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Factory & |
December 2011 in Overloon
The Liberty park museum, the Dutch national war and peace, remembrance museum, houses the Ex-Arlon, Ex-Auburn, softskinned sWS that I baptised Nr. 2. I was kindly allowed to crawl under it to solve a few of the technical questions. You could call it vehicle archeolegy.
The good news is that the louvre's in the front and the matching lever at the drivers floor must be authentic. They're much to detailed to re-manufacture in this form and than left unused. (as in no cable between them to open the louvres) The dashboard, cabfloor, firewal and engine compartment floor reveal all kind of details that makes them convincingly authentic. The original wiring box near the stearing colom even has authentic wiring, (cut off though). The extensive wear on the lower chassis members makes it logical that the original top part of the frame was either removed after the war, when it was aquierd by the gravel company, or that it was so extensively damaged that it was replaced at the original restoration in the 1990's in Arlon. The running gear is remarkable complete. I'm convinced that the wheels that are now on it, are original. The wear on them and the chunks of gravel on them look very old. Taking the whole undercariage a part is costly. The gravel company would have ditched it long before that and replacing all wheels. These wheels are consistent with the lose wheel that was sold a couple of years ago with original paint, and seem to be a factory makeshift solution. Inner and outer wheel are welded together on the axle. That makes this vehicle possible an example of the last days. (The facory did not get the original wheels deliverd anymore due to the war) . The bonnet is acurate in form, but has the taperering form of ventilation slits at the side, that only the prototype's had. All in all it's a magnificent machine, and actually the reproduction by Arlon is not even so bad. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like after the restoration.
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