We're still doing build threads here, aren't we? This is really a hot-rodded T, rather than a hot-rod T. I've been posting this thread on a small forum, but a couple pals over here asked me to post it in a more publicly available place. Backstory is that I've been doing some long trips, either across a continent, or just some four-wheeling for a week or so, every year. Some have been four days, others eight months. And I've been trying to get my best friend to go on one of these trips for twenty years. I'm single and mostly retired, but he's got a wife and kids and has built two businesses, so he always declines...until last year. He decided it was time. Business was stable, wife isn't jealous of his time, and kids don't need him every hour of the day. So, I proposed to do a route like the coast-to-coast Trans America Trail in my old Jeep TJ. But, my friend said "NO", he wanted to do it in something old. So I told him I'd buy a flat-fender Jeep or a '60s Jeep wagon and build it up for the trip. Again, "NO", he wanted something ooooold, something 100 years old. Ouch, that meant Model T. I begged him to use a Model A at least. Those are sort of normal. But a Model T is a weird, royal PITA. And, that's what he wanted, so that's what I got. I've had a running Model T before. I had a 1913 that had been restored right before WWII and kept up through the '80s. I bought it from the son of the man who restored it and had fun with it for a year or so then sold it on. I warned my pal that this was going to be like driving across the country in a golf cart in terms of interior space and speed. Knowing a little about the beasts I started searching for a 1926 or 1927 model, with it's drivetrain and longevity improvements over the earlier cars. I also wanted a roadster pickup so we could have open-air traveling and room for camping equipment. I missed out on a few that were nearby, and one really nice one in California. A rough one that ran in Colorado came up for sale. I had a friend that lived nearby go lay eyeballs on it and it had all the parts and ran and drove so I bought it over the phone. My pal and I drove from Dallas to Denver to pick it up. Photos of it in the seller's garage. Picking it up a couple months later. The car came with a spare engine and transmission, a pile of extra parts including the best version of the crank in virgin condition. It had an aftermarket Ruckstell 2-speed rear end, which was one of the items I had been looking for. We got it back to Dallas and I taught my pal how to drive it. We horsed around with it for a few weeks before sticking it in our warehouse to make plans for it. It was evident that two big guys weren't going to fit in this cab for the length of time we were looking at. We decided to sell off the body and bed and build a custom wood body tailored to our use. At the same time as all this was happening, we stared laying out the route for the trip. We decided that a trip from Trinidad, Colorado to Malibu, California following nothing but dirt roads and Jeep trails would work. The route included Imogene Pass, Moab, Escalante National Monument, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and the Mojave Road. I started researching all the ways these Model Ts break, and they seem to break a lot. I wanted to address the common failures so our trip might have a chance of being trouble-free.
At this point we were doing two things at the same time. First, figuring out how the Model Ts break and what we can do about that. And what performance modifications we want to make to it that are appropriate for our trip. Second, planning a route. For the route I proposed that we follow the Trans America Trail (aka TaT). There is a living, established route that is constantly updated for land, trail and road closures. It mainly follows dirt bike accessible trails from North Carolina to Oregon. But it makes concessions to see "cool" roads or sights and more of it is on paved roads than you might think. And a lot of the roads through the central plains are, well, boring. I've done these trails and many of their alternate routes in a 4x4 truck or my Jeep. The original: https://www.transamtrail.com/ The guy that pirated the files and gives them out for free, but not as well updated http://www.gpskevinadventurerides.com/trans-america-trail My pal expressed that he'd want to minimize the time spent on boring trails. And he also wanted to drive the Mojave Road trail through California and end the trip near his folks house in Agoura (inland from Malibu). That desert road/trail isn't anywhere near the TaT. So if we were going to include it that meant figuring out our own path. I stared linking together the best of the small trails I've done in Colorado and Utah. Figured out how to get from Zion National Park to Mohave without getting too close to Las Vegas, and debated on using paved roads or following tedious bike trails as we neared Agoura. We settled on a path from Trinidad, Colorado to Agoura, California that should take us about two weeks if everything goes well. My pal keeps thinking we are going to be extremely isolated and won't see anyone for a day or two. I've tried to explain to him that even though I avoided the "highway" trails with bumper to bumper traffic like Black Bear Road, we will still see other offroaders and overlanders during most of this trip. I've been on most of these trails and usually had someone else within eyesight at almost all times. And because of the nature of high country Colorado passes and ancient desert roads, we want to start the trip shortly after the snow melts and the Colorado passes are open and before the desert gets too hot. So that's most likely in late May or early June depending on how much snow we get this winter. I know some years the passes have not opened until mid-late July.
