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

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here are a few more photos.

As I mentioned, the repro rear engine mounts that I got are not quite right. The hole spacing on the rear of the mount for the three bolts that attach it to the rear plate on the hull is not correct. The centre hole is pretty close, but a bit high. The side holes are also out.

The holes for bolting the engine mount to the cross member don’t match the sheet metal tray underneath as you can see in the picture. As a result, I am struggling to see exactly where these engine mounts should lie on the cross member I have just fitted. I can see that the rear left mount should be positioned a bit closer to the hull than the one on the other side but I’m not sure exactly where.

I need to position these mounts accurately so can someone please give me the measurements from the side of the hull to the centre of the engine mount hole, and the rear of the hull to the same centre of the engine mount hole. I presume the middle bolt hole on the end of the mount that attaches to the back of the hull, is in line with the centre of the engine mount hole itself. If I can get those measurements right, then I will make up a new plate for the end of these mounts to attach it to the rear of the hull, cut off the old end and weld on the new plate (if that makes sense!). Then I can drill holes in the cross member to bolt the mounts to it.

I also have some questions about the 37mm ready rack and the shelf above it. How is the ready rack secured to the hull? There are what appears to be mounting holes in the top corners of the rack at the front, but I don’t see anything obvious in the sponson to secure it. I realise of course, that this hull may not have had the ready rack, and instead had some other arrangement. I'm guessing there must have been a tab on each side of the sponson that the ready rack would have been bolted to?

The next question is around the door that covers the ready rack. I have a door to attach to the hull to cover the front of the ready rack. However, all the photos I’ve seen have the latch on the door coming up under the front lip of the radio shelf. To do that with mine, the radio shelf would need to be brought well forward in the sponson to do this. Is this normal? This would leave a large gap at the rear of the shelf between the shelf edge and the sponson wall. This is an original radio shelf I have in the sponson and as you can see if sits well behind the front edge of the ready rack. Do these shelves come in different sizes?

Any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks.