Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

A couple more pictures.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening all,


I have managed to finish the 9 remaining suspension arm shafts and associated components and the spring retention rollers, well that's what I am calling them. As I don't have any technical construction details of these, this is my version. The spring retainer rotates as the spring is flexed by the suspension arm, the unit consists of a shaft on a back plate and a housing. The housing contains an oil seal at the inner end, followed by a bearing, then a spacer followed by a second bearing. This is the pressed onto the shaft and held in place with a washer and a bolt. Another spacer is followed by a 3mm section o ring and an end cap, all held in place by a circlip. The last picture is an original unit. The original has an oil / grease point in the centre of the end cap, on my version this is just a dummy that can be unscrewed and replaced with a grease nipple so that the unit can be filled with grease on final assembly.





Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

a few more

[Jonathan Moore]

and finally.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

I have at last, managed to fabricate the suspension arm travel stops / bump stops and attached them to the chassis. It seemed to take ages to complete these items but we have been in a perma frost for a week, that seemed like a month, snowed in and the workshop was frozen up, thats my excuse anyway. They are not perfect but as near as I could get them, the grey one is from the Bovington tank museums PZ2.

For my next trick I am going to make the track return rollers, now that will be fun.

Jon

[James P]

That is very, very, impressive work and fabrication you are doing

[Jonathan Moore]

Thanks james, very kind of you. I am just doing something that i enjoy.

Jonathan

[James P]

Jonathan keep on doing what you do as you are doing some amazing fabrication. I find it a joy to see folk take on a project like yours or some over the top restoration and work their magic to achieve a successful build.

[Jonathan Moore]

Track return roller shafts, manufactured and bolted in place.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

I have been busy making the track return roller hubs. As usual, I have been using materials that are locally available, rather than ordering specific sized materials, so a little bit of adaption is required. The main hub starts as a piece of tube cut and machined to length, then a flange is welded in each end of the tube and then set on the lathe so that the rings can be bored out to suit the centre bearing housing. This bearing housing is then welded in place. A ring is then welded on to the outside of one end of the tube for two reasons. Firstly to give the impression that the material is thicker and closer to the originals dimensions and secondly to give the polyurethane tyres something to bond to when I cast them in place. This assembly is the reset on the lathe and bored out to the bearing diameter size and correct internal lengths. A separate ring is then welded on to the opposite end of the hub, for the same reasons as the first. Reset on the lathe and then again faced to the correct lengths. Each time the hub is reset in the lathe, for each operation, it has to be adjusted so that the assembly rotates true to within 0.02mm, so you can see its a time consuming process.

[Jonathan Moore]

Once the main hub housing is complete, the next items that need machining are the two retaining flanges. The rear flange houses an oil seal and the front flange locks everything in place, As with the main housing its not a quick or simple process, hopefully the pictures are self explanatory.

[Jonathan Moore]

Finally, the finished assembly and a picture of an original return roller on the PZ2 at the Bovington Tank museum.

I hope that makes sense.

Jon

[Ganmain Tony]

Major fan of your work Jonathon. Extraordinary fabrication and great to see one being created from scratch.

The sad fact is most of these vehicles are very hard to access and see. To witness one being built is a rare privilege and one i am thoroughly enjoying.

Hope it goes as smoothly as possible. Who knows? Some one in the know may help with an engine and drive train. They have to be out there. Perhaps a visit to Russia may turn something up?? Nyet?

[Jonathan Moore]

Hi Ganmain, I guess here in the UK we are lucky having the Bovington tank museum but as you say these tanks are few and far between. The engine and drive will be something that I come up with, as I don't see the point in spending lots of money putting original parts on a reproduction, on that point we will have to wait and see.

I have been making the road wheels and oh boy, what a job.

[Jonathan Moore]

more pics.

[Jonathan Moore]

Finally a finished wheel.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Morning all,

I now have 10 complete wheels ready to have their polyurethane tyres cast on, 10 oil seal housings and 10 end caps. I am currently machining the shafts that connect the radius arms to the wheels so hopefully by the end of the week I will have 10 finished radius arms as well.

[Jonathan Moore]

The last picture is for Robert, this is what a Banoffee pie looks like.


Jon

[ajmac]

Excellent work, a good thread to follow.
On the engine front, I would suggest keeping it as a petrol six cylinder (you could always run it on LPG if cost is a concern). How about a Jaguar XJ40 Engine and autobox, an entire car is dirt cheap from a scrap yard.
After all your hard work making the machine look as close to an original as you have it would be sad to drop in a four cylinder diesel...as enticing as I know that is.

[RichardT10829]

Just spotted this thread Jonathan, I am absolutely gobsmacked !

Between this thread and Colin's Vickers thread I am in overload for armour porn !


amazing, simply amazing !



Cheers


Richie

[Jonathan Moore]

Nice idea but I rather like old mechanical type engines and I assume that this would be an injection, so it would require an emu/emc and then would that need some other electrical's etc or re-programing. Those little black boxes exasperate me. However were it a simple engine then it like it a lot. Maybe someone out there knows more than I. As for the auto box, I have only experienced pain with them.

Jon

[Ryan]

Watching and reading in awe of your skill Johathan.
Terrific thread.

[ajmac]

The good thing about fuel injection, is that once you get it up and running, its reliable and doesn't need any fiddling, that is what always bugs me about carbs and points. Your other option could be an XK engine on carbs as used in the XJ6 until 1984, more costly though. There is also more unusual sixes such as the Rover 2600 from the SD1 or the 3Litre used in Rover P5s, both of those run on carbs. You need a larger capacity unit, that's why I was thinking Jaguar as they are generally around the 4 Litre mark.
Considering linkages for gear change and clutch, an auto just seamed a simpler solution. The Matilda 1 (Runner) at the Tank Museum has an SD1 3.5 Rover V8 and SD1 Autobox installed.

https://youtu.be/FQI2P1485fQ

[Jonathan Moore]

Believe me, if I could get some confidence in the jag engine I would get one here next week.

10 completed radius arms and one fitted just to see what it looks like. I will be visiting the tank museum in August to get some more dimensions, so I am going to have a break from the project and see how much I can achieve on my Morris.



Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,


I have made a start on the track idler wheels, the initial piece of 180mm dia solid, has been following me around for the last 16 years, many times I have been tempted to scrap it but I could never quite bring myself to do it. It has survived a divorce, I have tripped over it, stumped my toes on it and used it for no end of things but at last it's true purpose has been revealed. How it gets from this bearing house, to the idler wheel requires a lot of work, a cunning plan and some imagination

[Jonathan Moore]

Look what the Birthday bunny bought me today , as to how its going to be fitted, i haven't got a clue but time will tell. What I need now are two drive shafts.



Jon

[Ganmain Tony]

A final drive unit Jonathon?

Whats it out of?

[Jonathan Moore]

Not quite, It's a steering unit out of a 430 series tracked vehicle and it's heavy.

jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All, again,

I haven't got a big press or indeed any of the tooling required to produce the cone needed for the idler wheel so I decided to make it in 8 individual pieces. I used what I could find a real bodge it and scarper set up but it worked. I used a very old and hard as nails piece of oak, that I planned to the form that I required, as a press form tool. What can I add, I use what I have and none of it is modern or complicated. I am doing quite a bit of machining as I go along to make sure that it all runs as true as possible, so its taking a bit of time.

[Jonathan Moore]

But it's getting there.