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

[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]

Today I installed a road wheel to the LHR suspension unit. Had to clean the paint out of the hole for the wheel pin first, then lined the wheel up and knocked the pin in.
The wheel is a bit tight to turn, but I think that is because of new seals and everything is freshly installed or knocked together. With a bit of a short run it should all free up and spin nicely.

I also took a load of items to the sandblasters today, had 6 wheels blasted, rear armour cover, tool bins, fan shroud and steering linkage items. All undercoated this afternoon/early evening.

Repaired the LHF stub axle and mounting plate. Someone had cut the lug off for the track adjuster bar and gas cut an elongated hole for a mounting stud (previous life it was going to be used on a timber jinker).
I cut a section of rod and inserted it into the original hole and then welded it in place and welded up the hole. Made a paper template for the missing gusset and cut that out of my test floor plate. Finished shaping it to suit, and welded it in.
It is at the sandblasters tonight to be blasted with some other items.