SU-100 Rebirth of the Legend
Here's the SU-100.
From the number on its hull, we see that this vehicle
was produced in March 1945, and its serial number is 1669.
We started working on it. Its condition was quite poor.
We cleaned out two scoops of dirt and rubbish from the inside.
Winter was coming soon, so we had
to break up the dirt with crowbars.
The upper armor plates were missing. The wheels were different: the post-war version.
We were lucky to have the tracks on it.
We dragged it for about a kilometer to the garage. So, the tracks worked free.
We could disassemble them and work on them, then.
We cleaned the fighting compartment, and there was a mount for the pump
that pumped the air into the fuel tanks.
When we cleaned it, we saw that all the threaded rivet nuts had been cut off and welded anew.
The person who did that welded them in the wrong place.
Some joints were of a very poor quality:
cut or welded in a hurry.
That means that the times were still hard, and that women and youngsters
were operating the welding machines, so they couldn't handle them well.
So, as we think, this fact proves
that this vehicle was made during the war.
During the war, the self-propelled gun regiments were equipped with
the SU-100 SPGs, 16 pieces per regiment.
According to some accounts, it was used for the first time in 1945,
in Hungary, in the Balaton Operation.
And later, when the SS 6th Army was defeated.
The Red Army was so powerful by that time
that it could complete almost any objective.
We disassembled the vehicle completely.
We unmounted the tracks, arms, wheels,
guns, and the protective plates of the engine compartment.
We came to the conclusion that some parts should be replaced.
We're going to put on two types of wheels: solid welded wheels and cast wheels.
The difficult point is that
you can clean welded wheels with a disc grinder,
but we will have to clean the cast wheels with a rasp.
It will take one day for each wheel, approximately.
Someone had the experience of working in Formula One, at the pit-stop.
This is a Soviet bearing, right?
Yes,
it's Soviet.
It's important that there are no pressure sores.
When a tank stays in one place,
the metal under the bearings gets rusty bit by bit, if there's no lubricant.
So, pockets form, and this affects the bearings badly.
We're going to try to put it on the shaft.
If it fits well, we'll mount it.
Here is the mounting seat, 4-4.5 cm.
And here's the second mounting seat, closer to the hull.
All this is the mounting seat.
It will be difficult to put the bearing on here.
Here's a little corrosion on the outer side. But this doesn't mean anything.
What's more important is that there's no corrosion inside.
This noise doesn't mean that the bearing is bad.
There's just no lubricant in it.
You should have spread the grease by hands.
You see, the grease film is good. You just push it inside.
You can't do that with a piece of iron.
From that side.
There was a front right wheel that we couldn't mount.
We tried hard
and finally found the right Soviet bearing, and mounted the wheel.
All the other bearings
on this vehicle are Hungarian.
So, we tried to put back all the bearings we had unmounted, considering
that we had to overhaul a lot of bearings.
What's the weight of one wheel?
180 kg.
With the wheel arm mounted, its weight is 260-270 kg.
At the moment, the arm is not very high, so two people can deal with it.
If it's 10 cm high, it's hard to calculate, so three people are needed.
We always use the young, while they're still strong.
So, they always figure out how to fit it.
Well, the third attempt will do. Here it is.
It's ok.
This self-propelled gun was assembled and produced on the chassis of the T-34.
Its running gear, engine and transmission compartment, and controls are from the T-34.
It's really maneuverable.
It has good running characteristics.
Due to its design features, its casemate is quite heavy,
and there's also a 100-mm gun,
so the suspension of the front wheels was enhanced by means of several technical solutions.
Keep smiling, keep smiling. It's not that heavy.
The wheel arms from 1942 are longer than this one.
In the arms from 1940 and 1941, the thickness in this part was the same as here.
So, if the SU-100 hit a tree or something else, the idler wheel would break.
So, the tankers complained a lot about this, and the arm was reinforced here.
The hole for the arm in the hull was narrow.
And then it was widened, and both the idler wheel
and idler wheel spindle were strengthened.
So, collisions with trees or other obstacles were not dangerous anymore.
You disassemble vehicles and learn how they were designed.
This vehicle had no engine or transmission.
We had the engine in the Stalin Line Museum. It wasn't new, of course.
It underwent full repair and was handed over by the military.
In the old Soviet times, everything was done to a good quality.
So, we knew the engine wouldn't let us down and would be in an operational condition.
And that's exactly how it was.
We've already mounted the one part.
It doesn't fit.
A clutch pin is missing.
- Vova! - What?
You disassembled this. Where's one more pin?
