Caterpillar D6A

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

sounds like the project has got very serious!

You don’t know the next part yet … “We’re trying to get a permit to dig a big hole in your beach”

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Personally I would try to complete this one by welding in the missing pieces, rather than making a complete repro set of armour......it would be a shame not to use as much of the original as possible and it's certainly no disgrace if one can see where new sections were welded in.....it would tell an interesting part of it's history!

I had assumed they would weld plates into the openings, but when I mentioned this, I was told that apparently their plan is to fabricate a new cab completely. “You’ll never get welded-in plates to look quite right” I think was the reason. My POV was also that if you close the holes, you’ll have the original armour on it as much as possible.

Originally Posted by John P

What kind of shape is the undercarriage and track frames in?.

I’m not a real vehicle restoration expert (the 1:35 scale versions are more my thing) but they looked OK, though some of the sheet metal was rusted. The track, though, still works fine — the links moved under my weight as I stood on top of it to get into the cab.

IMG_8196.jpg IMG_8194.jpg IMG_8195.jpg IMG_8224.jpg

As said, though, they have two other D6s, and plan to use parts from at least one of them.