Back to that first thing, figuring out how Model Ts break. I'm no Model T expert. I've had a handful of pre-war cars with V8 flatheads or Model A engines in them. Most were hotrods of one sort or another. And I had that stock 1913 that I horsed around with. But I had never delved into long term ownership. So, I joined. Joined the local Model T club, and at 50 years old was one of the youngest members. And I joined the Model T forum and Facebook groups. I watched dozens of Youtube videos, including a very detailed series on building high performance Model T engines and transmissions by noted builder Mike Bender. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9Cs_Ied_FCHd6e-WMvuRQ I read thousands of old posts on the forum about failures and breakages. I spoke to the guys that have been dinking around with these cars for decades. My pal and I went to the big national Model T swapmeet in Oklahoma, which luckily was just a few hours from our homes in Dallas. I started making lists of failures and potential prevention. Many of them just involved not being cheap and using parts far past their usable life, which seems like a common theme in antique car circles with folks from the Greatest Generation. Some of the fixes had been around for ages and involved using more modern technology from the 1950s adapted to the Model T parts. And some were fixes that are relatively new, and involved some custom made parts supplied by enthusiasts in their one-man shops. We also made a list of performance modifications. These involved some engine tuning (ignition, intake, exhaust, valves, head), adding an auxiliary gearbox between the stock transmission and the axle, and aftermarket brakes for the steep trails we will be traveling. The Model T ignition is a coil-per-plug ignition fired by a sort of cam sensor called a "timer" on the front of the engine. It's basic. It's fragile. And despite the Model T's reputation of being simple, it takes some specialized tools to refurbish the ignition parts to get the most from them. And even if everything is perfect, there are still a dozen potential failures and replacement parts are hard to get outside of Model T specialists. So, we made the decision to stick a distributor on the engine and ditch the troublesome Model T coils and timer. This has been a popular modification since the early '20s. Our spares pile had one of these early Bosch America distributors and its front engine cover. But the cover was damaged and the distributor was in rough shape. I tracked down another cover in perfect shape and bought a conversion kit to use an air-cooled VW distributor in place of the ancient one. And I bought a VW distributor with a Pertronics module in place of the points. Since I've had some experience with Pertronics and old cars, I bought two spare modules. The replacement front cover. Yep, it's filthy. The logo on the cover after a little cleaning, it's a comic of a bearded driver in a driving cap and goggles in front of the "AB" American Bosch logo.
The original intake on our 1926 Model T is known as the "Vaporizer". It was useful when it was built, as car ownership was expanding faster than gasoline production. This caused a gas shortage, which was "fixed" by the refineries performing less refining to their gas. What gas was available in the mid '20s was closer to kerosene than gasoline, and it wouldn't form the small droplets required to run without severe coking of the engines. To make the cars run on this kerosene Ford came up with intakes that preheated the charge. They also lowered the compression ratio. There is debate about the actual compression from experts, but I measured the chambers on an untouched head, along with the popup on the piston and calculated a 3.9:1 compression ratio on a stock bore, stock head, stock deck engine. For performance many people backdate to an earlier intake manifold and exhaust manifold, put on a carefully built original Holley carb, and switch out the low compression cast iron pistons for high compression aluminum pistons. For a little more power you can switch to larger valves and a high lift cam. We considered doing just this. But, the early carbs are just toilet bowls and don't work well even in the best conditions. The valvetrain has it's own share of failures, including the valve head coming off the valve stem, the valve keeper pins pulling through the keepers, and the valve adjustment being done by pulling the valves and grinding the tips. And the engines have a number of other failures. The cranks break right in front of the last main because misalignment with the transmission input shaft bends the crank. The splash oiling systems clog up with material worn off the fabric bands in the transmission. And the oil doesn't get to where it's needed when going up steep inclines. The cooling fan bushing tends to seize up, and the actual fans break apart and destroy the radiator and hood. After talking to a lot of engine builders, Model T racers, and long-haul Model T drivers we decided on a set of engine modifications: Scat fully counter weighted crank in stock stroke. This crank is also available as a stroker and setup for pressure oiling. Adding a pressure oiling system would be cool, and necessary for a high revving engine, but