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Richard, Are you teasing me? Nice picture wish i could find one of the air filters, the early MW from lover still has it's original Vokes filter on, wonder if father christmas has one!! Think i've got more chance of seeing him!! Whats the other bedford book your getting these pictures from? Looking at the picture of the MWV again do you think the canvass is in fact tin? No signals, i think its just the poor ouality of the picture, the squarer corners front panels were on the prototypes which i believe there were only one or two, but i could be wrong.

Thanks richard, there is a picture of an mw coming off a landing craft in barts book, that is out of the same batch as mine and that has circular hoops. :yay: I'd be intrested in the overhead picture of the factory if you can find it. It certainly is a mine field. I use the captured durkirk mw's as reference as at least you can put a rough date on the picture and hopefully they won't have been to messed about with. Now maurices MW has different front hoops to mine. His are the same as the later mw, with a spacer in the keepers and a dimple on the upright, used on the later mw's for securing the side screens. On maurices the dimple secures a flap which comes from the rear canvass onto the cab canvass. This flap stops the water running between the to into the cab. Later MW's have the gutter inside the cab which both canvass's sit in. If you look and the captured pictures you can see the flap and strap quite clearly. So they must have been designed and built that way. Now my front hoops have no dimple and fasten straight to the body, maybe mine was one of the no hoop type, as with them having no dimple there is no way to seal the canvass's, as maurices dose. :idea: I suppose most of the early pre dunkirk mw's would have been left there, mine was more than likely produced after dunkirk, so maybe thats where the no hoops comes in, but i'm near as certain the very early ones have hoops and canvass. Yeah the dash is an indication but i've seen cabbed versions with early clocks. The best way is the early step out runners. The bulkhead looks right but as you say, we never know the full story even that coulds have been changed. Again you are educating me, the VOKES bellows air cleaner, i'm still looking for one of these do you know of any?

I'm sticking to the hoops on the early one's!! If you look at the group of pictures in post 7 it shows some captured MW's with canvass and hoops i've seen a few others that support this to. i'll dig some more out later. Can you tell me what the groucho publication says about contact V3733 please.

Hmmm Maybe thats not the right bonnet then. From the style of the bulkhead it should be before mine, that bulkhead is the same as maurices, shame we can't see the steps.

Thanks Richard, Judging from the contract number of the MWV's these came after my own V3733. Is there anyway to put a date to the contract numbers? I'm trying to work out where mine came in the early production. I've found may 1940 stamped on a leaf of the spring. The canvas setup on the early mw's is somewhat of a confusing subject. Like you say, I always thought early MW's were supplied without hoops, and bart vanderveens book also confirms this, but i was talking to maurice, and he has, or has seen an aerial picture of the bedford factory and you can see the hoops lay in the bodies. From the pictures of the early beute MW's (presumably captured a dunkirk, so making these the early early MW's), they show a few with hoops and canvass. The setup of the hoops is certainly different to the later mw's and the canvass seems more like the dodge weapons carrier, with roll up sides. The hoops i've seen, have only the uprights, no horizotal pieces conecting them. The early bodies have a guide for the hoops above the locating rings and i don't think the later ones did, but it would seem they were designed for hoops and maybe it was only one contract that were supplied without. Is there any way to find out what was specifically ordered on each contact?

Thats intresting an MWV, not heard of that before. I can see the bodies different can you tell us anything else richard? I take it the canvas fastened on the inside? :tup::

Some nice pictures you can see the development of the mw. The cabbed one in post 17, must have been the first of the later version, its got all the early features and the doors and windscreen too. Looks like the factory in the back ground.

Hello, lots of pictures of the MW's in service about and different ones keep turning up. It would be intresting to see how many we can find. A nice german conversion, looks similar to the picture in the morris gallery. I wonder how many of these were made. One from the factory. There are other factory photo's around but i haven't come across them yet.

