Border raids

[Keith Webb]

This topic almost needs it's own sub-section on MLU!

Possibly the most active raiders have been the South Australians, with the most popular victim being New South Wales, and over the years I have made a few of these such as the No9 FGT from Little Hartley:



And here's a minor one I executed under the cover of a dust storm earlier this week:



In fact part of this load will turn into an international border raid by a certain Swiss person.

At Corowa, Mark Sierant made a successful foray into Victoria to remove the bones of a No2 Ambulance.

What are your adventures in the art of the border raid?

[zemsi]

... here's the story about the "Border Raid" abouth the sunshine roof you see on the trailer.

On a sunny morning "mii and mii meit" Ashley (as Crocodile Dundee would say) went for my first Border Raid for my own Blitz. Well, actually both start and recovery place where inside NSW, so you can't really say that it is a Border Raid, possible more Shire raid. Anyway, a few days before, Max and I met Neil at Matt's place driving his tanks. Neil mentioned to Max that he had a good Ford Cab13 Sunshine Roof. As my currently installed roof is "only" a Chev one and missing all the little important parts like the hoodbow.

Ashley "volonteered" to drive us up all the through the Tablelands near Lithgow. Around 4h in the Landcruiser, but much more shorter as the Crow flies (Max told me this )

After the warm welcome, Neil (not yet an MLU member, just a lurker like Ashley) showed as around his stunning collection of Blitzes and British Carriers (if anyone has some parts for his British Carriers, eg steering wheel, let me know). Took us arond 2h to get a good overview. In good old Aussie tradition, Neil offered us some yummi tucker on his Barbie grill.

Now comes the hard part. How to get the cab on the back of the Ute without lifting equipment?? The operation had a bad start when Ashley thought he spotted a snake, I would say possibly just a big salamander withoug legs

1st we tried to lift the front of the cab with the back of the tractor. It worked for about 10min, but then the whole cab came off the carrier, after the woodstick broke.

After some discussion, we tried to lift the cab with the Blitz crane. The Blitz wasn't started for the past few months, so we had the crane but no winch. In good old bush mechanic tradition, Doc Ashley made the suggestion to tow the cable with the tractor. In a nutshell: it worked well! No cables broke and we're still alive

After another 4h drive and passing through a big Thunderstorm were the cab get a good wash, Ashley and I arrived at around 10pm back at Yass.

Neil, thank you very much again for your hospitality and supporting Keiths and my Blitz project. The F15 will look great with the sunshineroof back here in Switzerland! Ashley, thanks a lot mate for this great recovery experience!! It was a perfect day...

[Keith Webb]

Thanks for the pics and the story, Chris!

The lifting was done in the best bush tradition.

I'm about to go out and remove the galvanised iron roof to take out the hoodbow, about the only thing we can use - the roof already on your F15 is in much better condition than the one we recovered.

[aj.lec]

C8 from Queensland
C15a from A.C.T.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I did a border raid only once. Bought my F15A in the UK over the phone and drove it home after visiting Beltring.

Easy peasy as the British say, though some said I was nuts doing this.

Could have made it a four country trip (UK - France - Belgium - Holland), but chose not to tempt the border guards and took the ferry from the UK to Holland directly.

Attached pic was one of a few supplied by the seller.

- Hanno