Kufra Kiwi

I bet Peter Jackson is funding or part-funding the restoration, aiming to get another flying Lanc for his forthcoming film.

Interesting to see the badge on the passenger door, showing an NZ silver fern over an Aussie boomerang. I have never seen that before and assume it was an early attempt at an ANZAC badge that unfortunately never took on. Appropriate that the silver fern is on top!! :-D

The 1931 GAZ FAI (Ford A Izeskiye) armoured car must be one of the rarest military vehicles today. Despite being made in large numbers and used in the Spanish Civil War and throughout WW11 there are only two known survivors today: one in Poland and one in Russia. Based on the Model A Ford chassis it was thin-skinned, rather vulnerable and armed with one or two machine guns in a rotating turret. Powered by the standard 42hp Model A Ford motor it was capable of about 50mph flat out.

Moderator please feel free to shift my post to a more appropriate thread if necessary.

Thought you might be interested in this photo taken today at the Armistice Day display at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand. This is the annual military vehicle show near Cambridge in the Waikato and there must have been a hundred HMVs there including bren-carriers, jeeps, GMCs, CMPs, a Burma Jeep, a Kubelwagen, a Steyr air-cooled V8 truck, several tanks and APCs, a Scammel, Saracen, and a half-track, just to mention a few. And no less than four Chev 1533X LRDG trucks! This might possibly be the first time since WWII that four LRDG trucks (all replicas of course) have been seen together. From the left, we have "Salisbury" then "Tutira" then 2 LRDG Jeeps, then an as yet un-named truck with "Tainui" at extreme right. A fifth truck "Te Aroha III" is in the pipeline, so soon we will have enough for a patrol!

What a wonderful photo!! So crisp and clear you could almost be there. Foreunner of the LRDG!

Nope. Bagnold never used Model T Fords in his 1930s desert explorations, they were all Model As. Even the photo captions in some books on the subject erroneously describe them as Model Ts. The Model A is a completely different and much stronger vehicle with a conventional 3-speed gearbox and a 3.2 litre motor of twice the horsepower (except the ones made in England, which were de-rated due to the petrol tax). The first time Bagnold discovered the correct technique for driving over sand dunes in the Libyan desert (something previously considered impossible) he was driving a Model A truck. In his book he describes his disbelief at being raised up a 300ft high dune "as though on an elevator" after charging the base of it head-on at 40mph. He is fulsome in his praise of the "A" which he considered was by far the best vehicle for desert exploration, having just the right combination of lightness, power, durability and fuel economy. Other desert explorers must have agreed, as they also chose the "A" in preference to any other vehicle. And Bill Kennedy-Shaw in his book on the LRDG refers to the Model A as "the best car Ford ever made" (he was writing in 1943). As the proud owner for 42 years of a Model A Ford pickup truck, I can testify that they have loads of character and are as tough as goats knees.

That block needs a good soaking in 6:1 mollasses for 3 weeks - gets in all the nooks and crannies.

I have dashboard like that for sale (in NZ) if anyone wants it. Good condition and identical to yours except RH drive.

Hi, You should Google the Military Vehicle Restorer clubs in the places you are going. There is a club in each province throughout NZ and they have regular functions several times each year. There are lots of military vehicle restorers here. If you are interested in aviation history there is a stunning display of WW1 aeroplanes at Hood Aerodrome in February and every second year there is an equally good airshow at Wanaka displaying WWII planes. Google is your friend.

Important to always apply 2 coats of gloss (for weather/rust prevention) beneath the matt finish.

My 1993 Suzuki Samurai would also put any Landrover to shame when driven off-road (but not on the highway:embarrassed:)! I once owned a 1967 swb soft-top Landrover from new and loved it to bits and had no problems at all. In my opinion anyone who has "mechanical empathy" will be rewarded by loyal performance and longevity from almost any vehicle.

Can you be specific about which Ford parts are interchangeable or usable? In an earlier thread when I said I understood some Ford and Gaz parts were interchangeable, that was disputed. And can you please confirm that the Ford parts are from the Model A? If I am correct, the Gaz parts are not "Ford copies" they are actually Gaz copies of Ford parts, or maybe even Model A Ford parts produced under licence by Russia prior to WWII.

Honestly I don't know which parts are interchangeable, but I understand some of them are. I believe the GAZ 67 was based on the Model A Ford (Stalin imported a complete Model A factory in 1930 and started mass-producing Model A's with the GAZ badge on the radiator). One of the threads in this forum showed a photo of a GAZ 67 engine bay and it was very similar to the engine bay of my own Model A. However if I am wrong, then I stand to be corrected. Has anyone tried to put any Model A parts in a GAZ 67?

GAZ69 based on the mighty Model A Ford so many parts still readily available.

G'Day Mate, A small group of us here in NZ are building a LRDG replica truck and I know of three others here who are also doing one, (so when we are all finished we will have a patrol!). Spare parts are increasingly hard to find though. See pic attached.

What a great thread and your restoration is amazing! Doesn't it annoy you when you send something away to be sand-blasted or bead-blasted and when you get it back they have not quite removed all the rust? How much more time would it take for the blaster to go that little bit further and do the job properly? I hate it when that happens and usually send it back to be done properly. But then I am obsessive about rust.

There are quite a few Spitfires still flying today. I recently saw a UTube video of 16 of them all flying together in the UK. And even here in little old NZ there are several being restored or already flying.

Assuming the 3.1 litre Ford Model A engine is the same as the GAZ67 engine you can buy a full range of high quality replacement parts from Snyders in the USA. Believe it or not, every single part for the Model A Ford is still being manufactured today! Just Google "Snyders Model A Ford" and you will be there. From your photo the GAZ67 motor appears the same as the Model A motor, but I can see minor differences (eg the Model A has a different water pump). The Claas farm machinery company used an up-rated Model A motor in its combine harvesters and they are still obtainable if you look hard enough. I think they had higher compression and a different carburetor and water pump, but were otherwise identical. Might be well suited to the GAZ67. Cheers, KK

edinburgh -------- watt driver officer training corps

The article also says they came into Burma via the "death railway" (in Thailand) but surely that is coming from the wrong direction? With so many inaccuracies how much credibility does any of the story have?

Its not an improvement

Interesting to see the Model A Ford petrol tank, cowl and instrument panel. The tail light also looks familiar :-)

The floor pan on my 1945 Chev civilian RHD truck is very similar, this one partly wet-sandblasted.

Thanks, I have just removed the guage cover ("sender"?) to look inside. I was surprised to see no rust, especially considering the outside of the tank is quite badly rusted. However as I can see only about 10% of the interior through such a small hole, I assume there will be rust in there somewhere. So some kind of treatment will be necessary if I am going to use it as a petrol tank in the truck. It has just occurred to me that buying a large enough plastic container for total immersion (in either mollasses or electrolyte) might be just as costly as having the tank acid-dipped by a professional.