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

[Darrin Wright]

Thanks Dale for noticing that, I have checked my pics and 2 other hulls that I have here and you are correct. The nuts should be on the outside with the bolt heads to the inside.
Will rectify this weekend.
I had a slight suspicion when I put it together......50/50......did not check pics at the time and went with the logical replacement.

[Darrin Wright]

Well in the last 2 to 3 weeks I have not been able to do too much as I pulled a muscle in my neck. Restricted movement and pain are not idea for doing much, especially working on the BGC.
But I now have the LHR suspension unit fully painted and ready to be mounted into the hull. Some other items have also been painted.
I spent some time knocking wheel bearings etc out of 5 road wheels and pressure cleaned them ready for sandblasting.
Got side tracked and bought another BGC, having to juggle parking spaces/hard standing for them as we go into winter, as the ground is soft and they sink.
Followed up on a lead and visited a farm with some BGC track and front wheels and mounting plates. Settled on a fair price and will collect Anzac day weekend with trailer.

[Darrin Wright]

Prior to Easter I had some machined items for the front & drivers floor plate arrive. This allowed me to get stuck into the drivers floor plate. It was a case of marking out all the bolt holes, creating a template to ensure holes went in the new plate correctly, test fitting and welding in of new pivot posts. After approx 3 hr and help from my son, we had a new floor plate ready for bolts (which I have to buy) to be placed in & welded so that they do not come loose (accelerator and clutch & brake pedal mounts).
Also installed the LHR suspension unit into the hull, installed all the bolts correctly this time.

Installed seals into the 1 wheel that I have ready for installation, also buffed up 2 wheel pins ready to install the wheel later.

With the 5 wheels stripped the previous weekend, it was time to clean 5 sets of bearings, seal retainers and spacers. Found several different types of roller bearings fitted to the wheels. Also found 2 crook bearings.

Another job that I had been putting off was the modification of my jack bracket, for some reason it was 13" high, this is too high for the Joplin jack. The correct BGC bracket is only 11" high, so I removed the base plate, shortened the bracket and re-welded it back to the base plate. It got a coat of paint later in the day with the seal retainer plates for the wheels.

Made the strap that holds the shovel onto the pioneer tool plate, just need to know how high it sits off the plate that it is welded to.

Picture 4 shows the drivers floor plate with the LH 'L' pivot bracket on the pivot post, I am missing the RH bracket, so if anyone has a spare good bracket and they wish to sell, please message me.

Also managed some gardening....but that is not as exciting as making progress on the BGC.

[Lynn Eades]

Well! no you have a really great project to start on (one with rivets!)
What a find!
Can you post a picture of the ID plate please?

[Dale Jordan]

Excellent workmanship Darrin . How come your floor plate has that cut out in the bottom left hand corner , also what height and length did you end up making the shovel bracket ? Dale

[Darrin Wright]

Dale, this weekend I will finish the shovel bracket and hopefully also the bracket for the track adjuster socket bar.

Lynn, just for you, some pics. I think I am fortunate to have 2 great projects, but this LP1 will be long term.

The ARN is 6573, disposed of on 20 June 1943.

I am a bit puzzled with several things with this vehicle.
1. The rear brackets as it appears to have had a tow pintle attachment.
2. The camouflage markings, it is painted khaki green but there are large traces of red/brown camo and black with a sand/white line to separate the black from the green. Very similar to WW1 patterns.
3. The markings on the LH side of the hull, appear to be an upside down triangle or most probably a 'V' (not sure on colour).

[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

[Darrin Wright]

Finally bit the bullet and commenced the strip down of the bogie suspension units.
Due to the vehicle coming from a desert area everything came apart pretty easily with the exception of 1 wheel pin castellated nut. When undoing it, something caught the thread and destroyed the wheel pin thread and nut. Luckily I have several spare, so this is not a big problem.
All the bearings look to be ok with dried grease in them. Will clean them up properly this coming weekend.
Pressure cleaned 1 unit to remove the grease & dirt, ready for sand blasting.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Darrin Wright

I am a bit puzzled with several things with this vehicle. 2. The camouflage markings, it is painted khaki green but there are large traces of red/brown camo and black with a sand/white line to separate the black from the green.

Some of the early carriers featured 3-tone camo which I assume to be one of the Jan '42 schemes:

2. Mechanization Circular No. 301 2nd. January, 1942. Mechanical Vehicles- Camouflage Disruptive Painting.

Approval to paint all mechanical vehicles in disruptive camouflage.

Basic colour of vehicles for use in Australia is Khaki Green No. 3

One coat only of disruptive paint is to be applied, either by brush or spray, on top of the basic colour, in either the following three-tone or two-tone designs. All edges are to be kept sharp, it may be necessary to paint the boundary between two colours to obtain sharp definition.

The colour combinations employed:

Three-Tone
1. Light Stone N. Light Brown P. Khaki Green J.
2. Light Green H. Khaki Green J. Black U.
3. Light Stone N. Light Green H. Khaki Green J.
4. Light Stone N. Khaki Green J. Dark Green M.
5. Light Stone N. Light Brown P. Basalt Red S.*

Two-Tone
6. Light Stone N. Khaki Green J.*
7. Light Brown P. Khaki Green J.*

The colour combination selected should approximate to the colours of the country in which it is expected the vehicle will operate.

- For Australian Coastal areas use Sets No. 2, 3, 4, or 6
- For Australian Central and Northern Areas use Set No.5 or 7
- Set No.1 will merge under almost any circumstances.


The presence of black indicates Set No.2 while the presence of red/brown indicates Set No.5 which suggests this carrier was re-camouflaged in the field upon relocating from Coastal to Central/Northern Australia. The sand/white line may be an artifact resulting from this change or perhaps misinterpretation of instructions. Following pics show correct application of 3-tone pattern.

134428 CARRIER 3'' MORTAR (AUST).jpg

Snapshot 5 (7-05-2014 4-54 AM) - Copy.jpg