Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[lynx42]

The steering box was removed at this time



It showed signs of leaking in a previous life, it will have to be rebuilt as well.



That is the steering box on the left and it goes through a bearing set up through the right front spring hanger.



Not an easy job to remove at all. Still eventually it came out and was put away for a rainy day.

[lynx42]

The pins for the springs were removed and the axle sets moved away. The shackle pins were good enough to reuse but the bushes will need work.

I had purchased a second hand lathe recently which came in extremely handy.



Wasps and spider are part of the job.



I was able to pick up an old engine crane at an auction for $50.00 and it certainly was a good buy. Here it has been used to lift the front axle onto some saw horses.



The chassis was almost bare by now except for a few small fittings.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

All of the brackets for the brake lines,



the brake lines and fuel lines were photographed, removed, labelled and stored ready to be replaced.



This is the fuel tap which bolts to the underside of the hull floor. Terrible idea as it had to be the first undone and refitted early in the rebuild.



I purchased a bundy pipe bender which covers ¼”. 3/8” & ½” bundy tubing so should be ok when I get around to it. It was not that easy to get the lengths I needed but ended up purchasing it by the roll.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

The Lynx was pushed into the shed on the 10th May 2013 and one week later the fully stripped chassis is off to the sandblaster.



I located a new sandblaster in the next town who was just starting up and he offered me a cut-price. An agreement was made and I delivered chassis, front axle and many other bits to him.



Fortunately for me he had a few helpers each time I went to his work place.



Unfortunately he had an equipment failure and things took a few months longer than I had hoped. Whilst I was waiting for the bits to be sandblasted, I had plenty to go on with. There were fittings to be bushed out, brackets to be made and panel beating on quite a few thin unarmoured tinwork parts. There were repairs and rebuilding to be carried out on a myriad of parts.

Rick

[Dinty]

Rick, (said with tongue in cheek) I will send you my contact details so I can come and pick up when finished LOL.
Some years ago I was steered onto a Lynx that was up in the area known as 'Lighting Ridge' Northern NSW, some friends had heard about a 4WD they could have basically for a slab of beer, so armed with a large box trailer they set off to pick up ? the jeep, only to be confronted by something they had no idea what it was except it had Ford sidevalve rear engine, they left empty handed. I never actually saw the vehicle only images, it was missing quite a lot of the body armour etc, I now believe it has gone to Qld, anyway it would have been way too much for me not knowing where to find anything for it and possibly looking at making body panels (for the want of a better description) anyway I'm looking forward to your posts and hopefully seeing it in the flesh sometime soon, sorry for the hi-jack, cheers n thanks Dennis

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Could you share the brand and type details of the tyres you bought? The tread certainly looks good and it is a bit different than those "boring" bar threads.

Hi Hanno,

I will PM Deans email address to you for security reasons (I am sure he doesn't want heaps of spam mail from the lurkers.). He lives just outside of Toowoomba, Queensland. The tyres were sourced by him from India (MRF?) but were actually made in China. What isn't these days?

The brand is "FORESTER."



This is how they arrived at my place on a pallet.



The price included the tyre, tube and rust-band and slipped straight on to the Lynx wheels.



Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

With the chassis gone to the sandblasters the next few days saw me stripping and cleaning the rear springs.



There was no rust between the leaves which was a great bonus. All the shackle pins showed no wear so that was a bonus as well but the new second-hand lathe was in for a workout with new bushes needed.



New centre bolts were easy to get so I replaced all 4. Large ‘G’ and ‘F’ clamps did the job well compressing the leaves to refit the centre pins.



Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

It is a bit of a pity that we can only add 5 photos per post. I have thousands and have to pick out the ones to use and then resize them, save them and then put them into the order I want to show.

Anyway on we go.

The radiator being at the rear means that there must be some sort protection to stop the air from pressurizing the engine compartment as you drive forward which would stop the fan from drawing air through the radiator and past the engine.



To do this there are panels under the engine which stop the air coming up from below and help direct the warm air out towards the rear of the vehicle.



Fortunately for me, all of the panels were there, badly bent up, but all there and I was able to panel beat them out successfully.



The radiator also has a sealed shroud around it for the same reason. I'll show that later.

Rick.

