Richard Farrant

Tim, There was book by Bart Vandeveen, called Kaleidoscope of Bedford and Vauxhall Military Vehicles, this has a short chapter on these staff cars with several WW1 photos. I believe Vauxhall had a D-type in their historic collection and when Bedford celebrated their 40th anniversary of their vehicles in military service, it was brought out for a ceremony with the Royal Corps of Transport alongside a QL, RL, MK and TM4-4. Richard

Jack, Do we call him Hardy Spicer now? ;-) Richard

Neil, I know ;-) The haulier is based where I work and tonight I was talking to the driver who brought it over from CZ. Good pictures. Richard

Well...........have you been up to look at it then, Neil? I know its arrived, from my intelligence sources :whistle: Richard

Thank you Clive.................and one of the Dancing Girls too (is that where they have been hiding ;-) )

Clive, I quite enjoy these observation pictures. I will try and find out a bit more about that film and the vehicles used, it was made in Sydney. Funnily enough the friend in question phoned me this morning. Richard

Saracen, cover over the rear cupola....................not sure for what purpose though.

Rick, the CJ2 or 3 box is a lot bigger as Tony has said. I would have thought there were MB /GPW boxes around. I do have a complete gearbox / transfer box, but it looks to be well worn and would need complete overhaul, at the least, new bearings and synchros and I have never had the top of it. PM if interested, I am in Kent. Richard

I have seen evidence of this myself with a WW1 MkIV tank that has sat in a square in my home town since 1919. Recently, the council wanted some conservation work done on it and I was brought in by one of the potential contractors. The steel plates on the side were cracked and pulled out of line by rust that had foced the riveted joints apart. Discussing this with Bovington Tank Museum, it is not unusual. The steel plate used and the hardening procedure was to blame, you have to remember, armour plate was in its infancy at that time, doubtful they were using alloy mixes, more like flame hardened boiler plate, I suspect. Welding the cracks would have made the problem worse, all in all, to restore one of these to usable condition, you would end up reconstructing the hull, then the originality has gone out of the window. Sad as it is, they are best left to rest in peace now as static displays. And someone else got the conservation job. One interesting I spotted though, when inside it, both of the huge drive chains were in place. From information I had picked up before, one drive chain was removed from all these tanks that were in place all around the country as war memorials, so that they could not be driven and used in any civil uprising. Richard

Clive, That would be an ex-Australian Army Ferret, a good friend of mine in Sydney, owned a Ferret, which I think was in the film, I know he was on set during the filming. Sneeky one :evil: Richard

So what else could it be used for? Malkara perhaps, or is that too easy

So a second person can confirm, weapon sight is aimed on correct target ? As in a nucleur weapon or shell, that being said, it could be off an artillery piece, such as FH70?

That Antar showed up on Maple Leaf Up forum this week, with a photo of it at the Cooma Motorfest in Aus recently.

a tracking device for GW ?

is it a camera?

as part of the picture has been blanked off, I will guess it could be a mudguard / wing for a vehicle or trailer.........perhaps

You 'll grow into them :-D

Thanks Mike, I thought the engine covers right behind the cab, were cut down from original Antar ones, of course this particular vehicle had a longer chassis in front of the front axle. Makes me wonder if the radiator was moved to rear of engine? Richard

Mike, Would it be an Antar? Is this a one off conversion? Richard

Clive, All those guys need now, is to have a condensor go duff after putting all that gook around the distributor Bring on the next one................or should I now be supplying picures to you ? Richard

It has to be a Ford V8 distributor, been working on one this week ;-) vehicle could be Ford WOA2 or WOT 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, etc.

Could it be some component, on a vehicle, that has been waterproofed for wading, ie encassed in some waterproof compound?

an aerial mount...........with snow or ice on it?

Pete, Here is a photo of a Bedford QLT TCV, they were nicknamed Trooper, or even Drooper, because the extended chassis behind the rear axle tended to distort with the weight on the tail end. Richard

The Royal Engineers usually do any unexploded ordnance that is below ground level, as they have the equipment to locate, dig out, etc. The RLC, or as was the RAOC, tend to get involved with things found above ground level. Richard