1954 Daimler Ferret armoured car
Discussion
LewG,
I have It transported down to the W&P show, cost about the same as driving just without the wear & tear on the wheel stations and your fillings don't fall out... did the 60 miles to war in the vale in mine and it was good fun but Knackering.
Your mk 1 is looking good. Hope to catch you at a show some time.
I have It transported down to the W&P show, cost about the same as driving just without the wear & tear on the wheel stations and your fillings don't fall out... did the 60 miles to war in the vale in mine and it was good fun but Knackering.
Your mk 1 is looking good. Hope to catch you at a show some time.
Chubb87 said:
I've had my mk 1/2 ferret since 2013. Great fun. Anyone else around the south west/Bristol own one?
There is a surprising large number of them about down here. There is a fairly large gathering of them here every year.http://www.steamrally.org.uk/
I think there were 7 there last year, including the one i'm involved with. We have a run out in the evening, all the old military vehicles together and that really great fun.
Cheers guys, it's been a fairly quick turnaround for me thus far as I usually end up taking months or even years on this sort of thing 
Funny you should say that there seems to be a fair few everywhere really. Years ago on 'ferretheaven' as it was known then in the days of dial up internet, I spotted a post on there from a guy in Everton saying that he owned a Mk1/2 Ferret and was there any other owners in the area. Sent him a message saying surely not Everton in Bedfordshire, 2 miles up the road from us at Sandy? Sure enough that was the one, and he's since become a close friend of the family. I've also worked for him so it's funny how these things affect your life in more ways than you expect.
Maybe the 'designer' of the Cybermen was ex Ferret crew and had a few nightmares waking up in the middle of the night confronted with a menacing fuel filter?
I fixed the forward/reverse pivot this evening, smacked a two foot pry bar underneath it between shaft and hull floor and it would not budge. Got some heat onto the casting, there was an almighty bang and away it went. Plenty of PTFE spray and grease and it works a treat now. Another small victory.
It's all filled with oil so now ideally I'd like to get it to the point of running and driving with minimal covers over the box so that I can make clevis adjustments etc where necessary.
Funny you should say that there seems to be a fair few everywhere really. Years ago on 'ferretheaven' as it was known then in the days of dial up internet, I spotted a post on there from a guy in Everton saying that he owned a Mk1/2 Ferret and was there any other owners in the area. Sent him a message saying surely not Everton in Bedfordshire, 2 miles up the road from us at Sandy? Sure enough that was the one, and he's since become a close friend of the family. I've also worked for him so it's funny how these things affect your life in more ways than you expect.
Maybe the 'designer' of the Cybermen was ex Ferret crew and had a few nightmares waking up in the middle of the night confronted with a menacing fuel filter?
I fixed the forward/reverse pivot this evening, smacked a two foot pry bar underneath it between shaft and hull floor and it would not budge. Got some heat onto the casting, there was an almighty bang and away it went. Plenty of PTFE spray and grease and it works a treat now. Another small victory.
It's all filled with oil so now ideally I'd like to get it to the point of running and driving with minimal covers over the box so that I can make clevis adjustments etc where necessary.
Edited by LewG on Monday 6th February 22:56
LewG said:
Well, she goes! Took it for a quick run up the road this evening. Apart from my face freezing off all seems to be well. Just a few tarty bits now then it's done.
What you need is a decent 'Cold Weather Face Mask'. Preferably one that is 'period' design, and has been issued (with a NSN) by the British Army... 
Link to a US website selling them... http://www.armynavydeals.com/asp/products_details....
...proper "creepy weirdo" gear, but shiny on the outside with a soft thermal inner layer. Just the sort of thing a chap needs while driving a 432 'opened up' on the BATUS training area at -40°c on a Med Man 7. I've still got mine somewhere.
(Dead useful at Halloween too...
)Edited by yellowjack on Thursday 9th February 10:37
MyPasswordIsntSecure said:
Just thinking, whats the drill for a flat tyre? some type of mega-jack? and the strength of Arnie?
