First it was a job to free up all of the hatches handles and linkages etc. There was quite a lot of oxy acetylene heat used to do this. I think that every nut and bolt was heated up to red and allowed to cool down. This was to break the rust and it was quicker to heat every one instead of hoping that they would undo like the ones on the chassis. The grey thread protector paste was quite visible on many of the threads and most came undone without too much trouble.
The hinges were all hard to free up and plenty of heat was used on them. There are springs in the latches for the drivers, gun hatch and commanders hatches so they were just warmed up so that the spring, if it was saveable, did not loose its spring.
The handles for the hatches were also seized and had to be freed up with heat and straightened as well. This was done whilst the hatches were closed and the mechanism of the handles could be lined up correctly.
The hinges on each hatch and the two door are not only bolted but welded in place as well. I had to remove the doors, but I had fitted them years ago so that wasn’t much of a problem.
Regards Rick