Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[lynx42]

The diamond pattern mesh grill only was slightly damaged and not beyond repair even though it was lying out side for so long. This grill is the same open diamonds shaped extrusion as a Chev Blitz radiator grill. Strange as it is a Ford product not a Chev. I will put up some photos of the grill in the next post.

I had placed all of these thin bits under cover back when I first picked up the Lynx and had not been near them since.

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I was very fortunate that whenever Charlie pulled something to bits, he put the nut and washer back on the bolt and threw them into a tin. Every bracket had the bolts put back into the holes in the bracket with the nuts and washers. Who does that? I might with some things, but Charlie was regimented in it. Most of these bits were scattered through-out the auction and as I said earlier, I was able to locate most of them, place them on one pallet and purchase then as a job lot.

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The front and rear guards still had their light brackets but the light were beyond saving. More on the lights later.

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The front guards still had the head light brackets which had been highly modified, the side marker lights which were rusted out and none of the locating brackets or footman loops for the 2 gallon cans which mount on the guards.

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The guards needed a good clean before being straightened and taken to the sandblasters.

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Rick.

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by lynx42

The diamond pattern mesh grill only was slightly damaged and not beyond repair even though it was lying out side for so long. This grill is the same open diamonds shaped extrusion as a Chev Blitz radiator grill. Strange as it is a Ford product not a Chev.

Found some photos of the grill after it had spent quite a long time in the molasses tank and after pressure washing and wire brushing. You can see how well the molasses tank works.

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The top corner was quite bad and required quite a bit of work.

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I then started to repair it by welding new bits into the grill where they had been damaged or cut out.

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The grill has a folder edge around it and this had been cut and was also missing in parts, so it was a case of bending up a replacement and welding it into place.

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The mesh section is like flattened wire. I found some fencing wire the right size and proceeded to flatten it with a hammer on an anvil. I was really surprise how many inches I had to flatten to repair the whole grill. The mesh goes into the edging all the way to the inside of the bend, so as you can see there was quite a bit to add in places. I bent each length of wire into a wavy section the same shape as the mesh and used the oxy-acetylene to weld them as needed.

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Rick.

[lynx42]

I was still held up with the sandblaster so I decided to do some of the smaller items which needed repairing.

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The headlight mounds had seen better days.


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These mounts are Lynx specific only, not made to fit anything else. These had been modified to accept some sort of fork mounted light.

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Like those you see on a veteran car. (These are on my 1914 Talbot Type 4CB.)

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The fork mount had been crudely welded into the Lynx mounts. The forks were removed and work started on the repairs.

Rick.

[lynx42]

The Lynx head lights are the same as those found on a Cab11 or Cab12 Blitz and tighten up by a single nut from under the mount.

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I was lucky that one of the mounts still had it's basic shape and was not too badly mis-shapen.

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The other one????

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I formed a bowl shaped piece with the same sized convex shape as the good (?) one and I welded into position.

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cleaned it up and then cut the six sided hole in the top

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a small amount of filler and there they were finished.

Rick.

[lynx42]

The headlights were missing, but I had, over the past 37 years, picked up two new old stock LEFT SIDE headlights. The Lynx lights are the same as on a Cab 11 or Cab 12 Blitz.

I was going to have to convert one Left side one to a Right side one and would therefore have to drill a new hole for the headlight wiring into one of the left hand lights and then weld a filler piece into the existing hole.

I had another rusty right hand light which had the correct plates underneath and inside so I drilled out the rivets and found that the headlight drum was already drilled for both left and right side usage.

All I had to do was turn the mounting plate around 180 degrees and re- rivet it back into place. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of that.

Hope that this helps with your restorations.

Rick

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Rick,

Noticed your thread on the Lynx and the following some time back:

"and the unit sign of the 1st ARMOURED REGIMENT (I think) who went to Japan with BECOF in January 1946 as the 1st Australian Armoured Car Squadron – the vehicles were initially 18 Staghound Armoured Cars and 8 Canadian Scout Cars (Lynx). ( I am open to correction here as I am not up on Heraldry)."

The sign is the Formation Sign of 1st Infantry Brigade, ARA, in the 1950s, rather than 1st Armoured Regiment. 1st Armoured were formed in Australia from the returning 1st Armoured Car Squadron personnel who served in Japan with BCOF, so 1st Armoured Regiment didn't actually serve as part of BCOF. The unit (1st Armoured Regiment) were part of the 1st Infantry Brigade throughout the 1950s. The Unit sign in the 1950s was a diagonally divided square, red upper left, yellow lower right, with the number '50' superimposed, later changing to '41' superimposed. Interestingly, the Unit Sign used, for a time, black numerals, ('50') and later, the more commonly seen white ('41'). Your Lynx would look pretty good with the early 1950s unit/formation signage of 1st Armoured. Was there anything left of the Unit Sign on the hull that we might use to identify the actual unit it served with?

Hope that helps.

Regards

Mike

[lynx42]

Hi Mike C.,

These are the TAC/Unit signs etc that were visible on my Lynx. I hope you can identify them for me.

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Red over Yellow on the right rear mudguard.

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Unit sign on Left rear mudguard.

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TAC/Unit sign front left armour above the cross bin. The white '0' is the last number of the ARN.

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The front cross bin as found and a faint red over yellow with white numbers on the left side.

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Close up of red over yellow with white numbers(?).

Don't know if these will help identify the unit etc. so fingers crossed.

Rick.