Some pictures of my new carrier

[Jordan Baker]

I picked up a spare ammunition bin at a militaria show sometime ago. This one is original 1943. For the strap I am using one from a P37 map case. Sometime during its life its had the word "HARE" painted onto it.

I should add that it fits a quantity of five .303 rifle bandoliers perfectly. This adds up to the 250 rounds of ammuntion specified in the manual. This leads me to think that it was a "ready" bin for when the MG crew dismounted. An early version of the "bags" found in the Mk2 carriers.

[rob love]

That is the height of the spare ammo box that I am used to. John Bizal sells a taller reproduction, which I am unsure as to whether it is a later revision, or for a different application. Seems to me it is a tight enough fit now in the back of the carrier without a box sticking another 3" into the Isle way.

[Jordan Baker]

This is the front firing rest that I made up. Another forum member loaned me his original one to copy. Me and my trusty angle grinder and 3 cutting disks made a great copy. All of the holes were drilled to match the original.

I have since replaced the repro exhaust guards with original ones that I picked up. Also as you can probably see I don't keep rations inside the ration bin. I use it to keep (hide) all the fastners/ drill bits that are used on the carrier. If I leave them around I will find them being used on somthing around the farm.

[Jordan Baker]

Hi Rob

I have the repro from John Bizal too. It is a few inches taller then my original. However I think there were two different kinds. My original one has a part number of (TL - 1184 - A) In the Illustrated parts manual, also listed is a CTL 12299. I wonder if this could have been a larger size. Or simply that there was a few sizes made.

[Jordan Baker]

Here is my Pyrene extingusiher mounted to the top of the engine deck. The extingusiher bracket is original but I made up the part that holds it to the engine deck. They two csk screws at either end are original ones that I save from other parts. Im glad I painted the brackets black instead of green as it gets rid of the "everthing is green" look.

[Jordan Baker]

Well I just had a great piece of mail delivered today. Ok so its not a carrier part but it is what the Universal Carriers were intended to carry.

Im the happy new owner of a Bren Mk1 dewat.

[Tim Sullivan]

Jordan,

Nice Bren gun mate, sometimes I wish I would have held out for a mk. I. Of course, now we can trade so you can make amends for the "battle damage" on mine, right? hehehe....

And say, do Mommy and Daddy know it's in the house, or did you sneak that in with your Sten :P

Can't wait to see it mounted up in it's proper spot in the carrier buddy!

Tim

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks for the "comments" Tim.

It would have been hard to hide it since my Dad accepted that pkg at the door. I hsoudl have said "look mom and dad, Corgir models just released a 1:1 diecast model of the Bren." Of course if they did that woudl be illegal in this country.

[Jordan Baker]

Got more parts back today. I spent 4 hours getting all the holes drilled and now I just have to wait for warmer weather to paint.

The shovel is an original "Bulldog" make and it even still retains some of the 1950's green paint and is marked to a Medical Company. I also have the proper pick ax and the tow chain is being made and should be ready within a week or two.

[Jordan Baker]

Even more parts. All original except for the Bren AA mount in the lower RH side. I can't wait for warm weather so I can get all this stuff painted and installed.

[Jordan Baker]

Here is a detail shot of the parking brake assembly. Couldlsomeone measure out the sizes of the collars for the bolts that hold this thing together. The one I got from another MLU'er didn't have any as they couldn't be saved.

Also included is the backside detail for the shovel bracket.

Geoff do I get any prizes for being (I think) the first post on MLU to hit the 10,000 views mark or am I better off just :dh:

[Jordan Baker]

Just thought I would show off my new tow rope. Thanks to Stewart Loy for getting me the cable part and pointing me in the right direction for the other bits.

The only thing I don't have is the two rings due to the fact of not finding any big enough. However they can easily be added in later.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Jordan Baker
Geoff do I get any prizes for being (I think) the first post on MLU to hit the 10,000 views mark or am I better off just :dh:

No, but what you do get is a bill for the bandwidth and server space you used!












Just kidding of course Jordan You keep spending your money on that carrier of yours, I'm thoroughly enjoying the detailed view you are providing us.

Hanno

[Jordan Baker]

Just got my AA mounts back today. Im soooo happy.

[Jordan Baker]

Here is what I have been working one over this cold Easter weekend. I spent about 1.5 hrs cramed up inside the the driving controls trying to fit in the parking brake. I got the mounts and brace installed only to find out the linkage arms going to the pedal were too short. They must have been shortend up whenever the original parking brake was taken out. After freezing my a** off trying get 60 plus year old cotter pins out I finaly managed to untwist the arms long enough to get everything connected. Thanks to Vise grips and a big wrench everything went somewhat smothly. Then I spent another 30 min pulling everything back out again so that I can all be painted once it warms up.