they are troublesome and failure prone. And a stroker would provide more power, but they require a lot of block and pan modifications. The standard crank has zero counterweights and is often refereed to as a "bent paperclip". Stipe brand 280 cam and adjustable bronze/steel cam timing gears. This is recognized as "the" cam for a performance motor and is still considered to have good drivability. The standard cam gear is made of fiber, similar to bakelite. The original gears are worn and the modern aftermarket gears have a bad reputation for breaking apart. A machinist in California makes bronze replacements and offset pins to adjust the timing. Prus brand high compression head, Aluminum, 14mm spark plugs. This is the highest compression head available off-the-shelf. Kevin Prus has a batch made about once a year. I got in line and had him make me one that used modern spark plugs instead of the antique plugs. 2-wrench adjustable lifters. These make valve adjustments easy, and can accommodate the slightly shorter valve stem length of the modern valves. These also come in a few other varieties for worn lifter bores or different adjustment schemes. Modern valves ('50s SBC intake valves). These have a head that's about 0.10" wider diameter and a stem that's about 0.011" thicker, which is perfect for taking up the wear as the valve runs directly in the cast iron block. They take modern 1950s style keepers. Valve Locks, Sealed Power VK115 (x16) two per valve, Valve Retainers, New Valve Springs. This is a combination of Chevrolet small block and Ford Tractor parts to get rid of the roll pin style valve keepers. Extra oil pickup. This is a scraper that pulls oil off the flywheel and plumbs it to the front of the engine New forged rods with Standard size Babbitt. These rods are new, so they don't have 100 years of use and the caps haven't been filed down to take up wear. They have scoops integrated into the cap to push oil into the rod Babbitt. Custom piston, rings and wrist pins. I had Wiseco scan the chamber in my head and design a lightweight piston that will work with the stock rod. I wanted to try to bump the compression up between 6 to 6.5:1. I ended up with a 6.2:1 in my slightly overbored block. I'm using a ring package that we commonly use in modern LS racing engines and the wrist pins are extra thick wall since they are pinched in the rod and free float in the piston. There are some more modern gaskets and seals and some modern fasteners. The extra block that was in the pile of parts ended up being the best of the best blocks. And it checked out as standard everywhere, it had never been rebuilt. It passed the crack inspection and test. I cleaned it up and dropped it off at Horsepower Research to have the deck and bore cleaned up. There were some gouges in the bore that took some work, but the deck didn't take much. The exhaust port in the block has some erosion that will require some machining. Custom pistons Scat counterweighted crank. Those are 1.25" diameter journals! Honing the bore Cleaning up the deck
I mentioned that one of the performance modifications we wanted to make was an auxiliary gearbox. A stock Model T has a two speed planetary gearbox. Low speed, called "Model T Low", requires you stand on a pedal and a fabric lined band will grab the planetary housing and cause it to engage the low speed. This gear will get the car moving from a stop and up to about 15mph. The high speed is good for a top speed between 35-40mph. A slightly hot rodded or carefully prepared car may see a 45-50mph top speed. It is recommended to not drive for long periods in low gear. The fabric lined band can overheat and wear quickly. Since we will be driving in situations that will require low gear for long periods and don't want to be using "Model T Low" for these stretches, we will need an underdrive and would like to also have an overdrive for relaxed cruising. Plain overdrives are fairly common and come in a lot of form factors. The easiest to integrate is a simple overdrive that is grafted into the torque tube. Model A guys salvage these units from old Nash or other models that used the Borg Warner OD. The evolution of these units is the still-available Gear Vendors models. For a car that is very stock looking they can provide a fairly hidden overdrive. But, they don't solve our underdrive issue. Back in the '20s and '30s you could buy an auxiliary transmission that bolted between the stock transmission and the torque tube. These were typically situated to provide an underdrive and a direct drive (2-speeds). Fancy versions provided an underdrive, direct drive and overdrive (3-speeds). The most common of these were made by Warford and were typically added to heavy trucks. A machine shop has retooled to make modern versions of the 3-speed Warford using modern bearings and gear faces. Their parts are not interchangeable with the original transmissions and they call their gearbox the KC Warford. The cost is a little high, but not beyond what you'd pay if you really needed one. But the wait time was long, and then got longer as they damaged the case casting mold, and then went to far-far too long as the Pandemic hit. http://www.laynemachine.com/Products.html I had made a decision to buy one of these new