UC recovery part 1

[eddy8men]

hi erik
i've been following your adventure and i'm happy to see your hard work and determination has paid off finally.
i've just acquired a mk1 for restoration but i took the easy route and bought it from a dealer, i think your way is the best

well done and all the best for the restoration.

eddy

[Philliphastings]

Hello Erik, I absolutely love your post. Please keep up the pics once you start the restoration. Great work !

Cheers

Phill

[Cletracker]

Got delivery of my UC yesterday. Must say it was a great moment after years of struggeling getting it home. My primary goal is to get the motor running. Everything seems to be there except for the starter motor.

I started with getting all birchleafs out of the hull. Started digging with my hands and then used a vacumcleaner. Remember, this UC has stood outside since 1950, never been under cover! Found a couple of tracklinks and some more trackpinns in a box on the right side of the engine (Ammobox?). Also found the screwcap for the hole where the starterhandle goes in to.

[Cletracker]

Found some lettering inside the lid of a box infront of where the gunner sits. As you can see there was a great deal of birchleafs in there. Instruments needs a bit of TLC.

[Cletracker]

This is how it looks after getting rid of all the leaft, actually really nice. Former owner made a preheater letting hot exhaust through an adaptor between carb and engine and also letting it through a pipe in pipe on the intake. Fuel was also preheated. Last pictures of a couple of extra tracklinks I found.

Can´t find any part of the hull in need of welding or replacing except for the cut away armour and front part of front fenders.

[Cletracker]

Box where I found tracklinks and pinns. Lid has broken hinges and there was a lot of rust in here.

Please, can anyone help me with an engine parts source. Are engineparts "of the shelf" parts or special for the UC?

[RichardT10829]

I think that box is the one that should sit infront of the gunner, as that box has the rebate for the push rod to move under it, does it still have the lid ? get it shot blasted and saved ! John Bizal charges circa 250 bucks for one of those (repro)

glad you got her home mate well done !

Richie

I could have sworn this was a mk1 it has the tank breathers on ala Mk1 and the gauge cluster looks mk1 however the gunners seat is mk2, the battery position is mk2.... i am still think its a Mk1 though if the number on the side is original it deffinately is. The tank breathers mounted onto the side hull was a Mk1 only design (so i am told)..... like anything, stuff gets moved around and if broken it is superseaded by later available parts.... for instance mine is certainly an early Mk1 but has Mk2 seat back brackets.

As for the engine stuff 99% of the bits can be obtained no probs and not expensive either, you need to know what flathead you have, check for data plates, also by counting the head studs lets us know if it was a "Biggun" or a "Lillun" hehehehe