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

[David Dunlop]

Darryl.

Check your last photo of the bottom view of the radio mount. Notice how the rear most channel of the mount overhangs the rear gap in the sponson?

On the upper side view, there are what seem to be two quick connect electrical plugs, each with a set of guide pins, on that channel for a couple of pieces of radio gear.

On the underside, is here anything suggesting where the power feed cable for those two connection plugs would run. Maybe a big fat power cable drops out of that channel and uses some of that gap to head off either left or right to meet up with some batteries.

David

[Big D]

Hi David,

Yes, I think the overhang of the FT237 over the back of the radio shelf would account for the gap of 30mm or so with the shelf in the normal position, as I have it sitting in my photos. I think I now need to fit the FT237 and put the radio shelf back in, but bring it right to the front of the sponson so that the door can latch onto it. Then I can check the gap at the back in when it is in that position.

There is no guarantee I will have an FT237 on that particular shelf. My intention was to put the FT237 and the radio set up on the other side. The M8's often had two radios so dependent on how it looks with the FT237 in the same side as the ready rack, I might look to get a second FT237 and radio set up and set that lot up over the ready rack.

Out of curiousity, I've asked a couple of contacts who have M8's about their shelf and the gap at the back and I will see what they come back with as well.

Thanks for your assistance. It helps to have someone else to discuss the problem with and bounce a few ideas around!

[Big D]

Hi all,

More on what I’ve done on the M8 over the last few days.

I’ve done some more work on the sponson shelf and the 37mm ready rack. I’ll post pictures of these once I’m done. I’ve also modified the engine mounts but will leave finalising them until I’m in a position to put the engine block in and make sure everything lines up.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working on getting the engine cover mounting plate fabricated. Does anyone have a picture of the underside of this? I can see there are folded sections on each side on the underside which form part of the mounting for it. I figure the folded pieces are just 90 degree pieces stitch welded to the edge of the engine cover hinge mounting plate, much the same as the fuel tank cover setup (as shown in the photo) I’d like to confirm this if I can though with a photograph of the underside of this.

I’ve drawn up a rough sketch based on what dimensions I’ve worked out so far.

The engine covers are one of my next jobs while I am sorting out the engine cover mounting plate. These both have some bullet damage. I may just clean the holes up a little and leave them as is. I will need to get some new hinges rolled up for one cover, and the other piece of the hinges for the mounting plate. What do the locking tabs on the locking arms look like? Does anyone have a photo of this please?

I have acquired the other front shock absorber mount (thanks Willy). I’ve also got a repro jerry can holder for the driver’s seat (thanks Sylvain) which I am putting together.

The fuel tank supports are straightened and ready to fit. The throttle slave cylinder has been refurbished and is ready to paint. I sourced what I think is a French made Dodge WC brake master cylinder which will become the clutch master cylinder. I’ve had a stainless steel sleeve put into this as well and that is also ready to paint.

[Big D]

More photos.

[Lynn Eades]

Darryl, if it is Dodge WC, it is from a half tonner. It should be 1 1/4" bore.

[Big D]

Hi Lynn

Thanks for that. Sorry, I missed your post.

[Big D]

Hi all,

I managed to get one of the guys in the workshop to give me a hand over the last couple of days and we got a fair bit done on the M8.

I wasn’t able to source another headlight guard so we fabricated one based on the one I had. I drew up some profiles, and got it cut out of 6mm plate. We then folded it to the correct radius and with a bit of panel-beating to get the shape correct we fitted it on the hull. I think it looks pretty good.

I used all the photos I could find of the engine cover mounting plate and managed to muddle my way through to a plan for fabricating a new one. What wasn’t clear to me was whether the underside of this mounting plate was a single piece of channel, or whether it was two pieces of 90 degree folded steel like the pieces under the fuel tank cover.

In the end I plumped for a similar construction to what was on the underside of the fuel tank cover and we put something together. We used a length of 5mm thickness box section and cut it so that there were two 90 degree pieces of the right width. These formed the reinforcing sides of the engine cover hinge mounting plate. We welded tabs on each end for the bolt mounting holes.

Rolling up new hinges like the originals would have involved a bit of work so I elected to get a bit of steel bar and run holes through the centre with a lathe, and then weld these onto flat bar to make up the two piece hinges.

The finished product is not perfect but I'm very happy with it. Both engine covers appear to have a little twist on one of their corners, and so sit a little high in those corners. I guess they’ve been in a war, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. I figure they should straighten themselves out a bit once everything is in place and the locking handles are fitted. I will make up some proper pins for the hinges when I get some spare time.

Thanks to Sylvain, I got the measurements of the locking handles and the lifting handles for the engine covers so I'm getting these folded as well.

I moved the mounts for the radio tray shelf above the ammo rack so that this shelf sits flush with the door over the 37mm ready rack. As David points out, there seems to be a couple of variants in the sizing of this shelf. A wider shelf would look better but if I put another FT-237 radio tray onto it, it won’t be a problem.

I also fabricated some mounts for the 37mm ammo rack to fix this in place and cleaned out the broken bolts that secured the First Aid kit bracket and tapped some new holes for the bracket to be fitted. A bit of paint on that and the protecto-scope box I picked up and they will be ready to fit.

I realised I hadn’t done a final fit of the tool lockers after the welding repairs so I tried them out and did a bit of adjusting. They are pretty good and a bit of dressing up of the welds and joints and they will be fine. The two repro locker lids I got and the two originals I had still need a bit of tweaking with the hinges, so I will be finalising them over the next few days.

I decided to get the rear engine mounts sorted now before I got the hull blasted and painted, so am in the process of sorting that. I will lower the block into the engine bay and bolt it to the front cross-member so I can confirm the length of the rear engine mounts. The lengths of these two repro mounts aren’t quite right, and the mounting holes at the end for bolting to the rear of the hull have the wrong hole pattern. I have made new plates to bolt to the end of the hull and I will cut the existing ones off these mounts, tack everything in place with the block in-situ and then weld them up out of the hull once I’m happy with the placement.

I am ordering the OD paint next week and now looking ahead to a date when I can get the hull and turret blasted and painted. The blasters have quite a workload so it could be a few weeks before the M8 can be done. I’ll get some progress photos of the progress, as I want to see the hull markings as they come up under the blasting.