units. All the old ones I could find were junk, missing parts that made then unusable, and they were non-synchro boxes. The new ones had synchros and came with all the parts to install them. But after looking for months for one on the shelf, and having the delivery date for a new unit get pushed back again and again, and finding out there there were two rebuilders of the old boxes, I decided to go with an original. I found one fairly quickly and had it sent to me. And, here it is. A 3-speed Over-Under Warford crash box. It came with the shifter, mounts, gaskets and adapter sleeve for the input shaft. One of the issues with the installation of these boxes is that you have to shorten the torque tube and axle support arms by the length of the box (12"). While brainstorming about what we would do about the size of the body, and faced with shortening the driveline by 12" to accommodate the new transmission, we decided to scrap the factory body and build a wooden Station Wagon or Express Truck body. And instead of shortening the driveline we would lengthen the frame and body by 12". This ended up being a great decision. I quickly hacked up some photos so see if it would end up looking weird. An Express body on a stock wheelbase An Express body on a 12" longer wheelbase This was going to solve all sorts of problems. In the stock car we didn't have enough leg room. We didn't have enough hip room. We didn't have enough storage room. And we'd have to compromise the suspension to add the Warford transmission. Switching to an Express would fix the hip room, and we could shorten the bed to give us the legroom we wanted, but it would reduce the bed space even more. Stretching our custom body over a stretched frame was -perfect-! We went to that swap meet in Oklahoma armed with a shopping list. We needed a second 1926-27 frame (they were slightly different than earlier frames), spare steering linkage, a vintage fold down roadster windshield frame, wire wheels and the hubs specific to those wheels, a good 1925 and earlier ignition switch panel, brackets and tailights that would work with an express, some accessory spotlights, and bedside irons for a wooden body. It was good to go to that event. Talking to the real experts that modify these cars was enlightening. We came home with a frame that had front crossmember damage ($40), an aftermarket brass windshield frame and support bars ($120), and a few knicknacks. Sorry, it's the only photo I have from the swapmeet purchases.
Plans for the car were always to use the later bolt-on wire wheels and hubs. The more traditional wood wheels have some safety issues with abusive use, and aren't as easy to swap should they be damaged. The wood spokes stay on the car and you'd just change out the rim and tire. The steel wheels change out like a modern car. Through the contacts I had made in the Model T world I found a good set of wheels and hubs and two additional wheels. After experimenting with stripping and painting a wheel, I gave in and had them sandblasted and powdercoated in satin black. So trusting...I bought wheels based on crappy photos like these. While researching what tire to run, we debated on running a larger 5.25" balloon tire on the wire wheels. After measuring many tires, and relying on Coker for the dimensions of many more, we decided that the "large for their size" Firestone 4.50" tires were the bst choice. I was surprised that Summit carried Coker tires. And Summit has a distribution warehouse in our city. So I ordered the tires, rim strips and tubes through our corporate account and picked up some tire tools from the local motorcycle shop and Harbor Freight. We mounted up five of the six wheels and tires. Got efficient enough that we could get one done completely in about 15 minutes. We didn't realize at the time, but the valve stem hole in these wheels is undersized for modern valve stems. The wheels were made for detachable stems, which are all metal and slim. These molded stems are too thick. We had to break down all five wheels and open up the valve stem hole. We pinched three of the tubes breaking down the wheels, and the tubes are so cheap that I elected to replace them rather than patch them. We had only worked with five of the six wheels because we thought we'd just bring one complete spare and an additional loose tire and four extra tubes. Since then we decided to mount up the sixth wheel and bring it along, so now we will have two mounted spares and four extra tubes and a patch kit. In January we brought the car out of the warehouse and had one last drive around in it before we took it apart. Last shot before it rolls into the garage for disassembly. One of the accessories that came with the truck that we will be keeping are this pair of Hassler dual-spring shock absorbers. They aren't dampers like we think of shock absorbers, but a softer engaging spring before they engage the main leaf spring. They are reported to make the ride a little easier. Though they are complete, the brackets are completely worn out and will require some work to restore. An hour later the car looked like this, with the bed and body removed. Those would be sold and eventually went to a hotrod builder in Houston for nearly the price I paid for the entire car.
