Door lock differences
 

Here are two photos showing details. Both were made in 1947 when in Netherlands Army service (one could even be yours?). They both seem to have the "humpback" (for lack of a better description) door locks.

Attachment 140789 Attachment 140790
Source: https://beeldbank.nimh.nl/foto-s/det...c-dac9b71bad64 and https://beeldbank.nimh.nl/foto-s/det...8-31602a8e6740


Edited to add a third photo made in 1949:

Attachment 140791
Source: http://hdl.handle.net/10648/a8c455da...8-003048976d84


This fourth photo made in 1946 seems to show your "first" type of door lock?

Attachment 140792
Source: http://hdl.handle.net/10648/a89bd9d4...8-003048976d84

Finally made some time to work on the Otter……So off with the doors and off with all the layers of paint….thanks to the needle scaler. Minor repair will be needed on the one door. At some point someone for reasons unknown took a torch to the middle of the door. Lots of layers of paint in its life but underneath the metal is close to pristine.


With regards to welding up the torch damage. Anything in particular I should be mindful of or can I just weld it up with my Mig welder?

"if it doesn't move, paint it"
 

When it was a army running on conscripts, the Netherlands Army vehicles got copious amounts of paint applied to them "to keep the soldiers busy". I wonder if your Otter was ever fully stripped and repainted in Dutch service, or whether the new layers were painted on top of the wartime paint layers.

Have any other markings besides the "W/T" come up?

When welding armour plate, it is normal to preheat the area. As you are simply using it as filler rather than for bonding purposes, you ought to be ok with just mig welding it. But preheating it wouldn't hurt. Preheating will reduce the chances of warping or cracking.

Perhaps you need to talk with a mat tech from the forces. They get some training on welding armour. But in order to retain the armour strength, I'm pretty sure they would be using arc with special rod.

Hanno. I detailed the other wartime markings found on the Otter in previous posts. I’ve located the original hull number, WD number, Allied star on both sides, CMD number on the rear plate, 1st Infantry Division formation sign and Unit sign. There was also remains of the bridge signs. For Dutch service, there was the orange lion on a black circle,Dutch flag, partial Dutch number along with what I believe to be a string of text for the Military Police.

The paint layers reveal the original factory applied KG#3 with nearly matches US OD 34087. Hand applied SCC1a dark brown camouflage, then a complete overspray with what appears to be SCC15. Then another overspray with Dutch dark green. Some spots have a badly sprayed white and then a very heavy/thick coating of more green.

There was also a multitude of shop markings by Hamilton Bridge found ghosted in both white and yellow once the paint was removed.

To answer your question about being stripped by the Dutch. I believe it to be yes but to a point. As things have come apart I have found near mint KG#3 everywhere. The brighter more vivid Dutch green was found deep inside some assemblies. But once taken apart it was clear things were not completely broken down. An example would be the steering column. Factory is Gm gloss black for the shaft and the wire cover was KG#3. However my example shows the whole thing was over sprayed in white. Then in the engine compartment the steering box has been oversprayed in the Dutch green.

Thanks Rob for the explanation. Last night I ground out the torch cut and then welded it up. I turned my Mig up to the highest setting and it went very well.

Thanks for the reminder Jordan - I wil go back and reread what you shared before.


As far as I can tell the rebuilding process in the Netherlands Army was quite artisanal in the late '40s/ early '50s. No systematic strip down repair and reassembly lines like the French had for the Willys, Ford and Hotchkiss Jeeps. So the result of each rebuild would vary.

Attachment 141216
Source: https://beeldbank.nimh.nl/foto-s/det...d-491b98f9e860

The needle gunning continues. Under a thick layer of paint I found what appears to have been a spot where something had been welded to the hull and then cut off. The location is directly below the drivers door. I’ve gone through all the Otter pictures I have and none of them have any brackets welded in that spot.

Enlarged custom step maybe? Here is a picture of a Dutch Military police Otter with similar fittings......not exactly the same as yours, but also not the standard step.

Attachment 141254
source: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onde...9e761e21314fe4

Alex, thanks for that picture. That step is definitely close to what the ground down welds look to be. When I needle gunned the other side of the uk the same marks were present. That confusing part is that the steps that are on the hull are the original factory ones. So I don’t understand here being another set of steps.


Tonight I attempted to remove the Dutch added spare wheel carrier blocks. These were torch cut heavy pieces of steel with a pile of weld. I spent the better part of an hour trying to cut them off with no luck.

Torch them out

After needle scaling the entire hull I found a few more interesting marks. The number 202 ground into the surface and what I believe is a hardness test on the armour plate.

For me the following was a huge challenge, getting the last two remaining floor plates out. They were held in by a multitude of slotted round headed screws. They were screwed into a threaded hole. So there wasn’t even the option of removing a nut. Naturally almost ever single one would not thread out. So I had to use the Zip disk and carefully cut each out and then chisel off the head all the while trying my best to not cut into the floor plate. This was all done while lying on my side inside the hull. There was also about 26 7/16 bolts that passed through the floor, hull mounts and the frame. Each of these also had the heads cut off and punched through.

Once the hill is off the frame, I’ll have to go back and remove the remains of each bolt and rethread the holes.

Lastly for now, the front and rear armoured body was bolted to the chassis frame. At the front it was just a few bolts passing through the frame along with a pair of bonding straps. The rear hull had fabricated brackets that mounted to the frame and the body. These also acted as a back for the rear towing shackles. They also had a bonding strap mounted on each side.

I agree Jordan; maybe it's more like an extension of the factory step. I was just looking at some of the pictures of Otters in Surinam in another thread, and it seems larger steps were not uncommon in post-war Dutch service.....they come in a variety of make-shift designs.