Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

This is a long shot I know but I am looking for details, pictures of the munitions storage in a late Panzer ll Ausf C. I have a copy of the storage plan or Beladeplan, dated 1038 but that shows the storage for saddle drum magazines for the MG34 and not the canvas Gurtsacs as used in the later versions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have emailed the Bovington Tank museum and I am awaiting a response.



Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Afternoon All,

This is going to be quite long update so sorry in advance.

I have finished the floor in the crew compartment and the battery box and yes I know the tread plate is the wrong pattern but I couldn't find any of the right patterned stuff.

[Jonathan Moore]

The next job was the petrol tank cover, on the original this was an armoured cover welded to the hull, access to the fuel tank would have been from under the tank via a removable plate in the floor. To remove the cover in mine, you would have to lift the top of the hull but I have added inspection, maintenance covers for the fuel sender and the fuel pump. I have also made the cover in two parts so that I can gain access to the engine electrics without having to remove the whole cover.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

I decided that I wanted to get the gearbox working so that I could connect the drive chain up and check my theories but I am a bit fed up with doing temporary works and then having to go back and do it properly, it feels like I am doing the job twice. Although the whole vehicle will have to be disassembled for painting I have decided to finish any areas that I feel confident will not have to be reengineered. I have spent hours studying photos trying to make sense of items and their position within the hull, interesting but some times frustrating.

To the right of the driver there are two control panels, a larger one that I have shown before and that has now been bolted in place and a smaller one bolted to the side of the hull. The small panel, contains a water temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge and the light switch.

[Jonathan Moore]

The throttle needed connecting up to the engine and as you can see from the pictures above, it runs just below the main control panel, through conduit and through the engine bulkhead to the throttle body.
You can see the conduit in the picture below, it is bolted to the top of the gearbox, eventually, when I have recreated a dummy box in mine.

[Jonathan Moore]

I have installed a battery isolator switch and routed the wires as per the original vehicle.

[Jonathan Moore]

The wiring duct from the engine bay to the front of the tank caused me some sleepless nights, I couldn't quite make any sense of the information that I had, until I found a picture from a unmolested interior and then all became clear.

The wiring runs along the side of the petrol tank in the 50mm x 25mm box, then down at a very un-Germanic angle, under the smaller control panel and into a connection / fuse box.

[Jonathan Moore]

Recently I have been concentrating on the wiring, a bit odd you may think as there are more pressing jobs with the drive etc but I needed something that wasn't complicated and that I could dip in and out of. I am glad that I did, as there were a lot of holes to drill, clips to make and trunking to run and head scratching to do.

There is a section of flexible trunking that runs in front of the driver, around the peddle area. I had thought that it was part of the wiring but I am now not so sure, as I have identified the wiring route and it doesn't use that section of trunking. However I have used it to run the gearbox kickdown switch wiring in, as it runs in the adjacent area.

The wiring is now complete and tested but I have made use of a lot more flexible trunking than the original. All the wires in the original appear to be black, I have used colour coded wires but where they can be seen I have jointed onto black extensions. I have left the wires long enough so that they can be pulled out of the end of the trunking so that the various colours can be identified as they join the black ends.

The interior of the hull contains light sockets for the magnetic work light as well as adjustable station lights. So far, I have been able to identify the location of two sockets, one by the driver and one in the turret and two station lights, one in the turret and one by the radio operators position. I would have expected to find three of each so I will keep on looking.

[Jonathan Moore]

I posted a question on another forum with refence to the station lights and amazingly one of the various styles is still produced, but for an automotive application.

[Jonathan Moore]

The work light sockets I had to make.

[Jonathan Moore]

The sockets are standard DIN sockets pressed into the housing but the spade connections had to be altered.

[Jonathan Moore]

A member of the another forum asked if he could visit to see the tank for himself, so I thought as the next job is to modify and fix the gear shift lever in place which would require the installation of the drivers controls to ensure there are no problems I may as well assemble the drivers area as far as I can.

