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

[Big D]

Hi all,

It’s been a few weeks since I posted any progress reports on the M8 so here are a few pictures of some work I’ve been doing.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the hull, removing old broken bolts, cleaning out mounting holes, re-tapping threads where necessary, and cutting and grinding off the odd post-war mount.

I’ve removed the first section of the armoured floor. As you can see from the photos, the remnants of the original floor are still in place around the sides of the hull and the first cross member. I’m going to remove the rest of the armoured floor so I can clean out all those old rusty bits and pieces. I have a second-hand original front floor coming from Belgium but this won’t be here until Xmas. I’m not sure how much of the outside of that has been cut off and it will need repair to a few places but I’m hoping that it will be better than what I’ve got here. If not, I’ll go back to the armoured floor.

I’ve fabricated some new mounts for storing the headlights at the foot of the hull by the co-driver’s feet. I still need to make up the spring plate that sits in the mount and holds the light base in place in the mount.

I tidied up the top hatch mounts and started tacking them in place. One hatch needed the hinges removed altogether from what was left of the cut off mounts and straightened with a bit of heat. The other side still had part of the cut-away hull plate attached to the hinges so I have cut that piece to size to fit into place on the hull and tacked it in. I’ll fill in the joints the next time I’m in the workshop.

The driver’s front hatch is now in place and I’ll finish welding the hinges in next week. I had two hatches to choose from. This one has a bit of bullet damage to the front but the hinge mounts were in much better shape than the other, so I decided to use this one. The bullet damage will be a conversation starter anyway…

My father in law has fabricated new handles and mounts for the underside of the top hatches. It took us a while to work out how these were designed but the finished product looks quite good. These are now fitted to the top hatches.

I’ve fabricated some new visor/pistol port slides for the front hatches and side ports, using the existing pieces as templates. I have one good working retracting spring plunger and another that I should be able to get going. I also found two modern spring plungers which look similar to the originals. These have a knurled handle as well but are a bit smaller than the originals. While they won’t look quite right, they will do until an original hopefully turns up one day. Does anyone have any spare originals?

I’ve also replaced some of the original studs for mounting the slide levers.

I am working on the top hatch locking arms which hold the top hatches in the horizontal position. One had been removed from a hull at some stage and the mechanism was completely frozen. Despite lots of penetrant, some heat, plus a little bit of encouragement from a press, it refused to budge. As you can see I had to be a little surgical and get access to the mechanism by removing a strip of metal from the top. Penetrant was never going to do it! Once I have got it all working again, I’ll lengthen the activating rod and weld the top strip back in again. I’ll repair the other locking arm in situ.

The shovel and axe mounts, rear tow cable mount and siren mount are fitted along with a handful of footman loops I had.

The spring latch that sits on the glacis on the front of the hull for the two front hatches is repaired and ready to be welded on.

One mine rack has been repaired and ready to fit (thanks for the measurements Sly). The other one is being fabricated along with the missing top hatch handle and front hatch lever/handle.

The guys in the engineering shop are going to see if they can straighten the headlight guards. The ones I’ve got are pretty beaten up so it may be a case of starting afresh with them, and the bends in them are not something I can create.

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here a few progress photos along with a quick update.

The hatches are on now but I am still working on the hatch locking levers. The one that was still on the hull is being as stubborn as the other, and is seized. I did the same as the other side and cut a piece out of the top so I could access the workings, without removing it from the hull. I freed up the latch itself but the actuating rod (the one you pull to release the hatch) is seized into the sleeve in the side of the hull so I am still working on that. The hatch locking lever on the driver side is now fitted, although I haven’t yet finalised the actuating rod on that either.

The mine racks are now fitted to the hull and I’ve fitted a strip of folded steel on the left side of the hull for the tool locker mounts. I’ve also fabricated some new mounts for the protectoscope boxes and drilled out a lot of the broken bolts around the hull and tapped new threads where necessary. A lot of the captive nuts around the hull are history, so I need to work out what to do with those.

I removed what was left of the rear of the original floor. The cross member below that looks to be in pretty good shape. As you can see, there are still some remnants of the original front floor under the armoured floor. The sheet front floor I have coming arrives in 3 weeks so I will look at that piece before deciding what I do with the front floor.

Can anyone give me some dimensions and close-up photos of the mounts for the engine cover support rods? These have been removed at some point. I get the impression that the mount has an angle greater than 90 degrees, but it is hard to determine. I thought with a 90 degree bracket, the angle of the hull mightn’t set the support rods up high enough. Can anyone confirm this for me please?

There are the remnants of a bracket near the floor on the co-driver side, as per the photo. Does anyone know what this bracket was for? Am I right in saying this was for a Signal Projector? What is that, exactly?

[Big D]

A few more photos.....

[Big D]

Hi all,

I was asked about progress on the M8 so this is just a quick update.

For the last week or so I’ve been working my way through a pile of parts that I have had arrive from Europe for the project, cleaning them up and priming etc. I have the fuel line covers, rear engine mounts, fan shrouds and tunnels, some piping for the engine bay, oil breather, gaskets, clutch disc, protectoscopes and boxes, gearstick housing, shock absorbers, etc.

I got the front floor piece I was waiting on. While it is heavily corroded in some places, the diff bulge and stampings and steering box hole are all in one piece. I figure we can cut out these good pieces and weld them into a new piece of folded sheet metal. There should be enough left of the rear piece of the floor I previously removed to shape the rear of this front floor piece. I could have got away with the front armoured floor but it had to be repaired in places and a new diff bulge fabricated anyway, so this will give it more of an original look.

I received two gearshift housings, levers and pins etc and noted some differences. One of the pins is a nice fabrication and just needs the two holes drilled for the couplings. I see there is a difference in the angles of the gearsticks though. At first I thought the one in red primer was a fabrication, but there are some numbers stamped on the small plate at the bottom, so I’m presuming it is an original piece. The other gear stick with the gear knob on it is an original piece – it has its number stamped into the metalwork.

As you can see, there is a substantial difference in the angle of the gearsticks. I’ve tried both in place in the housings and the one that isn’t primed (the original?) is angled very sharply to the rear when the gearstick is to the rear in second or fourth gear.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Big D]

Some more photos.

[David Herbert]

Gear shift: It looks to me like the unpainted one had been modified by someone with short arms that wanted the gear knob further back. That prevented the latch working as designed and it fouled the fingers of the gate so both were removed. I just see it as a bodge but you are fortunate to have the good ones (the ones in primer).

As for the front floor I think that you will be making a new one and just sectioning the diff bulge from the one in the photos into it. It wouldn't be too difficult to press the ribs into the new one but to section new metal into the rusty one would need huge amounts of welding that would make it very hard to avoid warping and general distortion, quite apart from the work involved.

I must say that it is great to see someone doing such a thorough and profesional job on an M8. You will be amply rewarded when you drive it - great fun.

David