Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

On the inside of the hull below the drivers hatch there is a tray that, I assume, holds a rubber seal. I cant find any pictures of the open hatch showing this area, so that is purely an educated guess.

[Jonathan Moore]

On the front of the hull there are two towing hooks, one either side. On the original tank these had a tendency to brake off, apparently due to the incorrect towing procedure. As I need to be able to use these for actually towing the vehicle, they need to be strong and as I didn't have any material of the correct size available, I decided to modify a couple to tractor towing hooks.

[Jonathan Moore]

I know that they are not the same profile as the originals but I didn't want to weaken them too much. I anticipate that when the steel tow ropes turn up, the end profile might need modifying in order to get the tow rope eye over.

That's it up to date for now.

Jon

[Mike Moran]

When I worked in a polyurethane shop (Redwood Plastics) back in the 90's, one of the services was rebuilding non pneumatic forklift wheels and industrial drive wheels / idlers. After sandblasting the mating surface of the hubs we would coat the outside diameter with a bonding agent called Thixon, or maybe Thickson. This corrected durability problems with our previously remanufactured wheels. You don't want your wheels to peel their pads.

[Jonathan Moore]

Good point Mike, I will check with the manufacturers on Monday.

As far as I can remember they said to shot blast, dip in 20% Phosphoric Acid and then ensure that the component is thoroughly dry before pouring.

Jon

[Chris Abraham]

Its a phosphate finish its what they use in the gun trade to parkerize weapons or tools and spanners, its also used in the paint trade so you don't have to use a chemical primer. The phosphate process gives the surface a microscopic pourus finish so either oil or paint will soak into the surface, the same applies to using the chemical you are using. Its a simple process just boil up the solution, dip your blasted metal part, wash off, dry with a hot air gun and you are ready to paint, oil etc.

[Jonathan Moore]

Thanks Chris.

Evening,



The steel tow cables and the D shackles turned up, I ordered 18mm diameter tow cables which are each rated at 4.1 tons. There seems to be a number of ways in which the cables were carried on the front of the tanks in period pictures, in fact there doesn't appear to be a standard to how many cables are carried at all. Some pictures show just a single cable, some have two cables, some appear to be about 18mm in diameter, whereas some look a lot smaller and there are even some pictures showing what appears to be some carrying tow ropes.

I decided, in the end, not to add extra bands around the circumference of the hub but instead to machine a series of small grooves into the surface to help the polyurethane adhere.

That's all folks,



Jon