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Why don't you participate in arena events at shows?


gritineye

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One thing that makes me smile is with armour the public cannot help but tap it with there hands!

Al

 

I 've been in the MV scene for a while now and still can't resist to knock on armor.

Why? Good question...

Maybe because it gives an indication if its real armor and not just a mild steel replica?:???

 

Or a case of; i do it because I can...

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I rememember a German chap walning up up to the OT in maybe 2009 and punching the side where the driver sits. Took a while before he could talk coherently again :-)

 

Im not sure why anyone would do that.....I'm really confused, tap yes, punch !!!!!! he must have been on something surely.

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Im not sure why anyone would do that.....I'm really confused, tap yes, punch !!!!!! he must have been on something surely.

Presumably because in Germany the driver's armour must be cut out and replaced with something that can be broken through so that any marauding driver can be more easily apprehended by the authorities. However I thought that usually it was replaced with thin steel sheet so even punching that would be pretty daft.

 

- MG

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Maybe because it gives an indication if its real armor and not just a mild steel replica?:???

 

When people do it to my vehicles, depending on my mood it either amuses or annoys me. The later is particularly so when it is before 0800.

 

But I confess I did tap a vehicle at W&P this year. I was greatly intrigued by the "triangular" profiled Russian armoured car. Without a few taps I could gain no immediate appreciation of the relative thinness of the bodywork.

 

Although thinness is not everything. I notice tappers on my Shorland seem relatively satisfied with the soundings from the body, but great disappointment is often expressed when the Land Rover wing is tapped. Exclamations are sometimes made that it is a fake or just are mock-up. Just occasionally you get someone who has the curiosity to look under the wheel arch & taps the armour protecting the engine bay. Now that is the sort of tapper I am very pleased to meet :-D

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  • 5 years later...

I drove my ferret to an event a couple of years ago. While driving the 100klm to the event, I noticed that the right from hub was heating up, having just rebuilt it. I realised that the bearing needed to be shimmed a little, and when getting to the event, I parked it up in the display area and subsequently got some shim stock and went to work on it. To complete the process, I had to make the spacer with some side cutters and punches, and then reassemble. The act of doing a hub rebuild on site, during the show drew a large crowd of onlookers who either enjoyed watching old school mechanics or gave advice like...... wouldn’t it be easier to do that in a workshop!!!! At which point I give them the thousand yard stare. 

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Field repairs on the showground can be a challenge.

"Have you broken it mate?"

"Do you want a hammer?"

On such occasions I wish I had one of those workman's tent/shelters you used to see when carrying out repairs to cables/pipes at the roadside. I found wearing headphones or ear defenders gave some discouragement to the passing comedians & greatly satisfying when their companion would say "He can't hear you, he got his ears covered".

Humourless this may sound but it can be a source of great stress worrying whether you will be able to effect a repair to get you home, without having to provide material for passing comedians.

An additional anxiety is the tool box, if on the ground, kids rummage & try to walk off with bits.

I have noticed that a raised bonnet & a tool box can quickly draw a crowd. If I am doing some minor adjustment or repair, I'm quiet happy to provide chat but not if it is a crisis repair, I just want to be left alone.

I carry in the vehicle a comprehensive range of electrical test equipment (5kV Megger, multimeter, inductance meter, HT tester, cable fault tracer, DC clamp ammeter, coil testing device etc). If I see a raised bonnet & a tool box as I pass, I mention that if it is thought to be an electrical fault I have a range of test equipment which may help, then walk on.

The response from the distressed owner can be quite varied from bluntly dismissive to an invitation to help. In the former category if I see a distributor condenser that has been removed, I do poke my nose in & ask if they would like me to test it. Frequently I am told that it has been tested on a multimeter & there is no short circuit. But you cannot effectively test a condenser like that.

It is a difficult decision to press the issue knowing that you can be of help if the owner had a more open mind or to walk away. There have been occasions that having walked away some time later the owner, having explored all advice from their group of experts that they are prepared to hear what might else be tried.

 

 

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