Daimler Ferret Restoration - Canadian Service

[rob love]

Usually there is a ratchet hiding in the hull, or at least a wrench or two. A rule of thumb in the ferret is what goes down usually stays down, at least until the next engine change.

[Neil Smith]

It will probably be six months before I post again on here - this is a one day wonder!

Here are some pictures of some sheet metal parts that I have had rebuilt. The first picture is of the indicators. My ferret came with the typical later militia modification using US lights "scabbed" on to original light towers. I have chosen to go back to the light tower indicators and rebuilt the originals.



I took great pains to keep the section of plate that had the FV number on it



The next picture is of rebuilt antenna bases. These had been cut up to fit a later US style antenna base, but as I'm restoring to a late 60's Larkspur era, I restored them to fit the correct type of Larkspur mounts ( You can source NOS Larkspur bases from Tim Vibert in Australia).





Thanks to Colin MacGregor Stevens booklet on "The Ferret Scout Car in Canadian Service" I have seen a picture of the pattern of camouflage used by the Ft Garry Horse while in West Germany in the late 60's and as mine was one of the Ferrets sent by Canada to West Germany, I am now seeking more information or colored photographs of what appears to be a four color pattern. Can anyone help with this?

[Neil Smith]

Lynn, no tools found, but buckets full of good Canadian top soil!

[Robin Craig]

Dear Neil,

great progress your making, I envy you in sunny Florida as we approach another winter and I still don't have a garage.

I would suggest, that despite my dislike of the social media, joining the facebook pages of the unit associations that your vehicle served with may lead to some unexpected finds as far as history goes.

I'm not sure about the light tower change, but it is your vehicle after all.

FYI Militia is a term we use for the reserve part of the army.

I am very glad that you decided to do the right things and tear the vehicle down and found that brake line issue. I have been preaching that for a long time, start from a known baseline.

I assume you made up your own lifting frame for the pack removal.

R

[Neil Smith]

Richard, thanks for identifying the escape catch chain thingy. This ones a bit corroded but it will be a simple job to make up a new pair for my hatches.

Robin, good advice as always - I will look up the Fort Garry Horse on Facebook as well as the 8th Canadian Hussars.

I'm a bit confused - obviously about the use of the term militia wrt the Canadian forces. Post 1972 when the Ferrets in Germany were returned to Canada, I understood that they were sent to reserve units. I was using the term militia to refer to them being in a reserve unit - is this not the proper term?

Regarding the light towers, they were clearly fitted to my ferret by the Canadian Army and later modified to have the US style indicator lights fitted. I am speculating that as I have seen pictures of a few other Canadian service ferrets with these light towers that they may have been fitted while in service in Germany as they would have been common with British Army ferrets serving in West Germany around the early 70's. Pure speculation on my part and hence them not being standard with other Canadian ferrets.

I used the excellent drawings in the various manuals to make both the power pack lifting bar and the gearbox lifting frame. The bar is down with the motor in storage but I took a quick picture of the gearbox lifting frame.

[rob love]

The militia thing can be confusing, and in the case of units like the FGH, even more so. The reason being is that in this case, there was a regular force FGH and a militia FGH. The regular force FGH was reduced to nil strength in 1970 as part of the Liberal era force reduction.

The regular force had the ferrets, as well as the centurians. Most likely they had the Lynx too.

In the 70s there were occasionally loans of thingd like ferrets or Lynx to the militia units for them to train on, but those units would not have had them as part of their normal strength. For the most part the light recce militia had been relegated to using M38A1 Jeeps as their main vehicle.

The installation of the US pattern of lights was fairly common on the ferrets, although not on any mod instruction that I ever saw. As to those light towers, they were for the later style of lighting on the ferrets. Most likely, replacement parts for the ferrets ended up being the later pattern. It would have been the regular force that installed those lights, and likely so they could have turn signals. The militia had very little effective maintenance, aside from 3 or 4 regular force mechanics supporting each area. Having been one of those myself, I can tell you it was a challenge. So many vehicles, and so many unqualified operators.

There was also a modification to replace all the British style fire extinguishers with the Ansul extinguisher. As well, I recall seeing the old singnal stat turn signal arm mounted in the ferrets. I don't believe the early Mark one ferrets came with signals originally.

[Neil Smith]

Yesterday I finished stripping the interior of the hull with the exception of the wiring harness. I'll get to that later. Looks like I'm going to need to replace a number of the studs on the floor as some are missing and some are damaged by corrosion.

What do you guys do to replace studs? I have read up on what a stud welder is, but don't have one and will need to see who does. Alternatively, can you drill through the armor and weld in a bolt? Any advice will be appreciated.

Here's some pictures of the typical canadian jerrycan holder that was fitted, I'll have a go at repairing it while I gather information on the stud replacement.