A Riveting Time

[Phillip]

I thought that I'd start this thread following spending the last two weekends in the neighbours shed, hot riveting all the fittings on to a 25 pdr shield.

This potentially riveting task has been sitting in my shed for a few years. I had almost relegated the job to the 'too hard basket' as it requires man power, knowledge and skill, most of which I lack.

But before we get to the results, I'll cast my memory back almost 8 years ago to where this all started (queue swirly lights and mystic music)......

....Back in December 2008, I had the opportunity to purchase a 25 pdr. Two careful owners, only used on weekends, never in the rain etc etc. It was a bit rough but all the big heavy bits were there.

I was in a bit of a hurry to pick it up as, together with the hugs and kisses, I was to fly out to the UK within a few days.

Fortunately there was a crane to put everything onto the trailer, unfortunately no crane to unload (nor ramps for that matter). Needs must, so we used a handy tree, dumped everything in the shed and flew out to the UK the next day for the next six months.

Unfortunately I forgot to tell the misses that I had bought it.

[Robin Craig]

Oh this is going to be a grand thread, the best indication of that is the "Unfortunately I forgot to tell the misses that I had bought it" part.

Oh how we never learn do we?

Love the unload set up, nothing wrong with that, straight from the Bushman's Manual of Solo Working,2nd Edition, if you ask me.

[jack neville]

Phillip, does it have manufacturers plate and carraige number?

[Wayne Henderson]

Nice one Phil. That looks like an easy resto, guns are fun to work on.
I may have some spare bits if you need them, some of them may even be yours...

When you finish it you'll have the second best 25 in WA

[Private_collector]

Hello Phillip,

I'm really interested in following your progress, and am quite envious. What an excellent project. The bits look to be in good condition, so I hope it gives you no trouble.

Re breaking the news to spouse:

Originally Posted by Robin Craig

Oh this is going to be a grand thread, the best indication of that is the "Unfortunately I forgot to tell the misses that I had bought it".

I take exactly the opposite tack. Begin by casually mentioning how frustrating it is that you can't locate a usable/restorable Xxxxxx. Follow that with slipping the same thought into conversation over a period of several weeks, getting you Wife used to the idea slowly. The final step is when you proudly announce that you have been offered a Xxxxxx at a very good price. Even if NOT such a good price, she probably won't know that. If you deliver the last performance in a very enthusiastic manner, most ladies will avoid saying anything that will ruin your happiness. Notice, I did say most. This method has resulted in me getting my new workshop, various moderate to high cost purchases, new daily driver, and my second CMP (road ready). I know it's a bit sneaky, but I can only go to hell once, so might as well make it worth the trip!

[Phillip]

Thanks everyone for their kind words of wisdom. I am fortunate in that my wife is very understanding and that the bruises heal quite quickly (however the bones take a little longer.)

I rely on the maxim of my old Troop Sgt "Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission"

Wayne, the 25 per looks great behind Pauls Acco. He has done a fantastic restoration on that truck.

Jack, Plates are intact - its a 1942 Carr.

now where was I........

Ah yes, shoved the 25pdr in the shed. The big bits came with a collection of small bits so I photographed all of these and, armed with a spare parts manual (courtesy of Wayne) flew out to London.

Of interest in amongst the parts was a bore inspection light - looks like first version made in Australia in 1960's ish given the F1 notation and the NSN.

Had a great time in the UK, travelled to a few military shows, met some great people and found a lot of the missing bits over the six months. Returned to Australia.

Now I do like to locate the vast majority of parts before starting a restoration as this saves getting stuck and taking five years to restore something. So on return to Australia the hunt was on for the wheels, elevation gearbox and the traverse bracket, all of which had eluded me in my search.

Some phone calls and luck found a Mk1 Saddle that had been gas axed but had the gearbox, just as this arrived (from NZ), I found the correct Mk2 Saddle gearbox and the traverse bracket.

More luck turned up a set of wheels on a farm water cart (Ex; PMG Cable Trailer). Some negotiation involving a set of blitz rims and two cartons placed them in the back of the car.

Yay. Now to start the restoration..

[Phillip]

After spending another weekend working on finishing the 25 pdr (or quarter pounder as the missus calls it (affectionately I might add)), it interesting going back and I now realise how rubbish I am at taking lots of photos. I put it down to being task orientated.

Going back in time....I thought that its best to start from the ground up.

The rims proved 'interesting' to get apart to say the least. They had a great set of 900x16 that whilst in really good condition, were probably put on when the rims were owned by the PMG.

I could not get the beads to break, despite bead breakers, driving onto them with the landy, pleading and strong language. Time and moisture had firmly welded the beads to the rims which was preventing the locking rings from coming off (without being bent that is).

I ended up cutting a slot into the side wall of the tyre with an angle grinder, then grabbed a jigsaw and cut all the way around the side wall to get the tread off. Did this on both sides and then carefully cut the bead from the inside with the angle grinder and hey presto, the rims fell apart. No damaged locking rings or anything, quick and simple.

