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

[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.

[Big D]

Hi all,

I fitted the turret and the engine covers yesterday. I hadn’t actually planned for the turret to go on just yet but I have a new project coming in and I need the space so I thought I would just get it done. It certainly creates another ‘wow’ moment seeing the turret go on.

The turret was all ready to fit so there wasn’t a lot of preparation required. I did have to fit the last turret support bearing into the hull. I had left that off until now to avoid smacking my head on it each time I got into the hull. One of the guys from Action Engineering next door came through with the truck and Hiab crane to give me a lift. These Hiab cranes are much better for fine movement adjustments than mucking around with a forkhoist.

The main problem we had was slinging the turret so that it lifted evenly. We decided to sling it around the three gun ring mounts along with a stabilising strap around the barrel. I mulled over stropping through the opening where the rear plate on the turret is fitted along with the barrel but we decided this way was going to make it more stable during lifting. As you’d expect, there is some weight in that gun at the front of the turret. After a little bit of mucking around with the lifting strops we got it up and lowered onto the hull. It sat there nicely and we were immediately able to rotate it on the three support bearings just with one finger pushing on the barrel. We tried rotating it right around but I must have the placement of the fire extinguisher bracket not quite right as the base of the seat towers comes into contact with the back of the extinguisher bracket. I will get that moved.

The movement of the turret on the bearings is quite good but there are a couple of points where the rotation isn’t as smooth, so I will look at that. I have the turret hold down rollers sitting in place now and I will need to set all of these up. Several look like they will need shimming so I’ll get all those fitted next week.

I have the quadrant covers ready to fit over the turret roller lock bearings. I have seen some period photos of the arrow marking the zero point that is painted on the inside of the turret. Can anyone give me some dimensions of this arrow and perhaps a close up photo?

I also fitted the engine covers. Thanks to Reg who warned me about being careful with fitting the cover over the carburettor so I monitored that closely. Sure enough, there was a bit of grinding required in that spot for it to properly clear the carburettor. Grinding is not the sort of thing you want to do over the fuel tank but I covered the engine bay with pieces of timber and then some leather blankets and that worked out fine.

The hinge mounting plate for the engine covers is one I made up. I had ‘test fitted’ the engine covers on the hull after that but it’s amazing what a few coats of paint does as the engine cover on the carburettor side is sitting a little high at the fuel tank end. I think I will have to lift that engine cover and tidy up the face of the hinge mounting plate where it meets the engine cover. Those covers are certainly unwieldy and not easy to lift unless you are actually above the engine cover….

I also did some work on the rear sand skirts. I had a mix up with these with the sandblaster/painter a year or so ago. The sand skirts were very rough with both having some wicked bends in them. I had only done a very rough straightening job on them and just wanted them sandblasted but he painted them anyway! As a result I’ve had to remove a lot of the paint and dolly out some of the bigger dents before applying some fibreglass. I may actually ‘revisit’ the front guards later on as now that they are on and I am looking at them all the time, I’m not sure I’m happy that they are straight enough.

I had to move the M8 yesterday as I had parked it where there is a leak in the roof of the workshop right above the M8, which was annoying me. I hadn’t started the engine for 5-6 weeks but it started up first time and ran nicely. I have also figured out that having the steering wheel easily removable is the way to go for being able to easily squeeze into and out of the driver’s seat. Once you are in there it is not too bad. It is getting the legs around the steering wheel that is the problem for me, especially climbing in and out.

That is all for this time…

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

Hi all,

I have spent the last couple of days setting up the turret. When I initially got the turret on it didn’t seem to completely rotate well and felt like it was sticking or binding. I got the impression that maybe the turret was just a little off centre in sitting on the turret support rollers. I thought I might have had to give the turret a little sideways nudge but in the end, that wasn’t required.

I first made sure all the tyre pressures were correct and used a sprit level across the top of the turret to check that the turret was level. It was good so there was no need to adjust the support rollers.

I followed the instructions in the TM 9-1743 manual for setting up the turret roller blocks. I fitted all the turret roller blocks around the ring and tightened them all down. I only had to use a shim under two of the roller blocks. I think I could have probably got away without these but they helped with the installation of those blocks and the later adjustment of the vertical roller sorted everything out.

I loosened off the castellated nut on the eccentric spindle for the vertical roller and rotated the shaft with a screwdriver until I had 0.010 gap between the roller and the turret bearing surface. The manual says 0.005-0.010 but I just set everything up to 0.010 and it worked out fine.

I fitted the turret traverse. I used a grease oil slurry in it rather than just gear oil. I gave the turret a test run then and it traversed nicely. I noticed a couple of slightly tight spots and after checking around the base of the turret I can see where there has been some contact between the repaired turret skirt and the ring on the top of the hull. It looks like a bit of paint has come off so hopefully it is just the thickness of paint that is causing that.

I have noticed the turret traverse is smoother on the first speed of the traverse and it can be easily rotated with one hand on this speed. When switching to the second speed on the traverse, it certainly traverses faster but at times requires more effort. It is almost requires two hands to operate it like that. Is that normal or should it be just as easy as the first speed but at a faster rotation?

I was happy with the state of the turret so I decided to fit the roller block covers. I couldn’t find the required dome slot head screws in 5/16-18 so I have fitted some hex head screws for the moment until I find the correct screws.

These roller block covers are a neat fit. I’d have to say that once they are in there the turret looks real good and I’m very pleased with the result. The other 37mm ammo rack is now fitted and I just need to rejig the dummy rounds I have.

I fixed up the problem I had with the engine covers and the mounting plate. I have also made some handles up for the engine covers. I worked out that my engine crane can safely lift the engine covers so that is handy to know for future reference. I also had to move the fire extinguisher bracket by about 10mm. My placement of this wasn’t spot on and the seat tower was contacting it during its rotation.

That’s all for today.