Canadian Ferret surfaces in NJ

[Paul Salaterski]

Hello Everyone,

Let me begin by saying that I'm the new owner of the Argus Ferret. I have never owned nor had I ever seen a Daimler Ferret in person. This Ferret was purchased on EBay. I had little to go on except for the auction photos. There was no information given at the time of purchase as to the prior history of it. I thought it was going to be an easy process to find the numbers and track it down, but I was going to learn quite the opposite. After reading some posts on the Ferret, I immediately began sanding off paint to reveal stamped numbers. What I didn't know was that each darn part on the Ferret is numbered. That was including each individual plate of armor included. Knowing this basic fact would have saved me an immense amount of time and the possibility of lung issues in my future. In any case, I eventually found this out and continued my search with a light and a magnifying glass. When I had a question, I would post it. It was one of my posts that caught the eye of Robin Craig. I couldn't believe how quickly he responded. I had too many questions to answer and not enough basic knowledge of the Ferret, so Robin traveled from Canada to my location in New Jersey. He insisted that he would not accept any money towards the cost of the trip or his time. Honestly, I was shocked, but as soon as he arrived he began teaching me or introducing me to the Ferret and its intricacies. It was a tremendous amount of info to absorb in the two days that he stayed, but I learned so much. Robin had insisted that this Ferret was Canadian from the very moment he set his eyes on it. I was impressed with his knowledge and enthusiasm, but was losing faith when the CAR or CFR numbers could not be located in the usual locations. He noticed during the time that he spent with me that I seemed to be more interested in finding those numbers than worrying about getting it ready for its first start-up. He was correct. My interest in finding some type of clue as to its previous history was overwhelming me. We did postpone the starting of the Ferret due to Robin finding that the fluid in the flywheel was very low. The decision to hold off was decided after determining that the mess that might follow if the seal had dried would not be worth the risk and time needed to clean it up. Robin and I agreed that he would return at some point to help me remove the power-pack and that all would be fine. After Robin left, I continued my search for the CAR no results. After four or five months of searching for countless hours, I may have found what I was looking for, but in a place where I doubt few would have even thought to look. I searched that forward plate near the horn over and over without finding a thing. I thought that I may have sanded the number off during the search, but I had been so careful. I'll never know now. Where I found my first clue as to what I believe to be the CAR was on the right-side of the Ferret. There is a locker or compartment with a hatch/door just forward of the rear wheel. This hatch/door has a latch welded to it that is fastened down with a twist nut. On the top-side of the latch I found what I believe to be the CAR for this vehicle. It didn't appear to be a part number as found on all the other parts because the style or font was different. The numbers also seemed to be stamped individually rather than as a set such as a part number would be stamped. I will include a photo of this below. The first number may appear to be a three, but in actuality it is an eight. It was only after finding this did I find the same number on the rear horizontal plate found just behind the left-side main engine cover and just forward of the left-side of the radiator air grate. My parts descriptions may not be accurate, but I will post photos to better show the locations. The number found near the engine cover/ radiator grate has the prefix numbers ( 54 - ) before the 82559. I can see this number with the naked eye, but have not removed the paint yet because I am not quite sure if these numbers are painted or stamped. I'm very hesitant to touch the paint as I have accidentally removed markings in the past that I thought were stamped, but found that they were instead painted. I will take photos and post them as soon as I have managed to uncover them without damaging them in the process. For the record, my only interest or goal in these proceedings was to find out which Ferret I owned out of the thousands that were produced. Whether it served with the Australian, British, Canadian or other armed service was not important to me. What was important to me was having an idea as to which, so that I could return it to an actual facsimile of a specific point in its timeline of active-duty. I will continue to search over this vehicle and report any other findings, but one little piece of advice that I'd like to pass along is in regards to the lighting used when looking for these stamps and markings under or embedded in paint (for the new guys out there such as myself). I've used incandescent lights, LED's of all varying intensities and colors and have found that natural sunlight has been the best source to aid with finding these stamps. I've spent months searching using man-made light inside a building with little to no results. I moved the Ferret to another location that was next to a garage door. I opened the door one sunny day and the flood of sunlight exposed stamps and writing that I had never noticed before even though I had examined the area prior with a different source of light many times over. One other reminder that I had mentioned before (AGAIN, for the new guys out there with Ferrets) is that you please be aware that nearly every piece of metal (armor) and individual part are stamped with letters and numbers. Before you decide to sand all the paint down to expose these numbers, please be aware that you may be sanding an important clue away only to expose a common stamp number that can be found on all of the Ferrets.
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[Paul Salaterski]

Hi Rob,

Are these fire extinguisher mounts and if so, are these the correct fire extinguisher mounts for the Ansul 5 pounders? The photos are from the left-side rear just behind the fender. The marks below the visible blocks seem to be grinding marks from previous mount locations.
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[Robin Craig]

Dear Paul,

Great to see you here and posting about your Canadian Ferret.

Its 630 here on a Sunday and I am up and off to volunteer at an event for the day, we were called out at 3am this morning to a medical call on the Fire Department, I told you I was a busy boy.

I am now going to go look at mine this afternoon when I get home for what you have found in the same place.

Trust me, yours is a Canadian vehicle, of that I am most certain.

Dan McLaren (sp) posted a picture somewhere from Soest I think it was of a Canadian Ferret with slanted side hatches, that is the one you sent to me, we should put that one up here.

More to come later today

[Paul Salaterski]

Hey Gents,
I decided to spend some time on the Ferret after work today. Almost a full shift later and I've had mixed results with those numbers. What I did find is that all five of my external compartment latches have the same number stamped in them. They are also all individually stamped. The first stamp in the photo above is clearly visible while the remainder are extremely light. They are visible, but the stamps are NOT deep. It would be very easy to remove them with a little too much pressure. I NEVER would have noticed these if that first latch stamp hadn't been struck so well. I used a little bit of aircraft stripper to lightly soften the paint and then used a pocket knife with light pressure. I don't believe that a manufacturer would stamp the same part number into both left and right-sided latches and stamp them individually and so poorly at that. I'll post some more photos as soon as I'm back home. Thanks, Paul

[Wayne Hingley]

The Ferret CFR listings on Ramtank show 82559 having S/N 36BA33 and last unit being 12RBC in Valcartier. I'm sure other people on here can help get more info.

[Paul Salaterski]

Hey Wayne,

Thanks so much for the assistance. I don't quite understand why a Canadian vehicle would have both numbers? I'm assuming that other set of numbers you've given me is from the British Army. I'm going to have to read up on this. Thank you again for your help. Paul

[Wayne Hingley]

I do not know anything about Ferrets, but I suspect the S/N listed would be from the manufacturer and not the British Army. Is there a Daimler data plate on the vehicle? If so, it should have a serial number on it, and with any luck it matches the number above.

[rob love]

While your vehicle does have a serial number, the British assigned it a registration number before it was sold to Canada. Canada wrote that as the serial number when it assigned a Canadian Army Number (CAR). That number later became the Canadian Forces Registration number when the Canadian Army, Navy, and Airforce unified in the late 60s.

The Canadian number of 54-82559 has some meaning. The 54 is the year it was accepted into Canadian service, and the 80,000 was a block of numbers saved for armoured vehicles. The ferrets ran from 82500 to 82623.

Your number 82559 would have been on license plates when the Cdn forces began using their own plates instead of provincial plates.

If you go to the ramtank page ( http://ramtank.ca/ferret.htm ) you will see photos of many of Canada's ferrets.