madrat

Cheers Boys! You'll need to try a bit harder with your guesses I'm afraid, another clue would be that it has hood sticks :whistle: When I bought the pioneer I was looking for an explorer, it was apparent that due to the high price of scrap that it was going to die so I decided to save it. I think its a wonderful piece of engineering but aside from that its going to be painfully slow and heavy to drive and everything is so far away from me it would be a shame not to be able to show it off. I'm sure that someone else would take more pleasure from it than I can. The stolly was also rescued and I intend to get it running again to make sure it doesn't go to the scrap man either, especially since its a rarer mk1. Steam cleaner and then needle scaler and wire brushes, the scaler is simply the best tool on the planet! Had one years ago which just ripped car bodywork to pieces but for this heavy stuff its outstanding. For now maybe but not for long, is it wrong to have more floor area in the garage than in the house?! Did suggest to mrs madrat that we just lived upstairs in the garage - lead balloon stuff I'm afraid :argh: Yes we should be, and all being well in better circumstances than last years sad events. Just need to find somewhere to pitch our tent, anyone got a space?!

Great project, another one saved! After unsiezing the top rail on my pump and a little bleeding mine fired up after 15 or so years! Best of luck with the restoration :-D

Inspiring stuff Jim!! Did yours not have two good engine side covers? I know the guys in Newcastle took one off mine to make your truck complete. Keep up the good work!

Madrat is Back!! After working 100 hours a week for three months on a big contract things are coming to and end and I've got a bit more time to get things moving again before the house build kicks off. Spurred on by everyone else's hard work I managed a few hours over the last few days. Unfortunately I don't have the time to strip things down fully so I'm doing the next best thing which is to make sure everything is working, clean, rust and paint free then treating with rust converter before painting. The rust converter looks awful after it goes on but at least I know the rust won't come back through the paint. The plan is to finish the truck without the rear lockers for now, may have to sell it depending on how things with the house go :sweat: Oh and did I mention there is a new arrival coming to the barn soon?! have a guess at what it is...... todays clue is that it has a 20 ton winch :cool2: On with a few pictures:

Congratulations to both of you! Hope the spit roast was as good as it sounded :-D

No wonder they are asking for £5k with all this scammell interest around! :-D

Damm, I miss all the bargains! :cry::cry: If anyone finds one for £2k or under let me know! :cool2: I'm not supposed to be looking you see!

Good Job Mike! A friend of mine was looking to buy exactly what you build for drainage work, I shall show him what you are doing, I'm sure he will be very interested. Look forward to seeing the Antar in the flesh this summer, Duncan

The owner is friendly with the guy who was selling the meadows one at 'Andrews garage' for £6k. Apparently its now sold and went for the asking price :nono: that was in similar condition to this one so I guess that's where the figure came from. He was as keen as mustard to sell it to me! Such a shame as its just going to ruin :cry:

Tried to buy this yesterday! £5k if anyone has deeper pockets than me, nice old truck with a leyland 680

Hey Will, Just wanted to say that I'm very impressed with what you are attempting! It looks like you are making good progress :-D As they say 'I saw this and thought of you' spoke to the owner yesterday who said it was a tipper originally? I don't know the first thing about Albions so sorry if its irrelevant!

ssssshh! Don't tell the mrs its for sale! Seemed like a good price to me? Has anyone seen in in the flesh?

Does anyone know of this one?! No reason... :whistle:

Great Progress Jim! My reactor valve and brake cylinder need some attention, can you get bits for these? Or are they parts that need made up?

I'm afraid that they are just photoshopped into B&W, I've lost my good digital slr so they were just taken with a little compact thing. Turned out ok, especially since I couldn't see the screen because the sun was so bright! I'm not used to the sun up here :-D

Thanks Joris for making this work! :yay: Something went wrong...

I should have elaborated a bit, we were talking about going to shows and my concern is a breakdown. Obvious long term solution is another heavy! But not having any mates I'd need her to drive it. So without batting an eyelid she said she'd drive an explorer! So I get the pioneer with the comedy heavy steering :-( Here are some more pics of the rare pioneer superleggera!

We had a drop of snow last night, and once we made it down to the shed we took the old girl out for some exercise! Mrs madrat announced the other day that she wouldn't mind driving an explorer so I though she might as well have a go! I'm uploading a video of her first drive :-D Its taking ages to upload :argh: Anyhow, on with the pictures. They look great in black+white, sorry for stealing your idea Croc!

Andy!! Its about blinking time you get this blog up on here! Nice to see your daisy as found, and looking forward to seeing the pictures of current progress, you must be making good headway now? And we're coming into the better weather too :yay: I'll have to come over with my spanners next time I'm in London! Best of luck mate!

Welcome! It was about time we had another stolly owner on here, looking forward to seeing some pictures of your collection :-D Cheers, Madrat

One for Gritineye!

Hey Nick, Was having a look at the pictures of Floyd in your profile page. Didn't realise he was so tidy! Those chassis rails are the stuff of dreams :-D Well done on taking gritineye's advice and buying a good one! Best of luck getting him ready for the show season, we'll hopefully be there to cheer you on! :yay: Dunc

I find this a very interesting thread. In my opinion it depends on the rarity of the vehicle. When I bought the scammell I was careful to make sure what I'd bought first before doing anything, had it been rare I would have approached the restoration differently or sold it onto someone with the means to do it justice. I hate seeing something very rare that has been bodged about with. That said I'm always amused by vehicles which have been restored to excess, I remember a 101 resto that had every nut and bolt head aligned with a spirit level (You get the idea) but it didn't drive on the road and barriers were put up to prevent anyone from touching it :??? that's also equally as sad in my opinion! Both the scammell and the stolly will be restored to a good standard, then I'll drive them like they were intended and probably scratch and bend a load of things in the process of enjoying the vehicles. I wont dress up in period gear or sit in a trench all day. I'll restore them to the best of my ability and save my money to rescue something else that's going to scrap. I guess its down to which way you take pleasure from this hobby, for me its driving them..... :drive:

Many thanks for the replies, that ebay link is certainly good value and I bought floor paint from the same seller which was very good! The topcoat I have was bought from W&P and is thinned with white spirit. I'm now worried that this might react with the xylene based primer? Anyone got any ideas/experience of this? I did read somewhere that so long as the primer has a stronger solvent than the top coat you will be ok? I.e. xylene primer overcoated with white spirit based topcoat would be fine. Help! :???

Thanks guys, I'm guessing the bonda primer is this one? I think this might do the same job as the rust converter I'm using? Looks like good stuff anyway and thanks for the recommendation! Unfortunately my 'local' paint shop is a 2 hour round trip! Where possible I order off the internet to save time/fuel :cool2: Did they perhaps take the lead out of red lead primer and call it red oxide?