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

[Darrin Wright]

That square panel is where someone has cut out a section of the armour and then re-welded it back in.

I think it was done by the Army, educated assumption, as a training task; because most BGC that I have seen with steel cut out has been used for other things and not welded back in.
I have decided to leave it there as it tells a part of its story/history; however, the inside has been welded and ground down so that it is not seen.

I have attached a 'before' pic to show the cut & welded panel.

[Euan McDonald]

Originally Posted by Darrin Wright

That square panel is where someone has cut out a section of the armour and then re-welded it back in.

I think it was done by the Army, educated assumption, as a training task; because most BGC that I have seen with steel cut out has been used for other things and not welded back in.
I have decided to leave it there as it tells a part of its story/history; however, the inside has been welded and ground down so that it is not seen.

I have attached a 'before' pic to show the cut & welded panel.

Could have been an emergency exit!

[Darrin Wright]

Well with the good weather it was time to get that pallet of parts blasted and painted. So I took in the RHR suspension unit, track adjuster bar, tube axle and a box of loose fittings.
Had it back just after lunch and undercoated, later in the afternoon gave it a coat of green.

As I could not assemble the steering axle rollers in the hull, I removed them and assembled them on the bench, then re-installed them back into the hull. With those mounted back in the hull, the boys and I slid the tube axle into the hull. It went in easier than when it came out.

[Darrin Wright]

Picked up the last of the exhaust items and continued with the manufacture of the tail pipe sections.
I bought 2, 180deg mandrel bends and 1 90deg bend to be able to make the S bend pipes. I cut the 180deg bend and found that by turning the cut section and a little trimming it aligned with the shape of the original pipe that I was trying to manufacture.
The pics tell the story of the assembly of these pipes.
Commenced making the brackets to secure the pipes to the hull, will finish off next weekend and weld in the pipes to the mufflers and install into the hull.

Dropped the starter motor off to an auto elec to determine what has gone wrong with it, if it is a simple fix I may get it back working. Will find out in a week.

Also several pics from the inside where the tube axle is and the roller mounting plates.

[Darrin Wright]

Had a delivery of parts during the week, this enabled me to:
fit the hub locking washer to the L side and bolt axles in
fit a new shaft for the clutch fork, into the gear box
fit another starter motor and play around with that
fit the gear box output yoke (drive coupling) to the gear box

I also assembled the exhaust system into the back of the hull with new tail pipe brackets. Then lifted the rear armour diff cover into position to test fit the tail pipe positions and where the mufflers will sit. From this I will now make the brackets to mount the mufflers and finish the exhaust system. Will also straighten the mounting brackets for the rear armour diff cover as this determines how/where the exhaust sits.

Sorry, not much to take pictures of...

[Darrin Wright]

I picked up the stater motor from the auto elec on Friday and swapped over the bendix drive, and today using the car with a new 12V battery attempted to start the engine.
Had to drive into town and get fuel for it as the last lot had been used in the mower.

After winding it over for approx 1 minute I then switched the ignition on and it fired straight away. Only ran it for a minute as I did not have my cooling system attached.
Installed the temporary cooling and have ran it for a couple of minutes with some RPM.
The timing and fuel settings all seem fine.

I have also installed the steering cam plate assembly into the hull and started to install the tube axle rollers and clamps.

Pretty happy with the engine as I was starting to get the s@#t's with the little problems that were stopping it from starting.

Anyway, at last it now runs.

[Ric Davies]

That first engine run is always a great moment. Specially after a few dramas,congrats. Did you go ahead with the electronic ignition ?

[Darrin Wright]

Picked up a set of lazer cut floor plates (sump drain, gearbox drain, coolant drain & 2 fuel tank drain covers) during the week, from a fellow MLU member.
Will get them blasted and painted over Christmas and installed.

I have also had all the seat cushion foam cut, already have olive vinyl so hope to make the seats and have them installed over the break.

More to follow later

[Darrin Wright]

This weekend before Christmas have done a few small/light jobs, such as:

lightly rubbed the painted surfaces back (the only section not rubbed back is the front interior) this is for a flat coat

made/completed the modification to my choke & throttle cables by brazing the spring loaded yokes to the inner cable, this is so they can attach to the balls/levers on the carby. The spring loaded yokes are from Mac's Auto, an item used to run a dual carby setup on a sidevalve V8, I cut the shaft in the middle & drilled a small hole down the centre of the shafts for the cable to go into to.

continued making clevis pins to suit all my square yoke ends for the steering/braking rods.

