M2A1 "Hell Hound" project

[Tapper02]

It's really coming along Pat...nice job. 

Great justifications for your markings and configuration.  I know what they say about "it's my vehicle and I can do what I want with it", but it's really nice to hear when someone has done their homework and can historically back up what they've done with their vehicle.

-Tom

[spec4don]

Looking good!

Don G,.

[yd328]

The stenciling looks great. Thanks for the education on them, I didn't know what the numbers on the ammo doors were.

Gary

[steve-0]

nice job   

[67tank]

Haven't posted in a while.  With rain and cold rolling into NorCal, the holidays, and the opening of pheasant/duck season, I decided to take a little break from the project.  Outside of checking on my tent during the wind storms as well as the condensation on the HT after the rain, I have done very little in the past two-three months.  Did receive my order of crates from Martin in the UK and am extremely pleased - just figuring out the order for the rear storage.  Also picked up an original M1A1 mine box is good condition - but not sure where to put it.  Don't want a 70 year aged box next to brand new C-rations/K rations pine. 

With all the rain, I have had finally had enough of doing this project outside.  I have had no luck finding storage locally, so contacted a buddy of mine who is a contractor to enlarge my garage and garage door in order to house the HT. 

Hope all of you had a great holiday season. 

[Outsider]

I think you need to put the new crates outside in the sun for a week or two. It will help them yellow up a bit so they look more like the middle crate on the left side. They would have never made it to the front in such pristine condition.

Steve

[Tapper02]

Did receive my order of crates from Martin in the UK and am extremely pleased - just figuring out the order for the rear storage. 

Pat,
  Can you send me Martin's info...or post here.  Thanks.

-Tom

[yd328]

It looks great with the new supplies on board. Nice find on the mine box also.

Gary

[67tank]

Steve - Great idea.  As soon as we get the sun back for a couple of weeks, I will put them out to 'age'

Tom - WW2 Boxes in the UK  http://www.wwiiboxes.co.uk/index.html

[67tank]

Big weekend.  Sun is out and I am ready to finally get back to work on this project.  Steve came on over and we spent Saturday getting the steel properly aligned, shimmed and correct.  I could not have done this without him.  We had to shim four of ten rear body to frame positions as well as drivers side cab mount.  Additionally Steve pointed out  I was missing the 1/8 in shim under the front of the hood three bolts which was causing me some issues with the radiator.  Corrected that and now hood and doors are all lined up correctly, and everything is bolted down. 
I have a 7/16 in gap between the perimeter rail and the upper windshield.  I used washers to shim the gap for the 9 bolts but plan to correct this with a flat bar in the near future. 
Spent Sunday mounting the fenders, and attaching the small stuff now that the steel is all set. 
Felt good to get back to work. 

[8683jb]

It looks great Pat!

[spec4don]

Rock and Roll Pat!

Don G

[yd328]

Looks good, I like the stencil work also

Gary

[Darth_Kitten]

That looks fabulous! The Stencils look great too! Did you get those through Larsen?

[67tank]

Darth Kitten
Yep - ordered all the stencils thru Rick Larsen - His work is great.  The only problem I ran into is that his printing machine can do the large star for the hood, but cannot do the large star AND the invasion circle.  Most 2AD halftracks I see from the WW2 photos in the ETO had the large star and large diameter invasion circle which cuts off at the left and right edges of the hood.  So I will use the large star stencil (which I think is the 36in star) and then come up with a way to cut by hand the correct circle.  That should be a pain in the ass.