Interesting Old Equipment, Projects & Work Places

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Originally Posted by Old Farang

Austin Champs:

During the late 1960's there was a dealer in Perth, Achie Marshall, that imported literally hundreds of former Nato military version Austin Champs. Most of them were very low mileage vehicles and sold like the proverbial hot cakes. He also bought in some other ex Nato military vehicles such as Bedford 4WD trucks.

It is an interesting story of how he managed to do it, considering all the rules and regulations. Before I moved to Thailand I was a member of the WA Rover Owners Club, and over a period of several issues of the monthly magazine Archie wrote articles about the venture. Not sure if he is still around, but his son is.

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I wonder whether that was when the British Army pulled out of several small Asian Countries, Brunei I think was one & vehicles including a fair old quantity of"Lightweights" were brought into Australia, & apparently many vehicles were held near Darwin until Customs etc had run their glad eye over them for complete washing, fumigation etc?.


Although Champs & Lightweights together doesn't sound right.[bighmmm]


1967 it commenced.

British withdrawal from Malaysia and Singapore and the Reduction of the Brigade of Gurkhas | Welcome to the Gurkha Brigade Association

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=4bee;3004705]I wonder whether that was when the British Army pulled out of several small Asian Countries, Brunei I think was one & vehicles including a fair old quantity of"Lightweights" were brought into Australia, & apparently many vehicles were held near Darwin until Customs etc had run their glad eye over them for complete washing, fumigation etc?.
Although Champs & Lightweights together doesn't sound right.[bighmmm]

1967 it commenced.

British withdrawal from Malaysia and Singapore and the Reduction of the Brigade of Gurkhas | Welcome to the Gurkha Brigade Association

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I don't think that there was any connection. I was regularly back and forth to Brunei around 1976-77 working offshore and used to see those Lightweights and wonder just what the hell they were! Also the Bedford 4WD trucks. A lot of Army equipment was handed over to the Brunei Army.

I was based in Singapore at the time and met the last British Army commander based there. Right toffy nosed ***** he was as well!
It only came about that I met him as at the same time I was friendly with an ex RAF pilot that was there on secondment to the Singapore Airforce test flying Hawker Hunter aircraft.

All of the stuff that Archie imported to Australia came from a big Nato base somewhere in Europe. In fact, I seem to recall it was because the stuff was in Europe that he was able to buy it.

The Champs were coming out of British army stores as they had reached their end of service life and were being replaced with Land Rovers. Support units were the first to receive the Land Rover as the Champ was considered to be a superior vehicle even at the end of its life with the Land Rover seen as a cheap cost cutting replacement. The Champs were 10 to 15 years old at this stage which for a vehicle of the vintage was a good run.

They were in service with the Australian army until the early seventies. About 400 were all built for Australia to unique specification rather than taken from British stocks. The spec was changed after local trials found a few problems. The changes related to the shaking and vibration caused by local roads - Sound familiar? These included Extra reenforcing to body and antenna mounts moved from front mud guards to rear

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Originally Posted by Old Farang

I don't think that there was any connection. I was regularly back and forth to Brunei around 1976-77 working offshore and used to see those Lightweights and wonder just what the hell they were! Also the Bedford 4WD trucks. A lot of Army equipment was handed over to the Brunei Army.

I was based in Singapore at the time and met the last British Army commander based there. Right toffy nosed ***** he was as well!
It only came about that I met him as at the same time I was friendly with an ex RAF pilot that was there on secondment to the Singapore Airforce test flying Hawker Hunter aircraft.

All of the stuff that Archie imported to Australia came from a big Nato base somewhere in Europe. In fact, I seem to recall it was because the stuff was in Europe that he was able to buy it.

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Fair 'nuff.

I've had it in the back of my mind for yonks to give an old plough a cleanup. I'm thinking I'd start by using a wire disk on the angle grinder to get rid of the major rust flakes and then perhaps, an acid bath or sand blast (both by others).

I have cleaned a few small things in acid and it appeared that the cleaned metal began to oxidise a lot more quickly than would be normal. True, or my imagination?

Any suggestions gratefully welcome.

Attachment 161723

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Originally Posted by Saitch

I've had it in the back of my mind for yonks to give an old plough a cleanup. I'm thinking I'd start by using a wire disk on the angle grinder to get rid of the major rust flakes and then perhaps, an acid bath or sand blast (both by others).

I have cleaned a few small things in acid and it appeared that the cleaned metal began to oxidise a lot more quickly than would be normal. True, or my imagination?

Any suggestions gratefully welcome.

Attachment 161723

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Get a 200 liter plastic drum and cut the top off, put in 20 litre of malasis and fill with water. Hang your rusty bits in there on wire hangers, leave for a week, remove and pressure clean. they will now be rust free, if not, put them in for another week. Dors a fantastic job
cheers
blaze

I've not tried Molasses but have had excellent success with the PVC Drum, Washing Soda & Battery Charger method.

Freshly cleaned steel will oxidize quicker, surface rust, like mill scale will protect the material to a degree.
What is the intended, end use, garden art? If so, just coat with Fisholine and preserve the rural patina.
After removal of loose or heavy rust, rust converter (tannic and phosphoric acid) works well but then requires coating.
A flappy disc after wire wheeling is labour saving.

Does it have a makers plate on it or original traces of paint colour? It would have been painted originally. Maybe shine up the share (point ) and clear laquer, the mouldboard would have been painted.

Regards,
Tote

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Originally Posted by 4bee

I've not tried Molasses but have had excellent success with the PVC Drum, Washing Soda & Battery Charger method.

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I'm pretty sure my 'Treasurer' would frown at the price of 20 litres of molasses for this use.[smilebigeye]

Des, because there are three basic sections to the plough and each oddly shaped, I'm thinking an el cheapo, kiddies wading pool would be the go. Is there a 'Soda to Water' ratio to use? I'm assuming that there is a fair amount of Hydrogen produced by this process, so best out doors.[bigsmile]