The pin goes onto this shaft. Where is it?
Well, it's somewhere.
We need to find it.
This is a principle of assembling. “Put the pedals, if you don't want to be beaten.”
Look for the pin! So you don't get beaten!
The engine from the T-34 was used, so we mount the same.
The steering clutch will be original, too.
No, the radiator is not original.
It's hard to find original radiators,
so we were looking for the radiator that fit the best.
The thing is that this is a 12-cylinder 500-hp engine.
So, it requires decent cooling.
We searched and found radiators. Two radiators are put on each engine head.
So, now we have all we need to finish the work.
Two fuel tanks. Capacity: about 40 liters of fuel are filled in,
but the total capacity of one tank is 90 liters.
The oil is put here. Up to this part of circle, to be more exact.
Well, it seems we mounted these tanks fast, but that's not exactly how it should be.
The thing is, we now need to make wooden struts.
Considering that metal rubs through metal, little holes form,
and oil can leak out as a result.
So, we're going to make struts and wedge out the fuel tank, so that it doesn't touch metal.
Should I lift it, Sasha?
No. It's ok. Now it's a bit easier.
We've mounted the engine. Not that we just put it there, fixed, and that's all.
Now we need to maintain coaxiality.
Height coaxiality, vertical and horizontal coaxiality.
There are special washers that are put under the engine to level it.
The question is whether it will start or not.
Before you start the engine, you need to pump pressure into the engine with the priming pump.
If you don't switch on the pump, the starter button won't work.
This is made on purpose, so that if someone tries to start the engine, the oil is not pumped in.
This engine was preserved.
So, there is old oil and everything else left. Until all this burns out… this will take long.
The engine should be started when the pressure is no less
than 2.5 atmospheres.
Then you can start the engine. Let's try.
We started it in the garage at first. And we all ran out of the garage.
There was smoke… and oil inside, so we had to wait until it all burns off.
We started the engine, so it's half done, so we won't need to take it out.
We brought the SU-100 to our restoration garage on its own tracks.
I mean we hooked it on and dragged here.
It was good because we
didn't need to spend time working its tracks free.
This is always a sore spot.
When we restore vehicles, we really don't like being busy with tracks.
Sometimes we're fed up with it so much that we get a little bit nervous
when we know we will have to work with tracks again.
We're rolling out. We're not going to accelerate.
We're not going far.
Let it move around a bit and work.
The engine fumes a bit; that's just until it works enough.
Maybe, the ring fell in, and it will be OK when it warms up.
The engine needs to work for an hour or two. Then, it will be OK.
The oil and engine itself need to warm up.
If the idling is not calibrated, it's hard to shift into first gear,
like in the T-34.
I'm doing it with two hands.
Of course, when the engine is on,
the experienced driver can regulate the fuel flow and speed,
and adjust rpm.
Then, shifting gears will be much easier.
The average speed could reach 35 km/h.
Maximum speed - 55 km/h.
There's a 100-mm D-10S gun mounted in the casemate.
The casemate doesn't rotate, of course,
so the aiming was done by traversing the hull,
and the gun itself could traverse
by 8 degrees horizontally,
depress by 3 degrees and elevate by 20 degrees.
This allowed it to aim accurately at the target.
Its 100-mm gun was able to penetrate 100-mm armor
from a distance up to 1000 m with the APCR shells.
This powerful gun was used in the T-54 after the war.
It works. It turns left, turns right. What else do we need?
We need to put front fenders and additional tracks,
which served not only as spare parts, but also as additional armor.
We also need to roll a bit and see how the vehicle will behave.
We added 4 tons of weight.
So, we need the vehicle to move around,
perhaps, with different rpm speed,
in first and second gear, and then the work will be over.
Then we'll deliver the vehicle and see how it goes.
This vehicle looks very beautiful.
This is a fine vehicle from that great family of Soviet tanks used by the Red Army.
We recreated this piece from scrap iron that nobody needed,
and it was only good for melting down.
And the guys made something amazing out of it.
It is now has original exterior and interior.
Engine, transmission, weapons…
so, it's the original vehicle, and it's very important for historical research.
People can see the kinds
of powerful weapons that were made even in the hardest war years;
weapons that brought us the victory.
I'm really inspired and glad
to restore another vehicle that can be displayed
and people can ride in it.
It will also participate in the Victory Day Parade on May 9
and in the parade in honor of the Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus.
So, I'm really, really glad.
Those who did all this work and brought
this vehicle back to its operational state….
we can only say “thank you very much” to them.