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Not Bolens, but part of the stash. Chris and I extracted this Atlas Shaper from the back of the barn today. for the help Chris. Easier than expected with a bit of thought and forward planning. It gave Chris the opportunity to try out his re engined Raider 12 too, especially when removing the last two Westwoods from their burial ground. They fought back, but the Raider won. Who needs a Bolens when a Horse will do, said Chris.

Now i know what its like to go pot holeing, there was some of the biggest spiders i have ever seen in there and im sure there was something else watching me. At least we know theres only furniture in there and no red bits but it did settle my curiosity

While at John's today, digging out more of the Bolen Stash, we heard a noise from an old caravan which had been partly crushed by a tree brought down in a storm a few years ago. This caravan had been used to store furniture etc and was almost full and very difficult to see inside due to being covered with undergrowth. After calling and getting no answer I took a few random flash photo's, not being able to see much at all, and managed to get a ( not too clear ) picture of the culprit. The only way we could get this person to emerge, threats to call the police etc had no effect, was to offer him a cup of tea. This did the trick and he was out instantly, covered with cobwebs and probably bugs too. Asked how he got here, guessing he was an illegal immigrant, he said he had stowed away in a red sprinter van which has been seen nearby on a few occasions recently. We eventually sent him on his way, but he threatened to return saying that he liked exploring at John's, even though all of the red stuff has gone.

I would have just set fire to it. After Chris had safely got out after finding my front loader forks

How dare you talk about our Chris like that. Anyway, he only has two legs, not the usual eight. On second thoughts, at the speed he shot out of the caravan when we mentioned tea, maybe he did have more than two. And he likes Red.

Great article. On this site I also noticed this amazing article telling the story of landing a C-130 on an aircraft carrier, wow. http://theaviationist.com/2014/07/16/c-130-land-on-carrier/ Iain

Your lucky you managed to get him out so quickly, I guess he didn't know he's "rights" as a squatter or would of been in there for at least 6 months

I agree. John and I were relieved when we finally sent him packing.

Evening chaps, today has been all about metal.. To cover the hole that normally has a plate with an ammeter fitted I made up this plate... The curved bit covers the steering column where it pokes through under the dash. I forgot to take any photo's of it so have a snap taken from the video footage. Working out where and how to mount the ignition barrel was fun. It will go under the dash towards the left which will mean drilling a hole through my freshly made panel above.. Here's the mounting bracket next to the barrel.. The bracket also stops the bike steering lock pin from popping out should the key be turned the wrong way.. And onto today's main attraction... The dashboard.. In my haste to get it to fit yesterday I ground a bit too much metal off on the bottom corners. It would of been easy to ignore the gaps if they hadn't of bugged me so much.. So... Off came the dash panel, the offending corners were cleaned up and clamped to a small slab of brass.. Extra MIG metal added to build the corner back up.. One gentle tap later the brass came off the dash.. This is the underside.. You can see where the weld picked up some dirt from the brass. Some very careful grinding later and the corners were sorted On a roll now 3 holes were drilled for warning lights and the starter switch, before I attacked the dash panel with this flap wheel thingy in the pillar drill. The end result after a couple of coats of clear lacquer looked like brushed stainless.. I like the look but I'm now wondering if my airbrush paint will still be any good after 7 odd years, and if I have any fine line masking tape

Great photos (not as great as those of Rita Hayworth) of 150 US aircraft laying in 130 feet of clear water in the South Pacific. None of these American planes were shot down, they were pushed off the sides of ships. I think that was about the time Rita Hayworth was touring the area possibly causing the American sailors to push everything overboard to make room, lol, just kidding, maybe http://theaviationist.com/2015/07/12/airplane-graveyard-in-the-pacific/

One very skilful pilot. Rather him than me I think!