[lynx42]

More photos of the under engine panels.



The openings help direct the hot air under and behind the vehicle.



This dome-headed bit is swung out of the way in the belly plate to drain the oil from the engine.



A strip of rubber seals the shroud to the hull sides in the engine bay you can see the staples used to hold it in place.



Some cleaning and panel-beating required here.

Rick

[lynx42]

With the chassis at the sandblasters it was time to start pulling the fittings off the hull. We set it up on two large saw horses which gave a bit of room underneath but did not make the hull too high to work on.



The Blitz in the back ground is a C60S, WO-78, No.6 Artillery Tractor to tow the 40mm. Bofors Anti-Aircraft gun, a project for the future (maybe).



The grey vehicle on the left is a rare one. It is a fully optioned 'HJ' Holden GTS wagon. One of 4 built for GHM executives in 1974. It has all the Monaro extras including a 308 V8, M20 gear box and 3.6 limited slip diff vented guards and full Monaro interior. I suppose you could call it an 'HJ Holden GTS Monaro Wagon', but it was never released as such. I restored it for my No.1 son but he did not look after it and I so took it off him 14 years ago.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

First it was a job to free up all of the hatches handles and linkages etc. There was quite a lot of oxy acetylene heat used to do this. I think that every nut and bolt was heated up to red and allowed to cool down. This was to break the rust and it was quicker to heat every one instead of hoping that they would undo like the ones on the chassis. The grey thread protector paste was quite visible on many of the threads and most came undone without too much trouble.



The hinges were all hard to free up and plenty of heat was used on them. There are springs in the latches for the drivers, gun hatch and commanders hatches so they were just warmed up so that the spring, if it was saveable, did not loose its spring.



The handles for the hatches were also seized and had to be freed up with heat and straightened as well. This was done whilst the hatches were closed and the mechanism of the handles could be lined up correctly.



The hinges on each hatch and the two door are not only bolted but welded in place as well. I had to remove the doors, but I had fitted them years ago so that wasn’t much of a problem.

Regards Rick

[lynx42]

Gun hatch being freed up.



The drivers hatch has the fitting for the protector-scope. The hatch is opened in three parts and all were seized solid.



As I gently heated and moved things to free it up I discovered that the rubber vibration pads were still there.



This was removed carefully and the hatch freed up.



Rick

[lynx42]

The finding of the commanders left side hatch panel was told in #7.

I had already had replacement a panel produced by a firm in Melbourne’s south east using the cut-off right side piece as a mirror patten. They wanted $713.00 for one cut to shape with a garnet/water jet process. The main cost was the setting up of the computer program for the water jet machine. I had a brain wave and had 9 produced for only $130.00 more. I needed only one for the left side but quickly sold the other 4 sets (Left and right). One went overseas and selling them gave me some extra restoration money. I had them made slightly over size as no two Lynx hulls would have been cut exactly the same way. They needed trimming on the bottom and rear sides but the top and where they met the front armour was correctly cut with the correct angles. The surrounding panel then only needed trimming at the bottom and rear to suit each vehicle and the placing of the hinges and the bullet splash strips on the inside. All the holes were drilled during production as well.

Here is the new panel welded into place with all holes etc in place.



Buried for close to 50 years didn't do too much damage.





It was amazing that even the light weight splash guard was not rusted through.



A bit of heat soon broke the rust and I was able to remove the hatch opening mechanism, lock plate and splash guard.



Rick

[lynx42]

I completely stripped the original left panel and re-used the hatch, hinges and other fittings. This involved unbolting and then cutting through the welds. I cut through the welds to the bullet splash protection in the inside and the angled piece at the top where the roof sits when it is closed.



There were two types of shims under the hinges to allow them to line up and fit closely to the hull.



The original hatch ready for the sandblaster.



Here the reclaimed bullet splash guards and roof support are tack welded in place on the replacement left side. Still to be welded in properly and to be cleaned.



The car, (yes I know it is out of focus), is a rare one in Australia. It is a 1964 Chrysler, Plymouth, Valiant, Signet 200V convertible, with a 273ci. V8 and 3 speed push button auto gearbox. No others are known in Australia. It has been converted to right-hand drive.

Rick.

