Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Dale, this weekend I will finish the shovel bracket and hopefully also the bracket for the track adjuster socket bar.

Lynn, just for you, some pics. I think I am fortunate to have 2 great projects, but this LP1 will be long term.

The ARN is 6573, disposed of on 20 June 1943.

I am a bit puzzled with several things with this vehicle.
1. The rear brackets as it appears to have had a tow pintle attachment.
2. The camouflage markings, it is painted khaki green but there are large traces of red/brown camo and black with a sand/white line to separate the black from the green. Very similar to WW1 patterns.
3. The markings on the LH side of the hull, appear to be an upside down triangle or most probably a 'V' (not sure on colour).

[Lynn Eades]

Thank you Darrin. She looks to be in quite good condition, with many of the small fittings still in place. A nice project indeed.
Where do the axles go.
Has anybody put together some form of registry for these LP1s.
I know of a few of them now, but not sure that all the owners want to go public.
Any how, I should let you go back to the project in hand which you are doing a great job of

[Keith Webb]

I have a total of 11 in my database, I'll list the hull numbers but in case some of the owners want to stay under the radar I'll leave out the other details.

I've created a thread on the subject here.

[Darrin Wright]

This morning I followed up on a lead that I got from talking to a gentleman on Anzac Day. Dropped in to a local earth moving & recycling place and recovered some lengths of BGC track that they had in their scrap pile.
The price was beer, and I will drop that off next weekend.
Utilised a forklift and chain to get the easy stuff, then had an excavator tear the scrap pile apart, pulled the track out and loaded it into a bucket tractor then dropped it into my trailer.
All up, just under 2 hours for about 25 sections of track. Some of it new and some worn out, some broken and some rusted solid.
Not all of it is useable, but I should get a fair bit that can go onto a vehicle.

[Darrin Wright]

Sunday morning saw myself and youngest son go out to a farm and collect 1 side of really good track, 4 front wheels and mounting plates with stub axles, 2 cut drive plates with worn sprockets and 2 good drive plates with good sprockets. Easier to load this time with a small farm tractor.
Got it home and washed everything and stacked it on a pallet.

Finished off the shovel bracket and welded it to the pioneer tool plate, also made the top bracket for the Track Adj Box Spanner. However, this is an early LP2 and I have a late Spanner or a LP2A Spanner. Have placed an add on the sales section to trade this.
2 options for this are to:
cut & shut the spanner to make it shorter, or
conduct the modification to the top bracket so the later Spanner will fit securely.

Fitted the rear pioneer tool plate to the back of the BGC and positioned it correctly and drilled all the mounting holes. this allowed me to adjust and align the exhaust system so that it can be welded in position. Made the 2 straps that will be welded to the mufflers. This was late Saturday night and ran out of time to tack weld.

[Darrin Wright]

Work also progressed on the drivers floor plate, bought all the countersunk bolts and nuts to secure the pedals and steering column base to the floor plate.
Also bought a cheap 3/4" countersinking bit from Bunnings. Proceeded to countersink the holes for the pedals, well that countersinking bit lasted about 5holes before it was gouged out.
Managed to finish all the holes and bolted all the pedals etc in place. I then ground any bolt heads that were protruding and ground a groove next to the bolts. I then used the Mig and welded all the bolts to the floor plate so they will not come loose when tightening them with pedals in place. Tidied up with the grinder when done.

My drivers floor plate has a circular cut out section near the gear lever, unsure why this is the case. I have another drivers floor plate that is more common with straight edges. This may be an earlier BGC or Vic Rail feature.

The floor plate is now finished and the new pivot posts are taped up so that the floor plate can be lightly sandblasted in the coming weeks.

[Darrin Wright]

Have been a bit slow with this update from the weekend.
The weather was poor on Saturday, so I spent several hours in the workshop concentrating on finishing the back panel with the pioneer tools and exhaust system.
Moved the Mig to the rear of the BGC and tack welded the rear mudguards in place and also tack welded the muffler and tailpipes in place.
Removed everything from the rear of the hull and moved it to my welding area where I proceeded to weld the mudguards in place and finish welding the tailpipes to the mufflers and the brackets in place on the pipes.
Just have to cut the tailpipes to length, approx. 40mm protrusion from the rear armoured cover.
Welded the bracket in place that holds the track adjusting spanner in location. Even stamped the part number on it.

[Darrin Wright]

Finally bit the bullet and commenced the strip down of the bogie suspension units.
Due to the vehicle coming from a desert area everything came apart pretty easily with the exception of 1 wheel pin castellated nut. When undoing it, something caught the thread and destroyed the wheel pin thread and nut. Luckily I have several spare, so this is not a big problem.
All the bearings look to be ok with dried grease in them. Will clean them up properly this coming weekend.
Pressure cleaned 1 unit to remove the grease & dirt, ready for sand blasting.

