Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

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algor
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by algor » Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:23 am

clintm20 wrote: You can purchase the correct I beam and have it milled down until it matches the scout car profile. The originals are made in 8 sections and welded together it should be much easier to make that way.....
Clint are you sure about the 8 sections welded? Maybe I'm wrong but for my knowledge they are only 4 (I'm talking about the late rail type with bolted brackets).
Let me know your thoughts, thanks

Alberto
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rgus
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by rgus » Tue Oct 27, 2015 11:23 am

Here is the replacement rail I received when I bought my scout car. It is in 4 pieces;
Image
Image
One of these days I hope to get started on it.
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by clintm20 » Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:37 pm

Clint are you sure about the 8 sections welded? Maybe I'm wrong but for my knowledge they are only 4 (I'm talking about the late rail type with bolted brackets).
Let me know your thoughts, thanks
Alberto,
No I'm not sure. I had a scout car with an original early style rail I sold 3 years ago and I'm almost positive it was 8 piece. I'm 100% sure the front part was made from 3 pieces. Good point on the later style rails I never had an original to look at. I have another early one here but it was a Greek return and was cut and rewelded so I'd be afraid to use it for an example. I don't want to put bad information out there so thanks for asking about it. Maybe someone else with original style rails can verify.
Clint
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by algor » Wed Oct 28, 2015 5:44 am

Clint
I would confirm you that the early rail was made from 3 pieces. I visited some months ago the Overloon Museum in Holland (one of the best museum for WW2 vehicles) where a Scout Car is exposed and I taken some pictures of the skate rail

Image

Image

Image

in effect the front part (and maybe the rear too) made from 3 pieces seems to be the fast and easy way to make that. I can suppose that nothing is changed from the early to the late style, except for the brackets (before welded and after bolted)

Alberto
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by clintm20 » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:26 am

The rear portion of the early rail I had was also made from 3 sections. I'm positive it was a total of 8 sections now that I think more about it. I can probably find some pictures. The middle portion of the rail on the passenger side above the sponson box also had a part number stamped in it. It was extremely hard to make out unless direct sunlight was on it. I wish I had noted the number.

Someone told me once there was more than one contractor during WW2 for skate rails.
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Autocar M3A1 Half-track Serial # M3A1-47825 USA 4053835
Autocar M16A1 Half-track Serial # M15A1-1945 USA 40150662

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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by clintm20 » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:29 am

ok here is a pic of the rear. Look above the saw on the right you can see the bottom portion of the weld.

Image

And another. Note the factory welds on each side of the trolley in the corner.

Image
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by clintm20 » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:39 am

Another showing the distance of one of the welds from the inside of the rear piece of armor. These are all original WW2 welds.

Image

Weld on right side next to right front seat.

Image

Image

Image
Green Trucks and High Tides Forever

Diamond T M3 Half-track Serial # M32971 USA 4045956
Autocar M3A1 Half-track Serial # M3A1-47825 USA 4053835
Autocar M16A1 Half-track Serial # M15A1-1945 USA 40150662

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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by paul greenstein » Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:25 pm

The original ones I have seen are made from 4 pieces of I beam with a strengthening gusset attached to the windshield. That part is made from 3 cut pieces, 1 strap, and 10 gussets.
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by algor » Thu Oct 29, 2015 2:52 am

I don't have any doubt concerning what say Clint and Paul, but if I compare the different pictures we can see that the welding points are more than it's seems.
In effect we can find 10 welding points as per below drawing

Image

that correspond to 10 pieces of beam

Alberto
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by harold dawley » Sat Feb 27, 2016 10:37 am

Does anyone have the exact measurements for a Scout skate rail? I think once the exact measurements are obtained AND the exact steel is obtained a metal fabrication shop should be able to program their fabrication machinery to shape the rail into the needed different pieces. Since I don't have a skate rail to bring to a fab shop it would have no way of obtaining the measurements.

I just returned from a short vacation in Mexico and a friend suggested that perhaps a Mexican fab shop could reproduce the skate rail at a lower fee if the exact measurements were available.

If I can ever figure a way to reproduce a Scout skate rail I will gladly share it on this posting.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by TopKick » Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:52 am

Would it be easier to drive or haul a Scout Car to such a metal fabrication shop for measurements to be obtained? 8)
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Re: Is anyone producing scout car skate rails?

Post by harold dawley » Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:21 am

I have sold my Scout and it will be picked up fairly soon. I think it might be easier to take measurements on a Scout with a skate rail. I don't know how it would be done but suspect their are sophiticated ways of obtaining the information needed to repoduce a skate rail.

Harold
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