Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Alex van de Wetering]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

ILikewise the backs of all the 18 gauge Fox panels holding the bins to the interior armour were white once scaping down the 'patina' of rust discolouration.

Exactly my thought; Jordan you could gently srape of some of the tan colour to see if it's white underneath the very top layer.

[Colin Alford]

Here is the link for Specification O.A. 204, Cars, Light, Reconnaissance (Canadian).

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/o...80/752?r=0&s=2

Unfortunately it does not mention the hull colour, other than Hamilton Bridge was to paint the hull in accordance with Specification O.A. 76.(page 19 of the specification)

It appears that it will be necessary to track down Specification O.A. 76.

[Jordan Baker]

Wow, some great discussion I got going from simply saying tan....

Colin, hopeful you can work your magic and find that specification O.A. 76. I’ve searched but no luck as of yet.

[Grant Bowker]

In post #82, there appears to be bubbling of the paint, is that caused by heat or something else? If heat, that might also explain a colour variation from a pure white.

[Ed Storey]

Here is a wartime era interior photo which may help out when determining the Otter's interior colour.

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks Ed for the wonderful picture. Interesting to note the engine cover is painted in the exterior colour along with the dash.

Grant, the vehicle did have a fire at some point in its life. So I do suspect that there was a colour shift in the white.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Here is a wartime era interior photo which may help out when determining the Otter's interior colour.

Attachment 119696

Interesting pic. The contraption is later style smoke discharger pistol replacing the standard 4" Ross or SMLE type. I'm thinking a trial installation. I'm surprised the engine cover is khaki, something for Jordan to watch for. It does confirm the observation covers are khaki on the inside and shows where the colour goes to white (tan?) on the actuating levers. That last thing to note is the lettering on the box 'SPARE TRIPLEX'. Production Otters and Fox had these markings printed or screened on and not spray stenciled. This could be because this photo is of an early Otter before they settled on the type of markings or possibly a repaint and somebody applied a stencil after the fact.

[chris vickery]

I would think from Ed’s pics one can definatively assert that the interior colour is white.
The stencilled bin appears to be the same hue as the interior surfaces. Any original AFV bins that I have ever come across have always been painted white.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

Interesting pic. The contraption is later style smoke discharger pistol replacing the standard 4" Ross or SMLE type. I'm thinking a trial installation.

If you have the PDF on dischargers that I sent to a lot of the guys, it lists that discharger as a 2" bomb thrower. Manual is dated 1942, so I suspect both dischargers were concurrent.
One advantage to that 2" thrower is that it could be used with 2" mortar bombs I believe.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by rob love

If you have the PDF on dischargers that I sent to a lot of the guys, it lists that discharger as a 2" bomb thrower. Manual is dated 1942, so I suspect both dischargers were concurrent.
One advantage to that discharger is that it could be used with 2" mortar bombs I believe.

I agree, other than to say the rifle/4" tube combo predates the 2" launcher. Also that the Otter (and Fox) hulls are pre drilled with the centre and 1/4" aligning holes for the 4" one so the 2" would need some kind of adapter, as we are seeing in Ed's pic.

[Robert Bergeron]

What an interesting restoration / vehicle / subject matter . Wonderful ! An eye opener.

[Perry Kitson]

Appears to be the same 2" discharger as used in Shermans.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Grizzly too.

[Ed Storey]

And the Fox as well.

[Jordan Baker]

A small bit of progress was made today on rebuilding the fuse box. Cutting and machining the fibre isolation parts. These isolate the bare power feed hookups.

[Jordan Baker]

Finished up the cover for the fuse box. I also cleaned up all of the original hookup points.

[Jordan Baker]

And all painted and baked to harden up the paint.

[David Dunlop]

Nice work, Jordan!

David

[Jordan Baker]

Onto the next part. The first Otters used an open manual throw type switch as a battery disconnect. At a certain point production changed to a standard heavy duty battery disconnect switch made by Delco Remy. It was located just inside the drivers door on the floor. Power from this split off to the starter and engine electrics and also to the fuse box for the wireless and interior lighting.

The switch was pretty rough looking but still quite solid and everything moved on it prior to removal from the Otter.

[Jordan Baker]

There was a guard that mounted with the switch to protect the wiring cables and the bottom of the switch. Interestingly this was painted in khaki green #3. The two screws that held the switch on would not budge and I ended up using s chisel to knock the heads off. I tried out the old trick of welding a nut onto the remaining studs and they unscrewed just fine.

Lastly some pictures of the entire switch all cleaned up. I’ll be zinc plating it once my supplies arrive later this week. Watching David’s ws52 restoration made me realize I too can replate parts back to NOS condition.

[Jordan Baker]

Had the day in the shop so I started up the process of trying out nickel plating. It went rather well and I’m quite happy with the results. I’m quite happy to bring these parts back to new looking.

[David Dunlop]

Fantastic job with the plating, Jordan!

Feels great to see bits come back like that.


David

[Jordan Baker]

More plating being done today. This time with zinc on the battery disconnect switch. I’m quite happy with the results as it is letting me bring these parts back instead of simply replacing them.

The first picture shows how flat the finish is before being buffed with a brass wire wheel.

On the switch rebuilding I used brass nuts and washers on the two studs. I also put in new fibre washers as the originals had seen better days.

[Robert Bergeron]

You are a metal magician Jordan !

[David Dunlop]

Nice looking plating again, Jordan.

I have not worked with nickel yet, myself, but am toying with the idea, if I can figure out how a ‘Satin Nickel Finish’ is arrived at. How do the nickel plated parts look, right after the plating process and dried off a bit?

David

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks guys, I owe it to David for posting about this with his wireless rebuild.

As for a satin nickel, I don’t think there is much we can do at the home level. A lot will have to do with the surface finish of the base metal. From what I’ve read, some will beadblast or use a scotch bright pad to scuff the metal. Then plate.

Right out of the solution it was dead flat. I used a buffing wheel and it polished up.

[Jordan Baker]

Battery disconnect switch is now finished. Painted and baked in the oven. This should easily give another 80 years of service.

[Jordan Baker]

This afternoon I removed the two forward equipment panels. Underneath the drivers side one I found a hand painted number. I believe this to be a possible hull number. Also interesting was the red rubber pads glued to the backside of each panel.

[Jordan Baker]

The proper NOS fuses arrived in the mail today from England and were installed into the fuse box.

[Jordan Baker]

The originality of this vehicle continues to impress me. I found some more inked stamped part numbers on the panels. Also included is some detail pictures of the wheat lamp charging box