New on here with a serious M2A1 Project

[A National Acrobat]

Hi guys

First post on here. I'm just bought my first halftrack, an M2A1 that was recovered from a forest in Belgium over the weekend. She's not pretty, missing the rear armour, the front and rear floors and the ammo lockers. Still well worth at least trying to save!

Going to be a big job and I'll doubtless be coming here to the fountain of knowledge more than a little while pulling my hair out! That said I'm really looking forward to it.

Cheers

Tom

[Tapper02]

Very cool Tom....would love to hear the story behind the recovery and of course....see some pictures!!  I was just up in Belgium a week and a half ago.  Beautiful country!

Welcome to the forum.  A wealth of knowledge here...you can't go wrong asking questions or seeking advice.

-Tom (I think there's at least three of us on here now!)

[A National Acrobat]

Actually the story of the recovery is not a very long one!

My old man knew it was in this wood and it had been there for a long time (the rather sorry condition can attest to that)! I was able to track down the owner and a deal was struck. A friend of ours in Belgium has a truck and small digger so, thinking it might be a real pain to try and shift, we asked for his help. Fortunately she rolled and even steered so we pulled her out of the wood and got her loaded up.

Like I say it's not pretty but it just seemed a shame to let it rot away. So very big job ahead but I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it!

[67tank]

Welcome aboard Tom.  For something abandoned in the woods, it doesn't look all that bad.  Great to see you rescuing the old warhorse.  Looking forward to seeing the photos of your progress over the next couple of years. 

Well done. 
Pat

[8683jb]

Congratulations on your purchase Tom. I think she's pretty! What a worthwhile project. Thanks for stepping up to save it.  Being in Belgium, it'd be really interesting to know its history. Good luck with it all and post lots of pictures.
Jon

[A National Acrobat]

There are the remains of unit markings on the hood and front wings but other than the bridging weight (which says 10 tons) I can't make out what the markings are. But they look like British unit markings, just by the colours, size and shape.

Tom

[Tapper02]

Tom,
  If you want to recover the markings, there are some very good threads on the G503 on how guys went about it.  Be careful about pressure washing as that process will remove paint that is flaking.  I think using fine grit sandpaper and wet sanding with a whole lot of patience seems to be the key.  There are even some other techniques such as using a black light to illuminate the markings.  Check out the threads though and if the search function doesn't work for you, just ask...no doubt you will have a lot of 'experts' chime in on the subject.

-Tom

[A National Acrobat]

Cheers Tom

By the look of the paint that's left I don't think they'll be recoverable, all the paint is lifting and flaking off so I think any amount of rubbing or washing will just remove what little is left (and there's probably not enough left to identify them anyway). The bridging plate is clear enough (but obviously doesn't tell us anything) but the numbers on the surviving hood side are still there and I think they will clean up at least a little so I have that to do once she's back home.

Tom

[steve-0]

if yours was converted from m2 to the m2a1 they stamped the hood number in the bogie casting

http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/IMG_03813.JPG

[yd328]

That looks like a great project. Thanks for saving it and be sure to post some more pictures.

Gary

[emptyhead]

Nice start a lot more then I had to work with. Keep us informed

[Moulden]

Nice start a lot more then I had to work with. Keep us informed

Cool project. I'm looking forward to updates.

[A National Acrobat]

So we're still waiting to get the ol' girl home (clearing space and arranging transport) but we were at Tanks in Town in Mons, Belgium so whil ewe were in the country we thought we'd go and see her and see if we couldn't find the chassis number, or any other numbers, while we were there.

As it was only a quick visit, assessing the jobs to be done and what not we didn't have time for a really thorough investigation but we did come up with a couple of bits which I thought I'd put to the "Knowledge" and see if anyone on here might have some insight into what we've found?

The chassis/frame number is 234033 (which I believe makes her a White built machine).

We also found a number on the surviving half of the hood which is 56850 (I don't think this is an original number but it's nice to dream)

Finally the number 5635 was painted on the left side of the bumper (but I think that this is also a post war number and possibly matches the hood number 56850 and years of corrosion made it look a little different).

Sadly the data plate is missing so I have no way of knowing what the Ord number used to be or anything else for that matter.

If there's any information to be gleaned from the chassis number then I'd be very interested to hear about it.


T

[Hammerhead]

Welcome aboard Acrobat!  Your Halftrack has the original Track Armor and I swear your tracks look a lot better than the set I had originally.  Great Luck with everything!

[A National Acrobat]

I really with that was the case. Sadly there's only one track and though it's not shown in the picture it's very cracked and dry. We've been given a worn out track for the other side just to help with loading and moving her until we get a new set.

As to the track armour it's all cracked and shattered. It's a real shame but we're going to have to swap the track armour as well as fabricate the rest of the rear armour.