DB Chieftian build

[David Brady]

Thanks John, probably a glitch...please do post a pic of where I need to add some additional, I'm pretty sure it's at the ends of the deck cuts, but it would be good to see what I need to do.

Cheers

[John Clarke]

When my rear deck turned up it had a shallow bend along the red line as in the first picture, it didn't matter so much because the Tee piece cut out mod would take care of it. But the saw cuts arrowed, needed filling in with something. Hence the thin plate.
The second picture shows the Tee piece in place with a sandwich plate to a) raise it a little b) allows the flattening of the deck between the angled sides. This allows the deck covers to appear to lie flat as on the original. It's a bit nit picking, but I felt it important to emphasize the flatness of the eight deck covers as opposed to the hump backed four at the rear.
Arrowed is the filler plate to close the saw gap both sides. Not seen at the other end as it is covered by the Tee cross plate. If you have a very fine cut you may not need or want it.

SAM_35861.jpg (230.77 KiB) Viewed 301 times

SAM_36841.jpg (196.46 KiB) Viewed 301 times

[David Brady]

Just what the doctor orderd! Many thanks John, most appreciated.

DB

[Mark Heaps]

An anecdote about the Chieftain T-Piece. In my experience it was marked with the VRN of the tank using weld bead, and if my memory serves me correctly it was in the area I have marked in black and legible (right side up ) when viewed from the rear of the tank.
Due to manufacturing tolerances of the hull, they were not a universal fit but machined to be bolted to the specific hull.
Found this out in early 1987 when attached to the QRIH and the Chieftains were being backloaded a couple at a time to be replaced with Challenger 1. All the T-pieces had been removed from the squadrons 14 tanks and placed outside on the tankpark so work could be done on the power packs.
First tank had to be backloaded and it had snowed heavily. One T-piece dug out of the snow, incorrect VRN but fitted and tank backloaded. Same procedure for the next 7 to go.
Got down to the last six tanks, all work on the packs done so fit the T-pieces, 5 fitted, the last one didn´t. We had to try all possible permutations of tanks and T-pieces till we found a combination that worked.

[Mark Heaps]

teepiece.jpg (106.13 KiB) Viewed 211 times

[David Brady]

Thanks Mark - Great info.

Cheers