Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

While removing the armoured vision covers one of the mounting pivots/studs broke, so this weekend I removed one from the spare hull and cleaned it up. Carefully removed the broken stud and cleaned up the area, marked it out and also test fitted all the linkages and covers to ensure the stud went back exactly as it should and not bind up the opening/closing function.
Also heated and knocked out the dents in the curved section of the air scoop, had to remove the bracket that secures the tow cable to the air scoop. Apart from it being pretty mangled, it was also in the way of the panel beating. After 3 hrs of work I have now got it back into a relatively smooth surface with minimal dents. Will work on the bracket later, it may need to be totally remade.
With some old shelving framework I decided to cut it up and utilise it to make an engine stand for my V8, it will be a work stand and test bed before the engine goes back into the hull. I have also made it so that the pallet jack can lift it and move it around the workshop. Managed to get the front supports for the water pumps and side sections completed and welded together then I discovered I had run out of cutting discs.
Got some steel tubing for the handrails in the back of the hull, now I just have to get some 3/8"rod for the remainder of the rails.
On the lower armour next to the driver someone had cut out and attempted to re-weld it back into place, so I ran the grinder through the weld/cut area to clean it up, then used my Mig to weld it back. I managed to get about 90% done before the Mig wire ran out, so next week will have to stock up on some more consumables, I will look at buying a box of cutting disks to see if the price comes down any.
When grinding the armour and Mig welds it really chews through the grinding discs.