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Following on from the article by Patrick Knight with extra photos by the editor as published in the latest edition of the VHGMC Magazine The Cultivator , I have two ITC Skimmer machines, one is complete ready to work, the other is mobile and has all major new old stock parts for a rebuild. Rarer still I have a new condition operation and parts manual for the skimmer from which measurements etc can be scaled to make up missing frame. Sadly I have disposed of most of my entire range collection due to ill health, the machines I have are available if anyone is interested. The skimmers are unique machines based around an MG6 chassis but fitted with a second final drive gearbox driving the tracks working speed when skimming was 25ft per minute. Quite amazing machines that would travel, skim 1/2″ of sand over a 4ft width, elevate and break up the sand and then discharge at about 5ft off the ground into a dumper all from a 600cc petrol engine. Being slightly lacking in power many waterboard machines were modified for bigger engines, one of my current machines was purchased in Devon with a brand new for Escort engine and gearbox fitted ( never run from new), another was fitted with a twin cylinder electric start engine.Both now have original type Ransomes petrol engines. When I first set out to collect one of every model MG made the ITW ( wheeled model),Whitlock loading shovel WR8 were the Holy Grails of which there were thought to be very few remaining, Skimmers were known of but none seen, over the years many more Whitlocks and ITW machines have come to light as have a number of Skimmers. The search is now on to find out what happened to the ITW Barge Tractor which evolved over a number of prototypes the final model I believe was sold to Port of London so far never to be seen or heard of again, UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT Happy Christmas

Next came choosing material for the interior trim, a lot of which could not be removed intact in order to gain access to the framework , I decided to go with a modern type green vinyl similar in colour to the original along with dark green rubber backed carpeting. The original carpeting was a short pile hessian backed type but I could not find it in a suitable green and I did not think dying it to the correct colour would be a feasible proposition. As someone had coloured the leather rear seats and arm rests with a hideous blue in the past I also ordered a leather renovation kit in the same shade of green as the vinyl and if the original side panels which I was going to re-use didn't look right I could do them as well. The rear arm rests along with the rexine attachments had to be fitted first before the boot floor as these formed the inside of the boot. The boot floor was duly cut to size, covered in the new vinyl and fitted along with the repainted steel covers. The old rexine side panels don't look too bad against the new vinyl and the arm rests turned out quite good as well alongside the original rear panels, this is after the seat had also been done. Before the side panel could be fitted a new door seal was required, not just any door seal but a 3/8" dia piece of wing piping, you can see it running down the door pillar here You can't buy 3/8" wing piping and certainly not in green so as always we'll just make it. Sewing machine was already there as I had bought it to do the Carlton interior, and a new 3/8" foot was purchased The original piping had an orange rubber pipe running through it and I managed to get some 10 mm bunsen burner tubing which was the perfect size for the job but I just couldn't get the vinyl to feed through the machine. I tried various methods of lubricating it until someone advised using tissue paper and it worked a treat but a bit of a pain to remove from the thread afterwards. Once a new piece of carpet was sewn on the bottom of the side panels they were then fitted along with the back seat.