unit cost' was about $3000 each EDIT: sorry !! totally wrong ! his unit cost was about ..wait for it...$600 each !!!! EDIT: OK..after a little digging ...the magazine was called 'Popular Mechanics' and the issue he was featured in was from 1960 so ..a little later than I suggested..here's a link ! oh and it was 536 Shermans he bought apparently http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Z9sDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA81&pg=PA81-IA2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

no I've not heard of it.......I've had Motocrossers kicking about for many years and have never attempted to register any of them .......like you say.....if we all registered every thing we had I don't think it would be long 'til it suddenly cost you £20 a year to do so

crikey .....I don't like the sound of that .........nor the implications

well she's a beauty and no mistake What a find too ! how did you get to buy her?

I know it's a little like Oddball to say it but....."what a beautiful tank !!!"

Crikey I'd be leaping about too if I'd just bought here , she's gorgeous ! .. and......she makes a change from all the Chevys and Dodges etc ! no offence intended at all as I love just about all of the WW2 vehicles ('theirs' and 'ours' ! haha) but... .... it is grand to see someone wanting a period British vehicle !

Reminds me of an ex RAF fella I met many years ago ..Wing Commander Robert Milward who was an absolute gentleman... during his career he'd flown everything a fella could wish for.......real boys own stuff... .........Spitfires , Hurricanes ......4 engine heavy bomber conversion in 1943 on Stirlings and then onto Halifaxs and the holy grail of Lancasters .....he'd finally retired in the early 70s and apart from going on holiday... had never flown in a plane since..... I said "I'd have thought a fella like you would have a little light aircraft of some sorts parked up at Staverton (our local field) to play in?" He eyed me steadily and said this "My boy.....every single minute ..of every single hour, of the many thousands of hours in my log? I was paid to fly . Flying is a very expensive business ....and I've done enough and am certainly never going to pay myself to fly anything ever again "

I salute you my friend and also mourn for your good pal .....

Hello Rob ..I'm just down the road from you in the woods:)

Many thanks for your help & wisdom again Tony ! Thanks!..ok....Local airsoft clubs or a re-enactment lot or ...the local amateur dramatics society it is then !

being totally ignorant of such matters as the VCR what do I need to do then Tony??? and how do I go about it all ??? by the way :-) .......... .I do think an airsoft is the way to go !..much easier than building one and by crikey!....choose the right one and they look absolutely spot on! ....and as you say ...you can always have a bit of fun in the garden with them too ! as I admit I am absolutely totally ignorant of this whole 'Airsoft' thing....so ..do they fire a pellet or a plastic 'ball bearing' and power wise..are they about the same as maybe .22 air rifle or 'gentler or are they more sort of a 'paintball gun' in power in general ???? thanks ! Bob

Sorry but I've missed this thread entirely until this morning ! What an absolutely fabulous 'first project' for a lad to learn on !...Really great to see it coming together and he'll have bags of confidence in himself and his abilities after doing this old trailer ! A really great thing to do ! thanks for sharing ! :-D

I want a BAR for promotional pictures so as I say, a damn fine replica will do ...so....it can be made in Taiwan and from the finest plastic available for all that matters I guess :cool2: ...if all else fails I reckon I'll be in the workshop for a few weeks and see what I can make ..there are some mighty fine plans out there in internet land available to build a full scale replica so.. I can quite possibly see me going that way :-\ Incidentally one of the 'plan' companies I've found has excellent downloadable plans available for just about any weapon you'd want for WW2 history purposes ....I especially like their Browning .50 Cal too :-D

yes thanks... I've seen the one on Milweb ..and managed to get back up off the floor at the price too ! hahah! :cheesy: .please excuse my ignorance but ..why is this one so much cheaper?.. http://www.gunstar.co.uk/browning-bar-machine-guns-for-sale-in-perthshire/Other-Military-Guns/507847. ??? PS: I can see it's got a pistol grip and it doesn't look quite 'right' with one... so is that why the difference in price?? I've seen quite a few for sale anywhere between £650 to £2850 .a massive difference as you can see ...can anyone point me in the direction of a good replica company? I've seen some (apparently) cracking looking German made all metal replica MP40s and they go from about £200 to £300 and ( not having seen them in the flesh so to speak ) they do look very good so I wondered if the same outfit may be making a BAR replica??..they certainly look good enough for my purpose of wanting a BAR so ..if anyone knows where or who is making these?...that might be a good place to start :cheesy:. ...I'll be totally honest..... I don't have the budget for an 'all singing dancing genuine one'........but £5 or £600 or so for a cracking replica might well be well good enough to tempt me :-D