As promised some photo's and a brief run down on what I did yesterday. In the morning I got hubs etc. 11-30am I set to work. First of all I had to see if the wheels would fit in the lathe and on the face plate. They did. Just clearing the bed and the face plate fitted inside the wheel dish. How to bolt wheel to face plate next problem. I'd have to use the wheel bolt holes and pack the wheel forward off the face plate. The pcd in the wheels was 2-3/4" and the hubs 4" The wheel centre needed to be opened up from 2" to 3", to fit the hub spigot. So that meant I had to drill new holes in the wheels. So I made a wooden bung to fit the wheel centre hole and the ID of the hub where the bearing outer race fits. This made it possible to mark through the hub stud holes, after removing the studs, and mark the wheel for re-drilling. Simples! Not really. Trying to spot through all four holes without hub or wheel moving was damn near impossible. So after much deliberation, sweat, blood and tears, I took a chance and just drilled two opposing holes. I could only use two too fasten the wheel to the face plate anyway. Six slot face plate. Two wrong better than four. Using two short lengths of studding, eight nuts and washers, a wheel was bolted to the plate. Getting it to run true was another thing. Easy enough clocking the wheel centre, getting rid of the wobble was something else. Eventually I started on boring out the wheel centre. This took some time as I could only take small cuts. Next, using a hub as a drill jig, I ended up with two like this. I put the wheel studs back in and tried wheels to hubs. Much to my delight they fitted. Though one wheels holes did required a little tickling with a round file. 8-30 pm job done. Went to get the spindles I forgot to ask for this morning, only to be told none in stock. They're on order now, but will not be in till a week Monday.

whohooow found more info on the compressor, the name of the compressor was COMPRESSOR, AIR, PORTABLE TYPE, 4 CUBIC FEET, GASOLINE ENGINE-DRIVEN-No. 66-C-1380 as stated in this manual http://carl.army.mil/wwIItms/TM9_834_1944.pdf the compressor is mentioned from page 51. i was told all this on the Keep Them Rolling forum(dutch WW2 stuff forum) pictures of the machine in action can be found here http://forum.ktr.nl/index.php/topic,4060.0.html

I think what you have there is a Red-throated Loon, the smallest of the loons, the Red-throated Loon breeds at high latitudes in North America and Eurasia. It is distinctive among loons not only in size, but also in behavior, vocalizations, locomotion, and other aspects of life history.

flippin eck, not much gets past Norm. Took me 10 mins to see what you were on about...

Red Bolens What Red Bolens. ?

Very good of Chris to take one for the team I wondered what was in the caravan and thought it might be worth exploring, but I really hate spiders. Iain

I better come and collect that red Bolens if you can manage with a less capable tractor Nice extraction, those shapers are not light Iain

I believe the Red Army suffered more losses against the Germans than the Allies did in all three theaters, Europe, Asia, and Africa. They and the Chinese were very weak when the war ended, it was why MacArthur wanted to to nuke the Chinese during Korea, he thought if we let them rebuild they would come after the US in time, and not just Asia. Many military brass wanted to push the Red army back to Stalingrad after April of 1945, but our politicians saw too many lucrative defense opportunities in a Cold War that could last ten times as long as a real war. In all fairness the Russian people and Red Army were abused by the Germans almost as much as the Jews, Russian civilian losses went into the millions, When the tide turned for the Red Army they were out for blood and revenge, Russian style, not pretty when fueled by Vodka and Borscht.

I think if the Allieds never landed in France back in June 1944, the Red Army would have steamrolled into Western Europe and changed the face of Europe totally. I suspect the Germans would have surrendered in Italy a lot quicker if this was the case and allowed the Western armies to quickly seize as much of Southern Europe as possible to act as a barrier between the West and East. It was well known that both Churchill and Roosevelt/Truman were always suspicious of Stalin's intentions. I firmly believe that the mass bombing and destruction of Dresden in 1945 was a clear signal to the advancing Red Army 'don't mess with us; this is what we can do to your cities'. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atom bomb in Japan also halted Stalin's plans to push further into Europe. The Red Army was numerically superior to the British and American armies at that time. Anyway, great photos of the planes by the way.

Bit the bullet today and bought some hubs, bearings etc. Spent the afternoon boring out the wheel centres and re-drilling the stud holes. Now all I need now are wheel spindles. Forgot about them.

Tom, let me know if I can help you out with any parts or assistance. Iain

I've got a workshop manual . I'll scan and upload it later. On Edit. Here it is. I've omitted two pages illustrating special tools but can add them if needed. https://www.dropbox.com/s/thcxuf525qssvos/MAG%202055%20%20WS%20Manual0001.pdf?dl=0 I notice that some of the correspondence and manuals that I have are dated 1970 so Headexam may be a bit pessimistic in attributing Mag's demise to the 1950s.