Stormin

Did you manage to get everything undone and try it whilst the engine was still hot? That would make a difference, higher compression and more clearance around the injectors in theory.

Have you tried using the engines compression to blow them out? Remove all fixings and then place a heavy blanket over them, avoiding the fan and belts. A few flicks of the starter key with over 300psi behind should see them out.

Grooved tyres are banned from next season, it's back to slicks apparently. :wink: I could be persuaded to take them off your hands though as long as they come with the tractor.

Think I'd rather be watching than the man being swung around. Don't think I'd trust anyone to be driving and not plant me into those containers. Wouldn't want to be the first human wrecking ball.

I guess those guys are now joining the few million looking for work!

But what a way to fill a bucket. A work of art and not just machinery if you ask me.

Not very good is it. Especially if they had all the bits to work from and test assemble. A good outfit would be sending the bits to you by carrier for nowt, save you any more inconvenience.

If it's about transit traffic it doesn't matter a jot what airport you land at. Take that away from Heathrow and transfer it to another quieter airport and Heathrow would have spare capacity now. Let's see some money spent away from London for a change.

A CVRT is much smaller in my opinion than the FV432 family. Possible to keep it on your drive and with it's high speed and light weight easier to transport or even drive to events. Perhaps being a more modern vehicle they are seen as easier to maintain as well. From my recent observations though FV433 abbots seem to be commanding similar prices to scorpions and scimitars.

If not a goods vehicle what classification would such a vehicle fall into? Certainly not a mobile crane looking at the very tight wording for their definition. I belive the definition of a mobile crane has been tightened up to reduce the amount of vehicles running around on red diesel. I feel sure that an explorer has enough cargo capacity outside of the tool boxes to count as a goods vehicle.

With kit like that available you could have had a go at making some of the other parts as well. :-) Glad to here it should all be coming together. Bit of a hit out of next years fuel budget though.

I was going to suggest manually swapping the batteries occasionally to balance the load on them, but Antar Mikes solution above sounds far more elegant.

I'll be following this one with interest. Sounds like you've got plenty to do with the interior stripped out and holes in the hull, but sometimes it's best to start form scratch. Good to hear the frosty weather was helping out for once with the solid ground conditions. Probably couldn't have got away with moving it at any other time of year not without chewing up the land anyway. Hope Tootallmike returns soon, I've got plenty of Ward La France questions for him :-)

As others have said, find the right man and blasting the body shouldn't be a problem. Problem is most blasters are set up for quickly blasting stone buildings and heavy steelwork not lighter gauge stuff. Many won't be interested as it takes a lot longer using lower pressure and smaller nozzles to avoid distortion and oveheating the panels. Expect the relative cost to be a lot higher as your paying for more operator time.

Powder coat should not have any trouble with flexing, indeed it's better than some paints. Powder coat is commonly used on wheels and bike frames and these flex a hell of a lot. Some of the poor reputation of powder coat is down to poor preparation of the surface. If applied to a freshly blasted surface there should be no problem. If applied over new steel with a polished or mill scale finish it's no wonder it doesn't adhere. Having said that I would go for a paint finish myself as it's easier to touch up with a brush at home. You're bound to scratch it during the re-build or shortly after whilst driving.

I considered galvanising for my 101 chassis, but shyed away due to the risk of warping due to the heat of the zinc bath, I would advise you to do the same unless you have ready access to another chassis. There's no reason why the powder coat couldn't be matched to any colour, depends on the company doing the work and whether they just want to stick to their standard stock colours. The level of heat required for powder coating is about half that of galvanising so no worrys there.

Are those versions of the stingers the civvy police use now or the missile?

New born baby seats should be rear facing. Best that they are in the front were you the driver can see them. Given the size of modern baby seats you may well struggle to even get one in the land rover. The seats aren't the widest and there's not much room from the back rest to the dash board. I couldn't even get our second stage baby seat to fit in my Bedford MJ, it was that large. Best bet would be to go to Halfrauds or similar and try a few out.

Are these only available from Zinc carbon batteries? :rofl: Bit worrying about the Oak being most corrosive. That's what the original planking on the rear deck of the Ward La France was. I was intending replacing like for like but having seen what happened to the original rear body and reading this now I'm not so sure. Might go for the Kerouin as recommended by a friend as it's widely used on truck decks these days.

Interesting assembly. I assume there are further planet gears inside the crown wheel to give differential action. Looks almost like a modern limited slip unit with the workings sealed.

Looking good! Get the diff restored and a propshaft installed and it'll be good for a test run. That should fire the entushiasm.

If not lifting it up it's got to shift it sideways slightly :shocked: Definately wouldn't fancy a journey along that rail line with the new kink in it and the unstable ground. :shake:

John Just out of interest, did you paint the inside of your brake chambers? Got mine stripped down ready for clean up and paint. Not sure whether to paint the inside for corrosion protection. Sounds O.K. on one hand but not sure whether it'll encourage the diaphragms to stick to the insides of the chambers. I suppose electroplating might be the best solution and overpaint the outsides. Any other opinions welcomed.

If the ground's that unstable, next to the line were his outriggers put down, I don't think that rail line will be there for much longer!

Those with lots of money will almost always have lots of money. The credit crunch won't affect them that don't need credit. It will affect the ordinary man more, with mortgage, car loan and credit cards etc. Back on topic:- Certain armoured vehicles and particularly world war 2 ones are seen purely as an investment by some people, no interest in running and maintaning a vehicle happy for it to sit somewhere and accumulate value. And in these times of other investments looking decidely dodgy I can only see the clamour for armour getting worse. Maybe it's following the same pattern as classic cars did a while back (these are now resurgent as well) and eventually the bottom will fall out of the market, when everyone decides there's more to be made on the stock market again. I don't think tanks are seen as high fashion. I don't see pop stars or footballers driving them round Cheshire or even taking them to military shows. They'll just be layed up in storage somewhere for no-one to see. :-(