Finally Home

[A National Acrobat]

You may have seen the pictures of the Half Track that me, my brother and our old man dragged out of a wood in Belgium (she's an M2A1 missing most of the rear armour). Well we've finally gotten her home and my father is currently enjoying some steam cleaner therapy, blasting off many decades worth of moss and grime.

I've decided that the photos that I posted here originally are VERY flattering. While on the one hand she looks a whole lot better not covered in many miniature ecosystems, the jet wash is showing up where sections of the chassis are de-laminating and parts that seemed rusty but solid are actually worryingly thin! Oh she's restorable, as they say "nothing is made in heaven" but I think my father is concerned that we've bitten off more than we can chew!

Cheers

T


(Photos to follow).

[Outsider]

As the old saying goes...."If it casts a shadow it can be restored"

Steve

[WayOffTrack]

Looking forward to your photos.

[A National Acrobat]

So Here's the first few pictures. Not taken any detail ones yet but I will at some point.

She arrived on a lowloader along with a friends M7 trailer, glad it worked out like that because he arrived in his workshop bodied CCKW to pick up the trailer and without his truck we'd have been really stuck as our trucks chose that day as the day to start playing up!

Anyway liberal use of a straight bar and brute force got the old girl off the trailer and shoved into place, atleast while work starts. Now I'll admit I've never even sat in the driver's seat of a halftrack so it was a little bit of a trial by fire when I was tasked with steering her down our driveway! No control of speed or braking and not exactly the most comfortable perch but I was grinning all the way!

I left my old man to steam clean the many many years of plant life and grime off of her and when I came back she was at least devoid of foliage and soil and you can probably see the expressions of "so this is our starting point".

I suppose jobs like this are prime examples of the idea that anything worth doing is never easy!

[8683jb]

It's had a rough life to be sure, and being left in the woods to rot away has taken its toll but the satisfaction of bringing this back to life will be immense!!!

[A National Acrobat]

Amen to that, she's in a rough shape but we couldn't just leave her to rot, that combined with being told that she couldn't be repaired . . . well it's a red flag to a bull!

[8683jb]

Sounds like a gauntlet has been dropped!

[Outsider]

That looks to be an early unmolested paint job on your ht as it has a square bridge insignia painted on the right front fender! That is uncommon to find those.

Steve

[A National Acrobat]

That looks to be an early unmolested paint job on your ht as it has a square bridge insignia painted on the right front fender! That is uncommon to find those.

Steve

You think? Hmm I assumed that it was all repainted by the French post War. Had a scrat today and couldn't find any evidence of a star on the hood and the hood numbers (56850) are repeated on the front right bumper which didn't seem to correspond to any other's that I have seen. The only other thing that we saw was evidence of shapes and different colours on the front wings but not enough left to be able to identify.

As we're missing the data plates and hood numbers, is there anything that the frame number can tell us (aside from the fact that it's a White, 234*** number)?

T

[Darth_Kitten]

Check Kevin's database on the G. You can most likely extrapolate your hood number from there if there are enough other whites in his database.
Mark

That looks to be an early unmolested paint job on your ht as it has a square bridge insignia painted on the right front fender! That is uncommon to find those.

Steve

You think? Hmm I assumed that it was all repainted by the French post War. Had a scrat today and couldn't find any evidence of a star on the hood and the hood numbers (56850) are repeated on the front right bumper which didn't seem to correspond to any other's that I have seen. The only other thing that we saw was evidence of shapes and different colours on the front wings but not enough left to be able to identify.

As we're missing the data plates and hood numbers, is there anything that the frame number can tell us (aside from the fact that it's a White, 234*** number)?

T

[A National Acrobat]

While I'm thinking of random questions, are all of the outer hinges (eg hood, door, screen armour, side lockers on M2/M2A1 half tracks) are they all the same hinges?

[woodwalker]

Sort of but no there are inner Hing on hood armor no counter sinks windshield armor has only one side counter sunk and ammo lockers are a completely different cat.
If you find extra hood hinges you can counter sinks to either style

[67tank]

To piggy back on what Woodwalker said -
1.  You have 14 hinges that are countersunk in all four holes.  6 for the hood and four per door (Photo 1)
2.  On the inside of the hood you have 6 hinges that have no countersinking on any of the holes - 3 per side.
3.  For the front window armor you have three hinges with two holes countersunk and two holes without.  The inside of the armor windshield has countersunk holes for the required 6 FLAT head bolts (Photos 2 and 3)
4.  For the ammo doors on a M2/M2A1 you need an additional 4 hinges that are countersunk on two holes and straight on the other two.  (photo 4) Cant remember if they are different from the ones on the windshield since they swing a different way? 
Hope that makes sense. 

[A National Acrobat]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Haven't seen an M2/M2A1 up close to properly examine, at least not since we bought ours so any detail pictures are a huge help. We're in the UK and the next nearest one I know of is about a 3 hour drive away!

[67tank]

T
I know the feeling.  For the past three years I drove 3 hours round trip to Steve's place to get hundreds of photos and videos of his restored and un-restored Halftracks to get an idea of where everything goes.  Additionally members of this site were a huge help sending me photos when I had questions or was stuck.  Feel free to ask for photos of whatever you need and I and the others can send or post.  I don't know how guys completed these projects back in the 70's- 80's without resources like this site.