done a little more this week
 

Iv'e blasted and painted the wheels and suspension, ready for re assembly waiting on new seals, blasted the hull this morning, uncovered the hull assembly number as well as the NZ number with a bit of carefull dusting with the blaster also uncovered another number below the NZ number photographed the lot as well as some measuring of the font size so that I can replicate them.
Colour matched the paint with some from under the drivers seat, painting first thing Monday.

forgot the part blasted hull
 

here it is,

hull is painted
 

here it is, I left the bullet hits in, in the end. wheels and bogies tomorrow.

Almost there....
 

No photos tonight but it's getting there, all wheels back on rebuilt suspension 20 repacked wheel bearings later, had to weld the rear bogie as the housing had broken in half, got a repo air scoop made and it is spot on but needed a little custom fitting. Made the school boy error and fitted the center boogies to the wrong side, oops, brakes next then fitting the engine and gearbox, slowly coming together.

Lew
 

She looks bloody good!! That workshop has seen a few carriers hasn't it.

couple of photos
 

a couple of photos, air scoop will get the fittings added a bit down the track as I make them up. Just got a fuel tank and a cooker gox today, couple of rust holes in the tank that need repairs.

new carrier arrives back home looking like new!
 

got the carrier back home today, rolled it back into the shed ready for engine and gearbox. Will sort out the steering and brakes first as Im not too keen on contorting whilst setting up the steering cam freeplay etc with the engine in. Couple of photos. My wife was off work sick today, I think my comment of "your feeling sick cos your too excited about the carrier coming home'' was appreciated, she likes the colour tho.

Looking good Lew.

a few bits primed
 

Iv'e made a few new bits and pieces, mostly copied directly from original parts, the dash panel is next......

another couple of photos
 

the bottom of both fuel tanks had seen better days, I got some new steel welded in sealed up with solder and will seal the inside to make them last another 70 years hopefullly, yours truly on the soldering bolt. Also have started on radiator repairs, the bottom pipes had got a bit rusty so turned up some new ones on the lathe at work and have welded them on.

Instrument Panel
 

Guess who need a complete restoration of the instrument panel and housing along with new switches etc.

:D Salesman Bob

I'm working on it
 

I'm working on it Bob, may need to call in reinforcements after seeing your handiwork.

A few little bits
 

So finally have got back into doing some work on the carrier this week, knocked out these shutter knob assys on the lathe in my lunch breaks at work this week, didnt bother to make it so the knobs screwed on just welded them in place. Made easier as I had one to copy and Colin's posts a while back to motivate me into getting onto the task.

Veeery nice job lew. :thup:
Colin.

bit more progress.... painting bits
 

opened xmas pressy to myself early, more paint. turned the garage into a spray booth.

and some more bits painted
 

I turned the air pressure down a bit and didnt get so much overspray

onto the fuel tanks
 

sealed the fuel tanks today, used POR 15 and it appears to have done a nice job, although when it was still a bit cold it didnt want to move about, lucky it got to 36 degrees today, time to go fishing I think. Brackets came up alright as well.

Hi Lew, good job. I see by looking at your parts there is little to no difference between Aust and NZ carriers.
Colin.

Looking great Lew. It must be a good stage of the project, because you would feel like your nearly there.

Colin, they were built here to prints supplied by the AFV section, Australia.
We used the Australian manuals, but there is a page stuck in the front of my book which covers the differences.
It appears the use of mufflers and the muffler fittings, were the main mod.
to cover the other things that may have varied;
Ours all used the 1941 V8 Mercury motor.
We had modified sprockets to suit the Canadian made cast steel track links (no idea whats different) (If I recall from Jeff Plowmans book, over a million track links were made in North America (probably Canada)
The spare track adjuster wheels were all steel (no rubber tyre) but could only be used on the adjusting plate.
All the spare track adjusters were cast steel ( the original ones were fabricated)
The couplings were all the VR type (Victoria Railways??)
TL78044 to TL78243 (last 200 carriers) had the mufflers.
All carriers had 3 brush generators.
All had the batteries fitted positive to earth.
Any modifications (official Australian) were duplicated with reference to spares.
All this is roughly copied from that page.
How much of that is different from Australian built LP2As?