[lynx42]

I originally thought that this hull was a change over from the Lynx I (mk.II) to the Lynx I (mk.III*), as this hull has indication that it was one of the original hulls with the vertical rear grill



and was modified to the later horizontal grill version.



There are 3 hinges on the rear hatch not two.



Both sides of the rear of the engine compartment have welded up holes and newer drilled holes for the horizontal grill mounts.



Left side.



Right side.

Mike C. tells me that the Lynxes’ supplied to Australia were of two rear body configurations: the early vertical rear grill and the later horizontal rear grill. In October 1944, a modification was authorized for all the early type to be converted to the later configuration using one of two Ford-supplied retrofit kits, either the C19SR-16604 or C19SR-110895. In theory, all Lynx were then converted to the latter type rear grill configuration which gave much better cooling performance, but I doubt that the ones held in vehicle parks ('Command Depot Stock') were high on the priority list, and possibly escaped conversion.

Cont.

[lynx42]

More welded up holes.



Oxy cuts to the rear engine hull plates not guillotined of as when new.



Welded hood locks not the original bolted on latches.



and oxy cuts to the corners where the new shaped hood sits.



All very interesting. Thanks to Mike C. I now understand a bit more of 1726's history.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

The bulkhead between the engine compartment and the crew consists of two metal panels with ¾ inch plywood sandwiched between them.



Crew cab side.



Engine bay side.

Both metal panels were badly rusted and had to be replicated. First I had to remove all the fittings including the choke and hand throttle cables as well as the rubber grommets and numerous other small things.



The plywood between the two metal plates was completely shot and was only good for a fire starter.



A sheet metal shop in Bairnsdale cut out the shapes and I drilled all the holes. There is an inner and an outer as well as a small removable cover to get to the gearbox. Fortunately for me, the rust was no where the holes were and I was able to use each old panels as a template for the new ones. All the holes were able to be positioned correctly and the end product was very satisfactory. (I don't think I have photos of them as supplied from the sheet metal shop.)

Rick.

[lynx42]

Rubber grommets are a bit past it.



I searched the web for new ones but was unsuccessful so what to use to replace them?

I have for years picked up all sorts of rubber suspension rubbers and the like. So I dug them out and found that I had a few rubbers which I drilled to size inside and then shaped the outside, I then cut them not in half but about 1/3rd of the width which gave me two thick and two thin half grommets. Using the two thick ones, I trimmed them to size and then when I was ready to fit them I glued the two insides together which resulted in an excellent grommet looking from both sides and fully insulating as well.

Rick

[lynx42]

Plenty of rust.

Rusted inside of the panel.



and the outside as well.



The choke and hand throttle cables were rusted solid in their Bowden conduit.



Every panel, fitting, cable, in fact every single thing, is grounded with earth straps. Here the earth straps are attached with Bolted on fittings to the two cables.



Rick

[lynx42]

Part of the fun is getting things apart. The hydraulics were not that, not fun. With nine units all connected to the one reservoir there were the hydraulic lines going every where. (see post #15)

There is a clutch pump and slave cylinder, a brake master cylinder and four wheel cylinders, an accelerator pump and a carburettor slave cylinder to be disassembled and re-kitted and or re-sleeved



The clutch master cylinder.



The clutch slave cylinder.



Slave cylinder starting to come apart.



I was very lucky to have a spare slave cylinder as not all things come apart the way they should.



In June 2013 I took all of the hydraulic items to ‘The Brake Place’, in Berwick. Andy Seymour undertook the refurbishment of the 4 wheel cylinders, the master cylinder, the clutch pump and slave, and the hydraulic accelerator pump. The accelerator slave cylinder was a new old stock item I picked up many years ago at one of the Corowa Swim-In auctions supplied by Alan Newton from SA who was a Lynx owner but did not recognize the slave cylinder. Lucky me.

Rick.

[lynx42]

The clutch master cylinder did not look much but it did come apart without too much trouble.



I cannot say the same about the slave cylinder. Thank heavens I had a spare and was able to recover the housing from the spare and the workings from this one.



The master cylinder had been lying out in the weather for 57 years and came apart eventually with out being harmed.



Rick.

[lynx42]

This is the accelerator pump. The pedal has a rod which comes through the floor and attaches to the bronze lever.



