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

[Big D]

I had a look at the FT-237 radio mount and the radio tray. As you can see there is a fair bit of work in restoring the FT-237 so I have put that to one side at present while I concentrate on some of the other stuff.

Merry Xmas!

[Big D]

Hi all,

We have the two hull pieces positioned in place in the engineering workshop now. The pieces have been set up and tacked together to assess what is required to join them.

So far, we have worked off the top and bottom dimensions I have of the sponsons and the turret ring gear and set it up accordingly. Now that it is set up accurately,you can see that there is quite a gap on the driver side, while on the co-driver side, the guys had to cut away a fair bit of the old metal to get the pieces in the right place.

We actually believe the hull pieces could be from different M8’s and it wouldn't surprise me if there is at least one other M8 driving around with two mismatched halves! The pieces just don’t meet as you would expect from one piece that has been cut in half, and the fact that we had to cut away some metal to get them into place, along with a few differences in colour, suggests this could be the case. Doug, your comment about the Italian radio-mount is another clue.

We don’t see that as a problem though and we believe it will go together in a relatively straightforward way. I am looking for some feedback on how best to do the job though please.

The guys in the engineering workshop believe the best approach would be to replace the three outer plates (top plate, mid plate, lower plate) on the sponsons on each side with new pieces of mild steel, cut to size. Cutting off the existing plate is no problem and once fitted they can replicate all the previous welds.

This will give them full access to be able to weld the channel at the bottom of the hull and all the inner parts of the hull that would be difficult to get to. The disadvantage of course is in losing that original plate, but I see the practicality in this solution.

Option two is to remove what is left of the three plates on the sponsons on each side of the rear hull section only. New pieces for these would be cut to a size to match what was left of the plates on the front half of the hull, once they were tidied up, so that a neat join between the two could be made. This would give reasonable access to the channel and inner parts of the hull, and it would leave more of the original sponson in place. There would be a bit of grinding to tidy up the joins in the sponson.

What do all you experts suggest? I’m keen to hear any suggestions.

[Big D]

More photos.

[motto (RIP)]

Hi Darryl
My inclination would be to go along with the guys who will be doing the job.
Maybe start with the side with the large gap and see how it turns out before tackling the other side so long as there is no problem with distortion.
So long as they can replicate the plates and welds it would have to be a better result than patching up.

Dave

[David Dunlop]

Darryl.

Just tossing this out there.

Can you remove the sponson from one side as two pieces (fore and aft), make the necessary interior repairs, then repair the sponson while detached from the vehicle and reattach it when done? You could perhaps tack the two sponson pieces together to maintain their relationship to each other before removal.

Like I say, I am no expert, but it would have the potential of preserving all original plating?

Am enjoying the thread! Keep it up!

Cheers,


David

[maple_leaf_eh]

If you were repairing an old house and you had to move an interior wall, the most workmanlike approach would be to remove all of the last guy's work and start from a known-good surface. The men who will have to make the welds know their own limits, and how much effort is required to achieve the result. Take heed of their counsel

There is a risk that came to mind when you mentioned having two halves. Years ago there was an American firearms magazine called, Firepower. Their specialization was legal fully automatic weapons. In one issue the editor and his writers made a BAR receiver from three demilitarized sections. After welding it was set aside for tempering. With bang, one of the welds exploded. After very close physical examination and some metallurgical tests, they discovered they had WW1, WW2 and Korean War pieces. Three contracts, three factories, and three steels. As I recall, they broke the remaining welds, retempered the three pieces, redid the welds and retempered the receiver. Of course at the right percentage of assembled, it was reported to the authorities for registration.

The question therefore is, have you tested to see if the steel in both halves is the same? If yes, have at it! If no, you may need to use different rods or wires and different settings.

[Andrew Rowe]

Hi Big D, I would normally look to take repairing back to original weld lines, if it looks more practical to replace the whole panel in one plate, other wise if cut lines are suitable to weld up, just weld them up. Use the mild steel core mig wire, 0.9mm dia, good for 1/2" thick plate and CO2 shielding gas, and you won't go wrong on that US armor. Cheers Andrew.

[Big D]

Hi Dave, David and Terry,

Thanks for the replies.

Dave - yes, my initial impression on seeing it was to go with their recommendation. New plates in there seem logical to me and 'cleaner' than patch jobs as you say. Overall, I think this will be the most efficient and doing one at a time to, does have merit - a good point thanks.

David - that's a good question. I'm betting it could be done, albeit with a bit of extra time involved I'd say. Like you say, it does mean the original plating can be retained. Thanks for the comment on the thread. Good to hear you are finding it interesting. It is proving to be fun so far!

Terry - a good point. To be honest, testing the steel is not something I had even considered. I will have to ask the guys in the workshop about that. I don't know how much of a problem it could be. I know there are a number of 'stitched up' M8's out there, but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be problems with this one.

Chaps - as an aside, it has also been mentioned to me (thanks Doug) that another option would be to cut slightly smaller plates to match the sponson plates, and weld them on the inside of the sponsons. The exterior plates would then be preserved as much as possible and it would just require filling in the gaps from the outside using filler plates.

The disadvantage is that getting access to the innards of the hull would still be very difficult. Another viable option though.

Thanks for the ideas. I still like the idea of keeping it as original as possible, but also accept that one has to be a little practical about it, especially when 'the meter is running'! I need to get my head around the options now and work out what we are going to do!