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Last T24 built ORD1002


OZM29C

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G'day All,

Here we go again. Thanks Patrick for stepping up to the plate and creating a new dedicated weasel forum that is more user friendly. I thought I would start off and post some info on a weasel that I recently recovered here in Australia. This T24 was one of only two T24 weasels imported and trialled by the Australian Military in August 1945. The weasels were deemed unsuitable for Jungle warfare (I will post a copy of the trials report later) and were quickly disposed off. The two T24's ended up on the snowfields (yes we do have a little bit of snow here in Oz:) as ski tows. When chair lifts were built, both T24's were then converted into tracked garbage recovery trucks. This particular weasel ended its days in the early 70's and sat on a property down in Victoria until discovered early last year. The owner of the other Australian T24 was contacted by the owner of this T24 after he had read the restoration blog. A deal was done and after a 2000km round trip to recover it, I have this weasel at home. I am not sure what the future of this weasel will be but the priority was to recover it so that it did not go to scrap. This weasel is the last of the T24's to be built carrying the ORD plate of 1002. Here are some photos of it. What you see is all that is left. The final drive was cannibalised for another vehicle and unfortunately nothing remains of any internal sheetmetal.  Cheers JW

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10 hours ago, OZM29C said:

I am not sure what the future of this weasel will be but the priority was to recover it so that it did not go to scrap.

 

 

Thanks for joining and for taking the time to post these pictures.

That T24 is an amazing piece of history - good for you for saving it!  It would be a hell of a project to restore it as you know, but it is doable.  If you aren't already, you would be the world's best welder and grinder by the time you were finished!

If you get a wild hair going, parts machines are around here in the US for not crazy money. I assume that is the biggest problem being in Australia besides all the work.  It costs in the neighborhood of $4k to ship a 20 ft container from LA to Australia.....so I am imaging that a couple of pallets of parts could be shipped for less.

Just a thought, but I imagine it would not take too much of a push to get an international effort underway.......

Patrick

 

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