T16 restoration starts in earnest

[andrew honychurch]

After what seems an eternity, today I collected the T16 from the sandblasters! Wow, its soooo clean! I hardly dare stand on it for fear of making it dirty. There are no horror stories thankfully, we addressed most of those when welding up the nasty bits. I can really feel we are past half way now, especially as I have already completed a lot of the parts to fit back on. I am going to spend some time filling some of the worst of the pitting, really to make it look a bit better. I realise some will view this as a waste of time, but if I can improve the worst bits I think it s worthwhile. Lots of data stamps on the panels exposed by the blasting. Does anyone know whether any of these are actual serial numbers?

[eddy8men]

the hull looks really smart, a good place to start the restoration proper. with regard to the numbers stamped on the armour i think they may be the part numbers for that particular piece of plate, my carrier has the same kind of thing but that is only an educated guess.

all the best

rick

[horsa]

Looks like they did a great job. You'll suddenly be measuring progress in leaps now that the welding and stripping tasks are finished.

Noticed your hull was drilled for both the 4-inch smoke discharger on the gunner side and a 2-inch mortar mount for throwing smoke in the forward gunner area. Both were used throughout the war but I'd always thought vehicles were drilled for one or the other. Sure there is some history there with it having been in service and then reworked later on.

One thing I've seen on a lot of T-16s are the grouping of four bolts in the center of the side armor just over the tracks. I've never known what would have been there as nothing is documented in the manuals. Had to have been a British modification/addition of something. Anyone know?

[andrew honychurch]

thanks guys. I am sure I can push on now, however, one of the things that is worrying me the most is finding supplies of all the correct fixings. Most of the nuts and bolts that came off were really bad and getting UNFand UNC over here now is hard work. Thats without looking for countersunk domed top etc etc.

It did have both the small mortar bracket and the large one fitted, so maybe it has had one or other retro fitted at some stage.

No idea sorry what the four holes on the side are for but will try to find out.

More pictures as things progress.

Andrew

[ajmac]

Andrew,
BSF / BSW is still available, I was surprised how easy it was, a number of industrial suppliers in the West Midlands who will sell you boxes full, 100's per box. BSF is a little more hit and miss but for the T16, UNC and UNF will be a synch! For odd one offs try Spalding Fasteners nr me (ebay), for boxes full try: Willenhall Fasteners Ltd, they only deal company to company not to the public so I purchased them through a family company. You will want to order HEX heads and if you want then A2 stainless will be available through specialist stainless fastener suppliers, try Apex Stainless nr Wolverhampton, again company only transactions.

[horsa]

For bolts and machine screws, I used a mail-order Internet company here in the USA called Bolt Depot. Cost a bunch as there are so many large bolts in the T-16 but figured it was better to replace everything since it was a complete ground up restoration. I used stainless in most places. Link below is their company:

http://www.boltdepot.com/hex-bolts.aspx

For brass fittings needed with the two oil coolers and all the various lines, I used another Internet company linked below. Austin is a big city but a lot of this type of stuff just isn't readily available anywhere that you can walk into. So placing an on-line order was a lot easier overall, even though you need to think things out in advance for the project.

http://fittingsandadapters.com/

[andrew honychurch]

well thanks once again Guys. I will take a look at both of these websites. I dont think I will stretch to Stainless but usually use copper grease on threads where they will need to be undone again in the course of ordinary service work. It is a pain , as you say David , even in a large City its frustrating to try and find the bolts one needs easily and when you want them! I am hoping that I may find a supplier at War and Peace in 2 weeks time, and try and buy a bucket load of bolts. Currently struggling with the countersunk slot head that hold all the hull fixings on. I have a box of these, some are raised domes which were for a Half track but they are the size up ! Pain. Ah well, need to spend some time on the net sorting this lot out.