There is a lot to do: we have to remove the roof, cut the panel with hatches, weld the support frame using channels, carefully replace the stiffening rib and make windows. The thickness of steel walls and roof is 7 mm. The steel at the forepart is thicker — 10 mm. Besides, we have to cut off extra attachments and hooks.

The BRDM is wide enough, but in height the space is not enough and we have to do something with the hole in the turret. We cannot cover it with a plate, otherwise except for the driver’s seat we will fit in only a kind of bed where you will be able just to be in prone position. It doesn’t go with the aims of our expedition.

We decided to dismantle all grooves for observation periscopes in view of their total uselessness. The side sections are already cut off.

Details to be removed are outlined with a marker pen. They all will be cut off and we will not need them. There is another reason why there is no sense in keeping the original hooks on the exterior of your armour. If you hang shovels, cables and other elements of the military entourage, they will be stolen on the first night of parking on the street.

The main instrument is a plasma cutter. An indispensable thing, because there are places where you cannot use an angle grinder and oxy-fuel cutting makes too much debris. This device cuts steel up to 12 mm, in fact it hardly copes with 10-mm steel.

It is the last time we see it in a more or less original condition. By the way, you can see a lot of bikes on the background. The workshop does not only work on metal, but also upgrades bikes. If you see on the street a bicycle with an unusual motorcycle frame — most likely it was made here.

A pit in the middle of the armour plate is a trace of a bullet testing. While deciding how we will saw the vehicle, we found two traces. Most likely, steel plates were tested for bulltproof characteristics @ the factory.

The vehicle’s frame is load-bearing and in the prestressed state. It complicates a process, and cut items are directly away from the seam for a few centimetres.

We cut the plate with the turret ring and make a seam along the spar. It strengthens the hull, so we will remove it in the last moment, after we will weld temporary struts to make the vehicle stable.

Every large piece before cutting needs to be fixed on the chain; otherwise it can fall on your foot. The segment with the turret ring weighs about 150 kg, the plates with slots for periscopes are 10 kg each.

The process of cutting a plate with hatches. We will raise it and angle, while keeping the original location of hatches and central weld. The plasma cutter cuts not very smoothly, but quickly, and that is enough for our purposes.

We cut off the remnants of the external fasteners and connectors.

In short, the work is in full swing. Next week the superstructure will be ready and we will make the grooves for glasses. At the same time we will try to straighten out the doors of fuel compartments.