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#1
08-03-09, 14:30
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Well it looks like some of this Weasel will make it to Corowa this year after all.... If you happen to see a pair of unusual-looking tracks on the back of a ute there, wonder not, for they are for this rebuild
 . They are doing a round trip and just 'passing through' Corowa to their destination. If they look a bit rough you're right, they are a knockabout set, I have a much better pair for the other T24.Here are a few more photos of how the project is going. All the hull and engine work is being undertaken by John. Firstly, after cutting out dead metal, the large holes in the bottom of the hull are being repaired. By sheer luck one of the cut-out panel pieces (with the engine oil drain hole plate) was recovered miles from where the vehicle was found, and many decades after it had been cut out with a gas axe. It has now been reunited back into the hull (see attached). John has also rebuilt the area under the final drive and is doing a really marvellous job. He's also rebuilt the carby and water pump in the meantime too. The return rollers have been rebuilt using NOS wheels. I had to patch one of the damaged roller brackets and replace a few roller bearings etc. The control rods are finished as well. More photos soon. ARN 139999 is coming back to life  Steve. Last edited by Snowy; 08-03-09 at 14:46. Reason: typo 
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#2
08-03-09, 14:35
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Here's the panel that was cut out, now back in
 The gearbox crossmember had massive steel channel bodged in for the Holden donk and box, now that's all gone and back to the way it was. Also the original engine heater bracket has been put back.
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#3
08-03-09, 14:42
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The area under the final drive has been redone. The curved part of the hull is about 3mm thick and the only way for John to remove the dents was to cut it out, work the panel on an anvil and then zap it back in. He also fixed a hole cut through the hull for the Holden motor exhaust pipe, and a few other holes too.
He's added a common modification that Weasel restorers do - a drain plug in the hull to allow the final drive to be emptied without turning the inside of the vehicle into an oily swimming pool 
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#4
14-03-09, 00:37
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Work is progressing on the Weasel and John is on to rebuilding the sponsons. There are a dozen different sizes and types of hat channel section in a Weasel, and to speed things up for the June Swim-In we had a number of those folded up along with the sponson panels at a metal shop in Toowoomba.
The sponsons are being built as complete assemblies before being added to the hull. He's recovered some of the original seatbelt fittings (the Weasel had seatbelts fitted as standard) and seat-back catches from an old piece of hull. A small die was made to press new hold-down brackets. An original seat back (in arctic white) is in place to test alignment of the slots that were milled through the channels. Steve.
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#6
15-04-09, 01:08
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Recent progress on the rebuild of ARN 139999, the only surviving WWII Australian Army Weasel.
John has sliced the top and back of the dead M29C hull off. This piece contains the centre bulkhead and the cockpit coaming edge which is rolled (wired) and not trivial to reproduce in the short time we have left before the Bundy Swim-In in June. He has finished scratchbulding the new sponsons and has started grafting them to the upper hull piece. I was wrong when I mentioned there are a dozen types of hat channel - there are at last count fourteen styles. We had new reproduction fuel tanks made by a master fuel tank builder in Adelaide who normally does WWII jeep tanks. We imported the remains of a very rusted Weasel tank from the USA as a pattern for him to use. These repro tanks are absolutely perfect and a credit to the builder. A bloke in Sweden supplied us with some NOS Weasel fuel level senders to top it off. John has been doing all the major hull rebuild work so I've been helping out with getting a repro exhaust pipe made up, and I also rebuilt the steering lever assembly. I managed to get a complete unit out of the remains of three very cactus ones. Here are some pics. For more see http://202.63.50.228/gallery2/main.p...g2_itemId=3168
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