New cast Bren gun pintles

[Derrick Eastman]

I will commit to 5 pintles and 4 headlight wiring covers.They will have to be shipped to me in canada, I only wish to get to Beltring!Do you need a down payment?PM me or email and we will settle up. Are you looking to have any other bren goodies made?

[Robin Craig]

I honestly don't mean to spoil your good work but I have a very serious question.

In forty years time how will you be able to tell the original and the re-made apart?

I ask this as it is a subject that troubles me, even though I only dabble in the Post War MVs I am very aware that we are only temporary custodians of the vehicles we have.

I have had occasion to fabricate parts for vehicles and have always discretely marked them in a way that others in future years will know the provenance of the part.


Any comments



R

[Ben]

I have actually given this some thought.

I read a book about restoring a Hawker Hurricane recovered from India. During the restoration if they had to remake a part they disgreetly added their own initial and date following the style used during the original build so the part could be identified in the future.

The pintle is identical to an original so as you point out it would be hard to tell it from an original. I have contemplated marking the back face with a date stamp. You would never see it as it's bolted to the armour but would be an identifying feature for the future. I'd need to speak to the people who want them.

Ben

[RichardT10829]

well really this is down to unscrupulous (sp) restorers who wont disclose these things when they sell on.... i myself have a portfolio everything is documented that has been restored / re made etc etc.

if they are to be stamped Ben could i ask that it is on the hidden face as you state...after all if i was lucky enough to get my carrier in a movie i am sure it would spoil the historic appearance of the vehicle if it had BEN 2011 stamped into the face of the cast

[shaun]

with my museum professional head on i could say so much on the subject of repro parts being passed off for genuine, like making a jeep out of 99% new parts and claiming its a 1942. in fact DVLA are now clamping down on such vehicles, mainly landrovers on old tax free plates but im sure they are looking at other "reproduced" vehicles (whoops i went into a bit of a rant there, sorry guys ! ) Ben the mounts a great !

[Phil Waterman]

Originally Posted by shaun

with my museum professional head on i could say so much on the subject of repro parts being passed off for genuine, like making a jeep out of 99% new parts and claiming its a 1942. in fact DVLA are now clamping down on such vehicles, mainly landrovers on old tax free plates but im sure they are looking at other "reproduced" vehicles (whoops i went into a bit of a rant there, sorry guys ! ) Ben the mounts a great !

Hi Shaun

You raise a very interesting and important issue. I like the method used by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC their policy when restoring aircraft is that parts they fabricate are Stamped as being reproduction. Once I heard about that I've tried to do the same on restoring my CMPs stuff that is non-original which might be misleading to the person after I'm gone are marked with a date installed. Generally I try to punch these in with number stamp. Of my three CMPs there is only one that I would claim to be original, the others are composites. When we re-engine a vehicle it is often the only way to able to drive the trucks.

We have all seen Jeeps and other vehicles which they basically jacked up the data plate and rolled a new vehicle up behind it and attached the data plate and called it the same vehicle. Doesn't detract from vehicle interest as examples of vehicles or from enjoying driving them.

Of course as we get further and further from the date of manufacture of any vehicle it is harder and harder to have an original vehicle. I have really enjoyed watching some of the members of the forum carefully cleaning and restoring parts, sometimes this is because a replacement is not available while other times it is because they want to retain as many parts as possible.

Cheers Phil

[Robin Craig]

My policy is like Phil's, I stamp "repro" in an unseen area my initials and the date. And declare as such if passing the vehicle into someone else's ownership.

R