[Darrin Wright]

The machined turnbuckles for the linkage adjusters arrived during the week, so test fitted them and tidied up some threads in the clevis yokes that they engage with.
Removed them and undercoated them.

Installed another vision shutter assembly, installed and drilled a new nut so that it suits the bolt for that location. Also pinned all the nuts on the 2 vision shutters installed so far. Will tidy up later when I next spray green.

Replaced the left upper coolant hose and placed the rust inhibitor and demineralised water into the system. It required approx 25 litres. Unfortunately the right water pump leaks. Leaks like a sieve. I have a feeling the fibre disc that came with the water pump kit has not bedded in to the sealing surface inside the pump housing. Since I have not had the pumps rotating by the V belt, this is most likely (for initial engine cooling I had the garden hose flooding the water jackets and pouring out the water pumps). Perhaps I will fill the cooling system with water and install a belt and run the engine and see if the seal will bed/wear in. That might be easier than removing the pump.
Pumps were cleaned up and rebuilt with new kits, impellors and seals/gaskets.

[jack neville]

It kink it pretty normal for Ford water pumps to weep slightly till they are bedded in Darren. Did you resurface the pump housing where the seal engages? I had to do that with one of mine. There is a proper tool for it but I polished mine up with emery tape and a home made tool and drill.

[Darrin Wright]

I did clean up or have machined the sealing surfaces in the water pump. Will run it and see if it seals up as that is the easiest option.
Not much progress this weekend, I did however remove the left water pump as the gasket at the top was weeping, and cut a thicker replacement gasket and re-install the water pump.
This was an easy fix and test run to removing the right water pump at a later stage.
I always pictured this job as very complicated as it is one of the front engine mounts- not so hard really.
I utilised a small bottle jack positioned between the engine rail and the manifold bolt to take the weight of the engine, removed lower radiator hose, removed all bolts (they are new and stainless steel), removed engine mount bolt and out it came. Using a little grease on the rubber hoses sure helps getting them off and on again.
Too busy working to take pics, but if the right water pump has to come off I will have the camera ready.

[Darrin Wright]

after sourcing dimensions from a couple of friends regarding the long brake rods that go nearly the length of the hull, I manufactured these rods.
They are:
7/16" diameter
2510mm long
the flat surface (for the rod return spring) of the welded olive is 131-132mm from the rod end.
the olive has an ID of 7/16" and a OD of 3/4", it is machined so that a clip or tie wire holds the leather or rubber boot in place. See pics.

I have the olives being machined and they should be ready in a week.

These rods are now painted green along with some other items, so next weekend they should be fitted.

Saturday night my family and several other BGC owners in Albury Wodonga got together at a local pub and held a BGC owners meeting. Managed to spend about 4 hours chatting about all things BGC related. Very good night and of those that attended, they represented 6 projects and 4 donor vehicles.

With the good weather I got talked into doing some gardening. So to make my job easier, I decided to get the Chev out to assist in tree pulling. Unfortunately with the water logged ground the Chev rear end bogged down in the lawn. I was able to engage 4WD and with the front of the truck being on firm ground, crawled out and parked it back in the workshop. Later there will be some more gardening to fill in the two trenches in the lawn.

[Lynn Eades]

Darrin, a boot like this

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Darrin Wright

I am a bit puzzled with several things with this vehicle. 2. The camouflage markings, it is painted khaki green but there are large traces of red/brown camo and black with a sand/white line to separate the black from the green.

Some of the early carriers featured 3-tone camo which I assume to be one of the Jan '42 schemes:

2. Mechanization Circular No. 301 2nd. January, 1942. Mechanical Vehicles- Camouflage Disruptive Painting.

Approval to paint all mechanical vehicles in disruptive camouflage.

Basic colour of vehicles for use in Australia is Khaki Green No. 3

One coat only of disruptive paint is to be applied, either by brush or spray, on top of the basic colour, in either the following three-tone or two-tone designs. All edges are to be kept sharp, it may be necessary to paint the boundary between two colours to obtain sharp definition.

The colour combinations employed:

Three-Tone
1. Light Stone N. Light Brown P. Khaki Green J.
2. Light Green H. Khaki Green J. Black U.
3. Light Stone N. Light Green H. Khaki Green J.
4. Light Stone N. Khaki Green J. Dark Green M.
5. Light Stone N. Light Brown P. Basalt Red S.*

Two-Tone
6. Light Stone N. Khaki Green J.*
7. Light Brown P. Khaki Green J.*

The colour combination selected should approximate to the colours of the country in which it is expected the vehicle will operate.

