PScott Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hi , After many years of wanting a Centurion tank, i finally got my wish. I purchased 169091 which served in Vietnam , and is one of only a few that retained its full modifications on returning back home. I am in East Gippsland Victoria, and the tank came from Perth in Western Australia......a 4000km + journey. The tank is very complete, new motor/transmission and such. I decided to do a full strip down and restore.....so its not going to happen overnight. I have a huge invetory of new items i have gathered to go onto it ......all new guards/track bins/turret bins/all pads/seals/seats/road wheels......and so on. I am spending MANY hours removing the many layers of paint uning a needle gun and rotary wire brushes....slow, but it does an excellent job. During the paint removal, an RPG strike and repairs was found, corresponding with reported hit it received in Vietnam. Most of the hull surfaces are stripped , over the next 3-4 weeks i should have it nearly ready to undercoat.... Hope you dont mind the pics...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PScott Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 a few more pics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 What a lovely toy! I have always admired the lines of the Cent. But have never driven them. I guess they are very thirsty too! Nice vehicle, good luck with your restoration. I assume it's an Ex Tim Vibart specimin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Looks great, I like the cent its one on my wish to drive list will look forward to more updates on your project. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter4456 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I wondered if it was the Centurion from the Army Musuem at Fremantle, WA - it looks like it's been well looked after. A bit of a strange musuem - it was closed at Christmas when everyone was on holiday! - but looked (from the train) to have some really nice stuff - including a Ferret. Anyone ever managed to visit it? Great pics of a great tank with some very interesting history - good luck with the restoration. It does make me think - are there any other Cents around with combat history (Korea, Suez, Aden, NI (yes, Op Motorman!) or Gulf War (we all know about Phosgene). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I guess they are very thirsty too! This statement takes me straight back to my Civil Service Linguist (Army) course in 1980. We sometimes got the same stuff to translate over and over, just like we often sat and watched the same Bundeswehr recruiting films over and over: I can still hear an I Corps Sergeant groan, "Not 'Vier im Leo' AGAIN!". One sentence we got enough times that I remember it translated something like, "A unit [it was noted by me that it didn't specify what size unit: troop, squadron, regiment?) of Centurion tanks idling uses 1200 litres of petrol per minute." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevpol Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 nice cent Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRSCRS Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Superb, good luck with the restoration ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrettkitt Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyFowler Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Lovely job on one of my favourite vehicles , lucky fella ! Please keep us updated and post some video when you have her running again ! Beautifull sound ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon_M Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Hope you dont mind the pics...... I think we'd be complaining if you didn't include some pics. That's a lovely starting point for any resoration. It's amazing how unlike a Cent it looks without the track guards. Gordon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Excellent pics:laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 AlienFTM..... I can still hear an I Corps Sergeant groan, "Not 'Vier im Leo' AGAIN!". I thought "4 men in a tank" was a Polish T.V. programme:nut: joke honestly:D Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spood Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 It's amazing how unlike a Cent it looks without the track guards. Gordon Yes, same applies to turret bins as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy1 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Hat off to you Spood. My favourite military vehicle. Look forward to pics of the finished item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Garner Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Great stuff, hope to see more of this beast in the future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PScott Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 This is a shot of 091 in Vietnam... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PScott Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 These are from 2007 in Western Australia , 091 was used at the Bruce Rock Vietnam Veteran,s memorial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim gray Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Yes, same applies to turret bins as well. Remember some photo,s of the surviving IDF Cents after the golan hights battles, think they were holding back the syrians? horrendous to see what the arty had stripped off the vehicles, i dont think thier was really any fittings left externally yet the crews managed to keep them going and in action. Great work on the go thier, look forward to more. Regards Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 These are from 2007 in Western Australia , 091 was used at the Bruce Rock Vietnam Veteran,s memorial. [ATTACH=CONFIG]41118[/ATTACH] I hope the gunner knew about trunnion tilt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim gray Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 With a view to an earlier post re the evidence of an RPG strike, did the RPG actualy penetrate or was the damage limited to external? Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PScott Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 With a view to an earlier post re the evidence of an RPG strike, did the RPG actualy penetrateor was the damage limited to external? Tim Hi Tim, the RPG didn't penetrate , but caused a lot of spalling on the outer hull just behind the driver hatch and covers......if the driver hadn't of been closed down , he would of been in serious trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim gray Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 "Hi Tim, the RPG didn't penetrate , but caused a lot of spalling on the outer hull just behind the driver hatch and covers......if the driver hadn't of been closed down , he would of been in serious trouble." Hi Thier, Cheers for the reply, i was curious as to how the post war design had coped with a more modern munition. Looking at the chalk marks as you say the driver may have been in trouble. It looks remarkably similar in scenario to that which Beharry survived and was awarded the VC for in more recent ops. He did however suffer serious injuries and was fortunate to survive. Keep up the good work and the pics, its great to see the vehicle being cherished again. Are you also going to delve into the crew compartments etc or hold off at the moment and concentrate on the externals? Regards Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Barrell Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Looking good! Are you restoring her back to Vietnam spec and if so will you fit a 20 pdr? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 tim gray did the RPG actualy penetrate or was the damage limited to external?Certainly Cents suffered penetrating damage on occasion from the various RPG/hollow charge weapons used by the NVA, one gunner was wounded at his station during Operation Hermit Park in June 1971 but most injuries were caused to crews of tanks with open hatches being hit by rocket spall caused by shooters firing into the trees/bamboo -the use of RPG2-7 as substitute mortar weapons was commonplace in Vietnam, possibly many of the shooters were not trained well enough to use the RPG as a direct fire weapon. Of nearly 60 Cents and derivatives which served in Vietnam with ATF one was completely destroyed and 5 others were backloaded to Australia as being beyond local repair, these losses were due to what would be now classed as IEDs -aerial bombs with a starter mine or control wire detonation, the 2 operational fatalities of Centurion squadrons were due to mines. i was curious as to how the post war design had coped with a more modern munition.Neither the Centurion nor RPG2 could be classed as modern design or munition even RPG7 was little more than revised RPG2 -so a modified Panzerfaust 150. In Korea in 1952 a 5th IDG Cent MkIII was damaged by a captured 3.5in bazooka, the rocket hitting near the lip of the drivers hatch at the top of the glacis -it severely injured the driver, Tpr Lewis, who was pulled through into the fighting compartment while the loader/operator -L/cp Wiliamson climbed out of the tank extinguished the fire which had started around the mantlet, then climbed into drivers compartment and withdrew the tank to allow the evacuation of the driver -the tank then resumed its fire support mission- as yet I haven't been able to find what if any reward l/cp Williamson received -pretty sure it wasn't a V.C though:-(. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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