Pulled the axle to pieces and discovered that one of the bearing retainers was missing Went down to the local parts store and picked up a new one - only kidding, picked up the bearing seal but where do you get a bearing retainer for a 25pdr? is it really needed?

I decided not to bother searching and picked up a lump of steel. An afternoon on the metal lathe and I've made what would be the biggest thing I'd turned up so far. Original (on left) is next to my effort for comparison.

Cleaned everything down to bare metal, ranexed then painted (my standard process). The original wheel bearings were perfect as were the brake linings, so after repacking and cleaning they all went back in.

The hubs ran nice and true on the axles, so with the rebuilt rims and new 900x16 bar treads, I started looking for something to put on top of them.

[Phillip]

A difficult lesson is that sometimes you have to fail in order to learn.

I had cleaned the axle by hand with the 'tried and tested' twisted wire brush on the angle grinder - A slow process but it achieves good results.

The trail and saddle were not going to be suitable for this process, so I purchased a pressurised sand blaster and garnet. Ended up being a slow process without a big air compressor, kept blowing out the nozzles and used up all the garnet.

Decided that getting covered in garnet, filling the driveway up with garnet and generally getting garnet everywhere was not suited to my temperament and took the whole lot to the sand blasters.

Received back both both items, freshly stripped of all paint for less than the cost of the pressure plaster and garnet. Lesson learnt.

Despite 30 years of being in the weather, the steel of the breech, block and barrel was surprising in good condition and cleaned back to bare steel however the breech was firmly stuck into the block.

I tried a 30t press to no avail but, before resorting to the sledge hammer I found a sympathetic engineering firm with a 150t press and hey presto, out it popped. Lesson learnt.

I cleaned the barrel with the wire brush method as I find this gives a smoother finish than sand blasting.

With all the big bits cleaned, it was time to start on the small bits, many hours were spent cleaning and polishing and bluing various metal bits.....

[Phillip]

I'll bring this thread up to the current day quite quickly, partly because this was a fairly straight forward restoration but mostly because I did not take anywhere near enough photos of all the fiddly bits.

Once all the big bits were cleaned back to bare metal and repainted, the gun started to take on its recognisable form as it was bolted back together.

The time consuming aspect was spent in freeing up all the small components, then cleaning, polishing and then for all the small steel components, polishing and bluing.

The range cone, despite being purchased as NOS, had to be repainted and the whole sight assembly freed-up, pulled apart and rebuilt.

There are lots of small bits that all interconnect to work together. It really pays to have an operating manual and a spare parts manual so that you don't turn a screw the wrong way or try to hammer out what looks like a pin but is actually a bolt - seriously who makes a bolt with a round head

Possibly the most challenging and frustrating part was getting the frame work for the firing platform working. This was all seized sold and with such tight tolerances and no grease points (only oil points) required a lot of patience to get apart and moving again.

The Australian modification to instal a foot operated firing linkage is fiddly to set up and I wonder how effective it actually was. From what I understand, the Brits had a simpler method for AT shooting which was a webbing strap around the No.3's shoulder attached to the firing lever - obviously too simple for us antipodeans.

[Phillip]

I ended up with two shields, the first came with the gun. All the fittings were okay but there must have been a fair bit of corrosion where the strengthening bar went across. The workshop boys had cut off the strengthening bar made from angle iron, cut out the rusty plate and welded in some new plate. In this process they put too much heat into the steel and warped it.

Oh, and they also cut all the fittings off and put them to one side.

I found another shield that was nice and straight but all the fittings were rotted. I stripped this shield with the intention of using the fittings and top plate from the original shield onto this new one.

A bit of searching located the correct piece of imperial size angle iron for the strengthening bar and some more looking found some old solid rivets of the correct size and profile. So now I had everything to make one shield from the two. Now, how do I join everything together.......

Moved town, threw everything into the shed, moved house... twice.... Built a new shed, drank more coffee... drank a few beers......

Now we can fast forward to last month. After having this shield cluttering up the shed for the last three years, I thought that it was about time I worked out this problem in time to take the 25 pdr out for a display on Anzac Day.

I ended up making a few dollys for the different head sizes and profiles and, rather than a heavy bucking bar, I profiled the head shape of the rivets into a thick flat disc of metal that would rest on an anvil.

With some oxy and a few conscripts we had our first attempt at hot riveting. It took a lot longer than expected, especially trying to work out how to get the bucking bar into a few tight spots but I'm happy with the results as the joints all pulled in nice and tight.

[Phillip]

What a miserable weekend, wind and rain. Time to hide in the shed.

With the riveting completed a few coats of paint have been applied. Nothing too exciting really.

Great to see it mounted onto the gun after all these years, very happy with the riveting process, no warping of the shield and it all looks correct and works as it should.

[Phillip]

It has been cold and wet, hardly inspiring time to spend evenings in the shed so I've been entertaining myself with restoring and sorting out bits for the 25pdr.

I finally restored the Illuminating Apparatus box and the No.5 Illuminating Apparatus, so that both lamps now work properly. I am still missing one of the lamps and the right angle ' Niphan' style plug - who made these lamps? What happened to them all?

Next will be sorting out the aiming point lamp and battery box....