timbo

Nice little collection your'e building up there Dan. Any plans for them or are they just toys !

Lots of glass there for a Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle - is it bulletproof...?

Andrew Baker is the only person I know of that has done a private diesel conversion (on his Scimitar). It was a LOT of work, including scratch building new bulkheads, firewalls etc.. If you are really interested PM me and I'll send you his number.. I was under the impression that some of the later vehicles were built without the wading plate in the first place, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong..

Looking good mate. Shed looks nice too...! Did you use a needle scaler ?

Sounds like they don't know what to do with it so are stalling... Hopefully they'll all be made redundant soon anyway so we might see an outbreak of common sense !

8.30 this morning York town centre - RB44 with a touring caravan which had the wheels removed and was bolted to the cargo bed, then the whole lot painted grotty green.. Never seen one in the flesh before. After all the complaints I actually thought looked quite imposing, although the caravan really not my cup of tea...!

At weekend my mate said he used to get a rollocking if he exited without droppng the seat first. Does tend to make both getting in and out easier..

See you next year then DD...!

OK I see the point - when will we know the truth of this matter then ? This surely means then that it will be illegal for ALL ex mil tracked vehicles to be driven on the road, registered or not, since they will have been registered in error ?

You should try the drivers seat of a turreted CVRT then....!

I thought we weren't supposed to be talking about this ?!

Yes Rob is planning a museum - one day ! Nice addition Rob. Can you post some pics of your 17 pdr one day - lovely bit of kit... Timbo

Excellent thanks for that - so perhaps the writing on the wing reads 'Property of the Home Office'? Will have to try a gentle polish at weekne to see if I can reveal more...

Ah yes, well if it looks tauter than you might expect that could be something to do with the plywood lining on the sides and at the back of the cab. I'm always in two minds on canvas. Whilst this one is certainly beyond help, I'm not sure I like new ones as they are so obviously, well, new I suppose...!

Ok here it is... When I went back for a proper look realised it is actually an 86 inch. Apparently the 'RGC' prefix vehicles were mostly civil defence vehicles. Good points - lots of original fittings, engine looks quite tidy. Bad points - footwells close to being non existent ! Chassis might not actually be too bad but we'll see. First job will probably be too throw half of it away !

Pics as promised.. I'm currently giving it a coat of smooth black as I've made the mistake before of putting matt straight on top of primer and had it go rusty. I'm pretty sure this primer is not as porous but it won't hurt..

I do indeed have Spartan with AT reg which is often an indicator of RAF vehicle, although it still has a list of call signs inside from its last posting, and the other vehicles would suggest an armoured engineering regiment, AVLBs, AVREs, CETs. Of course that doesnt mean it wasnt with RAF earlier in life. One of these days I will get my act together and try to get the Merlin records.. My vehicle belonged to the troop sergeant major... Chris - if transport is a problem I will see if Andrew could arrange something with the societys wagon earlier in the week. It has been modded and the trailer holds 3 cvrts with ease now. Will pm if its a goer and you're interested. Cheers Tim

Annoying thing about my Sankey was it was absolutely perfect underneath, will try to post a pic of the primed chassis. Now just got to get the flippin stuff off the underneath of the tub !

Just had similar job done on anarrow track sankey chassis. Took to blasters thinking 40 quid ish but blast medium just sinks into the bitumen. In the end they used paint stripper and elbow grease route followed by 2 pack primer - total 230 quid, about the same as a decent new sankey !!!! Never mind looks flippin good now though...

Oh dear... Drive into shed, handbrake on, master off, walk away, come back 12 months later. To be fair I don't usually suffer too many problems apart form the inevitable 'can I borrow a slave lead'...

Based on the state of the terrain he seems to have covered I am pretty impressed with the off road capabilities of that van ! Sure he wasn't workng for the East Germans?

Hi Mate Happy to park a CVRT at either end of your display. Drop me a PM a bit nearer the time and we'll sort it out. I have a Spartan with plenty of room for kit in back and on top and also very happy to do a spin or two round the arena... Vehicles live very close to the site so will be there early on for setting up. As for piccys - more than happy for those posted by me to be used. There are a few more on the afvsociety.co.uk forum page as well. Phil - we should deffo think a bit more carefully about vehicle parking next year. Would be good to get things in a loose chronological order, and also to concentrate them a bit more - I think this year even though there were a lot of vehicles the huge size of the site swamped them a bit...! Cheers

Thinking about doing minimum amount to it as I really like the patina of age which, once gone, can never be restored... Chassis may be the decider - as I say looked externally very rusty but you never know, it might clean up. In the short term I will probably just try putting a new battery, fluids, plugs, filters on and see if it starts. I already have a number of CVRT's to finish, an early lightweight to finish my rolling resto on, and a Sankey narrow track in a million bits !

Went out for tea with Mrs Timbo and small Timbos yesterday.. On way spotted a large shabby house with parked in back garden what looked like a rather sad 80 inch series 1. Now I've been going up and down this particular road for a number of years but never spotted it before. As I have been sort of toying with the idea of a series 1 to join the lightweight for a while I was amazed at my lack of attention. Intrigued I went back this morning for a proper look. Twas indeed a series 1, complete with many orginal fittings, seats, lights, bonnet furniture, dashboard, clocks, you name it. Lots of surface rust on chassis, springs etc. Holes in door pillars but no worse than you would expect of a vehicle which has stood for some years (later confirmed as 9 years). Anyway to cut a long story short I knocked tentatively on the door, and the owner an elderly lady appeared. After 10 mins of chatting and a couple of abortive offers the deal was done, and I am now the proud owner. Waht really clinched it was when I gently rubbed some of the green mould off the wing to reveal the words 'this vehicle is the property of the ministry of defence'..! Apparently it has the original engine, which was rebuilt a number of years ago and a spare which was also rebuilt. One owner since leaving military service. Picking it up next weekend and will post some pics shortly after. Just goes to show you never know what's lurking just round the corner.

Finally found it... The book is called 'But not in anger' by Cole & Grant, Ian Allan of course, circa late '70's. The story relates to a Polish ferry pilot, Sergeant Mikolajczak, who came down in the North African desert. When the aircraft (and it's pilot) were found some time later, he had managed to scribble down a few messages including the following extracts. "I doubt if I shall live till the morning, I am getting weaker and weaker every minute. I have only three gulps of water and I have such a terrible thirst, I should go somewhere, but where? I am completely lost. Goodbye, we shall meet where we all have to go one day... Death is very near, I tried to take off, I have still ten gallons but the accumulators are flat. I looked for help but now help will not come... Oh god shorten my sufferings, there will be no help for me, let nobody land in the desert where there are no poeple, as there is no way out... I hear an aircraft flying to the south, to my right, my last hope, I cannot get up to have a look. My last minutes, god have mercy on me..." Like I said, very sad and you can't help thinking of Lady be Good in similar circumstances. Also there is that old dilemma of what to do, stay with the aircraft or make a break for it...