JPA-Adventurer

thanks John yep, I've purchased a breakaway cable and will retro fit it.....just in case looks easy enough, as there's a handy bit at the bottom of the handbrake lever mechanism that I can pop a heaby duty carabiner through Ive also got a fat heavy motorcycle security chain that will fit from towbar to Sankey and provide secondary coupling that won't let nose hit the floor if hitch fails Will look into the export licence, never heard of that but I know plenty of people who use Sankeys abroad and have turned them into camping trailers, but I'll check it out to be on the safe side, so thank you Sankey is now fully stripped and ready for shot blasting and repainting next week, yay ! Jase

Latest update..... well, i priced up some decent paint, undercoat, primer etc from Por15 range and this came to about £85 Then spoke to a local coatings guy who has offered to shot blast the whole thing clean, use a professional 2 pack primer followed by a 2 pack coating (he says it's the toughest coating he can find on the market) and he'll do the whole lot for not much more £££'s than I'd have paid in paint ! So, I'm off to see him today to discuss exactly what he can do....and agree a cash price.....and then fingers crossed the chassis can take a huge step forwards and be back to A1 condition very soon ! have to say I'm very impressed with the condition of the chassis, for a 30-40 year old piece of steel it's in amazing, new condition. Thinking that once it's properly coated I might still coat all the unseen bits with the clear, hardening wax coating that the military must've used, as that's probably what has kept it so good does anyone know what the wax coating is called, and where I can buy some? cheers Jase

Well today I had a first little go with my first ever angle grinder (new toy, yay !) and used an 80 grit flap disc Blimey, I was amazed how easily it ripped the paint off !....and underneath the NATO camo paint there's a horrid lime green layer but then it's straight through to bare metal. Made a start like you do, and then just kept going Not bad for a few hours work, eh? Only trouble is, the sides of the chassis have a thick waxy coating and this has clogged up the flap disc a bit....and screwfix are out of stock, so packed the trailer away for today At least I've made a start Jase

Well, my lad helped me to lift the tub off and get it to the back if the garage, it's in pretty good nick but has some rust bubbling along the bottom edges. Thinking I might grind it back and treat it with Neutrarust and then cover up the edges with some "L" profile lengths of black chequer plate Really pleased to find the chassis is in fantastic condition all round, I've jet washed it to remove any crud and next job will be the sanding and prep for painting Here's a few photos of the bare chassis Think the chassis will look good once it's tidied up, then I can sort the new electrics out Found some more grease nipples as I worked around it with the Karcher, so once it has dried off in the sunshine I re greased all round Happy days Jase

Latest update on the refurb..... Well, lots of little bits of tinkering, the odd hour or so here and there and I'm making some progress. First I worked out how to remove all of the light fitting and cabling ( decided I will replace all of the wiring and new plug as I convert everything to 12v ). Managed to remove all of the wiring carefully, and it all seems in good condition. Once I've cleaned it all up I will sell it on if anyone is doing a proper restoration. Next I removed all of the bolts that attach the tub to the chassis Next I tackled removing the 6 tie down rings.....BLIMEY....what a pig of a job that turned out to be ! Easier to access them all once the wiring was out of the way, and after many days of soaking with wd40 I bought a set of roll pin punches to try knocking the roll pins out from underneath. No chance ! The little beggars were stuck solid, except for one which only knocked out cos I had enough room for a decent swing of the hammer. Everywhere else there's just not enough space to swing the hammer. VERY annoying! So, out came the angle grinder and Dremel and after a lot of faffing about I eventually managed to get all of the tie down rings out, phew! That was a good feeling to have finished them. I've now lifted the tub off the chassis enough to wedge a piece of thick wooden post under the front and back, all I need now is to wait for my 2 sons to give Daddyo a hand to lift the tub clear and take it off completely. Feels pretty heavy so I've taken the tailgate off to help reduce the weight a bit My next job will be to clean the chassis with the Karcher before I set about sanding/grinding to get a good smooth finish before repainting and waxoyling. With the tub off I can also sort the new electric cabling much more easily Oh, and I found a nice Wanner Grease Gun on gumtree for a tenner so I've bought that, filled it with new grease and pumped the towing eye assembly with plenty of new grease.....nice ! Loving it ! Jase