Hey Lynn, I would say none as there are all of those variations here. Some with and without mufflers, 2 and 3 brush genny's. Even the all steel adjuster wheels where here as I have them on the front steer carrier.
"Very interesting.
Colin.

If you look at the floor of an Aussie LP, you can see some differences in the way things are done. In some Aussie pics I've seen, there is a plate with all the mounting holes for seats etc drilled and then the whole plate is welded in, instead of the kiwi ones, where we use steel blocks.

Looking great Lew, I'll drop those bits off today.

Alex
 

I think you would find that ours are the same as some of the Aussie built ones. Depending on where they were made over there. What I mean is, that the different workshops over there did some things differently from other workshops.
Have I got this right Colin?

Hi guys, we have so many different variations whifind quite interesting :teach: There are lots of different forms of mounts in the front as in the seats, vickers spares, water tins etc. The front idler mounts and plates vary a lot but all the variations that you have over there would be just some that we had I guess. We had 5 or 6 manufacturers so you'd be right Lynn. I would assume you had 1 or maybe 2.
All these differences is what makes this such an interesting and rewarding ("Obsession") hobby!
Colin.

Obsession? I thought it was a terminal disease?
The LP2's were all assembled at the G.M plant in the Hutt valley ( north of Wellington) They were originally to be built at the Hutt Valley Railways workshops,(N.Z.R.Hutt shops, where the 40 LP(1's)were built) but when the order numbers were increased, it was decided those workshops were too small, and so, relocated to N.Z's G.M plant.(as above)
With the carriers containing ford componentary,I am now wondering why it wasn't done at the Ford plant. I guess they were busy already with other war production.

POR 15 fuel tank kit
 

Lew, How bad can your fuel tank get before that stuff wont work?

Por 15
 

Lynn,

The POR 15 system for fuel tanks is something I have been looking into for some time. Everyone I have spoken to believe this to be a very good method of rejuvenating tired fuel cells. It is supposed to be able to seal pin-holes permanently. I have a spare copy of the POR 15 restorers catalog which you can have if you want it. You can also see www.ppcco.com.au for info on their full range of products. I will be using POR 15 for both my tanks.

Lew,

Your work is fantastic! I am envious of your standards and abilities, and I look forward to reading each new post of you progress. Really brilliant to see, well done :note:

Lew, Thats a fine job you are doing on that carrier......well done!!.

Kevin.

por 15
 

So the fuel tank sealant looks like it has worked a treat, I started with a litre tin, flagged the tank flushing stage as I had sand blasted the inside prior to putting in the new bottoms so didnt have to remove any old fuel deposits. I stirred the bejeezers out of the tin tipped half into each tank as thought I would have some left over when finished. As it started off pretty fluid I thought it would run about if I propped one end up on a block of wood.I then left it for about 20 min and went back to see how it was going, to my suprise it had turned to the consisitiy of semi runny dog shit in the same place it was when I poured it in, I spent the next hour or so bouncing the tanks on the trailer spare tyre making the stuff move about the fuel tanks, the 1st tank was easier than the second as it had gotten a little harder by the time I got onto that one. I also may have to get another 500ml tin to finish off the second tank as it had gotten quite thick and didnt cover all of the inside ( I also couldnt see past the internal baffle so am guessing that murphys law states that it isnt covered completly)
If I was to do it again I would have poured the sealant into one tank at a time and got onto spreading it about as soon as it went into the tank. I will post a photo of what the origional bottom of the tank was like before I started, externally it looked sound apart from a couple of small holes.
Thanks for the positive encouragment Tony, glad you enjoy the posts.

Lew

Brekes are done
 

Ticked up a few hours in the garage lately, have all brake and steering rods in, brakes adjusted after re assembly of the drums backing plates etc, replaced the steering bellows today so that should keep out the grit. Tracks going on tomorrow, have been looking at them and wasn't sure if they smile or frown when looked at from the front, I have looked at a few pictures in the Manuel and they have been fitted either way? Is there a right way?
Photos to come of the progress in last couple of days when I get a couple of spare minutes.

Lew
 

We (the Kiwi's) fitted them the opposite way to the Australians. I dont know what the reasoning was. I guess we just knew they'd be wrong :D :D