Well, It appears that there was a big interruption in the routine blog posts. Sheesh… Humans. Typical. So here is a belated update.
Some of the lack of motivation comes from the fact that many of the processes we have been doing have been tedious and not a lot of dramatic advances. I would be posting a photo of the same object over and over…So, to spare you… Like this area which you have seen a lot before.
We have completed most of the inner bracing in the nose. The original examples we followed were stitch welded and riveted. We can’t do the rivets until the hull is taken out of the building table.
More on the fuel doors.
Finally we got the fuel doors 100%. Kevin had to make a couple of missing parts. They close and lock smoothly.
Drive Train: – We received a fresh Spicer ES56-5A transmission that will go in and send power to the FV430 Steering Differential.
The original Panzer IV’s steering and braking works differently than what we will install. The original parts are almost unobtainable and ultra expensive IF one can find them. Our combo of GMC v12 702 c.i. engine pushing the Spicer gearbox and being controlled by the FV steering differential should make our Panzer reliable and very useable. It should perform, move and sound like the original.
Here you can see the floor of the aufbau sponson.
More detail in the hull.
Pirating the bezel from the escape hatch out of this original floor piece. This floor is shattered and we have stripped all useable parts from it. We can cut it up and give little pieces to you guys as souvenirs.
On the left you can see the lip for the floor. Mostly the floor is turret basket which rotates with the turret. But the squared circle parts to the outside get a rigid mounted floor in the stamped sheet metal of Panzer IV type.
On the right you can see the start of the rear firewall. We are in the process of mounting this piece upside down. oops. Fixed it later.
All of this sheet metal gets hot riveted. We are using bolts for now just to fit everything.
In the engine compartment there are these gussets to help support the rear suspension station.
Kevin is taking off the lip of the V12 flywheel. This is seriously hard steel !
Looks like ants on a piece of hard candy. Work is taking place. Panzer building Mo Fo’s
Here we are adding the angle iron that holds on the Aufbau. The floor of the Aufbau sponson bolts to this angle iron flange. This is why when you see period photos of knocked out Panzer IV’s it looks like a confetti bomb blew up. Burned out Panthers or Tigers look like burned out Panthers and Tigers. Burned out Panzer IV’s look like tangled heaps of scrap metal. That's because the Panzer IV is made up of a million bits of strap, angle, channel, rivets, bolts, scotch tape and wood glue.
Some eye candy. All of our dimensions and construction methods, thicknesses, joints, laps and laces come directly from original examples. These pieces belong to our original “Last production” Panzer IV ausf J that we will begin restoring right after we finish this reproduction.
It's getting serious now… Aufbau roof. ooooooo
Made in three pieces along with a bunch of bracing.
This is where we ended. Just wait till next update…..Big, huge, monstrous leap forward.
Till then. Immer Weiter !!!!
Randy
Panzerfabrik