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Panzer 2 turret


johann morris

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This is a long shot I know but I am looking for details, pictures of the munitions storage in a late Panzer ll Ausf C. I have a copy of the storage plan or Beladeplan, dated 1038 but that shows the storage for saddle drum magazines for the MG34 and not the canvas Gurtsacs as used in the later versions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have emailed the Tank museum and I am awaiting a response.

 

Jon

 

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On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 9:50 PM, John F said:

There are some images of the interior of a Pz. III here, I've no idea if the stowage of Gurtsäcke in the two vehicles is similar but it might give you some ideas: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=587907

Thanks John but the Panzer II and III are totally different monsters, I have emailed the Tank Museum to see if they hold any information.

 

I have finished the floor in the crew compartment and the battery box and yes I know the tread plate is the wrong pattern but I couldn't find any of the right patterned stuff.

 

Jon 

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Thanks Niels, i have already been given their contact details on another forum but i have yet to make contact with them.

 

Evening All,

I have been concentrating on the petrol tank cover, on the original this was an armoured cover welded to the hull, access to the fuel tank would have been from under the tank via a removable plate in the floor. To remove the cover in mine, you would have to lift the top of the hull but I have added inspection, maintenance covers for the fuel sender and the fuel pump. I have also made the cover in two parts so that I can gain access to the engine electrics without having to remove the whole cover.

Jon

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening All,

 

I thought that it was about time that I updated this thread, I have been making steady progress but  I am not sure in which direction, sometimes it feels like it's sideways. I decided that I wanted to get the gearbox working so that I could connect the drive chain up and check my theories but I am a bit fed up with doing temporary works and then having to go back and do it properly, it feels like I am doing the job twice. Although the whole vehicle will have to be disassembled for painting I have decided to finish any areas that I feel confident will not have to be reengineered. I have spent hours studying photos trying to make sense of items and their position within the hull, interesting but some times frustrating.

To the right of the driver there are two control panels, a larger one that I have shown before and that has now been bolted in place and a smaller one bolted to the side of the hull. The small panel, contains a water temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge and the light switch.

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I will paint the bevels black when everything when I do the finish painting.

 

The throttle needed connecting up to the engine and as you can see from the pictures above, it runs just below the main control panel, through conduit and through the engine bulkhead to the throttle body.

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You can see the conduit in the picture below, it is bolted to the top of the gearbox, eventually,  when I have recreated a dummy box in mine.

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I have installed a battery isolator switch and routed the wires as per the original vehicle.

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The wiring duct from the engine bay to the front of the tank caused me some sleepless nights, I couldn't quite make any sense of the information that I had, until I found a picture from a unmolested interior and then all became clear.

The wiring runs along the side of the petrol tank in the 50mm x 25mm box, then down at a very un-Germanic angle, under the smaller control panel and into a connection box.

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Sorting out what the connection box looked like took some research time but I found it in the end.

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Last item for tonight, is the tool box below the small control panel, it slides over a bracket that bolts to the side of the hull. You can also see where the electrical junction box is situated.

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That's all for now folks,
 

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by johann morris
being a silly boy
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  • 4 weeks later...

Evening All,

 

I thought that I would do a pre-Christmas update.

I have been concentrating on the wiring, a bit odd you may think as there are more pressing jobs with the drive etc but I needed something that wasn't complicated and that I could dip in and out of. I am glad that I did, as there were a lot of holes to drill, clips to make and trunking to run and head scratching to do.

There is a section of flexible trunking that runs in front of the driver, around the peddle area. I had thought that it was part of the wiring but I am now not so sure, as I have identified the wiring route and it doesn't use that section of trunking. However I have used it to run the gearbox kickdown switch wiring in, as it runs in the adjacent area.

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The wiring is now complete and tested but I have made use of a lot more flexible trunking than the original. All the wires in the original appear to be black, I have used colour coded wires but where they can be seen I have jointed onto black extensions. I have left the wires long enough so that they can be pulled out of the end of the trunking so that the various colours can be identified as they join the black ends.

The interior of the hull contains light sockets for the magnetic work light as well as adjustable station lights. So far, I have been able to identify the location of two sockets, one by the driver and one in the turret and two station lights, one in the turret and one by the radio operators position. I would have expected to find three of each so I will keep on looking.

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                                     Work light location next to the driver

 

I posted a question on another forum with refence to the station lights and amazingly one of the various styles is still produced, but for an automotive application.

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I had to make the work light sockets.

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The sockets are standard DIN sockets pressed into the housing but the spade connections had to be altered.

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In situ with the work light plugged in.

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A member of the forum asked if he could visit to see the tank for himself, so I thought as the next job is to modify and fix the gear shift lever in place which would require the installation of the drivers controls to ensure there are no problems I may as well assemble the drivers area as far as I can.

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                                                                               The rear light bolted in place.

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And to end, a Christmas style picture of the magnetic work light, plugged in and working.

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Jon

 

 

 

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Johann I am constantly amazed at the level of craftsman ship and detail you are putting in.

Most would just be happy to make it look like a Panzer 2 on the outside, but the detail you are going to inside the hull is amazing.

I wish you a Merry Christmas from down here in New Zealand and can't wait to see the progress over the next year.

