The second chassis rail is progressing well. The formed strengthener has been inserted into the existing chassis rail. The small sections of the original rail that have corroded away are being replaced with new material blended in to the old. This is taking less time than we originally expected but is remains a painstaking process. All of the components for the Querlenker (wishbone) – both new and recovery of old are being machined for us at present. Detailed drawings taking many days were drafted for this project by our Draft Office. A number of enquiries were fielded about detail for the finish over the past 2 weeks. The gearbox for this late SdKfz 261 has now been stripped. This is the later example which is as good as new. The worm gears in the differential section of the gearbox are the only area which will require new replacement parts. These are to be ordered once we have determined which of our contractor partners should get the project. Our dilemma is that the casing of the gearbox still retains much of its original paint and some areas are covered in residual oil and dirt which has cooked itself into a solid shell on the surface. Any rougher attempts at removing it result in the loss of paint. We will come up with a plan.
Our Research team is steaming ahead with the research into the SARC MK III ‘Marmon Herrington’ armoured cars. We have broken through a lot of the industrial heritage behind the project but a few questions remain given the holes in recorded history since then. This missing information will be located but will require time. The dashboard for these cars has been identified this week together with the components required.
The Renault FT and TSF were taken out for a short test run to ensure they are ready for the 2019 show season which starts next month.No problems to report. We have posted a number of clips on Facebook of these two venerable old machines out in the sun.