Thank you richard, your a gentleman. I was thinking maybe it was a breather, i'll get it moved. Just out of interest do you think the breather being blocked could cause any other problems? The hub seals are leaking, there on my list of things to do!! Usual locking up in reverse and oil on tyre. I going to put new ones in (i'll be picking you brains again) but just wondered if the breather being blocked could cause it. I picked a diff gasket up off ebay a couple of weeks back. So i'll take the cover off and have a look at the bolt, now i know what it is. Thanks again

Hello, i'm after picking the brains of the forum again. I've been wire brushing the back axle of the mw. Whilst doing the diff cover and the surrounding bolts, i noticed one of them is a stud a nut rather that a bolt. Firstly I can't remember if this was the way they were made or it has been a repair at some time, should they all be bolts? Once i had cleaned the paint off the stud, it started to leak oil. on closer inspection there is a hole in the middle of the stud, as shown. If it is supposed to be a bolt, it should be easy enough to repair, otherwise what would be my best solution? Also looking at the other side of the dif I guessing the round object is the end of a bolt holding the crown wheel in place? This also has a slight leak, but i havent take the paint off it yet so it may get worse. If i am correct and it is a bolt it probably wants some ptfe on it, so its the diff cover off and remove the bolt. Am i safe to do this without effecting the alignment of the crown wheel. Or am i completely wrong? Thanks in advance.

hello chris, Nice find, bit of work to do thoe!! Definatley the reamins of a MWR. The MWR body is a MWD body with a couple of extra fittings. The main difference with the MWR body is the spare wheel is mounted on the tail board rather than in the body, but looking at your pictures this isn't a problem!! There is also the extra electrical board in the back which the gs wouldn't have had, and as mention before an extra piece on the side. The MWR also had a hand throtle. Has it still got the power take off on the gearbox instead of the compressor? There's a good body in stoke you can have a look at!! I'll have the sheets off it this week so come over when ever you want. You have all the fittings there, and allot of the radio fittings to.

Are there any armadillo's left?

I wouldn't touch it, stubbed fingers and grit in the eye are all part of the fun. :yay: If they make it easy everyone will be doing it :rofl:

Hello again!! sorry to mither you gentlemen again. I'm trying to trace the history of my MW. I've tried the RLC and had no luck. Is there any other sources, or ways of tracing the history? When i bought the mw with it having all its plates and contract number i thought i would be quite easy!! I have found a reference to the contract number in the Bart Vanderveen bedford bible. There were 3500 gs and tankers built under this contract, they were allocated the WD numbers Z4173216-6715. There is a picture of one of this batch reversing into a landing craft in the book fitted with twin machine guns. I thought i was very rare to see and mw with all but one of the data plates, also it has no reconditioning plate on the chassis, and the engine has a bedford vauxhall reconditioning plate dated 1947. Suggesting the engine was changed after the war and it hasn't been through the workshops since. Maybe why its still got its data plates. But why would that happen? I thought they were all done before they were released. From what i can tell most of the wood on the body and body panels are original ones. The rear body has all the correct early fittings. It has one of the early alloy fuel caps. With the early mws the seat cushions were bolted through with the seat, It has the remains of the canvass under the bolts. The cab floor is wood, some were steel, this is original as the bolts are still in situ for the rifle mounts although the mounts have been removed. Four of the wheels are dated 1940 and one of the rear springs is stamped may 1940. So i don't think its had a hard life wherever its been. I've been shot blasting the chassis and there isn't loads of paint, the primer black then olive green, red oxcide and the present colour. the only other colour i've found is a light blue in a few places on the body, the last restorer did a pretty through job on the body and cab, although the chassis was not stripped just tickled and painted over. As i'm finding out!!! Any sugestions? i know there's a weath of knowledge and experiance on here hopefully i can suss a bit more. thanks.

hello, One of the questions i offten get asked iss how many of these are some i've seen and others form the net.

Hello, I've fitted one of these to the bedford. I was simple enough to fit, and the inprovement was instantly noticeable. It'll pull off in third gear on the flat and the extra power up the hills is one crunch less!! From a cold start it fires up in half a turn. But the rotor arm went soon after i fitted it, at the time i put it down to the rotor arm being old, and the first time i'd removed it from the dissy, it was a bit stiff and i thought i may have twisted it and cracked it. but from what richard says it may well be down to the kit. Would it be fair to say, that if it finds a way to earth with the kit on it would only be a matter of time till it went under normal conditions? The coil packed up at the same time as the rotor arm, i had a new one from jolley (not the high power one) which broke as i fitted it, so i put a standard coil on which has worked fine since. bearing in mind i haven't done a thousand miles since it's been on, probably less than 500. My experiances with burnt out points and condensers on the bedfords made me think this might be a more reliable alternative. My dads oxd had a habit of blowing the condensers just as it was going dark!! the rac came out to us once after we'd tried the three condensers in the kit and he fitted a lada one which worked fine, untill the bearings in the dissy played up!! again i think with the jolley kit this would be solved and excess play won't stop it functioning untill they collapse all together.

