Minesweeper

Back in 1959 - National Service days - we had two of these MW's at the Int Corps Depot, Maresfield - one was 13RE80 and sadly I cannot remember the number of the other apart from the letters which were YR - same as yours? They were used for driver Training or assessment in new units then forming up. The assessment of the driver was done by a civilian instructor and the test consisted of just driving the vehicle either to Bognor Regis from Maresfield or back!

Barry - I think that this is a story for Emma to tell! But briefly for now, it was owned by Parkins and Perkins -latterly English China Clays and I think that Emma's dad found the remains of it dumped in a China Clay Pit where I think that he was employed. He restored it and it is now in the China Clay Museum in the St. Austell area. Emma's dad did the "Brighton" in it many years ago. It is not our Peerless. Over to you, Emma!

Thank you so much for yours and your dad's in put into this, Emma. Amazingly, it was more than 30 years ago that I bought the Peerless and the poor thing has been waiting in the queue to be worked on all this time - we have done four other lorries in the mean time so we have not wasted our time! During that period, we have acquired a lot of information about Peerless and also a lot of pictures of them, but strangely enough despite the large numbers of Peerless' that the WD had and that were later sold off after the war into a civilian life, very few of them and bits of them have survived when compared with other makes. We have enough bits to do a second Peerless - but not an engine for it. There must be one somewhere! Anyhow, from all of the pictures we have carefully studied, we are convinced that with the majority of Peerless' that left the factory when new, the Dashboards were of wooden construction with the outside parts consisting of vertical planks but in the centre section, the planks were laid horizontaly. So that is how our good friend Mark who is a very skilled woodworker has made ours - in Sapele - and a beautiful job it is. It will be a great shame to paint it! We think that it will probably take another year to finish it all off. Having done other American built trucks previously, we were convinced that all of the threads used in the Peerless would be either UNF or UNC and initially struggled with that as nothing seemed to fit as we had not identified the problem. Another reader of this thread some time ago after we really got started into it, suggested that the threads could be UNS which rather puzzled us - but he was absolutely right and that is what they are - we had not come across that one previously. Another reader of this thread sent us a photograph of a box of taps and dies that he had bought at an American Autojumble - and the box was labeled - "Taps and Dies for Peerless". They were UNS. I should be interested to know how your dad got on with this - you cannot buy UNS nuts and bolts and we have made our replacements as we have progressed! Tony

Thank you Emma! I am glad that your Dad is following our progress - I am sure that it will have brought back a lot of memories to him from when he did his. It has been quite a long job and I am sure that your Dad will nod his head in agreement when I say that no job is ever straight forward and that you will always find things that you were not expecting that you have to do! The Goslings send him - and you - our kindest regards and best wishes.

Very pleasing to see all of these different skills being exercised so well!

Well, I have an ex-Military 109 - Military Reg was 73KB70. I bought it through a Dealer in 1996 who got its civ reg A765JPB for me. I always thought that it was a 1983 Land Rover and now ready to be "historic" but now I think that it could be a 1984 model - just not sure. It seems to be ex RAF Reg and said to be a Rapier Radar Vehicle - still not done more than 30,000 in its life.

Those first four - left to right - Mike S., Barry W.,Steve B and Mick G.

All very simple and basic - scrape off as much of the congealed grease/oil as possible - then brushed with paraffin to move as much of any other remaining grease/oil. Then wipe down followed then by rotary wire wheel brush on the hand drill to take it back to clean metal.

Great job, well done!

As an aside, I must just mention how we obtained this carb - we did not have one and Tim finally found this one on American EBay - it was being auctioned in the usual EBay manner. I felt that we could not take any chances in losing it so I wrote to the Vendor and asked him if he would accept an offer of US $ x for it as a "Buy it now" instead - he immediately wrote back to me and said "That will do" so the purchase was finalised. It turned up here quite safely as arranged but we were surprised that it smelled (stank!) very badly of some unidentified substance which has taken a very long time to wear off - I wonder if this is why the seller so quickly agreed to part with it!

We had one tyre which was a bit of a sloppy fit on one wheel of either the Dennis or the Thorny - I cannot remember which one it was but some canvas was inserted between wheel and tyre as they were pressed and that seems to have worked well and took up the slack. I believe that that was an age old remedy for that problem.

Our local Wheelwright is a super guy and a master of his craft - I am so pleased that he has been honoured by the Queen.

I expect that there was a variety of them but the one in the Tank Museum is varnished!

Another great story, Mike and good luck with it, too!

Fascinating!

Great - everything moving in the right direction!

It must be that comfort is more important to the older generation!

That made me smile, Andy! Tony

What we understand from the Wheelwright is that the steel band is cut to get it off and then the cut is welded up again when the wheel has been repaired and is ready for the band to be put back on! Sounds simple! I have not noticed an original joint in the band but I will look again.

That should, of course, be 9/16" - just a "typo"! Every dimension on this lorry is a strange one - I turned the heads of the M16 coach bolts to the reduced diameter shown and rethreaded them - they are countersunk into the wheel and the residual dome on the M16 bolts after being reduced fits very neatly into the existing countersink on the wheel - so thank you for your offer but I think we can leave them as they are without them looking too funny!

That all adds up! At that time - something new - five new Intelligece Platoons were formed up at Maresfield to be part of Strategic Reserve in 1959 - one for each of the 4 Brigades Groups within 3 Infantry Division and the other to be attached to Div HQ. Each Platoon was to be entirely self supporting and independent with their own Int Corps vehicles and drivers, administration and so on. My unit was 3 Platoon to be attached to 2 Infantry Brigade group with Brigade HQ at Crownhill Fort in Plymouth. Drivers were Int Corps personnel all who could already drive but each driver did a 2 weeks MT course for assessment and to be passed by the army. The platoon consisted of about 10 - 2 officers, 2, senior N C O's and other Int Corps O.R.'s, plus two Draughtsmen from other units. The two MW's were there purely for that assessment purpose. Unit vehicles were two Land Rovers and an Austin K9 with three Sankey 1/2 ton trailers. The whole idea was shortlived and the Brigade was disbanded towards the end of 1960. The Int Corps men were posted to other units but the two Draughtsmen - both National Sevicemen - one from the R.A. and the other from the Devon and Dorsets were both demobbed immediately without having to complete their full term of National Sevice!

It was a cab with a canvas roof and full windscreen. We had two of these - I can not remember the number of the second one other than the letters of the number were YR. I did not come across any others in service. They were fun! Tony

Perhaps off topic for which I apologise! I did my Army Driving Test in an Bedford MW 15cwt in 1959 - 13RE80 and fond memories go with it. I often wonder what happened to it and I wonder if either - or both of you -Wally and Richard - have any record of it?

Magnificent!