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18 hours ago, johann morris said:

All the wires in the original appear to be black, I have used colour coded wires

Was the wiring in the trunking, originally all individual wires or a pre-made loom?

I, suppose if the wires are installed and connected one at a time, coloured wire isn't really necessary, but it does help with fault finding, especially if the wires aren't numbered. 

Coloured wire in a pre-fabricated loom was even used in August 1934, with the introduction of the Austin Seven `Ruby`. 

Your use of the minimum length of coloured wiring is a clever solution to the problem of authenticity v practicality. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening All,

The gear shift lever is now attached to the chassis and connected to the gearbox, it all seems to operate smoothly.

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The next question was what to do with the shift lever knob either the original Jaguar sports look, a furry bunnies head or something more Germanic, obviously the bunnies head won, not really.

Two images from surviving tanks , the knob on the right hand image is not, as far as I can ascertain, original.

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I think the knob would have been Bakelite but I haven't got one so I decided to make from steel.

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Under the knob there is a thing ( I don't know what to call it) that you lift in order to release the shift lever, enabling you to change gear. I forgot to take any pictures of it as I made it.

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The completed shift lever assembly.

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Jon

 

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On 1/7/2020 at 8:06 PM, Ex-boy said:

I would call the ‘thing’ a detent, unless anyone knows different. Whatever, it is all up to your usual superb standard and thank you for it. 

Happy new year and keep up the good work.

Steve.

The Germans probably had one of their delightfully constructed terms; probably something along the lines of “Schalthebelhebevorrichtung”.
I would simply call it a latch....

Agreed about the good work; I have been following this thread for some time now, and am flabbergasted by the ingenuity and attention to detail.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening All,

I have been trying to move swiftly on but life keeps getting in the way. My mothers deteriorating condition means that any plans for the future have to be put on hold and it's only thanks to my wife that I get any time on the tank, but at this point in time, mum must come first. I have managed to make adapter plate from the steering box to the drive shaft and the drive shaft.

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The drive shaft has been made using two old shafts that I had in store spliced together to make one good one.I had to turn up an adapter to mate the two shafts together so hopefully they will be somewhere near balanced.

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The steering box with the drive shaft adapter fitted.

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As the steering box is from a 430 series AFV I needed to add a plug to the front of the hull so that I could top it up with oil, I am really unsure as to whether the cover looks Germanic enough or does it look too modern.

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I have been putting off making the final drive covers because...…….Now that I think about It I don't actually know why but I have. Anyway the time came when I had to get a grip and make a start.

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It took a lot of welding and fiddling to get it right and then a good few hours grinding but in the end they didn't look too bad.

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The original cover was a one piece casting, unfortunately to get mine to fit around the final drives mine had to be cut in two. This is however to my benefit, as now to fill or drain the final drives, all I have to do is remove the front half of the cover which reveals the filler and drain plugs of the final drive units.

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The driveshaft cover from the gearbox to the steering box. It can't be an exact replica of the original, because the end of gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment in my version. Eventually the dummy gearbox will cover the remainder of the driveshaft.

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The storage plan for a panzer ll shows a fire extinguisher attached to the driveshaft cover, personally I think that is an excellent idea, especially as I will be driving the tank and the thought of a fire concerns me. It would be nice to get an original appliance but I would rather have one that works. I have made the bracket to suit a modern vehicle extinguisher and will tart it up to look the part later.

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I spent a couple of hours tarting up the fire extinguisher, it would never pass as a genuine item but I think it looks quite convincing.

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Looking forward a bit I need to start thinking about casting the polyurethane tyres on the return rollers and the road wheels. This process is new to me so I have done a lot of research, talked to those who should know and I think that I have a plan that should work. I am going to start with the return rollers and have decided that a mould that forms the outside diameter and the front angled face to finished dimensions would give the best results and reduce the amount of post casting machining.

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I don't have any material of the required size so being a skin flint I have welded four 8mm thick plates together two and two the turned the joints at 90 degrees to each other and puddle welded the plates together.

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This is the kit of parts for the mould. The plates were then bored and turned so that they run true and the angle for the front face turned in. A centre shaft turned to locate and bolted in the base plate.

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The hub is the placed over the centre shaft and a spacer sits on top of the hub. This spacer seals the top of the hub and forms an air gap. A top plate is placed on top of the spacer, this has pouring holes cut in it and is turned to the same diameter as the base plate, which is the finished diameter of the roller. A tin outer cover is then wrapped around the outside thus forming the finished outside diameter.

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Jubilees clips, top and bottom of the mould hold the outer sheet in place and finally the whole assembly is bolted together.

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The polyurethane, release agent and vacuum chamber are all currently in bound, all I have to do before commencing the casting is to shot blast the hubs and add some extra bands around the outside of the hubs to increase the surface area so that the tyres have a bigger area to bond to.

Confused join the que.

Jon

 

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The filler cover might be a bit to complex in its design.  If it was me I would have copied the design of the SdKfz 251 radiator filler cap, it’s a simple flat disc with a bevelled (I think it’s called that) edged. And it has two round key holes for unscrewing.  Sorry the picture is not the best. 

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