i'm not so sure about that. Stress relieveing is a heat treatment where the casting is heated up and soaked to relieve the stresses. Shot blasting but more so shot peening can relieve surface stressed/flaws, but how can it effect the inner material? The castings i work with are shot blasted but i aways believed this was to remove overcast or slag. I guessing that the leaf springs are made of spring steel, which is hardened and tempered, i think it would take a heat treatment to alter this.

hello baz The learning curve with bedfords is a long one!! Mainy as its difficult to find a definative record of the production. A good bedford book is hard to come by. What i've found wih the wartime models alot of the parts are modified civilian parts. The ox/oy more so, but for example the early mw's used an "o" type bulkhead, or the QL used the pre-war 27hp cab. The ob was in production before the war, so basically an ox/oy front was fitted on to an ob cab to allow for the military sand air filter. The swage in the door is a throw back to this, i guess there was no reason to change it. It would suggest that there is more differences on the panel between the bonnet and the door than just the missing swage. The bonnet may sit differently. Oh and the hooks for the bonnet springs won't be on the bulkhead either, and i think the air filter is different to, sits on the carb rather than on the drivers side bulkhead. Hope i'm helping. and not just pissing you off:argh:

hello, a mate of mine has just restored a matador i think you can get remade panels for the cab, Try here http://aec.middx.net/page1.htm

Ob/Ol!!!!:idea:???? Ok ok you have me there not to up my civy types, still it has a pointy front rather than a square one, thats the "point" I'm making:yay: Its not an oy cab. I'm not trying to count rivets, But i could cause the whole world of pain once painted and fitted. and once the old cab has gone you'll never get the panels to put it right. Think this came from a tanker that was milweb about 6 months ago. If its as late as 1950 the battery will definatly be above the step. whilst the cab is off and with the old one as a donor it should be quite easy to convert it to an ox/oy one.

hello baz. Sorry to be a stick in the mud, but i think thats a bedford OB cab you have there. If you look at the photo, above the hole in the side of the cab for the pop out vent, there's a swage (Groove) that isn't on an OX or OY. Also Does the panel above the Passenger side step bolt on? I think the battery on a OB went there rather than under the seat. Maybe the dash is slightly different too, but i'm not 100% sure, it would be worth you checking once against the other first. You see the swage is painted white, lining up with the door and the bonnet. . The OY/OX bonnet is smooth, i'm guessing thats why it isn't there, but it would be worth checking the bulkhead where the bonnet sits, maybe there's some differnece in the bonnets to. Taking the swage out wouldn't be to difficult, with a bit of welding it'd soon disapear. Sorry if i'm telling you something you alreedy know, just thought it would be worth pointing out.

There was a gmc using twin front wheels to pull people in/out on the 1994 mvt normandy camp site. Was quite eye catching.

Well this is an education for me. I always wondered about the diffrent sized nuts used, now i know. the wars got alot to answer for!! I'm 32 and served my time in engineering as a machinist/fitter and have only ever come across the "larger sized" spanners at autojumbles and rattling around in my dad's toolbox, no wonder everytime i got him a 1/2 spanner he grumbled it was the wrong one!! Quite an easy idea to grasp but if it's never taught to you, you never know and in my nine years at college it wasn't mentioned once. Mike calm down its not that bad. My original post did only ask the thread type, i quoted the nut sizes just as in indication I quoted the nut size's, 13mm and 5/16" which should be 5/8" my mistake.. Does anyone know of a dealer specializing in old nut and bolts. I'm sure there's some about.

Hello, What thread type would have been used on bedfords? i'm pretty sure its bsw but just want to check. every bolt i've undone so far has been metric, and half the coach bolts in the body have been replaced with 13mm instead of 5/8 and it stands out like a sore thumb once you've noticed it. Also the rear body securing bolts have been replaced. so can some one confirm, the body is bolted in four places with 9/16 bolts, two coach bolts straight through the chassis at the rear, tail board end. At the front, cab end, two bolts (should these be coach bolts to?) that run on either side of the chassis to a plate that clamps under the chassis, on ether side. If this is right could someone give me the dimensions of the clamping plate at the front as mine hace been poorly remade. Thanks