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

[Big D]

Hi Lynn,

Yes, still a bit surreal to see it like this. It has changed a lot since you last saw it!

Hi James,

Sorry, I didn't word my last post well. Yes, the painters are going to paint the interior in gloss white. Once that has hardened, they will mask off the white and apply the OD.

Hi David,

Yes, spot on. It is certainly great weather for this at the moment. 30 plus degrees in Dunedin and that doesn't happen often. Come to think of it, it is beer o'clock now!

[David Dunlop]

Before I forget, Darryl, I like the look of the way your Wireless Set is coming along. I just finished the first cleaning of the front panel on by 52-Set Remote Receiver and was amazed at how much nicotine staining came off of it. The upper and lower panels actually match in colour now and everything looks so much brighter! Nice to accomplish things like that when one can.

David

[Big D]

Hi David

Thanks for that. I thought I had replied to your post but it appears I didn't click on save. I have been watching your thread with interest. I have a WS19 set that I might do at a later stage so I am keen to learn what I can and your thread is very informative.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Just a few more progress photos along with a funny story.

The gloss white has been applied to the interior of the hull. The hull is being masked off now in preparation for the OD to go on. Unfortunately there is a problem with the OD paint and the finish is not matt! We are talking to the paint supplier now to see what has happened there. Hopefully we will have a resolution soon.

Back to the funny story. There was a major scrub fire last night in the suburb of Burnside (how ironic!) in Dunedin. It raged for about 6 hours and took out a few industrial buildings, pine trees, and damaged some homes leading to the evacuation of a number of residents.

The sandblasters where the M8 is being painted, are based right in the area where the fire was! The fire got to about 100 metres from their premises, but fortunately did not get any closer to the building. If it had reached the nearby LPG gas bottle plant, things might have been different.

The guys had to clean all the ash and soot off the hull this morning before starting the masking.

As you can expect, I was sweating on things for a while but it appears that on this occasion, the gods were smiling on me….

[Lynn Eades]

Hi Daryll, I would not have exected you to paint today. Having arrived home this arvo from ChCh. and seeing the news.
I'm now guessing you'll be working tonight.
For the rest of the world, we've had some nasty weather today around N.Z. with wind and flooding (and a fire in Dunedin)

That hull is looking good!

[Big D]

Hi Lynn

Yes, a busy night last night with the fire and a complete turnaround with the weather today!

Yes, thanks. The hull is looking good.

[Big D]

Hi all,

While I am waiting for the hull to come back, I've been planning the fabrication and installation of the various hydraulic and fuel lines. I have no old lines to work from so will be working from a clean slate and will have to fabricate each line.

According to the manual, I need 142” of ½” line, 260” of 3/8” line, 923” of ¼” line, and 275” of 5/16” line!

I have a range of pictures and diagrams of the hydraulic and fuel line layout and am curious about the different line sizes used. I see there is ½” for the clutch lines; 3/8” for the accelerator lines; 5/16” for some of the brake lines, 1/4” for the other brake lines. Was the variation in line sizes simply to allow for greater hydraulic fluid for the different applications?

I have read a number of suggestions about fitting in extender lines so that I can bleed from various places. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of one setup. I can’t remember where I got this, so hopefully the owner doesn’t mind me using the photos. This setup seems like a good option to me.

Is there anywhere else I need to consider extender lines?

I am also going to progress the 37mm gun in readiness for getting the turret back. I’m not sure whether it is clear from the photos but the barrel I have is a little bent. I’m guessing that it must have had a fairly hefty weight on it at some point to put a curve in the barrel. It is not going to be a live firing gun but I would like it straight ‘to the eye’ and I would like to have it so that it can fire blanks.

Straightening it is beyond my expertise and the tools I have so I have the Action Engineering guys working on this. We need to get the old sleigh off the tube first and then we can straighten the tube. Hopefully some pressure from a large press and perhaps a bit of heat will do the job.

The breech end of the tube has been plugged which we should be able to clear quite easily. I have the correct sleigh and also have a NOS breech block coming for it.

I also need to get the recoil system off the mantlet so that I can get that stripped and functioning again. The screws holding it to the mantlet are pretty rough but hopefully we can get a rattle gun on them. Otherwise I might have to resort to welding a couple of studs onto them so that I can get a spanner on them to shift them.

I have some repro data plates for the gun side plate. Can anyone advise the size font for the stamp for these plates?