We knew what we would be doing to modify the chassis, and the body design was coming along. We decided on a wide flatbed pickup design (aka Express) with drop gates on three side of the bed. This would allow us to put the seat where we wanted, extended the bed as much as we wanted, and make the truck look proportional to the new wheelbase. One of the initial sketch-ups. We combed over photos of old trucks and wagons to see the details in the hardware. We decided on using modified gate hinges modeled after these. After digging through hardware catalogs we settled on these National 6" strap hinges. Though they were supposed to accept 1/2" hinge pins, they didn't. Well, maybe if you installed them with a hand sledge and the pin was only 2" long, like you'd see on a fence. But we wanted them to rotate smoothly and they had to slide on a long hinge pin. So, we took a reamer and opened up the slightly deformed eye. Instead of using tailgate hardware from that era, that wouldn't easily work with three drop gates, we settled on using 1951 VW truck gate latches. These have recently been reproduced in the UK, so they were easy, though expensive, to source. Based on the orientation we'd use two full sets of rear VW latches.
Finally getting to work! We started with a easy task, rebuilding the front end and converting the hubs to wire wheel hubs. One of the issues with Model Ts is that they use difficult to tighten ball bearings in the front hubs. Early on roller bearing conversions were available. They use a really odd outer bearing that is internally threaded. I've never seen these before. But that feature makes a $12 bearing sell for $60. Oh, and there are RH and LH threaded sides, so you have to have both if you want spares. I had negotiated for a set of front and rear hubs to be included with the wheels I bought. So we started out by cleaning up and changing bearings and seals in the front hubs. Next, we removed the Hassler shock absorbers and the leaf spring. Took everything apart and cleaned up all the stiff grease off the leafs and evaluated the pivot points for the Hassler frames. They were horribly egged out, so I ordered some bushings, milled out the openings to accept them, and pressed them in. The McMaster bushings I used All the shackles, spring clamps and spring perch bushings were replaced. We polished the spring leaf faces and painted them with a graphite based aerosol paint, EZ-Slide Graphite Based Coating. I've used this on other leaf springs with good results. Then gave it a piss-coat of satin black paint once it was assembled. Juggling everything into place while inserting the pivot pins and shackles was a real trick and involved prybars and c-clamps and some real danger of bodily harm. Next task was to replace the spindle kingpin bushings, steering arm hardware, the tie-rod end, and the grease fittings. Then install the hubs. We evaluated the steering and found it was surprisingly tight. FWIW, most of the things we worked on were either in very good or very bad condition. Not much of it was moderately worn. Last was to bolt up the wire wheel to the refurbished front axle. First steps done, and it was all fairly easy work.
So many of these T parts are tiny. I've seen heavier duty suspension and axle parts on a little red wagon! The steering box was a wakeup call. I'd never seen this before. The reduction and gearing is done AT THE TOP of the steering column. The shaft and pitman arm are bolted together. Note the gears at the top of the column in the drawing.
