Our research team has made huge progress this week on the South African Reconnaissance Car MK III. Production statistics are taking shape and our understanding of the design and finish of the two armoured cars are rapidly taking shape. The team’s discovery last week of the chassis number, hull number and U registration number have positioned the two armoured cars perfectly to slot into the data base which has been built. All we now need is the production sequence of the cars to be able to pin point the assembly completion date of both cars.
The Zundapp KS750 side car boat has been receiving a lot of attention. The rust has now largely been removed. We consulted our partners at Lincoln Conservation on the treatment of the sidecar boat to conserve the paint and patina finish. We considered and tested a section of the boat where the paint had been lost due to rust to be dressed using very thinned paint. This did not work as it dominated the surrounding other colour remnants which were not the same colour. We have opted for another solution which is even more exciting and original!
The chassis of the Sd.Kfz 261 or Typ v fahrgestell continues to take shape. The chassis rear is nearing completion. This was the section in the best condition. Next week will see the worst – the front of the chassis under the knife. This will take considerably longer as the condition of this is much worse. Original water pumps have been pulled from stores. The difference between the water pumps used on armoured cars from Werk Horch AG are quite different from those of the lighter field cars from the same outfit. Our work on sourcing the Querlenker wishbone suspension components is moving ahead with quotes coming in for the machined components required to complete the task. The two late gearboxes we have have been pressure washed and the recording and stripping process is underway. Some of the gears internally will have to be sourced between the two and we hopefully will not have to have any new gears machined………
