M2A1 Halftrack restoration-- dialup beware

[Peter Laidler]

Fantastic to see............... That's interesting too about the rear door variants going to the Allies as our light recovery tractors all had rear doors.

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
I Agree, fascinating fact.............I suppose we couldn;t take the shock waves induced by the heavy studded ammo boots hitting the deck from such a height so we had to have a door, more civil old chap what??!!!

[Homer2]

Well done Andy. Great achievement!

[Bill Hollinger]

Great job Andy. Boy they sure don't do sharp turns do they? After riding around at Tower Park in Don Gleason'd haft track Zelda, they aren't easy to drive either.

[alpaca andy]

Well time is flying. Started to blast and test floors, of course after 70 years original stuff is bent, new stuff isnt quite right etc etc. I ended up finding a NOS french speedo for a good price, not exactly a look a like to the original speedo but it doesn't look all that bad. I also modified the air cleaner, it was an oil type. Inside there was a few inches of layered criss crossed wire mesh and the oil stuck to it making it a filter. Not impressed I modified the system to use a modern canister type paper filter

Pass side floor as taken out


New and redone floor sections


Modified aircleaner. I made the center mount in the middle of pic. it welded in the large canister and holds the filter

[Claven2]

Did the French also use oil bath? Seems nonsensical, doesn't it?

[alpaca andy]

As far as i know, no halftrack in any army used anything other than the factory oil type screen. I guess mice and small birds would be safe but i wouldn't want to drive it in the desert with all that sand.

Did the French also use oil bath? Seems nonsensical, doesn't it?

[catman]

WOW, GREAT JOB!!! Sounds cool in the vid. Is that the front end of a 1970 442 or Cutlass you can see the in the beginning of the vid?
Too bad you didn't rattle off a few rounds too.
Again-- very nice job.
Chuck

[alpaca andy]

Haa good eye, customers 72 cutlass, i restore old cars

WOW, GREAT JOB!!! Sounds cool in the vid. Is that the front end of a 1970 442 or Cutlass you can see the in the beginning of the vid?
Too bad you didn't rattle off a few rounds too.
Again-- very nice job.
Chuck

---------- Post added at 08:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:25 PM ----------

Been a bit. Still slaving away on her. Took a while to do the floors, nothing lined up so trim here trim there. Also got a french speedo installed for now, its different looking but fits well and works



Hood sections were a huge pain installing



Back rests on seats are on too



And the tommy in its new home


On to the fenders now. Its been years since i looked at them, alot worse than i remembered 8(

Andy

[shuvelrider]

What a great job you have done with that H-Track. I remember in the late 80's when I lived in Illinois, I chased down a story of halftracks sitting in an auto salvage/scrap yard in the farm town of Amboy Illinois. There was three of them plus some "meat wagons" from the Korean war era, saw them from the road through the chain link fence. Here is an antiaircraft variation most people have never seen. This belonged to the 1st ADA Training Brigade at Ft. Bliss TX. I was in that unit in 82-83, some of us would drive it to ceremony's on post. Since I was in the motorpool I got to do some of the preventative maintenance on it. The story is that it came home from the South Korean Army and sat in the state of Maine for a long time, it was restored at Ft. Bliss after it was purchased from private ownership. That turret could rotate, 40mm gun that was magazine fed and operated by a crew of three.