SANo 15 Transit Chests - Research and Restoration - the story so far..

[Alan de Enfield]

Turnbuckles are getting tricky.

Not cheap but readily available - they became a standard part used on a land Rover, they are the Land Rover series I, series IIA & series III "Seat Box Lid Hasp". Going from memory the Land Rover part number is 334525.

Edit - yes it is.
Available here at GBP £10 inc tax.

Land Rover Direct original parts

334525 | Turn Buckle - Land Rover Part 334525

Another Land Rover parts supplier who has them in stock

Turnbuckle (FF012487) for Land Rover Series IIA/III

[Flying10uk]

We have thousands of correct to era vintage British screws on the shelf. I bought out a lot from an old stockist a while back.

It's worth buying the old fashioned slotted wood screws when you see them if the price is right. When a local ironmongers was having a "closing down sale" 10 to 15 years ago no-one seemed to want the slotted wood screws and so I was able to purchase virtually the entire remaining stock of old fashioned wood screws at a very good price.

When a "vintage type item" that should really have "slotted type" wood screws fitted has been fitted with "Pozi/Philips" head wood screws, it is remarkable how quickly some people point out the fact, often in a very irritating manner.

[CINDERS]

I'd like to get one for my T but if it cost me $70/USD just to get Lances book here to Western Australia (Still in transit) it would probably cost me $600/USD postage with a transit chest!

[Flying10uk]

it would probably cost me $600/USD postage with a transit chest!

But why not have a go at making your own chest and then it's just the cost of materials plus your time. The engineering drawings are available on this forum and really it's a case of working from them slowly and carefully. For a Vickers chest that I extensively repaired, I concluded that pine was good enough from my local DIY store. Although I don't actually own a deactivated Vickers the chest is a collector's item in it's own right, especially being for a Vickers and that's why I saved and restored it.

[Warren]

Plus, you can also build a folly chest for something that never had one.
I did a chest for the M1 and M1A1 Thompson for a chum.
The guns originally came in a crate of 10 and never had an individual carry chest.
I will see if I have a picture of the one I did for the Thompson along with the Mk.2 STEN and a Lewis.
The M1A1 chest was an offshoot of the 1928 Home Guard Thompson chest.
Now to try and find the pictures and see if they migrated from the old computer to the new one.



OMG !!! I did it!

[browningautorifle]

Nice lookin' chests Warren...

[ArtioZen]

We do these authentic chest hardware kits too - the toggles are OE Land Rover with the cast lock latch, the hinges are made to the Ware Department drawing and the hasps are per original samples. The hinge hole spacing is reversed in the WD print to the original examples observed - other than that these can repair / replace / high end reproduce a war effort SANo 15 chest.

The stores label holder comes in stainless steel.

Lid seal felt kits are available too.

We have identified 3 distinct lid label formats with different instructions and contents changes for 1942, 1944 and 1945. Im sure these correlate to different BA assembly numbers to be stenciled on the outside but am doing more research on original specimens (tough going).

[bravo2zero]

Can I please ask how the stores label is attached to the chest? Is it by screws or nails?

[MrBaxter]

The original metal stores labels were held on with the same sort of tacks that the felt was tacked on with.

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The current Land Rover stock is OK but would not pass close inspection compared to originals. They are made in China using cheaper materials and processes and lack that good old fashioned robustness.

[Surpmil]

Has other good things as well: Sniper Rifles Equipment