Humber Pig, getting it ready for the season.

[Adam Elsdon]

I have had my Pig for a couple of years now, to start with i ran it to shows in the condition i got it in, focusing on getting the thing running properly, and stopping, and when it stopped getting it going again! the best way to find out what needs sorting is drive it, it all suddenly becomes very apparent!

 

This year, i am focusing on getting the thing looking a bit straighter/tidier and starting to restore stuff with a view on getting it back to original MK1 spec, so there is a bit of work on the wings front yet, but it will get there.

 

Here are some photos of what i have been doing since the Easter weekend:-

 

The first two pictures are of my Pig, Pre-facelift, this was it washed and looking poncified for Croc's wedding in March.

The dashing little charmer stood on the Pigs front wing is Mini-Me, showing the interesting scatter gun approach to fitting lights by the previous owner, and to add to the problems the wings are too deep/long by nearly 2 inches so its going to require a bit of hacking, grinding and metal stitching.

[Adam Elsdon]

The next picture is the Pig painted Olive Drab (British Standard colour chart BS381C, 298) This is to represent a vehicle used in Germany by BAOR in the early 60'S, NATO green not coming into use until sometime in the mid 70's.

 

The front wings have been left unpainted in preparation for the work to be carried out. The first picture shows the wings marked out ready to cut, and also shows the position that the headlights should be at.

The second picture shows the excess metal removed and the indicator holes welded up, i used an Arc welder with very thin rods, the wings having been replaced at some point using heavy gauge sheet steel making welding easier.

 

I painted the Pig by hand, i was going to spray it, but the paint i used went on well, and had good coverage, i used one 3" and one 1" Harris professional brush to paint it, didnt lose a single hair, well worth the money.

The paint i used was Protegalac Containergard, made by a British company called Protega, originally intended for ISO shipping containers and steel used in harsh conditions, it drys with a nice Satin finish, and drys very quickly.

It is recommended to spray larger areas, but i found it went on fine with a brush.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Adam Elsdon

[Adam Elsdon]

A couple of shots showing different surfaces painted by brush, the first is the inside of the back door of the Pig, the second is the top of the wing of my Brockhouse 1 Ton trailer.

Both were painted on a sunny warm day with a breeze, the paint is Xylene based, so drys very quick, but it covers well, and if it isnt over worked/brushed prior to it starting to go off, settles very well, infact i didnt get a run on either the Pig or the trailer, the only runs are ones that were on the previous paint!

 

Benefits of brushing is there is no overspray, and the coat goes on thicker, although i am sure spraying would be faster and the finish more even if done well, although i am quite pleased with the way it has turned out.

[Guest catweazle (Banned Member)]

Looking good Adam old bart would love to of seen it.:-D

[Adam Elsdon]

Something that will make a difference to the front of the Pig is a bridge classification plate, mine never had one, and a friend gave me one.....mainly because it had about 4mm of paint flaking off in different layers, and it was rusty!

 

After considering the use of paint stripper, or finding someone with a grit blasting cabinet, or scraping it off by hand, i decided to throw it on my open fire in the front room, after i got it good and hot, once the plate was glowing a dull cherry red! i removed it and let it cool down slowly, and gave it a quick wire brush off, much easier, had a cup of tea while i was waiting!

 

Two coats of Smooth Hammerite and it was ready for its Bridge weight number......My hand painting isnt too bad, but i couldnt really be bothered with all that, so i printed out a number 6 on my computer, using Font size 600 and Arial bold font, then cut out the number leaving a couple of stencil joining lines for the centre of the six and then used that as a spray stencil.

Voila one not too perfectionist but about right bridge plate on the cheap!:yay:

[Simon Daymond]

lovely, will we see more parts going on the fire to be paint stripped?

[Adam Elsdon]

There is a good possibility! although the weather is warming up, although that does bring the barbecue into play!, i have smelted lead for fishing weights in our cut through oil drum barbecue, stacked it full of wood, let it burn down to a nice bed of embers and churned out a stack of weights using a steel crucible, some molds, wire and a bucket of water.

I did make sure it was cleaned out afterwards, church roof is nowhere near as good as hickory for flavouring steaks!!

[Adam Elsdon]

Looking good Adam old bart would love to of seen it.:-D

 

Who...:-D

[fv1609]

Adam, nice to see you're getting those wings sorted, as otherwise it immediately catches the eye as being suspect. That'll be a good job done.

 

Am I right in thinking this is a body by Sankey rather than ROF?

[Adam Elsdon]

Im not 100% sure, as it never had its "armoured" contract plate while it was in the hands of the last couple of owners, but i think it is, going by photos of ROF pigs under construction.

 

Ive decided as i cant find any previous military users history, to paint it up as it would of been used by the "Green Howards" based at Iserlohn, Germany as part of 5 Brigade BAOR in the early Sixties, i have found plenty of reference photographs, alot of them posted on this forum, and i had a Great Grandad who was in the Rifles, so a link with Light Infantry, i would of gone with my dads regiment, the Coldstream Guards, but he doesnt recall using them, only Saracens, which is probably a good thing, he would want to see the tyres bulled up bright and shiney or something!

Edited April 29, 2009 by Adam Elsdon

[Adam Elsdon]

Painted the Regiment and Brigade signs onto the front of the Pig, masked off two 8" squares and brush painted two coats of the background colour, left them for a couple of days, and then painted the white surround lines, by hand with a small modellers brush, didnt take too long at all.

 

The number 8 was printed out off of my computer in a large size font, and i traced it out onto the square, the Key and bayonet brigade marking i drew out on paper cut it out and used it as a stencil, drawing it onto the square, i then painted in the number and the cross key and bayonet by hand, and freehand painted the 5 after the paint dried.

 

The back of the Pig is still a work in progress, will get the brigade marking painted over the weekend if the weather holds out.

[Guest catweazle (Banned Member)]

Impressed with that Adam.I would of had to have them made.I had some made and they painted over them as they said they were to perfect ,must admit it looked better.

[Adam Elsdon]

Lights re-fitted after been cleaned up and painted, and all the lighting wiring tidied and wrapped into looms, after all the welding up of holes etc, i think i drilled something like 16 holes back into each of the wings to refit the lamp bowls and holders etc.

 

The vehicle complete with the headlamp guards which i refitted with new mesh, as the originals were rusted out in places, this was one of the main reasons to get the front wings sorted out, so it would take the light guards properly.

 

Just need to make up some front foot steps now and bolt them to the bottom of the wing!

[Adam Elsdon]

Impressed with that Adam.I would of had to have them made.I had some made and they painted over them as they said they were to perfect ,must admit it looked better.

 

The photos make them look a bit perfect, they have brush marks and slightly rough edges in the flesh, but they are still a bit neat, but i couldnt bring myself to just slap on the markings, if i was asked to mark a vehicle in service, i probably would of done it to a similiar standard, infact actually i did, i made an aluminium stencil of our Unit symbol (Dove with a bolt of lightning through it) and sprayed it onto our Series FFR landrover doors using gold paint, this was before the paint bay took on all of the vehicle painting because of H&S.

 

Another reason i painted them on by hand, was im tight! and i didnt want to fork out for a sign maker to print them out on vinyl as a one off job! paint used for the markings was Japlac British Racing Green, some old "Defence Ground Equipment Brushing Signal Red" and the white is Radiator enamel, all stuff i had in the shed.

The Union flag is one of a number of service stickers bought from e-bay ages ago for next to nothing, so all in all pretty cheap and has a certain self gratification to it.

Edited April 30, 2009 by Adam Elsdon

[Tony B]

Intrestin Adam, the SWB FFW Land Rover (1964/66?) has the same key and bayonet marking but no number. where did the Pig serve then?

[Adam Elsdon]

No idea! after spending ages trying to find out any history on it, i have finally gave up! i have done the RLC museum thing, looked at allsorts of leads i have been given, but basically the only thing i do know about it, was that it was sold at Ruddington in 1967 for £60 and it never went back into Army service after that, escaping Northern Ireland and any later conversion.

 

So it has been painted up to reflect a vehicle used by the Green Howards in 1963 at Iserlohn Germany BAOR, part of 5 Brigade.

I have a number of reference pictures from the Green Howards, 5 Brigade was mainly an Infantry Brigade, that was eventually brought back to the UK on standby reinforcement of BAOR.

 

So for the time being its an anonymous Pig, so i am putting it back to the way it would of being used for what it was designed for, a stop-gap APC to give the BAOR troops some protection, until the FV432 tracked APC came into use in 1967.

[Adam Elsdon]

Pictures of Green Howards Pigs in Germany. Shows some strange variations, the first picture is the Bridge plate at 8 Tons instead of 6, got carried away with the Tac sign numbering, and the side shot shows the platoon marking triangle on the upper side of the hull in very heavy lining, which would be covered by the canvas roof cover if fitted, normally they are painted on the door.

