Humber FV1600 - ARN 105-819 - Restoration moves forward.

[Dave Mills]

Noticed the steps also Rich, as well as the grab handles each side of the tailgate. The tub to me looks like a signals version; are you aware of this version carrying the steps and grab handles? Or are they someone's great idea that we may pilfer.

They look fairly straight forward to reproduce for a couple of talented blokes and it will certainly solve the busing and de-busing dilemma of the Humber. Food for thought.

Still prefer the sedan body seeing that it was fitted already, what a hoot to be able to drive that around with the all round vision. I like you would have jumped at the opportunity to put it over the tracks we did at Champ Camp; would have surpassed the Stalwart.

Dave.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Dave, I have never seen the steps or grab handles before, so assume it was a mod by the owner.
Not much good for you or me, we would get hung up on them in the bush at Humber Camp 2015.
Rich.

[Dave Mills]

Have been rather quite lately but managed to have the cab and assorted panel work dipped in a nice paint removal tank, rust killed and a protective clear coating applied. Rather expensive but well worth it, if only for the peace of mind that the rust is dead and this includes the hidden rust. It will certainly allow for a better and more thorough restoration.

Cheers,

Dave.

[warren brown]

Sensational. Wow...

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Warren, I am certainly happy with the job at least I can now locate all rust. Now for the body filler, undercoat and top coats.

[Dave Mills]

Learning fast about the application and use of POR 15 paint. Some recent shots of preperation work.

#1 - Rear drive axles overhauled and ready for reassembly.
#2 - Rear brake backing plates completed, Shoes away being relined
#3 - Chassis rail POR'd and waiting for reassembly
#4 - Rear Diff and Transfer Case assembly, waiting on shaft seals.
#5 - Outer rear Tracta Joint showing wear from misalingment.

Have had to replace at least 60% of the mechanical parts due to poor maintenance and repair. Thankfully the donor vehicle supplied all the parts i required. Best $400 i have spent.

In town we are lucky to have a Steam preservation group and they still run their machine shop. Had all new steam quality brass bushes made for the drive axles, installed, reamed and honed to suit for an amazing donation of $150. Nothing like having retired tradesmen doing this kind of work 5 minutes from home.

Next stage is to gather the remainder of the parts required and then reassemble the rear end. Finally starting the uphill climb to completion, at least for one section of the vehicle.

The cab is currently getting the rust cut out and repaired and stored off site as NO room left in the yard.

Cheers,

Dave.

[fv1620]

Coming on nicely, your efforts are greatly admired. That's quite a bit of wear on the Tracta, are you planning on doing anything about that?

Incidentally I was looking in EMER WV N253 June 1954 & the bearings are packed with grease of course & on assembly the hub is filled oil as one would expect.

Put an amendment in June 1956 states:
Delete "fill with oil"
Insert "pack with grease LG-280"

Yet all Servicing Schedules up to the final one in 1976 ignore that & still require topping up with oil OEP220.

Did the Australian Army run off EMERs for the Commers or did they produce their own angle on things in the form of EMEIs I wonder?

The Commer handbook I have refers to oil top-ups as well.

Many Pigs in N.Ireland were fitted with lubrication nipples on the hubs to facilitate speedy top-ups. Unfortunately some owners interpret this as an invitation inject grease into the hub rather than oil.

[Dave Mills]

The Tracta Joints are scrap value only. Management to retrieve near new joints from the donor vehicle. Very lucky indeed.

[fv1620]

Ah that's good yes a donor vehicle, I have one of those. Not much left of it now though.

One of the most unusual donations it made was a torsion bar to a Pig owner. His had snapped over night, a friend tried to repair it .....by welding it

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Dave Mills

Have had to replace at least 60% of the mechanical parts due to poor maintenance and repair. Thankfully the donor vehicle supplied all the parts i required. Best $400 i have spent.

