Friday Art Shot

The Society's 1970 M35 A2 in her new Vietnam "Yellow Nose" convoy configuration

Its getting the full South East Asian conflict treatment to be able to go with both our V-100 and Gama Goat

Look for the M-35 and "Big V" out and about on Ottawa streets next Saturday the 16th of June !

One last detail!

We are in the process of updating our web page (www.coldwarcollection.com) and will be linking and embedding the Blog into that platform, so look for more video and in depth stuff on the collection over the next while !

Track Time !

Here are a few candid pics  of the inside drivers position and engine bay of our Belgian CVR(T) Scorpion. She is an early hull number (68) and is still powered by the fast running 4.2 Jaguar Gas engine, making it still, one of the fastest tracks on the earth!

You can see just how tight the space is for both Operator and the machinery !

New Carb on today, and running like a champ !

with the deck removed, its almost like a cut away model, in fact, we actually drove it during a show like this to demonstrate just how "cozy" the CVR(T) s are !

inside and outside

A few more from the fleet run up! Here is our Ferret and Rad Van Pinz getting some sun, and a few shots from inside the Pinz, plus, a few seldom seen interior CVR(T) Scorpion shots from inside the powered up turret.

This CVRT is as it was in Belgian service, and so, these shots are as "in service" as your going to get. We got it practically as it left Belgium !

for some extra info, the upper engine cover is off in the cab shot of the Pinz (its spring start up after all...and we like to have fire extinguisher access for all starts )

The CVR(T) L23 A1 main gun is in full elevation, as guess what, we have a no start, and that means tomorrow, the armour deck comes off !, so stay tuned to see the engine bay pics !

Noses and Tails

a bit behind this year with the long winter that took forever to leave, we are now getting the fleet out of storage and run up ahead of our crew and driver training weekend of July 7 and 8

Here are a few shots of the hanger as we unpack the origami type fall parking job !

clean up in the axle isle !

...this is a good idea of what the inside of a 72 year old untouched drive line looks like !

its a full clean up, inside and out. We are working from the ends, inwards, cleaning both the inside and outside

a close look at the bearing and lock washer as well of the prop shaft end , and finally...the first layer of grime comes off exposing the raw inside casting

..and...we're back !

, Sorry for the unplanned lack of updates , shortly after my last post on the 4th of may, I had to step out for a family "emergency" , that required me to be elsewhere....for two weeks !

so, back in the swing of half track goodness today, and with more hardware and parts having come in, we at we are going to finish the front axle, hang it, and then prep for track install so we can have a roller by early June !

we will be getting the fleet out , a little late of course, but there will be some great pics of the rest of the society's collection in detail as well over the next few days

as for the M3...

...As we prepped the front axle, we found this number, hand stamped on the UNDERSIDE of the tube !

its not the normal part number location, as that's on the diff casting ... the number is 2 off of the M3's Ord number

yet another M3 mystery !

Friday Art Shots

...As you may have noted in this Blog, we love old casting lot numbers ! and, original NOS Packaging from the early 1940's !

before and afters, and a start on the floor !

Getting "back into the weeds" now with some small but no less important details. We have started on cab floor section, in particular the venting section , and have made new gasket material for the glass window inserts, seen below is the before and after. As we are waiting for the correct 10-32 X 1/4 inch slot screws, we are using some off the shelf hardware we have here to position the gaskets and hold down strips!

I have left an original screw on the newly restored frame so you can see how little these were !

Here are a couple of floor vent pictures , under the resto "knife" and the final install

Finally, the new wire loom is on with clips loosely attached, we are still awaiting the frame pass through grommets , but these are in next week and are split type, so can go in without disturbing the harness too much, the second picture is roughly the same location with the original unrestored parts shown fitted .

Friday Art Shot

sometimes I need to go back and see what she looked like !

todays mission is the rebuild of the armor on the windshield frame, so we needed to check on the mounting orientation .

I cant stress enough how valuable the 1500 odd pictures we've taken so far are !

easier going back on !

lots of what we do is "job planning", that is, re-assemble the M3 in easy steps that will not hinder later fit up, so, while the armor is off and the engine is out, we are adding all the hard to get at assemblies !

here are a couple, from the carb control pivot shaft,  to some electrical

Upper Cowl Armor, and more NOS goodness !

we are getting the first of the armor ready to go back on, as we are starting with the front cowl section that builds off the already installed fire wall

we managed to find a set of NOS window armor shutter stays, from our friends at Garry's half Tracks. As you can see, these are yet another shade of OD Green, and came out of a 1943 marked box.

Also, readers might notice pitting, particularly on the bullet deflector on the top cowl. We have found areas of pitting, and decided that instead of replacing all these parts, that we would do a factory level resto, but, keep her story intact by including the scars and souvenirs of 70 plus years of life.

front springs and mounts, and a comment on paint

Special Thanks to Malmberg Truck in Ottawa for the great rebuild of the front spring packs!

all mounted now and awaiting the front axel lift in . One can see in most of the posts, the sheer number of parts in the background.

with an 18,000 pound M3 taken apart, she actually occupies about 3 times her normal footprint, although, with the speed its going back onto the frame, we are finding it easier to walk around it now

You may notice the slight colour variation in some of the finished parts. This, as some may find surprising, is intentional.

During the war, vehicles were assembled with parts sourced from all over the US, and the US Army Paint Spec was pretty "generous" to say the least. As we stripped it down, we found at last count, 8 different shades of OD Green.

Once we have finished final assembly, the M3 will have a final topcoat paint applied before markings , but inside components will still exhibit the different OD Green variations , just as she left the factory in '42

Friday Art Shot

progesssive pics!

with parts flowing regularly from our skilled painters at the Star Motors Mercedes Benz  of Ottawa Body Shop, we are quickly assembling the frame and have added the firewall today !

A big shout out to Brafasco Fasteners, Ottawa store, for being able to supply with the period correct hardware as it would have been in 1942! Having the right fasteners makes or breaks this kind of resto!

Here is the Brake Master, mount and pedal unit before and after

before and after - booster

quite the new look !

rear brakes and booster

Every time we do a resto, we of course pay particular attention to the braking systems, knowing that these components, even though they may look perfect, are hovering around the 75 year old mark

We are very fortunate to have at our disposal here in the Ottawa area, some terrific specialist rebuilders, and in the case of brake and suspension work , we deal specifically with Malmberg Truck

www.malmbergtruck.com


They have an Historic Truck branch that can do rebuild and fabrication work on all kinds of vintage and hard to find / repair hydraulic systems

Our very first job that we sent to them 10 years ago, was the complete hydraulic system ( brakes, power steering and two full cross over Hydrovac systems ) for a T-17 Staghound that we were getting into running order for the Royal Canadian Dragoons Historic Troop . In case you were scratching your head on why two full systems.... the Staghound is a twin engine Armoured Car, and you can run both, or left or right  !

The Staghound is still running strong today, and importantly, still stopping on a dime when it needs to

Fast forward to our M3 Project, and Malmberg once again rebuilt everything fast, and inexpensively !

Here are some reassy pic and the finished rear brakes

the last shot is a before and after of the brake cylinder to shoe pivots......