Update from Workshop Apprentice James (Patreon)

Hi Patrons,

James here with another Workshop update.

We are now in the middle of the Summer Holiday’s Tanks in Action displays and I'm so pleased to have had the pleasure of being part of the display. So far I've been commander in Lynx, Warrior, Scimitar and Cougar.

I have also taken on the responsibility of firing some of the pyrotechnics during the displays and am getting great practice with my vehicle guiding.

During the first week of the holidays, I was at college (Heritage Skills Academy at Bicester). We were studying braking systems and master cylinders. In the end of topic exam I was 4% off a distinction.

During breaks from Tanks in Action I have been working on the Meteor with Les. We have been stripping it down to the bare crankcase. We removed the pistons, connecting rods and crankshaft and are beginning a parts list for re-assembly. I cleaned the pistons and the crank case. It’s still a work in progress but I've attached some images for you to see:

- The first image here shows the crankcase which I spent a lot of time cleaning and starting to prepare for re-assembly, after the removal and replacement of the head studs.

- The second image shows the pistons from the B side of the engine. All of the pistons were cleaned and then put through the sonic cleaner to attempt to unseize the piston rings to hopefully reuse the pistons.

Overall I have learnt a lot from this work and hope to develop my knowledge further over the next few months.

Thank you as always for your support.

James.