Cheers Ron, i will do. Yes on the better part British beer sucks, but Newcastle is Famous for its "Newcastle Brown Ale" which is famous all over the globe
if i have cause to send anything over there i will make a point of popping a couple of bottles in
when i was restoring cars (minis to be exact) we had a thing on the club forum that we would send each other sweeties and all sorts of goodies, always made recieving spare parts that little bit more enjoyable
I have got a couple of possibilities lined up, a Mk2 and a couple Mk1's (neither of the Mk1's have armour but they are complete runningwise) so will see what comes of it.
The ebay carrier looks canny i spoke to the owner, the tracks are ok 166 links left each side,he didnt provide me any snaps of the sprockets saying they look ok no teeth missing (i wanted to see how worn they were though)
problems with this one for me is it will cost $1600 - $1800 USD to get it to the shippers alone, find someone who i can trust to take charge of it there, then an extra $2500 to ship, then circa $1500 potential fees, plus extra shipping to my door, soon builds up !
1800
2500
1500
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$5800
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then add the carrier $5000 (best case scenario but we all know it will go for way way more.) £10,800 USD so minimum £7783GPB before touching it
would have to find all the hard to get bits like mk1 gauges, new tank, all the armour, undo all the mods that have been made.... i budget to get it anywhere near looking like a carrier circa £12 - 15K, which I could buy a restored one for from Canada / US (with original armour).........although a perfect base for a carrier, not the best for my budget even though she is a running early Mk1 tub.
Am i being unrealistic here folks ? I had set aside circa $8500 CND for a carrier project then circa $4000 cnd for shipping ?
i have many contacts in the engineers / old school sheet metal fab traders, a close friend is a gearbox and trans specialist, from mini's to Porsche's to your HGV's he does em all.... I have painted many cars where the finish is a tad more tricky, and have free access to media blasters etc. Never worked on a V8 though ! may have found a contact to take on casting issues from tracks to smoke discharger brackets etc etc, but will get back to you on that front.
My carrier is being bought to be kept long term it is more a memorial to a great man than a business investment, all be it i know it would go up not down in value as the years roll on.
This is why i joined this forum so i could learn the ways from likeminded blokes !
cheers
Richard