Richie's Mk1 Restoration

RichardT10829 · #1 29-05-10, 15:02

just a little update...

slowly getting there with the armour, found a retired Rivetter who is showing me how to do it.... he is also going to lend me a big rivet hammer and snaps....

sent my engine away to get built... got some photo's back got a phone call from Belcher Engineering who wanted to charge me £400 for a set of +20 thou big end shells and +30 thou mains !!!!!!!! went online 30 sec later found a set of shells for $90 (£65ish) from the US

stuck piston was removed with the application of coke (pop not the narcotic) poured down the bore and left over night next day....voila !

the sump as removed.. i poured a shed load of AT fluid down the pots when i got the engine back to the UK and it has dragged all the crap out the engine into the sump..... YAK !

big end shells... i dont think they look too bad to be fair ! engine was last built in march 1945 (when it was recond)

gearbox.... first and second look pretty chewed up... no syncro's here guys its a "bang it in" jobby..

RichardT10829 · #2 29-05-10, 15:04

Lynn Eades · #3 29-05-10, 23:05

When you are looking for g/box bits, the WWII Dodge (wc) uses the same components, apart from the input and output shafts. Input, and output bearings are the same, pins, cluster, 1st, 2nd,3rd, rev idler,selector forks, and shafts, cluster bearings, and intermediate bearing (hyatt 99000)are all the same.
Are you going to leave your hubs off until you have the axle bolted back in?

RichardT10829 · #4 30-05-10, 02:09

yes buddy, the axle is now bolted back onto the hull solid was easier than i expectd to get it back on, did it myself shims and all........ The hubs are still off for now though.... I have a full new set of wheel bearings to go back in, just making the billet shims to take up the difference from 40mm to 50mm ID... I have a spare gunners side armour sheet (repro) in 8mm steel if anyone is interested in it. i have not yet drilled it so its good to go onto any British or Canadian pattern carrier that might need one.

Philliphastings · #5 01-06-10, 05:46

Terrific posts Richard, please keep them coming. On the subject of hull paint colours, I always asumed the Mk1's would have been painted deep bronze green semi-gloss but now that I have started taking bits off I am finding plain old olive drab lustreless with a light stone camo sprayed over the top - a bit of a surprise I must say but definately factory original (the OD that is)

Cheers

Phill

RichardT10829 · #6 01-06-10, 10:09

phil. yours is very likely to have been in the desert mate so it is no suprise that there is evidence of light stone beign used on it...... most likey lif you were to go around the carrier you would find traces of slate grey and sky blue too.

Lynn Eades · #7 01-06-10, 10:34

Which Desert? The Great Sandy desert? The Little Sandy Desert?, The Tanami Desert? I reckon theres a chance this carrier came to Australia before 1939. What say the Aussie historians? (The word oxymoron comes to mind, but its only a thought)