Glad to hear it Dave, we didn't get to save much out of that yard so it's good to know the Humber was worth recovering. Like most vehicles there it appears to have been in excellent condition before being parked out in rainy Gippsland for decades. Heartbreaking stuff really.

[Dave Mills]

Yes Tony, and I am very grateful for your efforts in saving this vehicle for me from the scrapper, a great job indeed and of course to Euan for recovering it and transporting it to Seymour.

Having a donor vehicle certainly helps with any restoration, a shame to dismantle one to make one but this is how it must be in this day and age and we must make decisions which go against our conscious.

Keeping in mind that 130 only had been purchased by the Aust Govt, they are rare vehicles over here in the land of Aust and in fact world wide as many had been converted to the PIG in the UK, hence the time, money and effort to restore this vehicle is well spent and invested.

Dave.

[fv1620]

Originally Posted by Dave Mills

Keeping in mind that 130 only had been purchased by the Aust Govt,

That's interesting Dave I never realised it was as many as that even. Does anyone have any details of the chassis serial numbers I wonder?

I have the details of all 3,700 UK issued ones, allowing for the armoured conversions, missile support variants & wireless light leaves about 1,668 that remained as FV1601 or FV1602.

Of those 130 Commers were they all FV1601 or were there any FV1602 I wonder?

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Dave Mills

Keeping in mind that 130 only had been purchased by the Aust Govt, they are rare vehicles over here in the land of Aust and in fact world wide as many had been converted to the PIG in the UK, hence the time, money and effort to restore this vehicle is well spent and invested.

Absolutely Dave, I couldn't agree more. I've become quite a fan of the Humber through you, and given their extreme rarity in Australia I'm pleased to have been involved in some small way in saving one. I imagine very few of the 130 will survive for posterity, largely because they present an extreme challenge for restorers, in terms of body rust and mechanical complexity. I see them lying around occasionally and they're invariably in bad shape, with no prospects even as a donor vehicle. Hopefully this one at Bookham will find a good home eventually, as it looks to be quite restorable, from a distance at least! Anyway I commend you on your dedication to what is shaping up as extremely high standard resto, and I look forward to seeing it in glorious full gloss DBG!

[Dave Mills]

Bookham, have been through this yard on a Champ Camp and have been up close and personal to the Humber in the pic. No go zone i am afraid as well as the champ sitttng beside it, just to long in the open and rather butchered.

However, there is another couple of gems in that yard, one is a Ferret covered in blackberries still upright on its runflats as auctioned from the army disposal auctions; we managed to prise open a hatch and take a sneek peak inside, it is all there and from memory the crew helmets are still plugged into their sockets. It also was carrying its last units colours still painted on the gaurds.

The other hidden gem is in the top shed in the right hand corner as you look up the hill and it is a Humber FV1600, unmolested and 100% complete as sold from army disposal auctions, Richard Couttes-Smith and myself drooled over it when we found it buried amongst all the wartime jeep canvas stacked in crates sitting on the trailer of a Blitz semi also in the shed and the many, many other vehicles stored undercover in a nice dry environment although covered in inches of dust.

The owner will not sell a thing and it took a lot of talking by others to get all of us scroungers into that yard. It is a shame that this kind of hoarding goes on but each to their own i say. Rich and i both felt that we could have just added fuel, dipped the oil add 24 volts and driven the old girl out of the shed. Of course we would have had to remove the back wall of the shed.

From memory Rich scribbled down the Serial Number of this vehicle.

Dave.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Yellow Humber had been converted to a spray unit, would have been quite a useful set up in it's time. We certainly did have a good poke around, plenty to see and cry over, like the DUKW converted to a mobile grain bin... Being the sort of Gentleman that typifies Champ Owners, not a thing came out through the gate except photos.

Humber/Commers for Clive
Chassis number 6310001 to 6310150
150 trucks, 14 of which were FFR
ARN 105 674 to ARN 105 823
Sold off '67, '68, a couple in '69

[fv1620]

Thank you Richard I knew I cold rely on you. Nice to have the definitive info. They started selling them off a bit earlier over here 1962-67, mostly 1964. But the Pigs started going 1967 & this continued into the early 1970s until they started buying them back again!

