Tuesday 26 March 2013

Another batch of photos out of sequence, here is the hull before the final exterior colour was painted on. 
The two drivers visors before sandblasting. 
The brake drum backing plates. 
Steering boxes and floor panel. 
This is the main drivers floor panel, the embossed plate is aluminium. This is unfortunately all we have of the seats which will have to be manufactured. 
This is the turret race/rack. 
Another floor plate after sandblasting. 
This plate is located over the pedal cluster. 
Another floor plate with brackets for the seat. 
This is the lower turret assembly looking from below, the turret race is machined on the underside of this. 
The ball bearings were horribly rusted 22mm diameter balls, these will be replaced.  
The ball bearings had to be pounded out of the cage with quite some effort.

The turret being assembled, most of the armoured panels are held in place with one or two bolts at this stage because I have to still sand blast and treat the rest. 
The turret hatch, although not readily evident is the repair work I had to carry out all around the lip of the hatch because in the past every vehicle was welded shut and the welding burned through the thin metal leaving gouges that had to firstly be built up with welding and then ground down to the correct profile. Once all that was done the repaired area had to be gas welded to blend it in properly to the surrounding metal. 
Looking at the lid, the locking handles still have to be made. 
This side view shows nicely the repair work that cannot be seen, if you can spot any repair work then I didn't do a very good job. 
The inside of the turret, the various attachment holes can be seen. 
Here is the hull interior so far, I did not dare remove the cables you see hanging all over as these are the hitching point for raising the hull back onto the chassis. It took me ages to find the correct centre of gravity and I didn't want to go through that again. On the far end is the yet unpainted inner surfaces of the two glacis panels as well as the various openings in the armour plate for the headlights and visor. 
A side view into the hull, the slot you see in the wheel well is an air vent to the central transfer box, there is a duct that guides the air to the component which will be seen later. 
A large mecano kit, the mud guards, wheel hubs, various armoured components and the engine deck can be seen.

So finally we can reveal the body colour, believe it or not but this is an exact colour match for what we found under the many layers of paint. 
This and the next image are very important in showing how subjective colour can actually be in different lighting.  
The image above looks more yellow/green whereas this one make the colour look more pea green. Even two vehicles painted in exactly the same paint will fade and weather differently. 
Here are some of the larger components such as the side doors and some wheel hubs. 
The two glacis panels have been put back temporarily just to keep them out of the way. I have also added the drivers visor lookout. 
The side doors have been loosely attached for now. 
Another shot out of sequence showing one glacis panel on the left and an upper segment of one of the entrance doors.
Although out of sequence here is the main pedal cluster sandblasted. 
From this angle you can see the frayed cable that links the brake control to the second drivers foot pedal. 
This end of this linkcage (upper left hand corner,) leads to the clutch lever on the gearbox. 
I bought a new camera that can take better panoramic pictures and allow us to see the full layout more fully. 
The hand control levers have been installed, these control the choke and accelerator pedal, a primitive form of cruise control if you will. 
The gearbox was cleaned, primed and painted in the automotive shade of grey, this is not the same colour as the chassis as these components came from a different factory. I must stress yet again that the colours are not a thumb suck, we track down the last layer of paint before reaching bare metal to determine the correct colour for everything. 
Here is an overall view of the work area, in the top of the picture you can see the various large components stacked for re-assembly. The hull has been covered because of the highveld dust that settles on everything. 

I must apologise for the long delay in between posts, there is no real excuse except I have been busy and just hadn't got around to posting. So before the Christmas break 2012 I turned my attention to the
 pedal clusters of the two drivers, this is the auxiliary drivers foot controls before sandblasting.
And after sandblasting, it is important to keep each related item together otherwise confusion can quickly set in. 
Here are the components after having been primed. 
This is the main drivers pedal cluster all nicely painted. 
Here the main drivers pedal assembly has been fitted to the chassis. 
Looking down from above, you can see from left to right the brake and clutch pedals.