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WW2 20cwt Water trailer/bowser restoration


Ian L

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Are the plates painted - if so, had you thought of making a silicone mould and then using cold cast metal - iron powder and resin

 

http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/project-coldcast.html

 

Hi Simon looks like it might work ? once we've made a mould it will then need to be flattened out and after casting folded around the filter case again which is where I foresee a problem ? we will have to experiment with this and other ideas.

Regards Ian

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Hi Simon looks like it might work ? once we've made a mould it will then need to be flattened out and after casting folded around the filter case again which is where I foresee a problem ? we will have to experiment with this and other ideas.

Regards Ian

 

I think I'd try casting in the round and removing the excess from the back - leaving a lip top and bottom to give you an edge to work to - but the ingredients are cheap enough to experiment. If you cast on the flat, it might be possible to shape the plate round the body following imersion in boiling water.

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Hi Terry any idea how it is done ?

 

I'm not sure but I assume that they are brass, or possibly alloy. It would be poured, face down, into an open mould with the back just being flat and then they would be bent into the toght shape, probably with a press.

 

For best results, you would want to remove your originals, flatten them and then take an impression, but you should be able to make a mould in place and somehow flatten it, but there will be some distortion.

 

Cheers,

Terry

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Hi Terry any idea how it is done ?

 

I'd have thought just running it through a (big) set of bending rolls until you've got the correct curve on it, but a foundry ought to be able to cast curved stuff without too much difficulty and makers plates on curved surfaces are quite common.

 

For a replica, how about using the "lost wax" casting process?

 

Chris.

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Of course, if the replicas don't need to be functional, you could have them 3D scanned and printed in a sintered metal, as 1 part.

 

In my experience 3D printing with metal costs as much as casting, if not more. 3D printing a wax pattern and then using that for investment casting could be an option, but is again expensive. I've had that done here before: http://www.lestercast.co.uk/

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Bastogne American museum in Luxembourg http://www.mnhm.net/cms/index.php/en/

 

All the large wheel 180 gallon bowsers I have found are British & stamped 1939/1940 on the axles, I would like to think its one of the hundreds that the BEF left in France in 1940 then the Germans captured it & put it to their use until it was left behind again at Bastogne this time in 1944 ? This was the only British item in the whole museum.

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Edited by Ian L
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Bastogne American museum in Luxembourg http://www.mnhm.net/cms/index.php/en/

 

All the large wheel 180 gallon bowsers I have found are British & stamped 1939/1940 on the axles, I would like to think its one of the hundreds that the BEF left in France in 1940 then the Germans captured it & put it to their use until it was left behind again at Bastogne this time in 1944 ? This was the only British item in the whole museum.

 

I think with "GB (U.S. Army - used), 1944" they try to indicate it is of British manufacture, and was used by the US Army - which could have been the case in the UK I think, where the Americans also used K2 ambulances and other British vehicles on airfields and other bases.

 

My guess is that this trailer was acquired for the museum collection a long time after the war and that there is no connection with the BEF and Bastogne. The "(U.S. Army - used)" is only there to try to "justify" why it is on display at the museum?

 

For example, their Sherman M4A1(76)W HVSS displayed outside is an ex-MDAP Sherman delivered to the Netherlands Army after WW2, which was recovered from a range somewhere in the 1980s and then donated to the museum.

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Bastogne American museum in Luxembourg http://www.mnhm.net/cms/index.php/en/

 

All the large wheel 180 gallon bowsers I have found are British & stamped 1939/1940 on the axles, I would like to think its one of the hundreds that the BEF left in France in 1940 then the Germans captured it & put it to their use until it was left behind again at Bastogne this time in 1944 ? This was the only British item in the whole museum.

 

Ian,

Didn't you take the opportunity to explain to the curator that the US didn't use them and that you'd take it off their hands to "improve" the authenticity of the museum? :angel:

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