Well I bought some parallel punches from Screwfix and soaked each roll pin in plenty of wd40 Managed to get one pin out after lots of hammering, but all the rest are seized solid and there's not really enough room to get enough swing on my hammer...grrrrr! Got an angle grinder coming soon (Fathers day gift, yay) so I will have to resort to cutting the pins! So, not much progress on the Sankey these last few weeks, but I did manage to wash and wax the D2 and I hear that the new towing plate for the 2" receiver is almost finished. Here's how shiney the D2 looks now :

cheers Trevor, I've got plenty of old drill bits I can use to work out the size Kind regards Jase

...ahh, now they're cleaned up I can see that they're "roll pins" eg a hollow pin with a split running down the length will need to buy a roll pin punch, does anyone know what size punch I'd need (cos that'll stop me having to buy a whole set, lol) cheers Jase

Well, next job I'm tackling is to remove the tub from the chassis to enable me to give the chassis a good clean up and fresh coat of paint. It will also give me easier access to sort the electrics out, as I need to convert to 12v and a standard 7 pin plug Also, I need to tidy the tub up too, the bottom edges are rusty and bubbling quite badly in places, with a few small holes here and there. I'm thinking that I should strip away all the rust and apply Neutrarust to stop the rust in its tracks and then maybe tidy up the edges with some strips of 90 degree angle chequer plate (??) I'm thinking that a strip of black chequer plate all around the bottom edges could give a neat finish, I've managed to remove all of the bolts that go through the floor of the tub and throught the chassis.... BUT....no success yet in removing the pins from the undersides of the swivel fixings. Looks like they're "roll pins" that need to be punched out, but problem is I don't own a roll pin punch. Just wondering if anyone knows the size of punch I'll need please?....that'll mean I can just buy one, rather than a whole set Thank you and best wishes Jase.

Nice one, thanks Peter....I will try the free one first and see what happens and yes, will need a hand to understand the reply, lol... Kind regards Jase

Thanks ever so much Wally, I really appreciate that will send you a pm kind regards Jase

Wow !....thanks very much Wally That's a really good find. Did you find that by the CES number (31224) and what does "CES Number" mean? Is 31224 a number that's unique to my trailer or does it relate to a batch of them? Are there any more pages to the document? If so, how do I find them? sorry for all the newbie questions, but I love to learn ! Kind regards Jase

Now that the brakes are working I turned my attention to the tow coupling, which seemed to be seized. At the back end of the coupling there's a thick load of grease, haven't cleaned this away so not sure if it's grease that's escaped or just a generous glob of grease put there by the previous owner On the front of the coupling the black seal looks a bit perished. Anyways, whilst knocking it about with the lump hammer I noticed a tiny shift of movement in the towing eye...another couple of firm smacks and it freed up ! For the first slides I used the hammer to knock it backwards and forwards, but then was able to push and pull it by hand. Now, if I push the towing eye fully back with handbrake up I can then release the handbrake and as the lever drops down there's enough power in the spring to push the towing eye back out....result ! Ideally I'd like to replace the seals and re grease, but at least for now the towing eye seems to be sliding well, and with the brakes now working I'm feeling pretty pleased with my progress so far. If anyone knows how to remove the coupling, or how to replace the seals (and where to buy the parts) then please let me know....thanks For info, the tow coupling ID plate shows it was made my SACOL Southampton (and I live in Southampton!) and it's serial number is 42557. Jase

Took some info from the Sankey's plate, thought I'd post it here in the hope that someone might be able to tell me more about its history, what the codes/numbers mean, it's age etc (??) There's an ID plate on the drawbar of the trailer....bit faded, but here's the bits I can read : MANFR : GKN Sankey SERIAL NO : 1603 CON NO : FVE 21A/3801 (might be 3501) CES NO :31224 NSN : 2330-99-893-4847 REG NO : 23 KE 63 CODE NO : 2853 0790 No : 1429 Does any of this info help to tell me more about my trailer?? regards Jase