The rear light bolted in place.

And to end, a Christmas style picture of the magnetic work light, plugged in and working.

That's all folks, have a good Christmas.

Jon

[Mike Cecil]

Jonathan,

Fantastic job.

You deserve that well-earned R&R break over Christmas.

Mike

[James P]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Moore

The work light sockets I had to make.

The steckdose is still available (this one is on the high side) but that is a nice copy you produced.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Bosch-Steckd...EAAOSwkeZdncCq

[Jonathan Moore]

Afternoon James,

I had seen them but compared to the pictures of ww2 items, they appear too refined, plus of course the cost factor. Apart from the cost of the DIN plug and socket, mine cost very little to make.

Thanks for taking the time to reply,

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

The gear shift lever is now attached to the chassis and connected to the gearbox, it all seems to operate smoothly.

[Jonathan Moore]

The next question was what to do with the shift lever knob either the original Jaguar sports look, a furry bunnies head or something more Germanic, obviously the bunnies head won, not really.

Two images from surviving tanks , the knob on the right hand image is not, as far as I can ascertain, original

[Jonathan Moore]

I think the knob would have been Bakelite but I haven't got one so I decided to make from steel.

Under the knob there is a thing ( I don't know what to call it) that you lift in order to release the shift lever, enabling you to change gear. I forgot to take any pictures of it as I made it.

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

I have been trying to move swiftly on but life keeps getting in the way. I have managed to make adapter plate from the steering box to the drive shaft and the drive shaft.

[Jonathan Moore]

A few more.

[Jonathan Moore]

I have been putting off making the final drive covers because...…….Now that I think about It I don't actually know why but I have. Anyway the time came when I had to get a grip and make a start.

[Jonathan Moore]

It took a lot of welding and fiddling to get it right and then a good few hours grinding but in the end they didn't look too bad.

[Jonathan Moore]

The original cover was a one piece casting, unfortunately to get mine to fit around the final drives mine had to be cut in two. This is however to my benefit, as now to fill or drain the final drives, all I have to do is remove the front half of the cover which reveals the filler and drain plugs of the final drive units.

[Jonathan Moore]

The driveshaft cover from the gearbox to the steering box. It can't be an exact replica of the original, because the end of gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment in my version. Eventually the dummy gearbox will cover the remainder of the driveshaft.

[Jonathan Moore]

The storage plan for a panzer ll shows a fire extinguisher attached to the driveshaft cover, personally I think that is an excellent idea, especially as I will be driving the tank and the thought of a fire concerns me. It would be nice to get an original appliance but I would rather have one that works. I have made the bracket to suit a modern vehicle extinguisher and will tart it up to look the part later.

[Jonathan Moore]

a few more.

[Jonathan Moore]

I spent a couple of hours tarting up the fire extinguisher, it would never pass as a genuine item but I think it looks quite convincing. An original is shown in it's holder and then there's my attempt.

[Jonathan Moore]

Looking forward a bit I need to start thinking about casting the polyurethane tyres on the return rollers and the road wheels. This process is new to me so I have done a lot of research, talked to those who should know and I think that I have a plan that should work. I am going to start with the return rollers and have decided that a mould that forms the outside diameter and the front angled face to finished dimensions would give the best results and reduce the amount of post casting machining.

[Jonathan Moore]

This is the kit of parts for the mould. The plates were then bored and turned so that they run true and the angle for the front face turned in. A centre shaft turned to locate and bolted in the base plate.

[Jonathan Moore]

The hub is the placed over the centre shaft and a spacer sits on top of the hub. This spacer seals the top of the hub and forms an air gap. A top plate is placed on top of the spacer, this has pouring holes cut in it and is turned to the same diameter as the base plate, which is the finished diameter of the roller. A tin outer cover is then wrapped around the outside thus forming the finished outside diameter.