Daimler Ferret Restoration - Canadian Service

[Neil Smith]

Lynn, no tools found, but buckets full of good Canadian top soil!

[Robin Craig]

Dear Neil,

great progress your making, I envy you in sunny Florida as we approach another winter and I still don't have a garage.

I would suggest, that despite my dislike of the social media, joining the facebook pages of the unit associations that your vehicle served with may lead to some unexpected finds as far as history goes.

I'm not sure about the light tower change, but it is your vehicle after all.

FYI Militia is a term we use for the reserve part of the army.

I am very glad that you decided to do the right things and tear the vehicle down and found that brake line issue. I have been preaching that for a long time, start from a known baseline.

I assume you made up your own lifting frame for the pack removal.

R

[Neil Smith]

Richard, thanks for identifying the escape catch chain thingy. This ones a bit corroded but it will be a simple job to make up a new pair for my hatches.

Robin, good advice as always - I will look up the Fort Garry Horse on Facebook as well as the 8th Canadian Hussars.

I'm a bit confused - obviously about the use of the term militia wrt the Canadian forces. Post 1972 when the Ferrets in Germany were returned to Canada, I understood that they were sent to reserve units. I was using the term militia to refer to them being in a reserve unit - is this not the proper term?

Regarding the light towers, they were clearly fitted to my ferret by the Canadian Army and later modified to have the US style indicator lights fitted. I am speculating that as I have seen pictures of a few other Canadian service ferrets with these light towers that they may have been fitted while in service in Germany as they would have been common with British Army ferrets serving in West Germany around the early 70's. Pure speculation on my part and hence them not being standard with other Canadian ferrets.

I used the excellent drawings in the various manuals to make both the power pack lifting bar and the gearbox lifting frame. The bar is down with the motor in storage but I took a quick picture of the gearbox lifting frame.

[rob love]

The militia thing can be confusing, and in the case of units like the FGH, even more so. The reason being is that in this case, there was a regular force FGH and a militia FGH. The regular force FGH was reduced to nil strength in 1970 as part of the Liberal era force reduction.

The regular force had the ferrets, as well as the centurians. Most likely they had the Lynx too.

In the 70s there were occasionally loans of thingd like ferrets or Lynx to the militia units for them to train on, but those units would not have had them as part of their normal strength. For the most part the light recce militia had been relegated to using M38A1 Jeeps as their main vehicle.

The installation of the US pattern of lights was fairly common on the ferrets, although not on any mod instruction that I ever saw. As to those light towers, they were for the later style of lighting on the ferrets. Most likely, replacement parts for the ferrets ended up being the later pattern. It would have been the regular force that installed those lights, and likely so they could have turn signals. The militia had very little effective maintenance, aside from 3 or 4 regular force mechanics supporting each area. Having been one of those myself, I can tell you it was a challenge. So many vehicles, and so many unqualified operators.

There was also a modification to replace all the British style fire extinguishers with the Ansul extinguisher. As well, I recall seeing the old singnal stat turn signal arm mounted in the ferrets. I don't believe the early Mark one ferrets came with signals originally.

[Neil Smith]

Yesterday I finished stripping the interior of the hull with the exception of the wiring harness. I'll get to that later. Looks like I'm going to need to replace a number of the studs on the floor as some are missing and some are damaged by corrosion.

What do you guys do to replace studs? I have read up on what a stud welder is, but don't have one and will need to see who does. Alternatively, can you drill through the armor and weld in a bolt? Any advice will be appreciated.

Here's some pictures of the typical canadian jerrycan holder that was fitted, I'll have a go at repairing it while I gather information on the stud replacement.

[Robin Craig]

Dear Neil,

grand work and even better photos to document what you have and are doing.

I would say that there is no hard and fast rule on Canadian Ferrets and to be honest on any military vehicle for that matter.

The vehicle you have is full of differences that should be enjoyed and cherished.

Ad Rob Love says many things were done with no reference to "orders" or "'rules". It was all part of what worked for that unit or that vehicle that week.

My Canadian Ferret c/s31 had jerry can stowage on the rear but instead of a frame like yours mine used the SMP gas can holders and the loops for the web straps were welded to the top of the rear armour. There are many variations and anomalies and that is what gets confusing.

Do what you feel right for your vehicle.

As far as the studs needing replacement I think I may TIG weld my own in place. I don't think drilling the armour will be an option. Talk to a local welding company about a stud welder, it isn't something beyond learning how to use.

I'm about a year behind you.


Grand job.

R

[rob love]

As Robin says, do not drill through the floor. The tool that I saw listed in the CFTOs was basically a piece of brass roundstock drilled and tapped to accept the stud. As well, the end was tapered. You could then get in to the base of the stud and weld it in. I am planning to make up a few of these of various thread pitches and simply MIG them on.

Ideally I think you are supposed to heat up the armour a bit before welding so the weld does not crack away from the armour plate as it cools. I hope to be doing some of these this week, so I'll let you know how it goes. Primarily it will be the studs for the fenders to hull.