Richard Farrant

I must have one that has had a good life then, very little rust in it, spent a long part of its life in Danish Army and sold of from reserve stock in 1987, bought it 2 weeks after the auction. Tip for doing the clutch........start doing a body building course now, because removing the gearbox is nothing like any other Bedford (excepting a TM)

I had worked that out early on !

Hi Tim, I also received that email. Something a bit odd though, as he talks about shipping to the Port of Baghdad..........thought the place was nowhere near the coast unless the river is navigable for ships.. :undecided: Had another recently, from the Bangladesh Army, needing vehicles and some of there armour fleet upgraded..........problem is, just too busy to fit them in :-D

If you took a slat grille Willys to a show, and it had an electric wiper motor fitted to the bottom of the driver's screen, the rivet counters would have a field day. But..today I was shown a photo taken just before the end of the war, of a slat grille as I have just described, it was in British Army service, also, with no census number on the bonnet, and the "S" letter denoting Supressed, was painted by the rear wheel arch. It depends what you are looking for, but the "in service" look allows a few later parts to be fitted provided it fits into the time period you are depicting. When or if vehicles went in for an overhaul or rebuild, a lot of mix n'match went on.

Quite correct, thank you.

IIRC the tanks in the Finnish auction were Cromwell and Charioteer.......no Centaurs.

I remember Budge's Cromwell in Normandy 1989. The early morning of D-Day, it passed our campsite on the Bayeaux ring road on the way to Arromanches, the flaming exhausts from the Normandy cowl was a sight..........and sound !

Carry on Dennis...........intrigued now as to what it is :-)

Martyn, Niels must have a later two part engine cover, with a removeable side panel on drivers side. My own one is earler and in one piece, like a dog kennel, and it requires the passenger seat to be removed first. regards, Richard

This morning, a bit misty.........I heard the sound of two Pratt and Whitneys approaching and sounded low, thinking it was likely to be a Dakota, I was surprised to see the Catalina go over, only just a glimpse of it through the low cloud, heading South over Romney Marsh.

Tony, I will let you know, when I try it on the larger bolts.

Sounds like a similar product to Loctite Freeze & Release, by coincidence, I bought a can this week, as the current project has been standing outside for a good many years. Tried it on a few awkward screws, some countersink. Was not sure if I was lucky or it was good stuff, then this afternoon a semi-trailer came in and I had to remove a part underneath, one nut and bolt was about 12mm with rusty thread through nut, got the nut off so far, then it was solid, so tried this spray on it, and you cannot beleive how easy it came off after about 2 minutes. I am sold on it, if it reduces time and damage. The Loctite product brings temp. of object sprayed, down to -43 degs C, and the contraction allows lubricant in the spray to penetrate up the threads.

Hmm...that one is near to home.........and it looks familiar. I put an engine and gearbox in it for a previous owner, about 14 years ago.

Steve, The British ( and Canadians) used a WD divided rim on most vehicles during the war, and after. Regulations said that the outer nuts clamping the rims, were to be painted red as a warning not to remove when dismounting a wheel. As for what the regulations were for the US Army, I do not know.

Thanks Ted :-) For Rick, the car in my posting is a Humber Super Snipe. The light blue car with Dutch plates on in another post is an Austin, think the model is a Big Seven.

Bernard, I know Ted will be able to give the full info on this, but from what I gleaned, the lettering for all RAF vehicles were to be of a certain size, according to regulations, on the back of a lorry it was probably lost, but it does tend to domineer the rear of a car, especially with the TAF/83 as well.

Thanks Ted, Sorry if it was from you, I thought I might have copied it of a website.......would hate to infringe some copyright rules :-) Not sure if I sent you a photo of the finished car, but I have attached a photo of it. A genuine 1944 build, to a RAF contract, colour was olive drab, but later in its service life it was repainted to RAF blue grey.

Hi Rick, While looking for photos for details needed to finish a RAF staff car restoration, I found the attached (no idea where it came from, been in my folder for ages). It is a car belonging to 83 Group, Tactical Air Force, who moved with the advance through France, Belgium and Holland.

Hi Ivor, These fuse boxes are still available, original Lucas can be had for around £45, but good repro one at £19 or thereabouts. Auto Electrical Supplies at Tenbury Wells have Lucas and repro.

Hi Diana and Jackie, Good to see you completed the job. Band conditions look fine according to the adjusters. Glad to be of assistance :-) regards, Richard

Tony, It is not the type of lubricant used in Land Rover swivels that causes the drying up of top Railko bushes, it is the fact that if freewheeling hubs are used and operated in disengaged mode, then the lubricant, whatever it might be, is not being distributed around the housing, and thus to top bush, as the shaft is not turning.

I was there as well, and one of my passengers was Eddie Jordan of F1 racing team fame.

Diana and Jackie, I cannot remember how far up the gearbox, the correct oil level is, looking at the sectioned drawings in EMER's, the seals are quite high up, ie on mainshaft level through gearbox geartrain, that means the bottom part of the geartrain is below seal level, so if oil level is below this, then it is passing to the t/box by some other means. I cannot think that both seals have failed, a bit of time investigating will pay off hopefully. regards, Richard

Hi Diana and Jackie, When I worked on Ferrets for the army, I remember that a few Ferrets had transmissions with a common oil level, and 30 engine oil right through (ie gearbox and transfer box). There was little to identify these boxes, other than something painted on the top. They still had two fillers and two dipsticks. If you have lost some of your gearbox oil since draining the transfer box, this could be the answer. Did you notice what the oil drained from the t/box was like? This did not appear at the time, to be a general modification, so perhaps it was a trial. It just could be you have one of these boxes. I have just double checked the EMER's and nothing mentioned in them. If you look in the top of the gearbox, and observe the current oil level, it would be just below centre of mainshaft if seals were faulty, but if much below that, then I would think this is one of the odd boxes. Richard

Bedfords fitted these to their WW2 era, and onwards, lorries.