This one is a little late, but it has been a busy summer and fall (so far). On July 12-13, Bill Donegan and I drove to the Virginia Military Vehicles Museum to work as volunteers. The ‘Tank Farm,’ as it is also known, is located near Manassas, Virginia and contains an amazing collection of 20th Century military vehicles. These are mostly from WWII up, but they they are in the process of restoring a WWI tank. Nearly all of the vehicles are in running condition. All in all, it is an amazing place.
However, like most museum collections, they just don’t have enough money to do everything that they need done. This is where volunteers come in. We went with the objective of working on whatever project the staff needed us to do at that particular time. That turned out to be paint prep on the mine plow for an East German T-72 tank. This was demanding to say the least and did remind me why I had never taken up auto body work as a vocation. We had the use of power tools such as electric sanders and wire brush, but much of the job required good old-fashioned elbow grease.
As the pictures show, The Tank Farm has a heck of a collection of military vehicles and it was a privilege to get to work on one of them, demanding as it was. I hope to get back down there again in the coming months to help with this amazing collection of historical equipment.
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