teletech

If you got half way, you must have gotten a heck of a running start or have some very impressive flotation tires!

Yes, the seats all hang from the top. It's done that way to minimize damage to the crew from mines. There is more room inside for both the driver and turret crew, well more room than a scorpion at least, it's basically a spartan inside. The "Spoiler" on the turret is mostly a rollbar, the II is very top-heavy and they were found to be prone to rolling. It also serves as someplace to mount fancy electronics like ground radar. BAEsystems.com has a document called CVR(T)final.pdf that describes the changes, no good interior shots though.

I spent well over an hour washing out my torsion tunnels with a hot-water pressure washer and still was getting unpleasant goo out. Hard to get into the corners. It's a pity that the caustic chemical stripper-baths are so bad for Al, it would be so nice to just dip the whole hull into a boiling vat of MEK or something and have all the paint and gunk just melt off.

I'm in the USA, so can't say much about brands. Miller has the market around here pretty much locked up though my Lincon welders have always been just as good to me, in theory the Miler support is better. I can say a bit about inverter VS transformer though having owned several of each over the years: Transformer units tend to last forever but you are going to need 60-100 amps of power to run it. It will weigh several hundred pounds and take up some floor space. The duty cycle tends to be surprisingly limited. An inverter unit will cost a lot more but you can pretty much plug it in to even marginal household power and run a couple hundred amps, your duty cycle will typically be 3x the same rating of transformer welder and you can get 200A in under 50Lbs. I haven't ever had one break but when they do it's often expensive. Welding Al, I appreciate the frequency control of a inverter welder.

Yes, make sure the drain plugs are out and I'd also remove the oil drain plate under the engine/transmission. If it's outdoors, it WILL accumulate water and if water gets in the torque rod boxes and freezes, it's annoying to have to weld them back up. Oh, as my friend likes to point out- spiders *love* tracked armor.

My vehicle was painted with something that I strongly suspect was sourced locally, I believe mine was actually latex as I was able to get most of it to come off with a nice hot-water pressure washer. It was defiantly painted twice with slightly different colors of white.

The Holley Pro-Jection setup was an early turn-key TBI EFI setup, a bit dated now but I had good experiences with them for a couple retrofits, including an M-37B. All the usual stuff, more power, better mileage. I suspect the benefits would be greater for armor since the engine compartments temps tend to run high. Of course, you have to muck about with 12V electrics, also injectors have no sense of humour at all for dirty fuel. The pump comes with filters and such but you have to make sure your fuel line is clean. The M37 was a success. My civvy Jeep trucks got kits as well: the '72 3/4 ton ran really well, the fuel economy of a lean 2bbl and almost all the power of a 850CFM Holley quad. The '57 Willys, it was pretty smooth and trouble free, but I have to say I could never get as nice an idle or as much top end out of the EFI kit. What were you looking at retrofitting?

and now I can't un-see it, thanks for that. I think I might be ill.

I'm very interested in knowing what alloy you used for your sponson patch. Mine was patched with an incompatible alloy (6061 I suspect) at some point and rotted away quite badly. I'm also curious to know if you chose to follow the Repaircraft instructions and MIG your repairs or if you went with TIG? Did you use AL 5556 or some other filler?

I'm glad to see your retaining pins came out so easily, I'll be needing to replace a couple of mine that had to be drilled-out.

Remarkably simple, though it is true that firearms regulations vary a lot by state. So your experience in New York might not be as interesting as say Arizona. Nevada for instance is known for it's ranges where you can use fully-automatic weapons, suppressed weapons, tank cannons, and the like. Just do a web search for firing range in the areas you want to visit and see which ones rent guns and sell ammunition. Most or all ranges require you buy ammo from them if renting their guns. The supervision ranges from pretty much nothing, which can get a little scary depending on who's there, to the range safety officer watching your *every* move, also tiresome. You will need to purchase or rent (depending on the range) eye and ear protection. If you are going to go to a couple ranges it might be worth buying something that isn't junk. A few ranges require over-ear protection rather than just ear plugs. Finally, since many of the ranges that rent firearms are indoor ranges, you might consider using *both* ear muffs(defenders) and ear plugs. Just in case the bloke (or lady, we've been making a lot of progress of late) in the next lane shows up with a ported 44-magnum! Also, it's a social activity... if you admire someone's firearm or ask about it and they are a regular shooter, there is about a 60% chance you will be offered a chance to shoot it. It polite to offer to buy your own ammo for usual calibers or offer reimbursement for others if you use more than 6-10 rounds. An extreme example is shooting a M2 heavy machinegun can run $2400/minute in ammunition alone, .455 Webley ammunition is $2-3/round right now. On the other side of the scale, reloaders might have about $0.20/round cost and .22LR can get down to $0.07/round. Coming out to California? There are a few ranges that make you sign a loyalty oath or join the NRA (I do wish I were kidding) but most are simple for-profit business with a few municipal ranges thrown in. One range near me has a public outreach day for novice shooters, they provide the shooting lane, firearms, instruction, targets, and ammunition... all on a donation basis.