Hello chap, they are run flats with hugely thick sidewalls etc so technically shouldn't really go flat but in the event you lose a wheel or get a tyre blown off etc there is an old school bottle jack in the side bins. I lifted the spare wheel on myself yesterday, still aching!Update on Ferreting as of late.
Took it out for a run on Saturday and went to some local woods and green lanes.
It still didn't feel quite right on the road and looking at the rear tyre it appears to have gone flat again unfortunately. I do have spares but they're on different colour rims so maybe if I'm careful I can swap the outer rim over as they are splits.
The new gearbox is a bit louder in lower gears so hopefully that will quieten down a bit with some use.
Went to move it out if the shed today to make way for the TVR as I wanted to change its engine mounts. Ferret then decides to conveniently die in the doorway.
We've never had running problems with it before bar some crap getting lodged in the fuel tap so I firstly checked the filter and tap. Both were relatively clear. I then blew the lines through and tried pressuring the tank. It'd run for about 30 seconds and cut out so I wondered if it was ignition issues disguising themselves as fuel problems. After priming lines and filter I turned the bowl O ring round and tightened it up. Started and run like a sewing machine. Strange!
Overall a bit one step forward and two steps back
Took it out for a run on Saturday and went to some local woods and green lanes.
It still didn't feel quite right on the road and looking at the rear tyre it appears to have gone flat again unfortunately. I do have spares but they're on different colour rims so maybe if I'm careful I can swap the outer rim over as they are splits.
The new gearbox is a bit louder in lower gears so hopefully that will quieten down a bit with some use.
Went to move it out if the shed today to make way for the TVR as I wanted to change its engine mounts. Ferret then decides to conveniently die in the doorway.
We've never had running problems with it before bar some crap getting lodged in the fuel tap so I firstly checked the filter and tap. Both were relatively clear. I then blew the lines through and tried pressuring the tank. It'd run for about 30 seconds and cut out so I wondered if it was ignition issues disguising themselves as fuel problems. After priming lines and filter I turned the bowl O ring round and tightened it up. Started and run like a sewing machine. Strange!
Overall a bit one step forward and two steps back
Thought I wouldn't faff around trying to repair the buggered tyre so I dragged a good spare out of the parts pile this morning to clean up and fit. It was covered in about 5 layers of crusty paint, the level of prep on the last coat was obviously zilch as removing it there was actually mud underneath
Out with the needlegun:
Bit of rubbing down and some primer:
Final coat, touch up the nuts et voila!
Out with the needlegun:
Bit of rubbing down and some primer:
Final coat, touch up the nuts et voila!
Certainly can Shadow, basically it's a 1957 Bedford RL, used for donkeys years by the British Army as a 3 ton 4x4 lorry, and based on its civilian Bedford equivalent. This one is ex Auxiliary Fire Service where all the Green Goddess fire engines were from, and was apparently a hose carrier. The idea was to be able to get to remote locations and provide water over great distances should the worst happen, particularly during the fairly unstable years of the Cold War. As to how successful they would've been let's remain thankful they never had to be put to use in the first place
We had a look at the brakes this afternoon on the rear offside wheel as they seem to be sticking on at the moment. Apart from surface rust on the inside of the drum all looked to be in good condition so we cleaned it up and put it back on for now. Pressing the pedal seemed to result in very little movement at the wheel so it looks like we've got to look further back in the system to the master or other areas. The brakes are assisted by engine vacuum as an old school servo would be, looking at the hose to the inlet manifold there's a big hole in it so that's not helping anything! A bit of fettling and hopefully we'll be able to smoke down to the pub in it
We had a look at the brakes this afternoon on the rear offside wheel as they seem to be sticking on at the moment. Apart from surface rust on the inside of the drum all looked to be in good condition so we cleaned it up and put it back on for now. Pressing the pedal seemed to result in very little movement at the wheel so it looks like we've got to look further back in the system to the master or other areas. The brakes are assisted by engine vacuum as an old school servo would be, looking at the hose to the inlet manifold there's a big hole in it so that's not helping anything! A bit of fettling and hopefully we'll be able to smoke down to the pub in it
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff