Our LRDG Chev

[David Dunlop]

Andrew, you truck is looking amazing! Are you dreaming of the sand in your face and grinning like a Cheshire Cat when you finally get her out for a run yet?

David

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Andrew, you truck is looking amazing! Are you dreaming of the sand in your face and grinning like a Cheshire Cat when you finally get her out for a run yet? David

Actually we joke among ourselves that by the time it is finished we will be either dead or too old to enjoy it! (we are getting on in years). But yes, we do dream of driving her through the Libyan desert behind enemy lines with the wind in our hair while squinting down the barrel of a Vickers 0.5. Unfortunately there are not many deserts here in NZ to try her out on.

[motto (RIP)]

Your truck will be too good to take it off road but I had a '42 model Chev 3 ton 4x2 for many years and it is quite surprising where they will go. Many dismiss them as an old grocers truck but with their ground clearance and low first gear, four wheel drive doesn't give as much advantage over them as you may think.
I have very fond memories of my truck that is now in the UK, my wife and I having driven it there from Istanbul in 2009. I do miss it.

David

[Andrew H.]

A quick update: We decided (due to Richard Farrant's suggestion) that we should put an oil groove in the brass bush in the gearbox. Luckily, my neighbour is a precision engineer and he did it at no cost . He is a true craftsman and set the lathe up carefully, using a dial-guage to get the measurements exactly right. The only way he could do it in his lathe was to make several spiral grooves, rather than a single groove but we saw no problem with that. First he cut an annular groove from the oil hole around the full circumference inside the bush. Then he got the lathe to cut a spiral groove about 1mm deep and 1mm wide from the oil hole to the front at 6mm spacings. That gave three full spirals over the 23mm length of the bush. In one of the pics he is turning the lathe by hand to achieve more control, but mostly it was automated with both axis of the lathe working in unison. The blue tape is there to keep the brass filings out of the bearing. Another small step

[Andrew H.]

After a 6-week stint in hospital I am back on deck and looking forward to continuing our LRDG project. Nothing has been done to the Chev for the last 2 months but work will resume in April.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

After a 6-week stint in hospital I am back on deck and looking forward to continuing our LRDG project. Nothing has been done to the Chev for the last 2 months but work will resume in April.

Andrew,

Good to hear you are "back on deck"! Looking forward to see more on your project.

Hanno

[Kuno]

Andrew... Arpil has just started. When can we see some new photos :-)