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New V-100

M813rc

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Excellent pictures Brian, thanks for posting them.

That desert V150 seems to be re-e-e-ally low in the water! Must have all its gear and/or ammo on board.

I don't see any water coming out of the bilge vents of either one though, so they must seal up pretty well.

Cheers
 

M813rc

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A while back I mentioned leaving traces of the damage from my V's time as a target. I finally remembered to take a picture of this bit. It is in the right rear wheel well, where a cannon round went through the hull. All traces inside were ground down smooth and are no longer visible, but the outside is not quite smooth and will remain as it is. Part of it's history.
Clean, it is not as obvious as it is in the picture with all that dust in the nooks and crannies, won't really detract from its appearance when finished.

Known serious damage- cannon rounds through right rear wheel well, left side of nose, and to the upper left side of the rear door frame. .50cal hole in engine bay frame. All but the bits previously noted is repaired and now invisible.

In the process of getting the new engine bay side panels fitted. The original material these were made of is apparently no longer available, so the new ones are high grade plywood and will have heat shields on the engine side.
Believe it or not, I have a NOS front panel (the part with the ventilation door in it) still in its plastic wrapper!

Most of the panel retainers were bad or missing, so a bunch of new ones are now riveted in. They are the silver ones in the picture.
Some spiders must have had a wild party in there, there are little balls and strands of web all over the interior at the moment! Combined with the dust, it is starting to look pretty grotty inside..

The hydraulic reservoir started leaking, took it out and found a pin hole in the bottom. That is repaired and back in.

All this, of course, required that the radiator come back out, and was started before the shifter was repaired and back in, so I have yet to drive the thing!

I am now 15 months into my 3 month rebuild project. What was I thinking?? :roll:

Actually, I guess was thinking that things were a lot more "done" when I started out since I have never tackled anything like this before, didn't really know what to expect. Maybe in three more months....:wink:

Cheers

.
 

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EZFEED

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WOW! Rory that looks sooooo nice!!!!! Will you do mine for me next!:-D

And why not plywood? Actually to tell you the truth, I think the plywood looks awesome! I know you're doing a concours resto but man I think I'd stain that!!!!! Is that some birch or oak????
 

B3.3T

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Why not plywood? For starters, its not original, and that is obviously the goal here. Second, it sits about 2 inches from the exhaust manifold. Third, it's heavier than the original panels and a pain to move in and out.
 

M813rc

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Maybe plywood is the wrong choice of words. It is some high grade wood panel that Earl picked, seems tough but not particularly heavy, certainly much lighter than regular old plywood. He used it on his V100 and it looked pretty nice. He had a smooth finish on the outside and heat shields on the engine side, which is what was planned here.

Obviously, I would like to be as close to original as possible. Other than the front panel, I have actually never personally handled any original V100 panels. I haven't a clue how much they should weigh, or what they are really made of, so I am definitely open to guidance/suggestions.

I'll give your guys a holler and see what they can offer, thanks for the tip.

Cheers
 
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B3.3T

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Is your front panel, the radiator cover panel new? If so, that is the exact material and thickness used for the side panels. It is foam-filled fiberglass and very common in the marine world. Used a lot for cabins and internal partitions on all kinds of boats. If you need a new radiator cover panel, Kells has a bunch, NOS.
 

M813rc

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Due to getting other vehicles ready for some local MVPA events, family/home stuff, and work (that one really cuts into my MV time! :evil:), no progress this week.
I haven't taken the time to call the panel folks yet, but looked at their website, cool stuff.

I do despair at times about ever getting this finished, but progress has been steady if not quick. And there has been no sacrificing doing it right (as close to right as possible for me) or on the details in exchange for speed. A couple of times this has entailed ripping out something already done when new information or parts come to light.
I had toyed with the idea of getting it drivable, finished on the outside, and driving it to an event all buttoned up, then bringing it back in and finishing the interior, but have decided no, it will be totally complete before it leaves the shop. I have found in the past that when I do "enough" to debut a vehicle, many of the the rest of the planned details fall by the wayside and never get done.

But the V is my dream car, so it is worth doing it right.

I do know I will never tackle a rebuild like this again. Well, perhaps after I retire... :roll:

Cheers
 
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M813rc

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I guess I was writing my last post at the same time as B3, so it seems kinda out of sequence!

Yes, I have the NOS front panel, and it came from him. I can model the rest of them off that one.
Some of this stuff is hard to figure out when you are going by photographs of other V's and drawings in a parts manual. Add to that my inexperience with doing this sort of thing...

A good example of that is the expended rounds chute for the 30/50 turret. I am going to have a go at fabbing that up out of sheet metal based on the parts manual only, because I can't even find decent photos of it.
If I could just pop down to Guatemala and spend 10 minutes in the turret of one of their retired vehicles...

The proper 7.62 flex chute has thus far evaded me also, except for one source who seem to think they are made of gold. Maybe two more minutes in that Guatemalan turret...:twisted:

Then of course there is the great joy of starting to clean up the spare wheel set to get them powder coated, and finding 21x10 stamped inside them.
He says to self "Err, isn't that supposed to say 20x10??".
My response to self shall go unwritten lest I offend ladies or children.
May have that one solved already though...

Cheers
 
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B3.3T

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Been there, done that. Its all well worth doing it right in the end. Otherwise, it just eats at you.
 

Yohan

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I don't know if it has been mentioned, but SARCO in NJ had some feed chute some time ago. I don't know if it's what you're looking for or not??
 

M813rc

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Anything new bub?!?!?! :D
Nothing really..:cry:
New position at work, and getting other vehicles prepped for a lot of local events for Veterans Day, have kept me too busy to really do anything significant with the V.
I am going to take a few days off in the near future and see what can be done. My new goal is finished by the end of December. "Home for Christmas" was always what everyone wanted in military terms, lets see what I can do.
I'm only a year behind schedule at this point...:roll:

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but SARCO in NJ had some feed chute some time ago. I don't know if it's what you're looking for or not??
No luck there, but thanks for the lead. I will keep looking.
As a last resort, there is a place that has similar stuff new, but I am trying to avoid paying their prices. (Ouch!! I am not the government).

I did get an original .50 feed chute from HellonWheelsV100 though. He hand carried it to me through the airport no less, raised a few eyebrows with the security folks. Thanks Dave!
It will replace one I had that looked good but wasn't "correct".

I also picked up a really nice older demil M60 MG to go over the radio mans position from another SS member.
It will replace the rubbishy one I got from Replicas and Models which looked nothing like the nice pictures on his website. :evil:

Cheers
 
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