- For Australian Coastal areas use Sets No. 2, 3, 4, or 6
- For Australian Central and Northern Areas use Set No.5 or 7
- Set No.1 will merge under almost any circumstances.


The presence of black indicates Set No.2 while the presence of red/brown indicates Set No.5 which suggests this carrier was re-camouflaged in the field upon relocating from Coastal to Central/Northern Australia. The sand/white line may be an artifact resulting from this change or perhaps misinterpretation of instructions. Following pics show correct application of 3-tone pattern.

134428 CARRIER 3'' MORTAR (AUST).jpg

Snapshot 5 (7-05-2014 4-54 AM) - Copy.jpg

[Darrin Wright]

Thanks Tony for posting that info, I think I may have seen it before but you have now given it some clarity and put it into perspective/relevance.
That would explain the differences as they belong to different time periods and different locations. I did not think that the LP1 would have got around that much, being manufactured in late 1940 and disposed of mid 1943.
Differnet units and locations may have given it a different look.

Thanks Lynn, that was just the lead I needed to source some boots. I now have a fine pair of boots to use in location. The local brake place had some clutch slave cylinder boots, Lockheed 1778, Made in England for $5ea. The fit is good at the hull 1 3/4", and a little big at the rod end where it should be 3/4". The length is about right, but may be a little short on the extension; however, since it will only be in the compression action I do not see it being a problem. It will function correctly and keep the mud/dust out as much as possible.

A very productive weekend, met a BGC owner passing through on a weekend away, talked and exchanged info for several hours.

My machined items arrived during the week, so these were bronze welded to the brake rods, installed NOS return springs and washers. Still have to be painted green.

A minor job that I had been putting off, was to cut and modify the choke & throttle cables to suit so that the ball ends were in the right place. I suspect that the cables were all made to the same length and, when installed, were cut to the correct lengths.
When cut to the correct length, my wife and I then bronzed the end fittings into place. Managed to finish the throttle linkage and start the choke linkage.

I also had all the materials at hand to manufacture the front seats, so commenced this. One problem that I had was the left seat lower bracket, where this bracket engages in the lower tabs was also where they tested the hardness of the armour. This meant that the lower bracket had to be bent to allow for the bulge in the armour (see attached pic).

[Darrin Wright]

With all the materials at hand I made the front seats.

I have used a high density 1" foam with 12mm ply as the back rest section.

Foam and board was cut to the dimensions in the parts book.

The off-set of the back board & armoured cover was calculated from a pic that Euan sent me and the installation of all the items.

Used coach head bolts as per the parts book.

I also had to drill a hole/recess in the ply for the radiator upper support stay/rod that protrudes through the hull bulkhead.

Assembled it all into position loose and when happy removed it from the hull and tightened it. Just have to bronze up the UNC wing nuts I have (they are old style with the mickey mouse ears) and re-thread them with a UNF thread to suit the upper studs.

The bottom seat cushions have been made, dimensions as per the parts book, with medium density foam that is 2" thick.

The vinyl is named "olive" from an Australian manufacturer called Warwick. Blends in with the khaki green paint. I did overestimate the amount of vinyl that I required and now have approx. 3m left over. In time this will re-cover the seats when worn out or damaged.

[Darrin Wright]

As discussed in a thread on seats by Dale, it is important to not make the front seat cushion back rest too thick as this will hinder the operation and access to the drivers tool box.

See pic, this is something that I had neglected until raised in that thread- Thanks.

This thickness will be firm on my back but should give me space to move my arms and turn the steering wheel without too much effort and cracking my elbow on the hull corner.

[Lynn Eades]

Darrin, I thought those 1778 would be too big, so I picked the smaller one of that type (the 260) If it helps anyone the 1778 Lockheed boot was the boot from the tandem master cylinders as fitted to the three, four, and five ton Bedfords (like an RL)
The hole in the ply probably helps let air in and out.

[Darrin Wright]

Saturday afternoon my wife suggested that we go for a bike ride with the kids, so with the Murray River very low, we decided to go to the causeway between Albury & Wodonga.
Excellent opportunity to check out a number of BGC that were buried many years ago.
Had to hack a path through the black berries and trees
I have known about these vehicles for 26 years and have acquired several parts along the way. back then I counted 12-17 BGC. Now due to tree growth, erosion I counted 5.
Most are LP2 or LP2A, but there was a 2 pdr AT. There is a LP1 (see pic).

The kids enjoyed the adventure, my wife not as much....won't be going for a bike ride there again....