We built the front end up as an easy starter project on this car. It was mostly straightforward except for adding bushings to the Hassler frames that were originally built without bushings. Next step was to remove the rear drivetrain and stretch the frame. Instead of cutting it and adding a section, we cut two frames and made a single joint. The plan was to cut both of the frames long, and use the tapered rear section to nest one frame inside the other, drill holes in the nested frames and bolt them together and then weld them up. Cut this rear section off the extra frame we bought. That long rear crossmember at the top (rear section of the frame) is unique to the 1926-27 frames. Stripped the rear drivetrain and suspension off the car. It didn't take much. A couple brake rods, the torque tube, and two spring u-bolts were all that held it to the frame. Also removed the battery box, three or four different horns and exhaust whistles, and some other parade style add-ons. No going back now. Jammed the extra frame section on the rear of the original frame and hammered it into position. Couldn't quite get it nested as far as it need to go, so a little more trimming and hammering got it into position, exactly one foot longer than stock. Better shot of the nested and bolted frame sections. Later on we broke out the welder and welded up the frame. While we were welding, we relocated the running board supports and shortened up the running boards to make them truck length. Farm style welding is era-correct for this car!
This whole car is a lesson in how to build new cars economically. We rebuilt the rear axle. These have many failure modes. There are inner and outer axle bearings that when worn out cause axle failure. And there is another one on the pinion. And axle failure causes the wheel to fall off. These bearings are Hyatt roller bearings. They are an ingenious way to make a non-precision bearing work as if it IS a precision bearing. These bearings work well when in spec, and last a long time. But, modern reproductions have solid rollers rather than the coiled spring rollers. These new replacements end up scoring the axles causing the wheels to fall off. And the Model-T community has made it a life-or-death contest to collect and hoard any in-spec bearings they can find. And tons of out-of-spec bearings are available at swap meets or on eBay. Original bearings have the spiral rollers, reproductions have solid rollers and are shunned by builders. What's the solution? Converting at least the outer bearings to full floating hubs that use modern roller bearings. These bearings don't fail like the Hyatt bearings. They don't damage the axles. And for some reason if the axle does fail, the wheel stays on the car. These have been made since the '50s, and a couple different shops still make them today. I bought the best version I could find. The nose goes into the axle housing and the flange bolts to the back of the original hub. First problem solved. Next, is the brakes. The Model-T has two brake systems. The foot brake operates on a single drum inside the transmission. If any part of the drivetrain beyond the transmission breaks, the brake is worthless. And there are plenty of failure prone parts to break. The other brake system is the parking brake. It's the hand lever to the left of the driver coming through the floor. It operates rods pulling the parking brakes, which are drum brakes that seem fairly normal compared to everything else. These drums were enlarged a huge amount for the 1926-27 cars, yet another reason I wanted that model year. There are no front brakes, and if you did adapt some, the front radius rods would just bend up and let the front axle rotate under the car the first time you used them. There are LOTS of brake accessories. The most common is an external band brake that is tied into the foot brake linkage and works on the outside of the existing rear drums. The most common of these is the "Rocky Mountain Brake", which is still available new. Another brake that is not well accepted by the purist is a rear disc brake with hydraulics. It's been around for a couple decades, and is used by guys with "fast" cars that don't mind the non-original parts. While we didn't want the looks, the lack of real brakes and the steep trails and roads we'd be on made us reconsider. The kits are fairly simple. There is a bracket that holds the master cylinder to the transmission and a boss welded to the brake pedal that holds the linkage. Brackets on the rear axle hold the caliper. And a non-vented plate is welded to the outside of a new drum and ground to be square with the axle. Here's what an installed set looks like. Another part of the axle build is converting from wood spoke to wire wheels. This is just swapping out the outer hub that bolts to the outside of the drum. Since we were also changing the drum for the disc brakes and having to modify both of those for the full floating hubs, we decided to do all these things together. So much precision! You just bolt the inner full floating hub to the drum using the wheel studs and use it as a drill jig to add some additional bolts. Then tap the new holes, install the hardened bolts and safety wire them. Oh, yes. Everything in the entire car is safety wired, cotter pinned or glued with thread locker. Henry Ford did not believe in balance shafts. One last step for the full floating hubs, you have to grind