My Weasel has finally arrived in Australia

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

Some old and new pics in THIS THREAD, Lionel.

G'day Tony,

Thanks for the link - some interesting photos.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[ozm29c]

G'day All,
Thanks for your interest in this thread. For Toni; The reason all of the external parts were removed and stowed in side the weasel hull was to save on shipping costs. By adopting this method I was able to 'palletise' this weasel (effectively reducing the cubic metreage as well) and have it shipped LCL (Part container load). Had I left the weasel on its wheels, most shipping companies would only ship FCL (full container load), a most expensive option. Jeff; as you can remember the Red weasel , it was shipped FCL and the shipping cost was outrageous . Speaking of the red weasel, it was the main reason as to why I went down this path to bring another weasel into the country. Unfortunately the Red weasels lower hull was (even for me ) was beyond repair. In that time frame Steve and I found the Australian weasel 'The Bogong Grub' and after much thought and discussion the decision was made to scrap the red weasel hull and use it as a donor to restore the Grub. As per Tony Smiths post link, the rest is history. Now to the Swedish weasel; I was left with a set of flotation gear (front and rear flotation tanks, rudders, steerer etc etc) from the Red weasel which were in good condition even though the hull was shot. What do you do with a set of weasel flotation gear in Australia with no weasel to attach it to. Hence my decision to bring another weasel into the country. Another reason was my friend in Sweden, Lars B. offered me this weasel for 2000Swedish Kroner. When I worked out the cost in AUD about $380 ; another weasel coming to Australia was set in motion. For our observant members who looked at the unpacking photos, yes there are a lot of EXTRA spares in the hull as Steve and I took the opportunity to ship some additional parts out of Norway. Parts like a NOS exhaust system and extra windscreen frames would have been cost prohibitive to post out here.
I am clearing the decks so to say in preparation to restoring a weasel. I am just finishing off repairs to my Dads GMC Hard cab and as you saw I put a lot of time this year into Steve's T24 weasel hull. I will let Steve do a progress report in a separate post. Unlike wheeled vehicles one of the biggest problems to overcome with weasels is the tracks. After much thought I have finally come up with a repair plan so all I have to do now is find the money and more importantly TIME to carry out this restoration.
Time to go. Will keep you all posted
Cheers
John Wilson

[Snowy]

G'day all,
John has pretty much covered the story of where we are up to. As to Jeff's comment about buying a lottery ticket the day we brought the red Weasel down to the National Studebaker Convention at Southport on the Gold Coast, what happened was we were going down the highway near Springwood doing 100 km/h when the hinges holding the large steel access panel on the front flotation tank let go and decided to fly off the top and end up on the roadway.

I can't believe how lucky there were no cars following or it could have been an extremely serious and potentially tragic situation, having a large steel panel come through a windscreen. Phew. Awfully scary that was. Jeff couldn't pull over with the trailer until there was a clear bit of shoulder, and I walked back along the highway looking for it. It was also incredibly lucky that Jeff just happened to look in his rear vision mirror at just the right moment to see it fly off.

OK, here is a picture that is an extremely rare sight in Australia: three Weasels in close proximity. John's newly arrived M29C is in the foreground; behind it in the shed is the surviving wartime Australian Army T24 Weasel up on a rotisserie/hoist for further finishing work after John's marathon reconstruction; to the left is a very early-numbered T24 Weasel awaiting its turn. I will post on the other (Oz Weasel) thread as things happen on its rebuild. Like John and his two fully amphibious M29C Weasel projects, I too have acquired just about all the hard-to-find trinkets for my early T24 Weasels even including the early model narrow tracks.



Steve.