00 FD 96 John's Main Contender

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi John
I have had afternoon of grinding the front casting, fenders on & off like w***** draws,it was so much fun that I started KT road wheels while watching Star Wars with the boy.
Good evening all.

[John Clarke]

Let the force be with you Charles, you'll need it. and a good flap wheel too.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered 120 x 10BA x 1/2 bolts. I need them to finish the exhaust box off. The rest of the bolts were for the deck covers and plate retainers.

The first lot went "missing" in the post, When the replacements arrived they arrived with a 10ba thread and considerable smaller hex head than 10ba.

Annoying, now I need to re-order 10BA bolts from somewhere else.

Still as it turns out they look even better on the deck covers than the standard 10BA deck cover bolts. Result.

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[Vince Cutajar]

Do these look familiar?

https://www.ekpsupplies.com/steel-one-s ... crews.html

I used many of them (metric) on my Tiger 1. One size smaller hex head screws.

Vince

[John Clarke]

Thanks Vince, I haven't brought many fasteners in the past, using the supplied fasteners usually.
Oddments being brought though Ebay or the forum. I actually used my old apprentice spanners to gauge what I might want, they should have given a physical guide to what should have turned up.

The annoying part was that I'd ordered 10Ba and got 10Ba, but not as I expected it (from an english supplier too).

I didn't order a special hex, now I have to think "do I have to ask about what would be commonly assumed "

Arguing that the hexhead is wrong was just another pot hole on the road to oblivion.

I was just pleased to have ordered enough bolts to accomplish the mission. Onwards and upwards

[Richard Goodwin]

What a result!! Looking good

[John Clarke]

With the front armor casting in place, I have glued and pinned the nose plate made earlier to join the casting and front lower armor together.

It's time to try and form the curved shape right at the front.

With the majority of the shaping on the nose done. Took a break from it and had look at the mid front armor casting lug positions.

First blanking off the original model's tank lug positions using scrap from the exhaust box. Marked out the guesstimate positions, then stitch drilled the new position, carving out the waste with a hand cutter/grinder. Good practice for the drivers hatch catches, though I'll have make the recesses much cleaner cut
I don't know why the lugs were in the wrong place on the model, maybe a manufacturing thing or mistake. Who knows, I want mine in a reasonably right place.
Loads of work to do on the cast armor which will keep me busy for a while.

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[John Clarke]

Good news, the correct head size 10Ba bolts have arrived, not the correct amount, that's ebay for you. But enough to complete the exhaust box as far as I want to go.

Also Iv'e continued to plug some of the front armor casting holes, some to tap with smaller threads and some I don't need any more. Like Phi,l Iv'e made new front lamp brackets that don't need bolting down.

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[John Clarke]

Bit of filing today, wished I'd got £d printer, Naww not really.

What else was you gonna do on a covid Sunday.

I'll leave it to the boffins.

I'd only fall a sleep at the screen.
Zzzzz

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[Richard Goodwin]

Looks like another potential candidate for the router Nice work John.

[John Clarke]

I hope you've got one very small cutting bit for the router Richard. This dozer mounting plate thingy fitted to the majority of Mk5's is pure guess work.
It's been scaled down and is pretty much the size of a postage stamp. I've made it from two bits of aluminium, 5mm plate and 1.5mm plate, so there's an overlap for want of a better word is pronounced on the grip. The two raised lugs on the side formed by filing the 5mm plate down 2mm
Two hidden aluminium pins pass through the plate have been filed flush to prevent it from falling off when the dozer attachment is fitted.
(Just joking on the dozer attachment). It will need a bit of tiding up, a weld line and a dollop of thick paint to make it realistic, I just hope it's in the right place on the upper front armour casting.
There's going to be so many Chieftains with obscure fitments, good job they were built in arguably two different factories.
"Mine was built in the other factory.... on a Friday!"
I suppose as long as the ammunition fitted and worked no one really cared.

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[John Clarke]

A couple of weeks ago I started work on the drivers hatch, trying to turn a rather large lump into something that could swivel into an open position so a little guy driver might have his head popping out, what a game that turned out to be.
I wanted the hatch to appear to be representative to the original and operation. So I started with the carving out of the structural single point hinge. Then cutting the lump thickness to approximately half.
Now the guesstimates really starts. The wading rail hasn't been fitted yet but it's clear to see the scale could be a issue in relationship of the hatch opening, (It has to be raised quite high to clear the rail) this means the equipment related to the opening will also need to be scaled up too. Otherwise they may not look rightish or workish.
The slide plate, the locking mech and the support post will all have to be made from scratch.
Most of the bits have been filed up, turned on the portable lathe (240v drill) milled on the portable miller (drimel) and fitted. Don't expect to get every thing in the correct place with the supplied wading rail. But it should be possible to get a representation look alike. The hatch needs an internal collar making to support the hatch in the locked down position, and I've made simple sprung loaded locking lugs that can be turned to lock the hatch down.

I'm a terrible hoarder, I even saved the 10ba bolt threads off cuts from the Exhaust box, using them as spigots to help support components fitted and glued to the hull, to give them strength so them don't fall off at a meet.

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[Phil Woollard]

Nice job that John!

[Vince Cutajar]

Where there's a will there is a way.

I guess you have the will and also found a way of doing it with handtools. Bravo.

Vince

[andymusgrove]

Really nice job there John - hat off to you.

[Richard Goodwin]

Was well worth all that effort; certainly shows how much! Well done! Just sort the gun clamp now