1954 Daimler Ferret armoured car
Discussion
So it's last unit was TA.
NH (Northumberland Hussars) Squadron, Queens Own Yeomanry, based in Newcastle.
That badge on the front is still puzzling me though. Life Guards vehicles usually carry their regimental cypher or the cap badge. Perhaps it's a battle group or brigade ID instead. The trouble with army vehicles, and the markings they carry, is that there is usually an authorised marking scheme, but often the stickers to mark them according to the scheme are not available, and repeated re-painting with a brush and a tin of NATO green after an exercise, rather than a proper wash down, means that few vehicles in service are properly marked as per the official scheme.
Seeing your threads on the Ferret and the Stalwart gets me to wondering where "my" old 432s got to, and whether any of them ended up in private hands. I'd love to be able to own one, but sadly unlikely to happen now. One of "mine" (12 EA 65 I think) carried a Welsh dragon on the front, along with various ammo boxes bolted on as extra storage (unauthorised modifications too!) during the 1991 Gulf War. But the dragon wasn't painted on, I did it myself with permanent Lumocolour markers as it was all we had. One of our Spartans carried a portrait of Clint Eastwood as the Pale Rider on the left rear storage bin. All painted over, sadly, when the OC saw them on one of his rare visits to see the troops. I don't think there was ever a photographic record of the art either. Strange how crab air managed to keep their unauthorised decorations on the Tornado fleet though...
NH (Northumberland Hussars) Squadron, Queens Own Yeomanry, based in Newcastle.
That badge on the front is still puzzling me though. Life Guards vehicles usually carry their regimental cypher or the cap badge. Perhaps it's a battle group or brigade ID instead. The trouble with army vehicles, and the markings they carry, is that there is usually an authorised marking scheme, but often the stickers to mark them according to the scheme are not available, and repeated re-painting with a brush and a tin of NATO green after an exercise, rather than a proper wash down, means that few vehicles in service are properly marked as per the official scheme.
Seeing your threads on the Ferret and the Stalwart gets me to wondering where "my" old 432s got to, and whether any of them ended up in private hands. I'd love to be able to own one, but sadly unlikely to happen now. One of "mine" (12 EA 65 I think) carried a Welsh dragon on the front, along with various ammo boxes bolted on as extra storage (unauthorised modifications too!) during the 1991 Gulf War. But the dragon wasn't painted on, I did it myself with permanent Lumocolour markers as it was all we had. One of our Spartans carried a portrait of Clint Eastwood as the Pale Rider on the left rear storage bin. All painted over, sadly, when the OC saw them on one of his rare visits to see the troops. I don't think there was ever a photographic record of the art either. Strange how crab air managed to keep their unauthorised decorations on the Tornado fleet though...
How's your's coming along?
There was one of these at a little show I was at in Dorset over the weekend, was interesting to have a nose around it and see it up close. Really got a feel for how bad the visibility could be on them, and the whole weird periscope set up?
Still, very cool bit of kit!
There was one of these at a little show I was at in Dorset over the weekend, was interesting to have a nose around it and see it up close. Really got a feel for how bad the visibility could be on them, and the whole weird periscope set up?
Still, very cool bit of kit!
Hello Shaker, good to hear you had a look round one. Yep the visibility is pretty poor but better than you'd expect when actually sat inside. Ours is off the road at the minute due to a few 'technicalities' I learned of so I need to get that sorted before I can get out and about in it again. Unfortunately in the grand scheme of things it's pretty low down the priority list at the moment. Might run it up and take it for a thrash round the field this weekend, long overdue for it!
Did actually head up to the field in it at the weekend to burn the cobwebs out, the undergrowth was up to the top of the hull level so as I was crashing through it I ended up covering/filling it with every seed and bug imaginable. It wasn't very pleasant in there by the time I got back! Running like a top as ever
Here’s a Ferret just gone on auction in the US. I’d love to own one. I’ve seen them in the $30+k over here.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1952-daimler-fer...
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1952-daimler-fer...
Back again after a long break on this thread. Ferret still soldiering on as ever but the list of many small niggles was culminating into a big job. It was getting to the point where I felt it was owed a bit of TLC as relatively speaking aside from basic maintenance it hasn't had a lot of love in 20 years or so.
The nearside front and rear tyres were looking rather sad and getting bald so with two good known spares in the shed I've bought two new inner tubes and flaps to go on with the new rubber.
Handbrake works but is ridiculous difficult to pull on and requires a kick to knock it off, so there's that to sort.
I took it for a drive a couple of weeks back and the brakes were appallingly bad, so I've decided to go through the system completely including replacing all the brake pipes inside the hull etc. These are notoriously difficult to get to as they are directly underneath the fuel tank and engine, so with that we started work yesterday taking the engine and gearbox out
The aim is to have it ready for the first show of the season on Fathers Day, we shall see
The nearside front and rear tyres were looking rather sad and getting bald so with two good known spares in the shed I've bought two new inner tubes and flaps to go on with the new rubber.
Handbrake works but is ridiculous difficult to pull on and requires a kick to knock it off, so there's that to sort.
I took it for a drive a couple of weeks back and the brakes were appallingly bad, so I've decided to go through the system completely including replacing all the brake pipes inside the hull etc. These are notoriously difficult to get to as they are directly underneath the fuel tank and engine, so with that we started work yesterday taking the engine and gearbox out
The aim is to have it ready for the first show of the season on Fathers Day, we shall see
Fuel tank drained this evening and several small brackets etc removed from the fuel tank so hopefully tomorrow results in that being lifted out.
Once the big bits are off access is actually fairly reasonable, some aspects surprise you how fiddly they are considering this could potentially have been done 'in the field'. Some are also quite well thought out, so the engine being dry sump is removed with its oil tank etc still attached, pretty much all ignition connections plumb in on a single plug into the ignition junction box, starter cables are similar to a sleeved battery terminal so you undo the screw and slide them off, throttle linkage is on a butterfly clip and exhaust is only four big bolts. Removing all the internal tin panels to get to the gearbox is what takes the time really, then it's simply a case of two clevis pins one for the gear selection and the other for the gear change. There's just a lot of stuff packed into not a lot of space
That's the one aiming for Shuttleworth, dad has his 52 Chevy booked in so ideally I want to take this. If you look closely in the pic above you can still see the Stolly just peering out of the darkness in the back of the shed. I went and got a good parts haul for her last week and need to return in the Landy to pick up a crated wheel station assembly, as that was a bit heavy to go putting in a Skoda. Sadly my wallet is a lot lighter for it however
Once the big bits are off access is actually fairly reasonable, some aspects surprise you how fiddly they are considering this could potentially have been done 'in the field'. Some are also quite well thought out, so the engine being dry sump is removed with its oil tank etc still attached, pretty much all ignition connections plumb in on a single plug into the ignition junction box, starter cables are similar to a sleeved battery terminal so you undo the screw and slide them off, throttle linkage is on a butterfly clip and exhaust is only four big bolts. Removing all the internal tin panels to get to the gearbox is what takes the time really, then it's simply a case of two clevis pins one for the gear selection and the other for the gear change. There's just a lot of stuff packed into not a lot of space
That's the one aiming for Shuttleworth, dad has his 52 Chevy booked in so ideally I want to take this. If you look closely in the pic above you can still see the Stolly just peering out of the darkness in the back of the shed. I went and got a good parts haul for her last week and need to return in the Landy to pick up a crated wheel station assembly, as that was a bit heavy to go putting in a Skoda. Sadly my wallet is a lot lighter for it however
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff