Patton’s tank—a World War I-era Ford M1917—stands over 7-feet tall and 16-feet long. The 7-ton machine had very few original parts, and no blueprints.

Randy Becht, owner of Hoosier Restoration and Movie Props has been in the street rod business for many years, and throughout his career has restored military vehicles for museums and movie sets alike.

But his wife Janet had the idea of rebuilding Gen. George S. Patton’s tank.

Over the course of 18 months, Becht and his team made progress rebuilding the tank with very few original parts, and no blueprints.  “Most of the parts were built or recreated from pictures, but that’s what we pride ourselves on—building what was lost to history,” Becht said.

When it came time to build custom springs, however, progress came to a halt. That’s when Becht decided to try EATON Detroit Spring.

The importance of the spring setup was unexpected, according to Becht. Without the right rates and specs the tank would not sit right, nor would it wouldn’t function properly.

“What we started with was flawed,” he said. “EATON Detroit Spring came in and saved the day. They not only corrected 100-year- old flawed engineering, but improved it greatly.”

Patton’s WWI tank, it was dedicated on Nov. 2 and is now on permanent display at the Indiana Military Museum in Vincennes, Indiana.

https://theshopmag.com/features/supplier-springs-action-historic-relic

https://www.facebook.com/MilitaryMuseum/posts/1919063194776549

Here's what a similar one looked like originally, not the exact same one, but another WW1 single gun tank.

Damn, I have posted a lot of stuff when I can find this image on my own blog