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

[Big D]

More photos.

[James P]

So the thrid time is the charm for the paint work. Do worry to much about the sheen as in a couple of seasons it will be buff shined by oily hands and trouser butts, throw on a couple scratches and oil stains to give it the "lived in look". Are you decals water slide ? if so who made them ?

[Big D]

Hi James P,

Yes, all those things I have to look forward to with that expensive paint job! Haha.

The decals were done by a local printer. He does the halftrack and scout car instrument decals that I supply and he does a good job. These were supposed to be waterslide decals but his printer clapped out, so he did them on normal decal paper instead. These tend to be as sticky as hell so I'll need to get them positioned right first time.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here are a few photos showing progress with the hull. It’s a nice feeling actually putting it together rather than the constant disassembly of the last couple of years.

I’ve had to spend a lot of time cleaning out the threads of all the fixing points on the hull. I ran a tap through each one of these before blasting but I’ve found now that I’m having to do them all again, due to the paint. I guess I can’t really complain about a good paint job!

I will need to do a bit of touching up of the paint on the nuts and bolts once I’m happy with everything.

I haven’t bolted the FT-237 radio tray down yet but I needed to make sure it was positioned right on the shelf. I cleaned up the paint on the shelf mounts so I should get a good earth on the FT-237. I’ll start routing the radio cable through the hull so I can cut it to the correct length.

I still haven’t sourced all the hydraulic lines so I won’t fit too much more in the hull until I have those laid out.

The decals I had made up worked a treat, although you do have to get them lined up first time as they stick like hell.

[Big D]

More photos.

[colin jones]

You're doing a beautiful job Darryl and It's a really nice feeling when you get to bolt things back on. Keep the photos coming.
Colin.

[Big D]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for that. It is certainly a nice feeling seeing it all go back together.