off about an inch of the end of the axle housing. No going back now. The next failure mode was that axles broke from wear and tear over the years. And the tapered section that mates with the wheel hub wears and the hub will want to sit inboard too far and rub the brakes. That one is easier to fix. Don't be cheap and try to use old worn out axles like 95% of the Model T owners. I bought new axles that were recommended by all the guys that compete in both reliability endurance events and hillclimbs. I had to keep the spider gears and use them on the new axles. One came off easy, the other was a bear and took excessive force from the press. Both went on the new axles with moderate pressure (7 tons). The last failure mode was with the special Two-Speed Ruckstell differential we had. These are a common accessory that was often installed on new cars. One of the big parts suppliers has tooled up and still offers these complicated axles today along with a variety of final drive gears. This Ruckstell replaces half the differential housing and slips a planetary gearbox into the diff. They are rugged parts and replace one of the inner Hyatt bearings with a huge roller bearing. Their failure mode is that a bronze carrier in the differential can wear, along with a stack of shims that is even more important than in the standard axle. And the shifter can wear and the pins for the planetary gears can wear or seize. All of the parts are available new. And a good shop manual exists that has all the specs and tolerances for the parts. So you can measure up your parts and order replacements. Again, I've seen a number of these go together with the -worst- parts because owners were either lazy or cheap. And then they wonder why it jumps out of gear, howls or runs hot. We spent the time to measure all the parts and ordered replacements. And for all that precision work and assembly, I only have one photo of the differential going together. That's before the ring gear went back on. I think we assembled it four times to make sure everything was right. Then the juggling act of getting it into the axle housings and setting the pinion lash was another half dozen assemble and disassemblies. The pinion has it's own bearing that was originally a Hyatt bearing. And a spacer that had to be ground to length for pinion mesh. We used a modern replacement bearing housing that used two roller bearings and shims to eliminate the Hyatt bearing and make setup easy. I used a spare axle housing half I had and cut an access hole in it to measure the lash. The assembled axle and differential under the car waiting on the outer hub-drums and spring to be installed. We rebuilt the rear spring, installed the hubs and torqued them down, and juggled the assembly into the frame. Since I can't stand Wilwood stuff, I milled their name off the calipers and touched them up on the belt sander to soften the corners.
Dang, it looks like something in the forum doesn't like the latest batch of photo links. Are the photos in that previous post above showing up for anyone?
Part of getting the rear axle back into the frame meant that we had to give the torque tube something to bolt up to. So we stabbed the Warford auxiliary transmission and bracketry into the chassis. We installed the caliper adapter brackets onto the rear axle. And I crated up the good spare engine block that I had been working with, along with all the valvetrain and crank parts and two engine pans and shipped them to an antique engine builder in California to do the Babbitt and valvetrain work. Both the crank and cam rest in Babbitt. Finalized the body design and went shopping for lumber. Because of some moderately long overhangs, and the need to be weather resistant, we decided to use marine plywood for many of the flat panels, rather than tongue and groove boards or thin panelboard that would have originally been used.
Did a quick and dirty mounting of an oversized firewall and oversized floor to see how they would mount together. We kept marking and trimming and marking and trimming the hole for the rear crossmember to keep it as tight as possible. Most of those holes in the floor will be covered by the foot riser. Because the original firewall was offset and overhung the head, and we wanted a flat firewall that allowed the head to be installed with studs, which required more room over the head to remove it, we had to shim the steering column attachment to the firewall. First iteration here. More firewall cutting and floor cutting. The brown primered sheetmetal piece was originally designed to allow the head to be recessed in the firewall, but we are using it to allow even more room around the head. And more tedious trimming around the rear crossmember. Double checking exhaust clearance to the firewall. Building a hood former, a ledge that the hood rests on. It's not quite symmetrical, but then neither is our hood. Finished the hood former along with it's fittings for the hood hinge and anti-rattle lacing. Started installing the windshield frame. Routed a round groove in the top edge of the firewall for the frame to rest in, and have a combination of brackets from some early Model Ts to hold it in place. This frame is not a stock part, but either an aftermarket wide windshield, or off another car. Bracket details. Though they are brass, we had decided that they should be painted black as our car was made years after the brass era ended.
