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

[Big D]

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[Lynn Eades]

Well Darryl, that was a wee hurdle to get over. Glad it was you doing it. Well done!
Have a great Christmas!

[Big D]

Hi Lynn,

It was certainly a mission. Over the last few weeks I have also rebuilt the brakes on the scout car. They had been sleeved by the previous owner and just needed a clean up.

I used the pressure bleeder on that and I had the brakes done in about 20 minutes. Quite a difference when you have a horizontally mounted wheel cylinder.....

Merry Xmas to you to!

[Brian Butt]

Thanks Darryl for posting all the lessons you've learned. I just dropped off all 12 wheel cylinders and master cylinder to have stainless sleeves installed. We are sticking with the original cylinders, so hopefully we won't have as much trouble. But if we do, thanks to you, we will know what to do.

[Big D]

Hi Brian

Hopefully lots of ideas for you. I'd be very interested to hear how you get on.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Happy New Year. Just a quick update to show the latest progress.

I have completed the floor now. Everything seemed to line up with the exception of one hole. Not sure what I did there but that is now corrected. I had considered fabricating small profiled strips to go across the joins in the floor like the original floor, but in the end didn’t think it was necessary. I guess these ridges were there to provide grip as well as strengthening the floor but I don’t see that as an issue with what this will be doing.

The grenade and flare boxes are now fitted. The inner part of the hull is certainly taking shape now.

I have fitted the front fenders. They certainly change the look of the vehicle. In keeping with the look of the rest of the vehicle, I just tidied these up rather than completely restoring them to ‘factory finish’. I guess the purists might prefer that everything was straight and dent free but I still want the vehicle to look like it has been used. It has been in a war…

Out of interest, how have other M8/M20 owners fitted their front fenders? Does the folded edge at the rear of the fender sit under the sponson edge or over it? The holes on mine do not line up at all well if I fit them with the folded edge sitting over the top of the sponson. The holes do line up a lot better but not perfect if I have them as per my photo. I have seen photos of them fitted both ways so was curious what everyone else’s was like.

Now that I have the tool lockers fitted, I am not happy about the placement of the latches on one of the repro lids. I will need to reposition the latch so I figured I would put some latches on that looked more like the originals. Does anyone have a source for a latch that looks correct, or have originals by chance?

That is all.

[Big D]

More photos.