Stormin

A good line-up Obviously your Thor on the left. Are the others on here and who in what order please?

Blimey! Must have been a good few hours work in doing the drawings. All hand drawn I'm fairly sure. Not something you see much of these days with CAD.

Is it probable that a large percentage (near 100% but maybe slightly less) of Stalwart evaluation testing was carried out off road with no thought to on-road use?

Very nice! Can't fault a bit of classic plant as well as Military.

Got to say your welding in previous pics certainly looked very good. It's harder to get decent welds on thin panels without distortion than doing the heavier structural stuff! How did you come about the panels over the rear, with compound curves? They look like panels off another car adjusted to fit and a very good job again.

Are you sure that you want to put all the 240bhp through just two bevel boxes and tracta joints? Especially if it's towing another one. By the way I'm with Mike on the maths. Anyone care to ask Neil what percentage of it's worth Neil has spent on his Stalwart? Lights blue touch paper........

Wasn't the Stalwart the only one with the No Spin centre diff though? So the only one with permanent Six wheel drive, and hence the problems on tarmac.

Turret totty? Or Weapons of Mass Distraction?

:rofl: Looks like it may be too late for this one! The front wheel is definately at a slightly different angle going by the tell tale white lines. May actually be about to be recovered.

Problem with hiring the kit is predicting the weather. Chances of getting a decent few rain free weekends are slim. Slightest bit of moisture about and you've wasted your time and effort not to mention money! Unless of course you have a huge great tent or similar structure to work under.

Does anybody know what the original engine fitment was for the Stalwart, before the Military got involved? As far as I'm aware Rolls Royce B80's and 81's were only fitted to military vehicles.

Did you see how Steve mad eup the inner profile for the Leather oil seals on the Dennis? See here:- http://www.hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?t=429&page=40 Maybe the same technique may work.

If you've got lots to do and it's going to be done in dribs and drabs then your own set-up starts to make sense. That's exactly the situation I'm in with the Ward La France. Lots of parts to blast, some large some small, not all to be done at the same time. Probably cost thousands with a blast company, so I invested in a road tow compressor and self built blast pot. See here for how I built my blast pot. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=10682

I seemed to remember £50,000 banded about but wasn't sure, seemd too steep! Either way £50,000 - £99,000 for a vehicle in the late sixties early seventies was a huge, huge, amount of money, probably around the equivalent of £1 million these days. No wonder they only sold to the military!

For £150 I would get it done! If you trust them to actually blast clean it and not just paint over the rust! Cost me £300 to get my 101 chassis and axles blasted a couple of years ago. I then spent half the next day getting the bits they'd missed before I could prime it. The £50 blast pots are a waste of time. The £126 pressure blast pot is far superior as it has a better flow of grit. A 3hp, 14cfm compressor is the absolute minimum requirement to run one of these. Even then it's going to take you all day to blast a Land Rover chassis. The first bits blasted will be getting surface rust before you start painting. It'll also give your home electric compressor a hell of a work out if it doesn't finish it off completely. I started with one of the small blast pots but progressed to my own home made larger one and a road compressor. A road compressor greater than 100cfm is what you really need for successful blasting.

Mike, Are you sure the Stolly was originally concieved as a civilian load carrier? I am not aware of any with first users other than the military. I can believe that it may as an after thought been seen as useful to oil pipeline companies etc. but how many were sold on this basis? The majority of the underpinnings are the same as the military Saracen / Salamander from which it is derived. Even the engine (Rolls Royce B81), I believe to only have been used in military vehicles. Surely if originally concieved for civilian use it would've originally had a diesel engine as most heavy trucks by that time. When the military did get hold of the design it can't have been much further than the drawing board stage, were they could exert their influence as to engine type amongst other things.

Can't see 6mph being of much use in many rivers, it's not going to beat the speed of flow and lead to the vehicle being effectively swept down stream. Only really usefull in still water and then it's usually easier to drive round than go across. It's always going to be a compromise between land and water capability of dual purpose vehicles given the differing requirements. Anyone know the rated speed of the CVRT in water? I believe this series of vehicles were also designed as a swimmers.

I started out with one a cheap Clarke one and used it for welding my Landy. It was better on the chassis than the bulkhead panels as there weren't many power settings and the arc was more stable at higher power. It was useful as I was welding outdoors without shelter from the wind so no loss of shielding, but still tended to get a brown fuzz over the weld that wire brushed off. The down side is the much greater cost of the wire and it's not as readily available when you out run out on a sunday afternoon. I've now switched to a much better mig set that use pub gas size bottles and it's a lot cheaper to run, but also now have a garage so most of my welding is indoors. If you are going to buy a set may be worth going for one of the dual purpose ones were you can swap between gas and gasless. Have you seen this site with large fourm, lots of uselful information and buying advice. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

Harder to obtain and as a result quite often a lot more expensive that's what I've found with imperial as opposed to metric. What are peoples views on using zinc plated bolts on WWII stuff? Were all original bolts plain black finish? Makes sense in this day and age to use plated were available for corrosion protection. Seeing as most seem to be painted over anyway who's going to know the difference?

Wow so I don't need to go to France to see these remarkable feats of engineering! Anyone know the were abouts of any more mulberries, besides the Essex and the Dorset ones? Seems they were constructed at many more locations around the country and not all made it to the French coast.

I notice the hierarchy of freeing off implements in the bottom photo:- First and nearest the truck, the trusty can of WD40, Second the frustration beater or hammer, Thirdly and the final resort, the gas axe!

Sorry but how can information from VOSA be confidential? Unless it is referring specifically to one of your vehicles. Any information they put in writing could surely be used as evidence by anyone in a court of law.

Well at least there's definately air in that nearside tank! Half shaft looks alright! Hope they secured it and didn't lose it on the way back.

Don't tell me Jack's been brave enough at last?

Valid ideas for temporary drive to the front wheels. I believe the main problem lies in using the VW beetle front axle is that there's no provision for drive to the hubs. The steering kingpin is solid through the centre of the wheel line. A different type of front wheel drive axle would have to be used. As regards registration it should be possible to keep the original Beetle registration, as the floor pan engine, gearbox, axles and steering are to original specification. Altering to fourwheel drive may jepordise that depending on the amount of original components retained. Nothing to stop the owner buying a private plate to make the vehicle appear older than the original beetle of course, but then the intention doesn't seem to be to pass the vehicle off as geunine.