The First Steps (A Wksp)

I had contacted the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) wing at the Royal School of Artillery prior to collection and the OC had agreed to help with tools, expertise and somewhere to work on it, at least initially. We started at A Wksp this is the armoured and track Wksp and we where outside in the back compound. This was not a problem as the weather was good and we needed the room for the crane. The first job was to split into bit size portions and this we did with the aide of the REME recovery team. We split it into three, the mirror section, barrel and cradle, and the trailer.
         
   
Andy on top of the world   The REME lend a crane   I inspect the mirror
         
   
The Barrel comes adrift   My First sight in the bearings   At rest in three big bits
Click on photos for a better view
We decided to work on the trailer first so we set about dismantling it as we knew that there was a plate in the middle that had to be replaced. The bearings were in an awful condition as was most of the trailer so with cutters and grinders we set about it. I cleaned up the Barrel a little as we had decided that we needed some special work on that and we would send it away to a metalsmiths. We had looked at the wheels and I knew I would have to get 4 new tyres but we may be able to make two good wheels out of the four leaving 2 to find.
         
         
   
Andy straight on with the job   I start on the barrel   "The barrel" what a state!
 
   
The trailer is even worse   It was really bad the front of the plate   The back of the plate
 
         
   
The photo says it all   The front of the trailer   The wheels are no better