Hi to everyone .I'm possibly in the market for a Browning BAR ... I've been mooching for a while and there does seem to be a big disparity in various prices ,I'm not fussed over what year it maybe is (it doesn't have to be genuine WW2 anyways) ..and I don't know off hand , when they were made 'from and to' etc..... I've also a vague understanding (I think?!) of 'new' and 'old' de-actififying specs ..would I be correct in saying, on an old spec one 'more or less everything moves like it used to' and on a new one 'nothing does'? So..... can someone tell and maybe point me in the direction I should be going and roughly what one would cost ? Many thanks. PS: .......If I had a preference ?.....I'd really want one that would have been used in the 1920s/30s so ....a well early one I 'd guess?........... but I also guess that for such a weapon , I'd probably not have the available budget so as I said...I'd look at anything offered ..including good replicas Cheers Bob :laugh:

It's a great film..... when taken only as a slice of Hollywood entertainment....... ..and that's about it really . In reality... it should certainly shoulder a lot of the blame for the idiotic belief that being in a POW camp was something akin to staying in a 'teenage boys summer adventure camp' .... .......... the truth unfortunately was despairingly and very cruelly, very different.:-| but!.....as I said ... a great piece of entertainment ..........especially on Boxing Day

well it's def a Coles ....about a 6 ton lift by the looks of it so.I think.... that'd make it an Argus ??

welcome fellow Landrover fan

so ..some nylon 'para' cord....a small single wheel pulley... something like would be used on a clothes line and a 'safety' type snap hook ..? .. all available from any farmers / countryside type store I would have thought??... and almost certainly significantly cheaper than anyone will charge you for a so called 'genuine 'US Army Jeep' one? the other thing is thisthough.....I do love the 'used and abused on the battlefield' look over the 'pristine / immaculate just been nut and bolt refurbished to a mega higher standard that it was ever built in the first place' look ..........so.....surely in the field the aerial would have been lashed down out the way with whatever came to hand? .. in that case....a suitable bit of baler twine or fence wire would do wouldn't it?. ..mind you , dependent of course on the unit markings on your particular vehicle and hence where it may have been used?....it might have to genuine French or Italian baler twine .... haha

Many years ago I used to use a product called 'Repaint' .. I used to get it from a local garage in a few varieties of size tin and it really was cracking stuff ..... it had the legend on the tin of something like ' No brush marks..guaranteed! ' and it did what it said too...fantastic stuff ..the range of colours was a bit limited as I recall but I know they did the classic Landrover Bronze(?) Green , a gloss white and also a lovely gloss sort of 'Post Office red' ......I used it on a couple of lorries we had at the time and also numerous Landrovers and bits of plant and it really gave an excellent finish with a simple brush. The garage has long gone out of business though and although I've tried all manner of search words in Google I've never been able to find it since :embarrassed:

Grand posting of pictures thanks !..My old Dad was a Royal Engineer in Korea and Malaya and drove / maintained heavy plant...(I did put a load of his old pictures up ages ago on here somewhere ) he'd really love your pictures He eventually ended up owning his own lawnmower shop and workshop... .he always said the reason he went into small stuff such as lawnmowers and rotovators was because nothing on them was heavy unlike big Cats and such

crikey ....following on from this .. ....it seems strange to think that only a relatively few years ago, when it was suggested in various spy novels of the time such as the Bourne series and as I also recall in the first few Andy McNab novels that "the government could trace your whereabouts and find you wherever you were in the world if you had a mobile phone with you even if it was switched off "... ??. ..many of us probably shook our heads and said " Nah! no way can they do that !!" Oh yes they can ...as can anyone else too ..and with only a smattering of IT knowledge never mind the intelligence resources and assets that the Government has

Hey thanks Jeremy ! and everyone else Jim Clark has put me onto an outfit in Bristol that will also do it but I'll try Forest Glazing first though seeing as they're only 10 minutes up the road !

I need and a piece of glass cutting for a side window in an old car.....it's totally flat and there's nothing fancy about it...slightly rounded edges that's all ....so ...I've tried a few of the 'normal' glass replacement folk and they seem to be throwing up their hands as if it's something impossible to do..I'm waiting on a couple of Plant Glass companies to come back to me but meanwhiles..... .........does anyone on here know of an outfit that could cut such a simple plain piece of glass for me? I'm in Gloucestershire by the way . Thanks !