Tiger 1321 rebuild

[Paul Wills]

Hi All,

It seems an age since I have posted on the tiger forum. I atomaticly when straight to the flak 36 page first

Anyway, after 10 years of faithful service, my early variant Tiger I Ausf E no: 1321, Commanded By SS-Untersturmführer Helmet "BUBI" Wendorff of the 13. Panzer kompanie (Schwere) SS Panzer Regiment LAH, is back in the workshop to be rebuilt and refitted.

The fitters started work on her this morning and found every track pin rusted in. It wasn't the best idea of ours to run at the beach

Out with the blow torch its going to be a rough day.

Paul.

[simon_manning]

i like to see the older kits getting a revamp, on one of my early tiger 1s i had stainless steel track pins made for just that reason, taking the old ones out proved difficult, they were a reasonable price at the time also, looking forward to the resto, regards simon manning.

[John Fitzsimons]

Does this vehicle have the old suspension with brass and aluminium blocks. I picked up a load of these at the factory.(no idea why). If you need them let me know.

[Paul Wills]

What a good shout John, yes it does and I may need a couple of the brass ones . A couple of the cap heads snapped off when I tried to get them out, the stud may drill out but it may be just as easy to replace them. I be in touch

Thanks Simon, I've been toying with a refit for ages. after using the blank firer quite a lot, the cordite has lifted the paint inside and coated everything in sticky dust. The pint is pealing off underneath so I gave in and decided to pay her some attention.

Paul.

[John Fitzsimons]

Lucky I took them. Save you some bother. I have some of the brass ones. Not sure if all the same. Welcome to them.

[Paul Wills]

A bit of a long week away but I managed to get some time on the tiger.

After 10 years service the only part that the paint has peeled off is the left side around the suspension and the drive. it looks very smooth like I haven't sanded it enough to give the paint a good key.

The paint inside has been affected by the use of the blank firer, I used it a lot at one point and the dusts is everywhere. Poor housekeeping as my old Sargent would say!

Its all to clean and sand back so it can be repainted. no blank firer this time though

Paul.

[John Fitzsimons]

Are you planning on stripping all the paint off. I got paint stripper from a car paint supplier. 5 Litres for the price of a litre of nitromors. Contains the active ingredient, dichloromethane (also known as methylene chloride), no longer allowed in Nitromors.

[Sam Hough]

Ah. I wondered why Nitromors was so expensive yet so useless in recent years.

[Tim Page]

Same problem with the old GUNK degreaser.
It used to have a lovely smell and worked great when i first started using it back in the early 1980's.

Bought some 2 years ago and found it to be utterly useless as the 'active ingredient' was no longer present.

Hey ho

[Peter Silcock]

A cheap alternative for removing paint from tank parts is a 5l tin of cellulose paint thinners about £12. Use in a metal bucket with a large paintbrush - the paint usually washes straight off. Small parts can be left to soak in a jamjar with a lid on. Will also dissolve zimmerit if left soaking overnight. You can reuse it several times as well. Don't do it in the house though!

[John Fitzsimons]

This is the one I use. Nasty stuff. Needs to be used with extreme care.

http://www.vinnybyrne.com/body-shop/pai ... r-5lt.html

[Paul Wills]

Hi Guys,

Some caustic sounding stuff there, I have used cellulose paint thinners and Nitromors in the past for my models. But having restored a few original German helmets that people had added post war cammo to, I found Acetone the best. It can be neutralized very quickly, which is handy if you just want to remove a camo patten and leave the base coat, it doesn't soften or melt plastic like cellulose and Nitromors and, as log as you put a lid on it it doesn't evaporate.

When I rebuilt my 88 I bought some cheap plastic boxes, I put all the parts in and covered them in Acetone, then sealed the lid on and came back to it the next day. all the parts were clean and grease free. I then filtered the Acetone through a cotton cloth and reused it.

There is one down side to Acetone, my wife and daughter keep using it to remover their nails and nail varnish!!! which means my stock keeps depleting and they keep nipping in to my workshop, and that's where I go to get away from them all.

Paul.

[Adrian Harris]

Acetone also attacks epoxy glues, turning them into a sort of rubbery goo.

It doesn't seem to affect Armortek tank tyres, so is handy for removing the old glue from wheels and tyres if they have been removed for painting.

I use empty 1l paint tins from eBay to do the soaking, and tea strainers to filter out the detritus afterwards.

Adrian.

[Paul Wills]

Hi Guys,

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted

Stripping the old girl has left some opportunity for a bit of fun and to make some of the field gear shown in maintaining the panzers, its a great book. here's the front sprocket jib, I had to change the jib boss to make it fit though.

Anyway, here are some updates, my fitters have scuffed the knuckles to the bone sanding this old girl down.

After a long debate and a few beers, we decided to change the M4 cap heads that hold the blocks in place to counter sinks. I noticed when I started stripping the kit that all the mud that had gathered around the cap heads, so I thought make it flush.

Paul.

[simon_manning]

skys the limit on these old tigers, its amazing how much extra you can put into them, nice to see some updates, regards simon.