Ahh the joys of it all.

[Jordan Baker]

Also got my aerial bracket installed. It always amazes me when the holes I drilled a year ago line up perfectly with the holes in the parts. Mind you, when you use a big enough drill bit they should always line up.

[Jordan Baker]

I also got myself an original jack handle bracket. The strap is new as the original one had dried up.

Does anyone have a picture of what the bracket for the opposite end of the jack handle looks like?

[Jordan Baker]

I took advantage of the wonderfull weather we had today. Finally we hit +20 celcius. I was able to get all of my stockpiled parts from winter not only primed but painted in their final colour. I was also able to get some of them installed.

[Jordan Baker]

I also got another one of my repro Bren AA mounts mounted to its new made brackets.

[Jordan Baker]

I also got more of my tool plate together. The only orginal items are the shovel, pickaxe helve, shovel handle bracket and the two straps. Everything including the main plate is new made.

The pick axe helve had been crakced but I was able to glue it back together and sand it down. I couldn't decide if I should paint the handle of just oil it. As you can see I just gave it a good oil rub down. I figured since everything else is green I might as well have some bare wood.

I still need to get a pickaxe head bracket and the the tow chain brackets made. I also still need a prybar.

[Jordan Baker]

Today ended up being a so-so day in the process of my Carrier restoration. Stewart Loy came over to help me change my two bad road wheels for some good ones. After trying to press out the spindel using a 12 ton bottle jack with no luck we resorted to bringing out the angle grinder. We ended up cutting off all of the spokes from the wheel so that we could try to get in at the hub and then into the spindel. After about 3 hrs or so we still had yet to get at the spindle.

[Jordan Baker]

Here is what is left of the wheel after we about 3 hrs of work. In the end it didn't really help us to cut it all up. no fears though because the wheel was junk anyway. The rim had already begun to fall apart.

Maybe I will put it up on Ebay and see what I can get for a rebuildable carrier wheel. With the dumb prices that some stuff has gone for I should be able to at least cover the listing fees.

[Jordan Baker]

Finaly we resorted to cutting off the 11 bolts that hold on the bogie assembly. That only took about another 2 1/2 hrs of work. But in the end we did prevail. Except now I still have to get the bogie spindle out so that I can get my road wheels and spindles on.

Then I still have to do the other side. Aaargh

Picture of Stewart taking out some frustration.

Have any of you folks noticed how many VIEWS this thread has had so far?

[Jordan Baker]

Spent last Monday and today gettting my road wheel semi re-installed. I managed to get the spindle out by using a chop saw and cutting between the wheel hub and the cast part. The strange thing was that cutting on one end took about 1hr and the other only about 15min. I then had to use a sledge hammer to pound out the end of the spindel. I also drilled out a few bolts that had been stuck and re-tapped a few holes.

Today I used my new made spindle and everything went perfectly well. This wheel station is now waiting for some new bolts and then it should be reinstalled. I am worried somewhat because everything has gone tooo well.

[rob love]

Jordan, you do look at the bright side of things, don't you. "Too Well" , at least in my books, does not include having to chop, remove, cut, and manufacture parts in order to change a roadwheel.

Hopefully you are using lots of anti sieze so when the next poor bugger goes to do this 60 years from now he has an easier time.

[Jordan Baker]

Took the UC out for a good drive today. Im really enjoying the new road wheels. It rides a lot better then it did.

I also jsut realized that this past weekend was my 3rd anniversary of owning the UC. What better way to celebrate then by having the Bren go for a ride.

[Jordan Baker]

Waiting for the German invaison in Southern England, late spring 1942.

[Stewart Loy]

Jordan,

It certainly does look better with some rubber on those back wheels.

Did the second side go better than the first ? It must have!

What is the next project - perhaps some exhaust work?


Stewart

[Jordan Baker]

The second side kinda went better then the first. I knew to not bother trying to push out the spindle while the unit was mounted to the hull. Once I got the unit removed I could attackt it from all sides. The chop saw blade didn't want to cut through as much as before and I had to resort to the hacksaw. Once I got the wheel out both remaining ends of the spindels would not budge. It just took many swings of the sledge hammer to get them to move. I had a couple of scary moments when the end flew off the hammer and I couldn't find where it had been launched to. I definatly kept one eye up.

The only thing that made it easier was the fact that I knew the steps I had to take to get it done. Oh, I also had to replace one of the bushings.