It's odd the PO went through all the effort to sandblast and paint, but not to straighten the bent sponsons.

Welcome to the party. What's going on to bring you to Death Vally in April? I ask because I'm not too far distant and always interested in local happenings.

Terry, If you wouldn't mind sawing one off, I'd love a good length of sponson off one side as I'm afraid the one on the back of the vehicle I bought is a write-off. 7'3" would be perfect and I have a stack of parts accumulating in the UK it could get added to. thanks, P_

Robin, no copies on ABE but I'll keep an eye out, thanks much. As to the original corrosion, that's just because someone repaired a chunk of my sponson with the wrong material (6061 I expect). Based on the damage to the hull it looks like there was either a thrown track or a bent/collapsed tensioner and that caused the sponson damage originally. Once that was done they created a battery. It might be the case that if the sponson had been kept painted it might not have been able to corrode but I don't want to take that chance.

I finally caught a bit of a break regarding my needed hull repairs. Looks like 5556 is the desired alloy for filler and it's fairly available (if not inexpensive). I'm still looking for a source of the plate metal to attach though. A member on another site found this and sent it to me, which showed me the 5556. http://everyspec.com/MIL-SPECS/MIL-SPECS-MIL-DTL/download.php?spec=MIL-DTL-32505.052307.pdf

7' nominal but you really need to add a few inches for the fenders and such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Vehicle_Reconnaissance_%28Tracked%29 is a good place to start.

I think my plan would be: Dig down a bit to make room for a bottle jack and a spreader plate beneath. Lift vehicle fill and tamp the wheel holes with rocks and gravel or heavy soil. Place sub-flooring (1-1/2" thick plywood) under the wheels in as large patches as practicable lower lift , fill the jack hole, and carry on, moving the plywood pads around so you don't fall off them. 2 layers of 3/4" plywood will handle the load as well, but with much more protestation than a single thicker piece.

Nothing remarkable really, a 1967 CJ-5. Interesting to me personally in that there are fond memories as it's the family Jeep, bought by my great-grandfather and then given to my uncle when he went away to college... no new cars just for graduating high school in those days.

I bought a CVR(T) Sturgeon that came from Withams that was completely seized. Of course the exhaust on these put them at great risk. I Lots of rust in the turbo, some stuck valves, and a pair of the cylinders had the pistons rusted in. I pulled the head and a mix of scraping and oil with some gentle but persistent manipulation of the crank got it turning again. I'm sure it would run fine but the pitting is such that I may pull the motor down and have those bores opened up. Sad to see the neglect. :-( On the other hand, I just started a petrol motor (Buick V6 in Jeep) that had been sitting for 30 years, no preservative action had been taken but it was in a garage and I feel the oil-bath oil filter really worked well keeping the engine in good order. I was able to turn the motor over with just the cooling fan.

I agree that it's a good idea to check the filters. Is this with batteries charging, battery voltage will affect the rate of course. Of course, if you are able to use 1l/min you must be really moving!

Steelsoldiers is indeed the place for M35 information, they have a section with all the relevant technical manuals you can download.

When I first saw your post and pics, I wondered who hijacked my images! My sender and fuel tank looked identical, well, a bit worse actually. I found someone with a new one for sale, at over 400GPB! So I guess we need to make a run of the needed small parts. If I had a mechanical drawing, or at least some measurements, I could fab some.

Terwagne, welcome aboard from the USA, those CCKWs are fun toys. I had the replacement, an M35, for a few years. Yes, I fear our new member from Belgium will be shortly inundated with requests from all of us with CVRT (me too please). :-)

I'd suggest you might want to add your location to your profile to get the most relevant answers/offers.