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sickpup

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  1. Yep its mine and yes it looks terrible. Unfortunately living where I do in Central London its a constant fight to stop my motorcycles getting nicked and my Land Rover vandalised which is a problem for virtually every car in the street. Even the houses get tagged by wannabe graffiti artists. The area is big with tourists of all types who come to drink to excess, take drugs, slum it and view the Graffiti art some of which is frankly amazing but this fuels graffiti tourism where wannabe artists come into the area and tag everything that they can even down to peoples cars, houses and front doors. The silver squiggle on the passenger window was done at about 4pm in front of several witnesses who just stood there and watched. My Cypriot neighbours who are quite special needs (seriously, not a joke) have even helped people climb onto it to take photos and been spoken to by the Police about this, they then deny it even when shown the CCTV of them helping.. Annoyingly most of the crime round here isn't by the locals it is by people visiting the area especially white middle class 20 somethings who come in to party and buy drugs especially crack and heroin. When you find a pissed 20something year old girl trying to climb on the roof because she thinks its cool you know you have problems. There is the advantage that looking as it does hides that its a lot better than it looks. Over the last couple of years the brake system has been rebuilt, the cooling system rebuilt, screens replaced, electrics sorted, bulhead and vent panel repaired. At the moment if you look carefully you can see the rear crossmember is removed and will this summer be replaced with a galvanised one I have ready to fit. Before that goes on I have to remove the wiring loom and recover it with braid. Then weld up the passenger footwell, cure an exhaust leak and then its ready to go. Probably repaint and move it out to the other halfs place in South Wales to stop it being vandalised again as well.
  2. I can be pretty sure my FFR Lightweight went down to the Falklands as it was based on Hermes but its unknown if it went ashore. In fact Hermes may have had as many as 6 Lightweights onboard when it went down south. I have heard from an ex-ships driver on Hermes that there may have been as many as 50 Lightweights onboard, he believed they were used as ballast and loaned to the Royal Marines as required when on operations but this may have stopped when it ceased being used as a Commando carrier. An Ex-submariner cook I know who also served on Hermes during the Falkland conflict believed there were many Land Rovers onboard but didn't know how many or for what purpose.
  3. Thought I should post an update to this. The contract/Warrant no. is a very specific Royal Navy type. 006741 should be read as 006-74-1 meaning the 6th contract issued in 1974 and would have become WV11378 as the order progressed through the MOD. The UIN. N5040G appears to be for the Garage at Portsmouth naval base. I have found two other examples of the odd chassis plate both are on Royal Navy Lightweights built in the 1970's and both appear to be original so it may be that the Royal Navy specified their own type rather than the usual type. It was built as part of a contract for 7 vehicles but only 6 ended up with the Royal Navy. The 7th and last of the chassis No.s in the contract ended up with the Army. The contract was supposedly for GS vehicles only but mine is an FFR. 4 of the vehicles were depatched on the same date with the other two sent on odd dates which suggests to me that the contract was in fact for 4 GS and 2 FFR vehicles. The 7th vehicle that ended up with the army was built out of date with the others so again almost definately wasn't part of the contract. Chassis no.s were allocated to a contract. What this means in practice was that vehicles weren't built or despatched in chassis no. order. There were dates where parts of the contract had to be built by and various contracts were being built at the same time therefore the vehicles would be completed out of chassis order but within contract order. In the case of my vehicles contract the numbers ran from 488-494. 489,490,492 and 493 were all dispatched to Hilton on the 21st nov. 488 was dispatched on the 11th nov, 491 (mine) went on the 10th dec and 494 went on the 27th Sep which as I have said suggests 494 the 7th was in fact not part of the contract. I will be requesting the B card for 494 from the RLC as they have it. I now have an invitation to check throught the 6 boxloads of vehicle B cars held at Portsmouth as well so hopefully I can confirm the above.
  4. I have entered an FOI request here so may hopefully get some more answers.
  5. A friend on mine who works in chassis development at Land Rover has managed to get a little bit of information from a chap who works on military coontacts on the odd vin plate. The vin plate is of a type that was always and only supplied with a new replacement chassis in the 1970's. It is different from the type fitted to a new MOD vehicle as at time of production it was unknown who the final user would be. These plates would only have been used if the original was destroyed or so defaced as to have been unusable and a standard type MOD plate was unavailable. Thge military contracts chap considers it was unlikely that the vehicle was returned to Solihull for the re-chassis and Traceability have no record of it returning, along with the lack of SP badge this suggests it was rebuilt by an MOD workshop. This now suggests along with the parts that we know were changed that it was involved in an incdent of some kind where the Bulkhead and chassis as well as other possible parts were heavily damaged, dropped off a crane maybe? A question has occured. Would a ship list all the vehicles on board when it departs under some kind of list like a bill of lading, if so what would this list be called?
  6. You were right (as you tend to be ), it has had a hard top fitted at some point while in service. I found the bolt holes with bolts in earlier this morning for the lower door hinge so its had a rear door fitted. I've also found the split tailgate and although it is bronze green underneath it has been over painted in Nato green with a blue grey displaced pattern over the top so although there when sold to the first owner it quite likely isn't the vehicles original.
