Our LRDG Chev

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

The 100th anniversary of Armistice Day was marked today by a big military vehicle display at Karapiro, near Cambridge NZ. Among the many vintage military vehicles were four LRDG replica Chev 1533X2 30cwt trucks and we took the opportunity of lining them up for a group photo-shoot. From left is "Louise", then "Tainui", then T9 "Te Aroha III" (now road-legal!!!) and nearest the camera is Ian's truck T10, with its gas-powered Breda gun.

Spectacular!!!!

[Dinty]

Absolutely spectacular, well done, cheers Dennis

[Marc Montgomery]

Beauty !! I don't know if there are any of these in Canada! (most people think it was the Americans who fought Rommel..thanks to the "Rat Patrol" tv show)

[Andrew H.]

Our LRDG truck is still not quite finished - there are still some small things to do including the "bush bars" that attach to the front bumper. We decided to make these from scratch ourselves, using a home-made forge. We got the measurements from a very helpful earlier post on this same thread (thanks Jordan Baker from Ontario!). We had never made or used a forge before, so it was "in at the deep-end" as usual. We used an old cut-down water pump pressure cylinder lined with fire-bricks and with air forced in from a vacuum cleaner with the air-flow reversed. We wanted to achieve a nice yellow colour where the steel is about 1,000 degrees C and very easy to bend, but we only managed cherry-red due to our inexperience and the poor design of the forge. So we had to do a lot of hammering and re-heating before we got the right shape for the "eyes".

[Pete Ashby]

That is a cracking good job really impressed with the improvisation

Pete

[Andrew H.]

Part of the enjoyment of owning a LRDG truck is all of the things you can add to it, to make it more authentic. In a well-established tradition of cutting costs and doing everything ourselves, I have for the last few months been making a Bagnold sun compass. I was put off by the high cost of buying one so I did most of it myself except for the engraved top plate, which was made commercially. I also had the help of a very good friend who has a lathe. The final cost at $NZ500 is about one third that of a commercially made sun compass. It works just like a real one.

[David Dunlop]

That is a thing of beauty, Andrew. I doffs me hat!

David