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

[Darrin Wright]

Commenced work on the LH side tool panel of the hull. Marked out the position on the hull side and removed the 2 broken brackets that once apon a time held vehicle tools and ground off the old welds.
Also heated and removed a broken stud on the side tool plate, it eventually came out by cutting a slot in it and unscrewing it. 1 more broken stud that would not come out with heat or persuasion. That one will wait for later, may replace the mounting block.
Found 2 salvaged and blasted brackets from my parts supply and welded them in place, on the hull.
Not much time to work on it this weekend.
Replaced the little bracket that secures the jack handle to the side of the hull, made from 3mm steel cut at a friends place.
Also measured up the mounting blocks and numbers required to be replaced, will get new mounting blocks made in the next month.

[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.

[Ian Mastin]

G'day Darrin,

Great to see the pallet Jack being put to good use's mate!!! their are good tool to have when working on the heavy gear.
Also mate I hope the two boys are help you out I d'not see them in any of your photo's maybe one.

cheers
Ian

[Darrin Wright]

Sorry about the lack of info in the last couple of weeks as my Telstra 4G failed and have had to wait to get a new item sent out.
Then when it did arrive they never linked it to my account....at least I got to speak to a human to rectify it.

Just trying to iron out any little lingering issues.

[John Mackie]

i find that en eze out will not remove all but the easiest of broken bolts . when doing my carrier i had to remove about 20 broken bolts. the method i used was to build the broken bit of bolt up with stick weld.when there is about 1/4 inch protruding let it cool and it will unscrew with a pair of multigrips.
last week when dismantling a jeep gearbox one of the selector rail screwswould not undo with the allan key. five minutes with the welder and the screw came out.

[colin jones]

Great job darrin, In almost every case if you have a bit of bolt sticking out and you heat the external material with the oxy, you will get the bolt out. But I'm sure you would already know this. Keep up the good work.
Colin.

[Darrin Wright]

Should have posted this up earlier, but anyway...

Since I do not have a crane to lift my hull up I resorted to having to lift it up with a bottle jack and blocking it as it went. I got it high enough (and safe enough) so that I could get in under it with the oxy to cut all the bolts that retain the exhaust pipes in place and heat up the exhaust elbows mounted in the floor.
Managed to removed the exhaust system from the hull intact, saved it so it will become a sample for what has to go back in later.
Aslo straightened some of the underside brackets while there.

I did find that heating up the portion of broken bolt that was protruding, letting it cool, gentle smack or whack with a hammer and then it would come out. I have one bolt left to remove that holds the seat brackets in in the front of the hull. Just trying to find the time as that one will have to be drilled. I might try and weld a small bolt to it and see if it will un-screw...