Andy Seymour did a great job including the re-sleeving of the bore with stainless steel and re-kitting it.



Rick.

[lynx42]

The accelerator pump slave cylinder was in a pretty bad way but as I said earlier, I had purchased a new old stock one at a Corowa Swim-In auction.

There is a thick rubber hose connecting the slave cylinder to the supply pipe. This is to allow for engine vibrations which if it was solid, could work harden and fracture the supply pipe. The slave cylinder bracket bolts onto two of the manifold studs. I had two different types of brackets so I think the now unused one is from either a later or an earlier Lynx.



What a beauty. It still had the hydraulic oil inside 70 years later as I found out the hard way when it sprayed all down my front.



An interesting brass notice still attached after all these saying to use Brake Fluid only.



The thick rubber pipe was still attached to the new pump and in brand new condition.

Rick

[lynx42]

I've been in Melbourne for a few days so now home and back to the story.



I started to strip down the rear diff. I said before that the rear diff was the Lynx Achilles heal. I located another diff assembly at Childers, a town in Central Gippsland, which had been used under a farm trailer. It was pretty complete but had had the spring hanger bases moved about 1" inwards. Still it was better than nothing. More about that diff shortly.



I went and saw Andy Seymour, 'The Brake Place Berwick' who fitted new brake linings to all 8 brake shoes, and turned out the brake drums to suit.



Both front and rear were done. Andy also pressed into place the bearing cups for the new bearings. All the bearings were purchased over the counter at the local bearing shop where they were all in stock.



He also supplied the flexible brake hoses from the rough samples I had. You might notice that I marked everything so that I knew what went where on re-assembly.

The complete rebuild of the brakes cost me a few bob but at least I know that I will be able to stop OK.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

This is how things came apart during the strip down of the rear brakes.



As you can see they were pretty grubby but the brake linings were not to bad.

[lynx42]

As mentioned earlier, the rear spring perch bracket had been moved inwards for the farm trailer so I had to grind them off and reposition them. I had to wait until the chassis came back from the sandblasters to ensure that I got things lined up correctly.



Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

I thought the rear diff was OK as everything turned. I took out the drain plug and nothing came out. There were plenty of metal scraps in the drain plug.



I stuck my finger inside and it came out with a silver sheen and accompanying bits of ground up metal. BUGGAR!.



So the rear diff was pulled apart and what a mess I found. The pinion inner roller bearing was next to non-existent. It had ground itself to smithereens between the pinion and crown wheel.There were no rollers left. The crown wheel and pinion were beyond re-use. Both had many many divots and dents ground into all of the teeth.



The pinion nut was seized onto the shaft and the cotter pin broken off so there was no alternative except to used a lot of heat and a fine 1mm. cutoff disc. Fortunately I was able to use the universal flange again.

I was fortunate that I had located a complete Lynx front axle around about 2001 and that gave me a good crown wheel and pinion to use. Both these rear and front diffs had come from the same vehicle originally. The rear diff went to Childers and the front to Newry. Only about 100km apart. The cut down Lynx had been used as a loader for a sand pit up at Swifts Creek, Vic. It was cut up and sold about 40 years ago, the rest went to scrap. I swapped a White Scout Car gearbox for the front diff.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

New seals and bearings were the order of the day. As said before, the local bearing shop had them in stock. Lucky for me I run a trade account there.



The rear diff housing was then split in two, cleaned up and with new bearings and seals was readied for fitting to the springs when the chassis came back. There is a small wear plated inside the diff housing and that also was renewed to help keep things in line for the future.

Rick.

[lynx42]

All of the bearing cups had quite a lot of pitting and marks from standing in one place for so long.



The diff oil was a funny colour and was quite metallic with plenty of silver flakes in it.



The only parts useable from this diff were the two halves of the housing and the brakes. All the rest were replaced.

Rick

[lynx42]

The hand brake mechanism was removed from under the hull floor and after dis-assembling, was put into the molasses bath.



The hand brake cables were totally beyond saving and I remembered seeing some at Dirk Leegwaters place in Holland in 2009. These were new old stock ones on the shelf. An email to LWDPARTS.com saw two on the way very quickly. Thanks Dirk.

Rick.