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aec matador demise... not if i can help it!


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Hello chaps and chappets. now im new to the forum and i dont have any old trucks however i would like this to change!!

Now i have found a 6x6 AEC matador in a scrap yard, and i would like to rescue her. she has no bed or crane, the cab looks unhappy but its there and there seems to be some kind of plate on the engine missing and some break like components missing. now it is just a dream right now but if i can i will save her! there is 3000 tons of scrap behind her but a small tree line and a field infront of her so im hoping both the farmer and scrap man will help me in my ambision! i intend to to go down for a few days with tools, a few betteries, diesel, a high preasure fuel pump and some 10/40s oil, easy start (im a bad person i know but i wont be chucking it in) and hope she goes. now i have no experiance at all with big old girls like this, but im not afraid of work. so any advice or recomendations. an tips on what to expect and even folks offering me help. she is in the wolverhampton area. may even need to call in a wrecker to do some real life wrecking hehe. thank you folks!!

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Has he given you a price yet ? If not don't go down there with all the tools coz he will know your on the hook. Personally I would go down the " it's a shame to see it that way, but look at it !" Approach first ...

 

but that just me !

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Has he given you a price yet ? If not don't go down there with all the tools coz he will know your on the hook. Personally I would go down the " it's a shame to see it that way, but look at it !" Approach first ...

 

but that just me !

good idea! im hoping he wants scrap wieght for her and he will be ok with me takng down a couple of trees and he is not a horder. such a shame!

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good idea! im hoping he wants scrap weight for her and he will be ok with me taking down a couple of trees and he is not a horder. such a shame!

something that might help in your haggling...

if he says he wants 'scrap weight' for her ?.....it'd be handy for you to know more or less how much she weighs ..(try Google?) ...scrap men always 'overweigh' something when they're trying to sell it to you... so... if you can point out (politely mind you ...don't be snotty with him :) ) that "she weighs about 'X' tonnes mate".....you can save yourself heading off down the wrong road should he reckon it weighs 5 tonnes more than you know damn well it does... (which he almost certainly will !! haha !:) )

Next thing is ......find out what the going rate for heavy scrap is in your area...then add roughly 40 quid per tonne to it and that'll be about what he's selling the steel out for...but! to get 'top price' on his metal he will need to sell it as 'furnace feed' or what used to be called 'OA'....this has to be cut or cropped down to 5' X 2' max profile..which costs him money to do obviously ! so...politely again :) ..point out that he'll have to cut it up and get rid of the tyres (which will also knock a good bit off the total weight!) and wood etc off it before he can get full price for it so you are willing to help him out and take it 'as it is'....complete with the tyres :)...thereby saving him some money on the whole deal ! (haha!)

Most scrappys love doing a deal on something they bought in as scrap though so if you play it careful ...you should be able to haggle a successful outcome ! ..best of luck !! :)

Edited by RattlesnakeBob
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If there is someone nearby able and willing with a wrecker, I'd save yourself the effort of trying to get it going now and drag it out of there if you can.

 

When I bought my Matador it had sat for ten years and something in the system is sticky, I'm presuming its the injector pump elements, the result of which is that when you press the accelerator it revs it guts out and takes what seems an eternity to come back down after letting off the pedal. What I'm trying to say is you don't want to damage the engine by trying to start it without a very thorough going over.

 

Best of luck, Richard

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Nice truck if you can get it, and quite rare these days. Have to agree with the previous 2 posts, the last thing you want to do with an unknown engine is try and fire it up on easy start, could make it very unhappy.

 

Far better to play the "non runner" haggle with the seller, could save your self enough to pay for the lowloader. get it home first, then see if it starts once you've had a good look at it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

sooo we have some progress. now i told a friend of mine who owes me a few favours and he owns european motor transport limited. so soon we will be in the area so collect our old celica supra and he said we can pop round and have a looksy at it, his agrement being if we can get it to the road he will move it for me. what does a matador wiegh with no crane or structure on the back? and is it a no vacume breaks on deal? mite be recruiting a tractor for this one! i think he wants to try and perswade me to fit an 80 ton winch to her and put her to work for him. see how it goes first. cheers folks

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  • 1 month later...

I have been back to the inlaws house so i returned to see her. intetestingly she hasnt got a wooden cab.... it is all metal. she hes no rocker cover and bits an pieces missing. aparently she was driven there where she sits 20 years ago so yee she was a runner. if i could get a rig big enough i could pull her straght forwards and drag her between some trees. now to get the farmer whos field i would have to use on my side! the scrap yard propriator seemed to like the idea of her being rescued. my plan would be to flat bed her in metal frame with wooden bed and bolt a hyab to her and put her to work. what do you think folks?

 

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7516/xhot.jpg

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Well certainly a mobile crane or excavator base vehicle, the cab looks to be a civilian variant, so maybe a civilian crane?

 

The owner will naturally see a lot of weight in that chassis. Good luck, not sure what I would do with it to finish it off as without the crane it may seem a bit of an oddball machine. The rear bogie has solid beams therefore only springing effect is from the tyres.

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It's quite hard to tell what she is with all them bits of tractor dumped all over it, but I've been studying the photos and I think I can say she isn't a Militant. Not a Mk1 anyway, rear axle set up is wrong, and the passenger door that is hanging there isn't right. Might guess at Leyland Hippo or an Albion. Could be a real rarity in there. Any clues as to the location?

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she hasnt got quite as angular front end. much more like this...

 

http://maltabuses.piwigo.com/picture?/9234/categories

 

I couldn't quite see that from the photos. I was working from the rear mudguards which are the same as the photo I posted, whilst mobile crane carried a flat base I believe. Whatever variant it is I'd say it's worth saving.

 

Scott

Edited by Smithy
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Smithy you must be right about the cab. Was the pic you posted the ex Cardington ballon winch truck? Same standard chassis as the refuller?

 

I cannot find any images of a similar cabbed truck in the heavy crane chassis form though. Some army cranes with identical chassis but the cabs are oddball, so this could well have been a small batch for ministry / military use.

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If a refueller chassis weighs something like 6 tonnes, that crane base could be as much as 10 or 11 tonnes :shocked:

 

edit: no I don't think it would be that heavy, but a fair bit more without a doubt - certainly a couple or three tonnes more.

Edited by N.O.S.
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Smithy you must be right about the cab. Was the pic you posted the ex Cardington ballon winch truck? Same standard chassis as the refuller?

 

I cannot find any images of a similar cabbed truck in the heavy crane chassis form though. Some army cranes with identical chassis but the cabs are oddball, so this could well have been a small batch for ministry / military use.

 

Yes it was, that is still about I believe as the photo I uploaded was taken back in 2010. It was the rear mudguards which drew me towards that type of Hippo.

 

Scott

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cole crane.jpgI believe I have seen that actual chassis before; it is an ex RAF Coles recovery crane chassis. A very much denuded version of the one in the attached photo. There was a complete and unmolested version in a better known yard just down the road; along with a Thornycroft Amazon (also completely unmolested) and a I.H. 100B Drott with only about 50 hours on the clock. A friend of mine had one as a winch tractor with a large set of anchors; they were equipped with the chassis mounted winch as in a Matador and a very effective winch tractor it was too. I used it a couple of times. Very good in the mire with all that weight about 10 tons chassis like railway bridge girders. Seriously bogged in tractor drivers (the ones who'd snapped all their chains attempting their own recovery) would roll around with laughter when you arrived but would be astonished at how that winch tractor would extract their stricken equipment in minutes; no messin'.

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