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

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here are a few pictures of the latest progress. I have fitted the recoil system and elevation system. I found the elevation system and sector gear on the recoil system had to be fitted at the same time. I had the elevation gear in first but I couldn’t find a way to fit the sector gear for the recoil system afterwards as there was just not the room to make them mesh unless installing them together.

The 37mm racks, map clips and binocular holder are fitted, but I will need to remove the rear 37mm rack to lift the turret onto the hull. As you’ll see the binocular holder is white. From what I could see these were white on earlier M8’s and then green on later ones. Someone may correct me on that.

The barrel is now straight and the good news is that the damaged part of the tube will be obscured by the sleigh. The breech ring is off and will require some rebuilding.

What is the easiest way to fit the barrel to the gun mount? My thoughts were to fit the sleigh onto the recoil system and then with the recoil system angled downwards, slide the barrel (minus the breech ring) into the sleigh. Is there a better way?

After cleaning up the channels, I test fitted the sleigh onto the recoil system with my fabricated brass channel on the sides. The sleigh will go on, but it will be a snug fit with that new brass.

I finalised the interphone box wiring for the commander and loader. The headphones on these worked straight away but the microphones did not. I worked out that the way I had wired the connector on the FT-237 radio tray (which was as per the TM 11-2702 manual) was actually wrong. I can recall when I did that FT-237 wiring, that it didn’t seem right that the microphone circuits (yellow and brown wires) for the back interphone boxes weren’t on the same line as the interphone boxes for the front. Anyway, I wired them together on the FT-237 and the rear interphone boxes now work fine with headphones and microphones.

I have some of the sheet metal back from the sandblasters, painted and ready to go. Unfortunately, the sandblaster got their wires crossed with the painting. The plan was to blast and paint the tool lockers, as they were ready to fit, but just blast and prime the big sandskirts, because I still needed to apply some fibreglass to them to improve their roughish appearance. The blasters got that the wrong way around and I have a pair of tool lockers which have just been blasted and primed (!), while I have some fully painted sandskirts which still need to be fibreglassed! Oh, well….

I spent a bit of time making the radiator drain plug access flap on the rear lower engine panel. The reproduction panel that I had didn’t have this hole cut in it. Thanks to Willy for his help on the design of this. I received a nice load of parts I needed in the post today (cheers Reg), including the radiator mounts, hydrovac tube and hydrovac repair kits.

The last of the bits and pieces are loaded up and ready to go to the sandblasters for priming and painting.

That is all for today….

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Progress continues…

I was about to fit the transfer case to the hull but have just found some original cushion mount retainers (thanks Nick and Charles), so I will wait until they arrive before I fit the transfer case to the hull. I filled the transfer case with oil. The front declutch housing took just under a litre of gear oil and the main housing took just under two litres. I filled to the point where oil was just coming out the filler. I expected the transfer case to take a bit more than that. Can anyone confirm? I don’t appear to have anything in my manuals which shows the quantities. Someone was reproducing lubrication charts for these a while ago. Are these still available? I messaged the seller without success.

While I was mucking around with the handbrake assembly, I realised that I didn’t have the bell-crank which is fitted to the hull, as shown in this picture I borrowed off the net. If anyone has one of these lying around in their bunch of spares, I’d be very interested.

I’ve painted the stars onto the turret. The rough surface of the turret didn’t make it easy to apply paint masks which meant that I had a bit of bleeding of paint on the edges, so I’ll need to clean those up. I’ve also added a few more waterslide decals to the hull and turret. The bullet hole in the star looks effective!

I got the handles and two locking levers made up for the engine covers. The handles were spot on but the rod used in the locking levers was not quite the right diameter, and they are a slightly loose fit, so I’ll get the other two made up with the correct diameter.

Now that I have some hydrovac kits (thanks Reg) I have started reconditioning the hydrovac. I don’t think these kits are exactly right for my hydrovac, but we’ll see how we go. The slave cylinder on the hydrovac is pretty rough internally. The main return spring was rusted inside the bore of the slave cylinder and removal twisted it, so I will need to replace that. At this stage, the piston is still stuck in the bore of the slave cylinder so I am soaking it in the hope of getting it out at some point. The bore will need a stainless steel sleeve so once I get it all apart I’ll get it off to the experts for fitting that sleeve. I have rebuilt the main cylinder of the hydrovac with replacement seals and that side of it looks alright at this point. I’ll finish the whole unit off once I get the slave cylinder back.

I am trying to finalise the bleed points for the hydraulics now. I want to fit a bleeder nipple to the end of the short hydraulic lines I’ve made which come from the T junctions, but I am struggling to find a fitting that will allow this. What have the guys who have done this used for such a connection?

I have the lockers front outer guards and some other parts back from painting now. I’ll pick up the gun tube, sleigh and mantlet next week.

[Big D]

More photos.

[James P]

More great work and breathtaking attention to detail. I have to say you are doing some amazing things bringing that car back to factory new. Just one small suggestion, take some silver paint and do some touch up around the strikes on the turret. I used POR-15 on my one strike and it looks so cool instead of a OD paint filled impact.

[James P]

Back at post 332 you mention a oil seep on the pillow block, have you ever considered Corn Head grease for the fill ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zNhli-J0Gk

[Big D]

Hi James P,

Thanks for that. That is a great idea about the silver paint. I will do that.

Interesting video. The little cork wedge I made actually did the trick and stopped the leak. However, I did learn though that the recommendation for lubrication for the pillow block changed from gear oil to grease, simply because of the leaks. I will do some more reading about that grease.

[David Dunlop]

Hello Darryl.

You are making good progress now. Nice to see all the hard work paying off for you.

It’s interesting how little information is out there regarding the post war use of the M8 by the Italian Army. It does not seem to be a priority topic. I have, however, run across two M8 publications that have mentioned (and little else) the Italian usage. The interesting thing was both publications referenced the same source, as follows:

OSPREY BOOKS, ISBN 1-84176-468-X

‘M8 Greyhound Light Armoured Car’ (2002)

by Steve Zaloga

I have no idea if this Osprey publication contains a one line quote about this topic, or deals with it to any depth, with further references, but thought I would pass the information along to you, if the book is not already in your library.

David

[James P]

Originally Posted by Big D

Hi James P,

Thanks for that. That is a great idea about the silver paint. I will do that.

Interesting video. The little cork wedge I made actually did the trick and stopped the leak. However, I did learn though that the recommendation for lubrication for the pillow block changed from gear oil to grease, simply because of the leaks. I will do some more reading about that grease.

Hey Big D, I use Corn head grease on a VW transfer case that is prone to bleeding out and can vouch for it being a good call. The silver paint idea is something I saw on the show Tank Overhaul where after painting the vehicle they touched up all the strikes and hits with silver paint .

[Big D]

Hi David

Thanks for that. I'm getting there now.

Yes, I have that Zaloga book here. It is very detailed and a good read.

[Big D]

Thanks James P. I will need to get some of that paint. It will be a good little 'fill-in' job between other bigger jobs.