M2A1 Halftrack restoration-- dialup beware

[Adolf Galland]

Great job.You need of a video of the first drive.

[alpaca andy]

Sorry all, I have been a tad busy. Turns out I have a whole big italian family I never knew I had. Im adopted and a birth sister found me. Turns out my birth parents married and went on to have 5 other kids lol, and everyone is still together. At 44 it was alot to get use too,

Quick update, Replacement sprockets and a winch came in around xmas. Rear armor, the last of the 8 boogie wheels, complete wiring, and pulpit armor soon.

Im hoping to get back on it full time (in between Italian lessons lol)

[Maple_Leaf_Eh]

Congratulations on the life news! Now, get cracking on the halftrack. You're letting down all your internet friends. (Actually, take as much time on your affairs as you need. We are all spectators.)

[Claven2]

Hey Andy, about time for an update yet???

[alpaca andy]

Been awhile. As of late I have been swamped in the shop working on customers cars, but have started back on her. I installed the rear pivot shaft and test fitted the sprockets to check alignment as the original setup was off alot. It looks right on so i hope the old pivot shaft was the original issue


And today the last huge shipment came in. There will still be small stuff but the major stuff is all here now. What came in?? rear armor, pulpit armor (ma duce area) last of the boogie wheels, wiring, NOS brass dash plaques, headlight assembly's, gas tanks and covers, NOS seats, dash switches, tommy gun bracket ( i bought one of those metal bb gun tommys from princess auto when they were on sale and boy its really close to the real thing), armor nuts (500) and other stuff that has slipped my mind. So its all down hill now mostly. The 50 bmg is almost finished too! but i dont think i have any pics of it as of now.

[Peter Laidler]

GREAT news. A truly worthwhile project and pretty well all done by yourself, in house too! And don't forghet the small booklet afterwards!

[Claven2]

Looking good andy, though those sprokets and pivot shaft could use a dab of paint! If you haven't already checked it, check the parallelism between the two track sets. In theory, over time, that being out could have caused the old pivot shaft to deform to where you found it.

[Claven2]

By the way, I found this photo on the net of an M2A1 (recently sold for $30K stateside) that shows it equipped with the pulpet armor.



I'm curious though, your cab clearly had a solid roof. When the pulpet armor is in place, is the roof modified to be open top, or does the gunner stand in the back of the halftrack, behind the cab?

[Peter Laidler]

We had these lend-lease half-tracks in the British Army as REME light recovery vehicles with an overhead crane until about 1970 or so. Very versatile but replace by the AFV 434 a derivative of the 432 or your equivalent of the M113. Disposal was quite troublesome because being lend lease, they had to be 'returned' to the US Government. They weren't of course but they did lay down strict rules about whom could bid/buy them at auction.

In Germany, the UK leased Diamond T's and half-tracks, DUKWs etc etc were taken by rail to Weisbaden for disposal by the US Military

[emmagee1917]

I think the pulpit requires the roof to be left off.
Chris