[Adam Elsdon]

The pig had its first outing on the 3rd of May to a Kids charity driving event, a number of very different vehicles turn up and give rides.

 

The pig was checked to make sure it was lubricated up properly, the inner CV joints didnt have alot of oil left in them, the transfer box was about a litre down on what it should of been, and the front diff was nearly empty, which was strange, as it was checked/filled last year, on further investigation, the diff cover had a small hole in it, the alloy cover had corroded to a point that it was leaking, after cleaning it i put some quiksteel onto it, as a temporary fix, until i get one off my spares.

So it pays to go around and check all of the levels and top them off.

 

I replaced the brake light pressure switch on the end of the Hydrovac servo, as it had a habit of remaining on, and then it was ready for the trip out (more on this later!)

 

The twenty mile trip went by with no problems, until i stopped for fuel prior to entering the event, after filling up, started the engine, went to pull away and it wouldnt move! the brakes were on solid, the pedal was rock solid and wouldnt move. I checked the master cylinder, the rod was in its non depressed return position, the only thing i could think of was i had bled the hydrovac servo after fitting the brake switch, so i got out a bleed tube and put it on the bleed nipple and opened it up, the fluid almost exploded out of the servo! i got my normal pedal action back and everything was fine afterwards. The only thing i can think it was, was some dirt/grit had jammed the servo on, bleeding it cleared it returning the normal braking. I have a spare servo, so i think i will be stripping and rebuilding it, and then giving the brake system another going over.

 

The pig then proceeded to go on working fine, with lots of stop start driving up and down the gears for four hours, idling while changing passengers and drove the twenty miles home, and then collected a slide from a friend for the kids in it, so overall it worked fine with exception of its braking fault.

 

The Pig out doing its thing!

[fv1609]

the transfer box was about a litre down on what it should of been,

Adam, where do you think it went? Joint leakage or through the breather? Most Humbers I've looked at it froths out through the breather, the type of oil used is crucial. Although I did have a situation where it was being blown through & filling up the diff!

 

 

The pig was checked to make sure it was lubricated up properly, the inner CV joints didnt have alot of oil left in them,

 

Hopefully you didn't just top those up but injected oil through from the outer joint housing.

 

 

I replaced the brake light pressure switch on the end of the Hydrovac servo, as it had a habit of remaining on,

Don't know, but do you think it might have been the fluid pressure problem at an earlier stage?

 

 

BTW Badges look nice, well done.

Edited May 7, 2009 by fv1609

[Adam Elsdon]

The transfer box had been leaking very slightly from its seals, over a long period, so i cleaned it up and topped it off with EP 80/90.

 

I found unscrewing the "Grease" nipples from the housing made it easier to fill with oil, i used an oil can with a good fast flowing squirt to fill them.

 

And yes, it is a possibility that the servo is pressurising the brake switch, occasionally on the drive back i could hear the brake light relay clicking on and off by itself, but nowhere near as often as the old switch.

 

Im not that familiar with how the hydrovac works exactly, will have to get the parts book out and work out what goes on. I have another spare servo, so i will give that a strip clean and re-build ready to go on.

And i eventually got all the markings painted on, had some nice comments from the passengers about the pig, the best one been "It doesnt look over restored like some vehicles, it looks like a proper working vehicle" which was the look i was after!

[fv1609]

Adam sorry, but I had to ask about the lubrication of the Tracta joints. The presence of lubrication nipples so often is seen as an invitation to put grease in not oil. Anyway obviously you've got it all sussed.

 

Well if all else fails with the servo I do have a spare one here for sale.

 

I'm glad your passengers appreciated their trip, obviously you've not been tempted to go mad with guns, flags, fluffy toys etc

[Adam Elsdon]

I did feel the need to put a couple of antenna's on it, even though i dont have any radios fitted, which is about as far as the "Fantasy Embellishment" went. The machete in its holder next to the commanders door had a few comments, and the fact that there was a distinct puritanical lack of soft furnishings, was the main point of conversation with mums! Oh and it smelled of petrol and warm oil.........my work is done!!

[Adam Elkins]

The pig looks very nice mate.

[MHVT]

Did you paint all the pig using a brush? How was the finish?

 

Malcolm

[Adam Elsdon]

MHVT if you go back to the first page there is a couple of photos showing the finish, i used a Xylene based paint which dried quite quickly and used a 3" and a 1" brush! the finish came out well, alot better than the squaddy finish the army would of brushed on, but it doesnt look too flash, like a respray would.