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

[Big D]

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[Big D]

Hi all,

Here is another update on the M8.

The sandblaster is a bit snowed under with work, and things haven’t progressed yet on the blasting and painting, so while I’ve been waiting I’ve been working on a few other things.

I’ve been doing the final repairs on all the sheet metal. In keeping with this M8’s very ‘used’ look, I have not repaired every bit of damage on the exterior sheet metal. I still want it to show signs of field use. I’ve straightened the large rear guards and cut out the corroded bits of metal and spliced in new sections. There are a few bullet holes in the guards and there are some signs of field repairs such as welded splits in the steel, which I have just tidied up a bit rather than removing the old repair.

I have cut out and patched most of the corrosion holes in the fuel cell enclosure. There was a lot more corrosion in there than I thought and I’ll probably see a bit more coming through once the enclosure has been blasted. I probably should have got it blasted first, but...... The enclosure is just there to hold the new stainless steel tank I will build anyway, so I am focussed mainly on having it structurally sound while looking original and being relatively tidy.

The panels on the transfer case protective shield are now straight and ready for painting. I’ve also tidied up the front inner and outer guards and replaced any obvious rotten material in them. They are pretty tidy, albeit fairly well-used.

I’ve also been doing some work in tidying up the rear junction box and conduit. These are starting to look a little better now. I am still after one of the male threaded sections that fit to the junction box to complete mine, if anyone has any spares.

I’ve got the generator apart now and it looks reasonably good inside. I broke the pulley wheel in the process which brassed me off, but I took some consolation in the fact that it had already been repaired in one place and it had damage in another place, which was where it broke. I will find a specialist welder and see if it can be repaired.

Now that I have the generator apart, the field coils and armature look to be in good shape. I have stripped it all out now and have already cleaned up the case and internal pieces. I will tidy up what I can and go as far as I can go with my limited expertise, before bundling everything together and taking it and the voltage regulator to the auto electrician to see if it is going to work.

[Big D]

More photos.

[James P]

Hey Big D, looking forward (as I am sure you are) at pics of the body back from the sandblasters sporting a nice fresh coat of primer/paint and looking 300% better. Good lord man you have plowed a huge amount of time, effort and change into that vehicle, and it looks great. I applaud your work (and posts) and think this is one of a few really great threads on doing things right.

[Big D]

Hi James P,

Yes, literally chomping at the bit! Thanks for the kind words. I hope to have some photos uploaded in the next few days.

[Big D]

Hi all,

There has still been no progress on the blasting and painting of the hull, which is a bit of a bugger as it is holding me up now. However, it has given me some time to progress some other parts of the restoration.

I’ve done a bit more work on the generator. Things were progressing nicely until I realised that the repair kit I had was for the Ford generator and not the Autolite generator I have. I am on the lookout for the correct kit now....

After a light brush down, the field coils look too be in good shape. They appear fine electrically but will let the auto electrician confirm that when I get it all to him. The armature and commutator also look fine at this stage. Apart from one new bearing which I need to fit, the enclosure and end caps are ready for the reassembly.

I still need to rebuild the ceramic plate that insulates the posts from the enclosure and find another stud to replace the broken post. I also need to confirm what exactly is in the breakerbox that is attached to the side of the generator. Does anyone have any photos of the inside of this? I have a circuit breaker and a thick short cable but that is it.

I started work on the FT-237 radio mount and the radio and interphone bits and pieces. The plan is to get all this working before it goes into the hull. I understand the radio mount should be unpainted and just retain its original zinc finish but the steel on mine was pretty corroded and rough in places though so I after I removed the remaining paint and cleaned everything up, I painted the metalwork a zinc colour. I don’t think it looks too bad.

A couple of the toggle clamps were a bit bent but I heated them and straightened them and they are pretty good now. Two of the wee springs that go on the clamps are broken so I am on the lookout for replacements.

The wiring on the mount actually looks reasonably good so I will just test it and confirm. I have some assembly instructions for the wiring of the interphones coming from a supplier in France. The TM manuals don’t show the colour coding for the interphone connections to the terminal block on the FT-237 and the old wiring was too far gone to work out the colours. I have cleaned up the terminal board and will reattach that now pending the connection of the cabling and testing.

Still to do is tidying up of the data plates and the two posts on the left of the mount. I painted the brass plates black and will scratch away the paint on the embossed lettering.

That’s it for today....

[Big D]

More photos.