That Commer handbook I have had a print run of 250, whether it has any significance I don't know. Perhaps they wanted a lot of spare copies or maybe they hoped there might have been more than 150 sold!

[Dave Mills]

How is your resto coming along Clive? I am on the scrounge for the seal housing for the winch (see the wanted section of the forum) do you have one?

Glad to see and read that you are just as passionate as us about the Humber,
be it a PIG or GS.

I have the seals for the winch drum as they are stock standard and available over the counter at my local Industrial Supplies, if I cannot find a seal holder my last resort is to go to the local foundary and have one cast. Unfortunately, I do not believe that there is a great demand for these so it will probably be a one off cast.

Dave.

[fv1620]

Dave my restoration of FV1609 continues but I take it to shows none the less. It has interesting embellishments in that after Troop Trials in 1956 it became a police vehicle in 1958. Often little tit-bits of history surface that show me that I need to change or add something.

But the basic maintenance continues, last year I got off all that awful rubber paint that was peeling off the torsion bars. I know of one Pig that snapped a bar over night. Finished the chassis & now even the gearbox & transfer box are painted as original in BSC Lemon zinc phosphate primer (should be zinc chromate but I don't anyone will notice that!)

Your housing. I have a peculiar selection of Humber spares that came all the way back from Africa but there is nothing in that. I sold the only winch I had to a Land Rover owner who felt that these Turner winches or parts of them were fitted on Land Rovers.

There was also an inquiry from Germany from someone who also thought the same. So perhaps your next move would be to see what people in the Land Rover world might have.

The parts book most people use is dated 1960 which of course pre-dates the full implementation of NATO Codification in the UK so I have searched old NATO CDs to try to match up to a NSN that might have been issued later to broaden the search. But nothing. I have also gone through the 5 amendments issued to up date the 1960 book to see if the is any change but nothing.

I've got the 1952 parts book amended to 1957 to see if there were any manufacturer's cross references but nothing I'm afraid.

Have you tried Bannisters? http://www.milweb.net/go/banister/

[Dave Mills]

They seem to be as rare as "Rocking Horse S###". I think I may, just may have located one in Townsville in Northern Queensland, am waiting on a reply. Rich put me onto it. I have feelers out through the Austin Champ group in England and I truly appreciate the MLU and others world wide effort in trying to locate this item.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

Have started to reassemble the rear diff, suspension and driveline stations back onto the chassis. Only managed one side, will finish it off and start on the other side next weekend. It is good to finally see all the preperation work coming together. The old rusted flexible conduit for the wiring loom is only in place as a template with all to be reproduced or replaced when i start to remake the wiring looms. Thankfully they come in sections so it is rather straight foward (I hope).

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

Some more pics of progress to date.

Holidays now finished so back to work and the Humber takes a back seat for a while. Will have to satisfy myself with fitting it into the weekends. The rims are all bead blasted and primed awaiting top coat.

Next steps will be to finish the rims and give the old girl some new rubber, refit the front diff and front drive and suspension stations, refit the motor and transmission, then prepare the chassis to accept the cab.

The cab is stilling waiting to be repaired, am not to concerned as no room in yard or workshop (3 x champs, 3 x trailers, 2 humber trucks) to have it at home so my plan is to have the chassis finished and once the cab is finished i can then lift the cab onto the chassis. I hope it works out this way, fingers crossed.

1 - Chassis now completed, cleaned primed and painted.
2 - NOS fuel filter and overhauled mastercylinder, wiring looms completed and fitted.
3 - New brake and fuel lines manufactured and fitted. NOS brake servo fitted and plumbed up.
4 - Steering overhauled, cleaned, painted and refitted
5 - Front diff assembly overhauled cleaned and painted waiting to be refitted.