  7. Just had a chance to take a few quick pictures. The strange aerial mount as discussed elsewhere. Hadn't really considered what these were previously but thinking about it could they be holes for a number plate light? I will need to pull it out and check but I seem to remember the split tailgate is painted in different colours to the rest of the bodywork so am I completely wrong and it was a hardtop in service at some point and the tailgate added at disposal? Note its only a hardtop now as I fitted it loosely. Will try and get more pics tomorrow.
  8. RAFMT No problem posting here, thank you for replying at all it is appreciated. If you could keep an eye out for the contract again it would be appreciated. Ruxy I will try and get more pictures for you over the weekend.
  9. Thats just the underseal edge where its bubbling and been hit with the angle grinder not a weld, coating it in red oxide as a cheap way to stop corrosion before new underseal. <edit>Just remembered it also has a replaced engine that was preserved in 1981. Now I've only put about 5000 miles on it and previous owner estimated that he had done 10-15,000 in the 8 years he owned it so it had the engine replaced sometime around 33-38000 miles so pretty low. So now we have what seems to be a replaced chassis, bulkhead, vent panel, screen and engine, why not just scrap it?</edit>
  10. Not certain where you mean exactly so taken the Bitumen off to bare metal in areas of smears. If its somewhere else you need cleaning up let me know. Just checked the passenger seatbox and no odd holes so probably always RHD.
  11. Drivers side seat base, 3 plates. All seem to be in the standard position. Chassis plate close up. Seems to be the correct type of plate for the year with correct chassis No. The plates on the seat base as you can see are all fixed in place with pop rivets yet the ones on the bulkhead are fitted with screws. I know the red plate that covers the hole for the steering on a LHD is fixed with screws as I did it, it was removed when I got it but the screws were still in the holes so I just refitted it. Wonder if this is relevant? I've just cracked of the underseal around the right front spring hanger and removed corrosion with a paint removing disc, iirc this is where the chassis No. should be. There are various marks but none seem to be a chassis No. Unless I am in the wrong place which I could well be it appears there is no chassis No. on this chassis.
  12. I replaced the vent panel in the mid nineties, it already had an S11a one on it. I knew the previous owner very well and he had never replaced it and by the state of it, it was corroded all the way up to the flaps it had been on there since before it was released. In fact I have just taken the one off that has been on there for the last 20 years and it is in considerably better condition so I believe it had a S11a vent panel in service. I've never looked for the chassis branding, the chassis is covered with underseal so won't be able to look at this straight away. I've just checked under the seats, it was definitely supplied in Bronze Green as the day book shows. There is no Blue/Grey anywhere on it. Where it looks Blue/Grey on the sides is just faded green under the flash form the camera. Inside the bulkhead you can just about see the furthest top screw from the plate. There are no other holes and no filler and as can be seen it is Bronze Green inside as well. Again no blue/grey even into the corners under the top fold.
  13. I've had a brief look over it today and there are no odd screw holes in the bulkhead where an original plate would have been (assuming below and to right of steering column) so I suspect it was re-plated due to having a new bulkhead fitted. I wonder if it was at this point that it was converted to a S11a vent panel and screen as previously discussed elsewhere? I can't find a Special Products badge (or anything like one) anywhere or odd screw holes. I am fast coming to believe it is probably Ex-RAF especially considering the RLC have no knowledge of the Contract No., unfortunately Hendon can't yet trace via Contract or Chassis No. but I think I will ask them if they have any knowledge of the Contract No, if nothing else they are just up the road so I could request a day going through their vehicle cards. I have completed an FOI request this morning after discovering that vehicles delivered at the same time as mine were entered on the ADPCON computer system, there is always a chance my vehicles details were transferred or stored and the ADPCON would have the original registration and date of transfer to the RN. I have also just requested any details from the RAF Museum in Hendon.
  14. I suspected it was an unusual plate as I can't find its like on any of the companies that make replica ones and it also makes sense that it was fixed in place by Solihull as I would have expected a maintenance unit to have the correct plate in stores. As far as I can tell it didn't have a hardtop in service, there are no extra bolt holes or marks along the rear tub cappings and no hinge holes for a rear door but then it may have had a cat flap in place. Also on release it definitely had a soft top. Theres no obvious reason for it being returned to Solihull that I can see except possibly as you say de-preservation and servicing. I have never noticed a 'Special Products' badge but then I've also never looked for one either so will next time I get a chance. Thank you for your reply, unfortunately yet again this just raises more and more questions :nut:
  15. I'm trying to establish what happened to my LandRover in its missing years. Clive's comments on the Contract/Warrant No. are interesting but doesn't match the newly stamped Data plate that still retains the Contract No. rather than the Warrant No. and of course having the Warrant No. on the key card would mean it couldn't be referred to in the event of maintenance that is contract specific. If the vehicle was always a Navy vehicle why did it disappear for 9 years and get replated? if it was originally an Army/RAF Vehicle why is the Contract No. unknown? Contract WV11378 has not been found on any other vehicle record held by the RLC, no other vehicle delivered around the same date has the same Contract No. there are another 6 records missing that are listed in LandRovers Daybook but these were delivered weeks before so was this a contract for only one vehicle and if so why when there was already another contract WV11404 being supplied before and after it? A further note is there is no addition to ADPCON on the Key card so I would assume it is on a previous B vehicle Data card, are the ADPCON records still available anywhere for example by FOI? The Data plate which shows it was replated. There is just so much missing history to this vehicle and I would like to find it out although I am becoming resigned to never doing so.
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