Tank Restoration

[Stuart Galbraith]

Please tell me he recovered it with the Scammel.🙏 

[Tim Sielbeck]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[old_goat]

Daaaaamn.... That poor M60! Why did it deserve that? Anyway, just send it to Netherlands, to Master Milo's shop. He will not get his Churchill in any time soon, this would be a great project instead of that. His Type-69 also looked like shit a few years ago, now it looks like brand new.

Anyway, this M60 definitely needs a full disassembly, almost to the last bolt, like the mentioned Type-69. But definitely looks repairable.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Stick an L60 in it, it will be fine.

[rmgill]

If it was reimported, ATF regs required the gun to be cut. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

They also cut the breech. Of course its impossible anyone would ever be able to source a 105mm gun in the world...

Looks like a half assed demilling. Very little  there that cant be fixed. Just need a big ass welding plant, and someone with a steady hand.

Edited June 2, 2025 by Stuart Galbraith

[old_goat]

7 hours ago, rmgill said:

If it was reimported, ATF regs required the gun to be cut. 

Thats no big deal. Easy to fix. (at least for cosmetics) What I found barbaric, is the huge cut on the glacis plate, and on the turret sides. Why was that necessary? A little bit back to Master Milo's Type 69, his tank was also demilitarized in the Netherlands, but that was simply welding a plug in the frontal and rear parts of the barrel, and welding in the breechblock. All other functions of the tank is perfectly intact.  

Edited June 2, 2025 by old_goat

[Stuart Galbraith]

The T69 II had been somewhat demilled by being parked as gate guardian on a British Army base for 30 years however. There was even a pond in the lower hull, and he had to get significant engine spares from Russia to get it to even turn over.

[old_goat]

16 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

The T69 II had been somewhat demilled by being parked as gate guardian on a British Army base for 30 years however. There was even a pond in the lower hull, and he had to get significant engine spares from Russia to get it to even turn over.

The only real demilling was destroying the wedge of the breechblock. Barrel was fully intact. The tank was untouched other than this, except the usual looting, and some welding of turret ring and elevation arc to fix them in place (this was not demilling, but to prepare the tank for a gate guardian role). 

They didnt get any engine parts from russia, or any other country. A local tractorpuller helped them with cylinder sleeves, intake manifolds, and some pistons and valves. This was already enough to start the engine. Of course later they bought a complete T-55 radiator (needed very minor adjustments), a set of T-55 exhaust ducts (needed significant cutting & welding), and a torsion bar, from Poland. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

16 minutes ago, old_goat said:

The only real demilling was destroying the wedge of the breechblock. Barrel was fully intact. The tank was untouched other than this, except the usual looting, and some welding of turret ring and elevation arc to fix them in place (this was not demilling, but to prepare the tank for a gate guardian role). 

They didnt get any engine parts from russia, or any other country. A local tractorpuller helped them with cylinder sleeves, intake manifolds, and some pistons and valves. This was already enough to start the engine. Of course later they bought a complete T-55 radiator (needed very minor adjustments), a set of T-55 exhaust ducts (needed significant cutting & welding), and a torsion bar, from Poland. 

Yeah, they did, I remember reading it in the subtitles. I wouldnt say THEY personally sourced it, but that is where it was acquired for them.

[old_goat]

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yeah, they did, I remember reading it in the subtitles. I wouldnt say THEY personally sourced it, but that is where it was acquired for them.

A polish guy sold parts for the Type-69 and the VPV (and eventually lured them into a scam trap). Maybe you confused it with the Volga repairs, they indeed ordered parts from Russia for that car. 

[DB]

On 6/2/2025 at 12:52 AM, rmgill said:

If it was reimported, ATF regs required the gun to be cut. 

If you're talking about the M60s, Armourgeddon has 4 of them, all similarly demilled desecrated and they've been imported into the UK, not the US. Given how close to active UK tanks sold inside the UK remain, demilling tends to be a welded breech and not much else except removal of classified equipment, and not always even that, Nimrod R.1 (cough).

Thes M60s were gas-axed in Greece prior to resale. I doubt that the ATF has anything to do with that, but it may have been a condition of the initial sale to Greece. If not, then the required approach will have been imposed by Greece itself.

[Stuart Galbraith]

From what I read in a magazine some years ago, the police are more concerned about Chieftain style smoke dischargers than they are the main gun, simply because it is possible to still buy the grenades for it. One  Chieftain owner even went so far as to cut the bottom out the smoke grenade launcher due to concerns that it might still be able to fire. These I was interested to note no longer have the smoke grenade launchers, presumably for that very reason. Easy to source here anyway.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

https://www.reddit.com/r/tanks/s/KVOVatqQdI

Hunt underway for 'Mother', the first Rhomboid.

[Tim Sielbeck]

 

[shep854]

Not a tank...unless you're a journo:

 

[old_goat]

The engine of Saumur's Tiger is running again!

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yeah, I was watching a video on youtube (from last year) where Oz Armour visited the panzer farm, and the block was there being worked on there. Supposedly it was in surprisingly good shape, particularly considering the French Army used it for a few months after capture.

Poles are miracle workers when it comes to reviving 3rd Reich war machines, which is bizarre, but somehow strangely appropriate.

[sunday]

1 hour ago, old_goat said:

The engine of Saumur's Tiger is running again!

(...)

Purring like a kitty.

[alejandro_]

3 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yeah, I was watching a video on youtube (from last year) where Oz Armour visited the panzer farm, and the block was there being worked on there. Supposedly it was in surprisingly good shape, particularly considering the French Army used it for a few months after capture.

Poles are miracle workers when it comes to reviving 3rd Reich war machines, which is bizarre, but somehow strangely appropriate.

It seems like Poland and Czech Republic have really specialized companies that do a very good job (*). I guess they got the skills and experience.

(*) A Czech company has been hired to restore a Ju-87 Stuka

[Tim the Tank Nut]

That's a great test stand.  The work there is phenomenal.

I wonder what they decided to use for engine oil?  Oil is a lot different than it used to be.

[Stuart Galbraith]

41 minutes ago, alejandro_ said:

It seems like Poland and Czech Republic have really specialized companies that do a very good job (*). I guess they got the skills and experience.

(*) A Czech company has been hired to restore a Ju-87 Stuka

I seem to recall Bruce Crompton (who did that TV series on buying and selling Military equipment) had the engine for the Panther he rebuilt for the Australian Armour museum reconditioned in the Czech Republic. They too seemingly have a significant skill base. Hardly surprising I suppose, it was such a key part of the 3rd Reichs production base.

 

[alejandro_]

45 minutes ago, Tim the Tank Nut said:

I wonder what they decided to use for engine oil?  Oil is a lot different than it used to be.

I would expect oil to be higher quality than the Germans used in WW2. Maybe you can get something similar to what you use in classic cars?

[Tim Sielbeck]

A chain of retail stores in the US got sued fairly recently for selling engine oil designed for cars built prior to the '40s, IIRC.  So the stuff is still out there.

[Tim the Tank Nut]

we did a lot of testing.  The old engines I was responsible for wouldn't tolerate multi weight oil.  It had to be straight SAE.  I talked to various oil manufacturers.  We made a mechanical oil test gauge assembly for our engine stand.  Different oils behaved differently at the same RPM and temperature.  At the time we could get Castrol in straight weight and that performed the best.  We had such bad results from Pennzoil that I called them and got a tech guy on the phone.  He had a lot of info but nothing definitive.  Modern oils are certainly designed for modern engines.