How To: Restoration of Ford M8 armoured car US Ordnance number 7373

[Big D]

I am doing this on an IPad so will have to do a picture at a time.

Another picture of the hull.

Another picture.

Some parts.

The turret, probably off a range.

[Peter Duggan]

Darryl,

That is one impressive project that you are undertaking. You will find that your trip down this restoration path will be extremely rewarding. By that I mean the great people that you will meet along the way. There will be minor setbacks/challenges along the way, but the positive relationships will be memorable.

I look forward to your updates., Peter

[Big D]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the words of motivation. I'll need them! I'm committed to finishing off my scout car so this project will take a while. It is good though to have something else that I can progress in the background while I'm awaiting the sandblast and paint and engine rebuild on the scout car.

Here are a few more pictures of the parts that came with the M8.

[Mike K]

You need to contact Rick Shearman ? in Sth Aust , he may help you with contacts for parts . Ricks M8 is running .

He is a member of this club http://www.wvcg.org/

[Big D]

Hi Mike

Thanks for that. I will get in touch with Rick.

[maple_leaf_eh]

That is not as daunting as you might think. USGI parts all have stock numbers and parts catalogues. It is a reasonably popular vehicle so other collectors will have trod your same path in the past. There are dealers who have NOS and Take Off parts; you just need to figure out the cheaper and generic corresponding truck, generator or trailer part numbers, without spending bigger dollars on a named AFV part.

In the meantime, I would suggest a rigourous catalogueing of everything is in order. Clean and store what you have. Brush off the loose rust and dirt. Spray with some sort of preservative paint. ID with a hang tag tied with a string. With the right information, you personally won't have to monopolize your active memory with answers to, 'what in blue blazes is this damn thing?' The appearance of pretty parts will be a lot more motivating than seeing chipped, rusted and incomplete ones.

[Big D]

Hi Terry,

My thoughts exactly on the cataloguing of everything and that is what I’ve been busy on over the last few weeks. I will only be doing odd jobs on it until my scout car is done, so I figured it was important to know exactly what I had and what I needed, so I could keep an eye on anything that came up for sale.

You are quite right to on the parts for these. Aside from the fact they use basically the same engine, I’ve actually found it easier to source the other parts for the M8 than I did for the White scout car. Perhaps that’s because the M8 was in service for much longer.