Painted my fuel tap and some more steering/brake rods.

Merry Christmas to all over the festive season and take care.

[Darrin Wright]

Over the new year break I took a trip to South Australia to collect many of my parts that I will require. Also picked up items that I have collected over time for the Jeep and Chev.
Returned via Adelaide and stopped off to see Colin Jones and catch up with him and view his projects and current BIG truck project.

Since returning I have unpacked the trailer, made a mess in the workshop, packed away the mess and started work on the BGC.

With the good weather in the last few days I have pushed the hull outside and painted/re-sprayed the hull (except for the front interior compartment) with a 30% universal flattening base. This has resulted in a satin/low sheen affect. Not totally flat, but this will dull from the sun over time and also repel water a little bit better.
Also painted some smaller brackets that will go into the hull straight away.

This was the last task that I had to complete before placing the engine into the hull.
So I hope to get the engine into the hull very soon with my workshop floor crane.

[Darrin Wright]

After leaving the hull outside for the night to dry (warm night) I pushed it into the workshop and commenced fitting some items.
Installed the track winch stowage brackets and turnbuckles.
Replaced the leather strips on the Vickers Tripod mount and bolted it into place, being an early BGC, it did not have the slots cut into it for the bottom 2 bolts. This was a tight job with the steering tube axle in place.
Also fitted 2 weapon mount clamps/posts to the rear of the hull and the air scoop.
Installed the main power cable and shield/conduit from the solenoid to the starter motor.
Installed the rebuilt fuel tap into the hull and the linkage that connects it to the rod in the engine bay floor.
Also installed some clamps on the hull that hold tools etc. It gives me an idea of where everything goes and fits, also if there are problems with items I can start to rectify it/them.

I was going to place the RHR suspension unit in the hull in preparation for placing the engine in, but discovered that by doing so would mean that I could not later install the electrical conduit for the rear lights. Bugger. I have the new conduit, just needs to be painted in the next day or so.

[Darrin Wright]

Found and painted a number of items including all the conduit pieces that I had, while waiting for paint to dry I made up and upholstered the rear seats. I had the hi-density foam cut and a roll of olive vinyl (leatherette as they used to call it).
I had bought back from SA another, better oil cooler; so I washed that out with a cleaning solution and let it soak to remove dust and any oil deposits.

A friend of mine, Ian, came up from Melbourne; so with a little bit of discussion we both set about placing the engine into the hull. I had already placed the conduit in. First lift had the carby & fuel pump attached, unfortunately the crane did not have the lift to clear the hull side with a long sling. So off with the carby and fuel pump and a much shorter sling. This time it went up and cleared the hull, pushed it into position and lowered it down onto the engine rails. Then it had to be man handles back onto the duplex coupleing. After that was done Ian set about tightening the rear mount to the hull floor and I installed the front mounts.
20 Min was engine in.

[Ryan]

Watching and reading on Darrin with much respect.

[Darrin Wright]

With the engine in and mounts done up, we then assembled the RHR seat and installed that into the hull for a test fitting. Little bit smaller than I remember when I was a child riding around in a friends BGC, I don't really have to worry as that is where the kids/friends will be as I will be in the front (hopefully driving it!).
Also installed the RHR suspension station into the hull, was going to use my floor crane to lift it, but with 2 people it was up and in within the minute. Then set about tightening up all the new fasteners. Still have to tighten the 2 engine rail bolts, but they are installed. It is now a little bit tighter with the engine in.
Removed the oil cooler and installed the better item.
Time for tea & sleep.

[colin jones]

Hi Darrin, very nice work. If you want to put it on a trailer and bring it over, I'll give you a hand and we'll git,r,dun before you have to go back to work.
Colin.

[Darrin Wright]

Thanks Ryan for your words and Colin for your offer, unfortunately I have to be back at work in a weeks time and it will take a little longer than that to get it done.

With the temp today expected to be around 37-38 deg C and before Ian had to go back to Melbourne, we set about riveting the LHF brake rod pivot point/post (located on the gunners floor area) back into the hull. I had a new pivot post machined up a little while ago and had bought some 3/8 cold rivets from a swap meet. We measured and cut the rivets to length and then placed them, one at a time, into position. Utilising a bottle jack from underneath to keep them in place we then heated them with the oxy. When red hot Ian compressed (bashed) them with a small sledge hammer until they had compressed into the hole. Then it was a matter of repeating the process until all 4 rivets had been completed.
Touched it up with undercoat when cool.

