Shilo had a monument M109 show up out of the blue about a month or so back. The base's crane was out of commission, so rather than have them spend thousands renting one from town, I took a stab at it. 202 workshop had welded the track to the sprockets to make sure it would not roll. I cut the 5 welds on each side with oxy acetylene, hooked on an A frame, and towed it off the trailer with an APC.
This one was to replace one that had been sitting at the front gate, unmodified, for the last 6 years or so. So a couple weeks ago some of the guys went down with the wrecker and towed the one away from the front gate, and then came down to the museum to pick up the new one.
One thing we didn't count on was that 202 likely drained all the oils from the final drives. About 3/4 the way back to the gate, one track started dragging badly. They managed to get it onto it's pad, and I would suggest there should be no need to re-weld the sprockets. It won't be going anywhere.
The one that was at the gate will have it's pack pulled and appropriate welding done to the hatches and gun. It will now grace 1RCHA, which was the unit it served with.
The new one was a Quebec gun, and comes sanitized in the single green colour. They put a fairly large plaque on the side, not to give any history of the gun, but rather to warn future restorers that it is painted with CARC, and not to do anything with the paint.
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29-09-14, 00:49
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