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

[super dave]

Looking good, You have come along ways

[Big D]

Hi Dave

Thanks for that. It feels like quite a journey so far. I feel like I'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief when the hull is done and off to the sandblasters.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Things have been a bit quiet with the restoration lately due to commitments with other projects, but I haven’t been completely idle and it is still progressing.

The work on the hull is continuing. I have a few parts arriving next month so will have bit of welding to do along with a few other things I am doing. I have the second headlight guard and the first aid kit bracket to be welded on, as well as some new exhaust mount brackets.

The rear engine support hull cross member had been removed at some point so I had a new piece of steel folded up into a channel type profile, which we will weld into place.

Unless I am lucky and find a front engine mount cross member (shown in the pictures) somewhere, I will need to get another piece of steel folded into a channel type profile, which I will cut and shape to form the cross member for the front engine supports.

I was a bit lucky with the oil can brackets for the engine bay. I acquired a good one (thanks Bill) and had another one (thanks Mathijs) for which I have fabricated the clip.

The tool lockers are nearly done. I had two in reasonable condition along with three that were really only good as donors. The reasonable ones looked like the moths had got to them though with lots of small holes in them, so I had to splice good bits of material from the other beaten up ones into these two. I found though that the pressed pattern in the donor tool lockers had a different spacing to the other ones, presumably from a manufacturing change, so I didn’t have as much good donor material as I thought. They don’t look too bad now though and they shouldn’t need much if any fibreglass.

I resurrected from the dead the two tool locker lids I had. One looked like it had been run over by a Sherman tank and the other was heavily corroded in places. Even after lots of straightening, the mangled one is pretty marginal really, but I’ll see how it looks with a blast and paint. I have sourced two nice looking repro lids from Belgium and they are on the way here, so that will complete the set.

While these wee jobs are going on in the background, I have started work on the turret. The turret was obviously a range target at some point and has a number of bullet holes in it which need to be filled.

The skirt around the base of the turret is also damaged in places but I have some replacement pieces which I have already cleaned up which I will cut to the right size and weld on.

I will also need to fabricate the steel rack around the exterior of the turret. Can anyone confirm the width of this steel strap? From what is left on the turret, it looks like 1 1/4" strap of about 1/4' thickness.

I also need to know how far it sits proud of the turret surface if someone can confirm please. It appears from photos that it is about 1 1/2” out from the turret but if someone can confirm, I'll get this fabricated as well.

Apart from that, the turret appears to be in reasonable shape.

[Big D]

More turret photos.

[James P]

That is pretty amazing work and fabrication you are doing on that M8, I salute your efforts and skills Did you weld in all the holes in the turret or save a couple as "battle damage" and its history ?

[Big D]

Hi James

Thanks for that. I debated keeping some of the holes but in the end decided I might as well fill them in. There are plenty of bullet damage marks on the turret which should tell its story. I figure those bigger holes are from .50 cal or similar. There are even bits of copper still in the holes. There are a lot of lines of smaller dents on the turret which haven't penetrated the steel, from what I figure is lower calibre MG fire.

[Big D]

Hi all,

A few more pictures of progress.

While I had the turret sitting at the right height, I checked the length of the seat towers. In an earlier post I mentioned the fact that there seemed to be two different seat tower lengths to allow for the armoured floor. I have now confirmed that these seat towers will be the right length for the floor I’ve made. There is about 5mm clearance from what I can see. Not a lot of room but it should be fine.

I finalised the front pipe sections of the turret seat framework while I had it fitted in the turret and have since welded the seating framework all together and painted it so it will be ready to bolt in once the turret is ready. I have emailed some suppliers to get prices on the seat bases and backs so hopefully I will hear back from them soon.

Would anyone have any pictures of where the gun foot pedal firing control cables end up on the guns themselves? I can see that the foot pedals strike the bottom of the cables and push them upwards. Should the foot pedals have a torsion spring on them or similar? I’m just wondering what actually returns the cables to their start position?

I am still working on the fabrication of the steel rack around the exterior of the turret (refer the photo I ‘borrowed’ off the net). From what I’ve been told, the steel strap seems to be 1 ¼ “ wide and ¼ “ thickness, and it is 2” from the surface of the turret measured from the lower edge of the strap.

I would be interested to know how others have fabricated this rack. That is, by putting the correct bend in a length of strap of the right dimensions and then a fold at each end for the end mounts? The other way I thought about doing it was to get some steel cut to the profile of the turret and then cut it to the strap width. Any thoughts on the most economical way?

James - I'm still pondering what you said about the bullet holes in the turret. A couple of mates have also suggested I leave a couple there. As they say, it is after all, part of the history of the turret. I’m not sure I am convinced. I would like to be able to say the bullet damage was inflicted during the Battle of the Bulge but it is more likely to be the result of the turret being pounded on a gun range somewhere after the war! What are the thoughts of others?

The brake slave cylinders came back from the brake guy. He did all the work in his lunchtimes and I got the master cylinder and slave cylinders all sleeved at a very, very reasonable price. They look very good. I have a couple of replacement pistons and new cylinder cups coming from Belgium so will get these completed soon and ready to fit. I am going to give the throttle master and slave cylinders and the clutch master cylinder to the same guy and get him to do those as well.