Later this afternoon I installed the air duct junction piece with correct length hose onto the top of the carby, installed the 2 engine stabiliser rods from the rear of the engine to the rear of the hull, installed the starter solenoid and positive cable & conduit into the hull between the solenoid and starter motor.
I wrapped the left hand exhaust pipe with a heat wrapping and went to install it between manifold and exhaust elbow in the floor. With slotted holes in the exhaust pipe section I would have thought this was an easy 5 min job. No. This task required the manifold to be removed, loosely assembled together, placed into position and then all fasteners done up.

I went to install the accelerator linkage rod, but this rod appears to be bent in a couple of places to go around the starter motor, manifold and water pump and then into the engine bay divider plate to the pivot linkage mounted to the centre bulkhead. More research required before installation as I don't want to just bend it anywhere.

Will continue tomorrow depending on the heat, but this afternoon a friends swimming pool was calling....

[Darrin Wright]

Today I spent some time (about 5 hr) working on the electrical conduit with the oxy and sorting conduit that I had collected previously from different BGC.
All the elbows, joiners, T pieces were heated and separated, what was damaged was replaced with other items.
I managed to create and layout the complete system on the workshop floor to ensure I had everything.
This will be sandblasted during the week depending on the weather. I stopped working today as it was 39 deg C on the veranda. They are predicting 39 to 41 deg C during the week, so not much work will get done during the middle of the day (by me anyway).

Some things I learned today about electrical conduit in BGC:
it was painted gloss black and installed into the hull where it was painted khaki green
fittings were made by T&S (not sure who/what this company is/was)
all the different manufacturers assembled the electrical conduit differently utilising different fittings
photograph it before pulling it apart & you can never take enough pictures

[Darrin Wright]

I disassembled all the conduit and with some storage boxes and other items dropped it all off at the sandblasters yesterday for blasting. With the heat, they are only blasting in the mornings.
I have installed the new speedo cable that I got from Euan (also on MLU) some time ago and connected it to the gearbox drive.

Today
Bought more etch primer for the items and collected the bits & bobs from the sandblasters. It is 41 deg C today, excellent drying weather, so I have undercoated the items and will let them dry for the afternoon.
With the overnight temp being 24 deg C and 0% humidity I took the opportunity to paint all the items in undercoat, green. They can dry overnight and get another coat in the morning.
At this rate I may be able to assemble the conduit tomorrow morning and install stowage boxes.
Tomorrow have to collect an accelerator linkage and copy the bends so my rod can be installed.

[Darrin Wright]

Well the weather has not been good for working out in the workshop, so have only spent a few hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon/evening. Did not feel like working in 42 to 47 deg C heat.

Picked up an accelerator linkage rod from a local person and utilised it to bend my new rod. Having the correct angles & lengths, it has now been installed.

All items sandblasted have several coats of paint, most importantly the electrical conduit. Discovered the junction block (RHS hull near engine) to be cracked, so have bronzed it up. I have also repaired the flexible conduit from the engine rail to the engine, this carries the generator wiring and oil/temp sender wires. It is all painted green ready for assembly and installing the wiring.

Over Christmas I had a new stepped bolt machined to replace the item that destroyed itself when it had too much heat applied to it, when trying to remove it from the hull. This is the bolt that holds the track adjuster arm in place, on the hull. This has all been painted and it is now installed on the hull with new castellated nuts and new springs from Colin Jones (on MLU).

One evening I made a stencil that replicated the original hull number that was painted to the side. Fixed it in placed with little magnets and gave it a heavy coat of white. This is not the final marking and painted location. I wish to copy the original location and sequence of markings that I found on the vehicle. So when the hull (or that part of the hull) is painted again, those markings will be painted over and the new markings with the Mortar Section markings will be applied.

[Darrin Wright]

During the week another BGC arrived at home, out of storage, by a backload on a tilt tray.
This is good for parts only, and some of them are already at the sandblasters getting cleaned.
This hull came from a very coastal area and had some rust in it. I did not treat it and the salt has really eaten into it. The armour has suffered the most and the cast steel not touched.
I do not know what the hull number is. Believe it to be an early hull as the air scoop is welded in, no mufflers fitted, riveted rear end.