Scout T5329

[Ben]

I have been very slack with taking photos and updating the thread. Work has continued and all the suspension has been cleaned, blasted, painted, new seals and re assembled.
I needed to make a spring compressor to do the job so I copied the one from the workshop manual. The pictures should speak for themselves showing the process from start to finish.
All four units have been done and are on the hull.

I've got the engine and gearbox ready and with luck it should be ready to go in next week.

90% of the bits have been cleaned, blasted and painted so its pretty much assembly from here on in.

I'm waiting on a very lucky ebay find to arrive which (if correct) could be a couple of the last missing bits.

[Ben]

I've also been looking at some old photos to help understand the stowage. I took a closer look at a shot that I'd had a while and noticed the "T" number 5332. That makes the third carrier shown in a period photo all within a couple of numbers of each other from the same Aveling Barford contract.

RMY 681, T5327, Capuzzo North Africa
RMY 683, T5329, Perth Australia (assumed returned from North Africa)
RMY 686, T5332, Captured BEF

It made me wonder how carriers were issued. The T5332 shot shows what I believe to be the first scheme they were painted when they left the factory.

If anyone has any info on how vehicles were issued early in the war and if any records survive I'd be interested to hear from them.

Thanks

Ben

[Marc van Aalderen]

Hi Ben,

Making good progress then it appears! Hope you get it ready in time for W&P.

Cheers,

[Radek]

Hi Ben

do you know this one ;-)

[Ben]

Its been a busy few weeks. Engine is in after a false start, There's some plumbing left to do and the starter wiring.

Exhausts are all in and connected. I used a woven cloth welding matt to simulate the asbestos heat shield, after sandwiching a few layers together it looks really good and no worries about toxic dust. The steel frames are the original ones.

I got all the wheels back from the blasters so they were painted and put on. New seals and bearings. The axles are newly made, I had just enough useable originals but the condition wasn't the best, new ones made more sense incase they ever need to come out.

[Ben]

Once the wheels were on, it meant only one thing. Track!!!

It went on easier than I expected but took some effort and a LOT of swearing to close up by myself. A combination of ratchet straps and a spring compressor did the job. Its NOS track so there's very little play in it, It needed a couple of extra links to allow it all to go on. I suspect after a couple of miles they'll be able to be removed.

Theres a couple of stiff links but again I think they'll free up after a little use.

Lots of little jobs left to do but it's first run isn't too far off.

[RichardT10829]

Great stuff Ben, it will put mine to shame :-)