T-16 S/N 5399 T.D. 97377 Restoration

[horsa]

Since we're talking about rusty projects on a few other message threads, I figured I should post some of the shots showing how we chemically striped my carrier hull. All the welding work that is shown earlier in this message thread was completed before I had the hull dipped. Figure that was best with all the sheet metal I was replacing, holes to be welded up and then British wartime features being added back on. That way it could be primed after dipping and I wouldn't be grinding or burning paint off later on with new body work.

All of the armor is original and only light sheet metal areas inside the hull over the tracks was replaced with new metal. But old and new looks the same in the final shots.

I also branded it "Tetanus" at that time due to the amount of rusty metal we had.









This next photo shows the hull about to go into the bath for the second time. First dip was killing the paint residue and pretreating the rust. It was then pressure washed before going in again.



Last two photos show the hull after the second bath but prior to being pressure washed off again. It was really shiny after it was washed but none of those photos came out.

[Ron Pier]

Blimey Dave! Is that facility in your back garden...not many of us have that

Also what are those chains coated with? That they come out still blue and yellow. Ron

[horsa]

I wish the place was in my back yard, but they are a 3.5 hour drive from where I live. I would have needed to trailer the hull to a sand blaster anyway so figured the extra drive time wouldn't make too much of a difference in the end. The real incentive is the facility made me a great deal. They had been dipping antique cars for years but had never done something heavy like the carrier. So it was a test for them to see if they wanted to start attracting military vehicle restoration people or not.

We were both really pleased with how the hull came out. And my cost was less than it would have been to sand blast since they made me a great deal for testing purposes. Numbers are all relevant to where you live and the time period we're talking about. Suffice to say they would now charge someone about three times what it would be for sand blasting.

The process is a lot more thorough than sand blasting since it gets everywhere. And the chemicals won't eat good metal so there is nothing lost except for paint, grease and oxidation. Plus no sand residue falling out of all the little holes and channels on the vehicle.

As for the chains, I'm not sure what they were coated with. I know that they were new since they were unsure of lifting the hull with what they had been using before at the shop. But the chemicals sure didn't touch them at all so likely it was a rubber coating of some type. They said the road wheels could safely be dipped since the rubber wouldn't be affected but I didn't want to risk testing them since it would have been expensive to replace them if they were wrong. Went the normal sand blasting route with all of my wheels.

[ajmac]

David,
A great restoration project. Do you have an idea of the weight of the hull in itself? I have excess to the same HC acid tanks through a family member, but he needs to know the weights... as they currently only strip classic cars and industrial paint machinary.

[horsa]

We added up other known item weights and worked backwards from what the total vehicle was supposed to weigh. Estimated the stripped hull at 3500 pounds. The gantry the dip place had was rated for two tons but they said it could probably hold a little more but didn't know it's true safety margin.

They didn't have a scale when it came time to testing things out but said it was easily within their normal weight limits based on having moved other vehicles around with their forklift and the gantry so I guess our initial estimates were pretty close.

You'll notice in the shots that I took the bogie assembly mounting brackets off the lower hull. This was to further lighten it as well as to allow fast drainage of the chemicals due to their weight and added time it would have taken to lower and raise the hull if the liquid couldn't get in and out easier.

[Philliphastings]

Hello David and thanks for the pics. Chemically dipping large assemblies is of course the first choice of restoration techniques but even when I lived right in Sydney, near to a place that could do it (I was building jeeps back then) it was just too costly to have done. I wish I could afford to have the Scout hull dipped as even the sandblaster i hoped to have organised locally seems to have come to nought.

I am likely to have to carry my hull on a car trailer on a 600km round trip to Perth for sandblasting when the time comes...

Congratulations once again on a first class restoration by the way - simply awesome !

Cheers

Phill

[Lynn Eades]

I would suggest a preliminary chemical treatment prior to the sand blasting.
The reason for this line of thought, is that mine has rusted badly in the floor, even though it was white blasted, cleaned, primed and painted, all on a fine dry day. I believe the armour plate forms large holes inside,from tiny pin holes at the surface, that the blasting process has no effect on.