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

The cab at long last is being pieced together and panels matched to shell in preperation for painting. To date approx 84 hours has been spent cutting out rust and welding in new sections, the end product is well worth the effort.

I will get some more pics up as i get hold of them.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

Some more progress on the Humber. I managed to pick up a NOS front bumper 5 minutes from home sitting in a pile of scrap metal ready for the scrapper. Found it by taking a straightened and repaired front bumper to the local sandblaster and he recognised it with one he had sitting in the scrap pile. Best $80 spent to date. Had it sandblasted and trial fitted it to the chassis, not a problem. He did not have a clue as to how he got hold of it, it was just in a pile of old parts he got some time ago. A new front bash shield has been manufactured, you can see by the photos the old one was repairable but very rusted and just as quick to manufacture another. The photos show the bumber and bash plate trial fitted, they are now removed and painted ready for their final fitting. I have the 5 rims painted and sitting on the chassis just waiting for the tyres to arrive, have orderd 5 non-directional 900 x 20 Lugbar tyres. Just need to wait for them to arrive in town then i will have it sitting on the new rubber ready to accept the motor and transmission.

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

Another couple of pictures of our Humber a magnificent beast even if i say so myself.

Tyres arrived from USA last week, chassis is now able to be moved. Two years of restoration and i have nearly completed the chassis; only need to install the L/H fuel tank.

The cab is almost ready for its top coat so wont be much longer before i will be able to fit it to the chassis.

Our trusty hound "Maggie" watching over it.

Dave.

[lynx42]

G'day Dave, Looking really good. You can do mine when you finish yours. I have plenty of rust in the right hand lower sill and around the roof. The rest is not too bad.

One question, Why have you painted the central wheel nuts red? The outer ones are painted red as a warning not to undo them whilst there is air in the tube to prevent the operator being injured. The wheel nuts are painted either green or in some cases white.

Regards Rick.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Like I said earlier, this will be the best restored Humber of the world
Much, much better than new, Humber would have been proud to see this!

You do release that you wil have to trailer it to events in a closed trailer and display it on axle stands with mirrors underneat and keep waxing it and dusting it off, like they do on custom car shows. Wonder if it will attract scantily clad bikini babes

H.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Hanno and Rick nice to get some comments. One Humber is enough to restore, a complex vehicle and expensive hobby far to expensive to do it for someone else unless they have an open cheque book and whole lot of time to wait. I will lay money on more rust than what you expect Rick once you start looking you will find it.

Hanno, It will be both an on-road and off-road vehicle as we want to use it for what it was designed for and enjoy the experience of driving it except with a lot more care than it's previous owners. Not into all that show stuff, just after a well restored vehicle that is reliable and of course a head turner.

Rick did you ever get those fair leads you had been after a long, long time ago?

[pauldavies]

Dave your are certainly doing very well with the Humber and maybe we will meet at Champ Camp with our other vehicles. Nice to have an understanding wife give her my love they are as rare as the vehicles we restore.

[pauldavies]

Dave your are certainly doing very well with the Humber and maybe we will meet at Champ Camp with our other vehicles. Nice to have an understanding wife give her my love they are as rare as the vehicles we restore.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Paul, your project is also looking great and hopefully we will see each other's vehicles in time. Will those bows fit through your shed door? Kathy (Wife) is just sooooooo supportive of my endeavours and often jokes that I am out with my other woman when I am working or admiring the Humber.

It is day 6 of spring and we are faced with bushfires in the Tallarook ranges just 20k's to the south of us at the moment (2012 Champ Camp territory) helicopters, plumes of smoke, CFA fire crews around and that dreaded smell of burning bush wafting through the air. Safe in Seymour and I don't think that the situation will change for us as things are still fairly green just this blasted wind. Some small townships and some homes in the fire zone are under threat. A terrible start to what will unfortunately be a nightmare summer season for us I am afraid. Anyway this is our land Australia.

Cheers,

Dave