Backside of the windshield brackets and the reproduction steering column mount. Since we stretched the frame 12", the old mechanical brake rods were too short. So I ordered a bunch of clevis parts and solid rod from McMaster and made my own double adjustable brake rods. Started working on the shifter for the Ruckstell rear axle, exhaust through the chassis, and the master cylinder for the brakes. Normally this master would have been mounted about a foot further forward, but we may mount it back here. The Ruckstell shifter bracket takes the place of the nuts holding the torque tube to the transmission. Originally this car had a different style Ruckstell shifter that put the lever outboard the seat, near the handbrake lever. But with our bodystyle and the Warford, we wanted to relocated the shifter to the center of the floor. Made up the first iteration of the forward windshield supports. These were never used on the later cars and are typically straight. But because we have the wider '26 hood, the really wide windshield, are folding the windshield forward instead of backwards, and are terminating the supports at the headlight bar instead of the frame, we had to bend the supports. Bottom of the support rod. This will change. Testing for ergonomics. There aren't any.
Got all the shifters installed. Black knob is the Ruckstell. White knob is the Warford. The floor was a little offset, but we knew that going in. It was going to have to be trimmed on three sides. So after gluing it together using construction adhesive we calculated how much off each side and started cutting. Got some photos out of order here. The finished shifters and rear axle shift linkage made up from some Jeep Wrangler tie-rod adjusters and hollow rod. Going with DUAL exhausts! Using two tractor mufflers hung from an old section of running board channel with some turn-down tips. Instead of using the sorry updraft carb and manifold, I decided to use this tiny Holley 1904 carb off a 144ci Ford Falcon. The choke is about the size of a nickle. We wanted to get the carb up away from the ground so we didn't suck dust all the time, and water during stream crossings. Custom made the downdraft manifold and hold-down brackets. The dual runner exhaust manifold is a reproduction of an old speed part.
Cutting more small pockets in the floor for body mount, exhaust hanger and brake bracket clearance. Started making the uprights for the body. The height was a compromise and is a little higher than desired for the bed, and a little lower than desired for the seat and gas tank. Things are starting to shape up. Built the front of the seat box and the front of the bed. That CAD planning was coming in handy. Another test fit to see if the calculations for seat depth and backrest height were right. We made some tweaks to both. With the exception of the hood former, all the wood was assembled with dowels and glue. Here the "box" section was being glued up separate from the floor because the sequencing needed to put in dowels required these pieces be assembled first, then doweled to the floor. Could have used a few more clamps and straps on these.
We figured it would be too hard to prime and paint the bottom of the body after it was installed, so it got a coat on the bottom before it was glued up. And we rolled the chassis outside to clean off some of the oil and grime. Should have done this when we disassembled it rather than spot cleaning the places we were working. Hit the exhaust with a couple coats of BBQ paint. Rolled the chassis back into the garage and brush painted everything. Frame, axles, suspension, torque tube, linkage, etc... Put the floor back on the chassis and prepped it for the installation of the box. Dowel holes were drilled into the edge of the box sections and transfer punches were installed. The box was lined up on the floor and the punches made indents. We went back and drilled at the indents for the dowels. Got it almost right, almost all the time! Clamped while the glue dries. Now that the box is on, we're starting on the bed floor. Decided to add two additional leafs to the rear spring. I bought another spring pack to salvage the two leaves from. Taking apart the spring. My special spring stretcher to install/remove the spring to the rear axle. You can see the new lower spring leaf painted in graphite sliding paint. It's just a trimmed down second leaf. We also added another top leaf as a spacer. This required a new center spring bolt and U-bolts to hold it to the frame.
Good shot of the underside of the painted floor, new spring pack, and the rear brake lines. We routed them behind the axle as protection from rocks and brush, and so they wouldn't be crushed if axle straps were used to tie the car down in a trailer. Gluing up the bed floor layers. Primed the body before gluing the bed floor to the box section. Mix and match of different Model A taillight parts. The bracket and wiring mud guard are from a '30-31 Model AA heavy truck. The taillight is from a 1933 truck (single piece lens and no chrome). These taillights are still being made new today for use on Indian built tractors. Started mocking up the side gates for the bed. Flush mounted the hinges in the bed floor upside down. This took some creative routing and bolt modifications to make it work. These were installed with backing plates and square nuts. Bed side hinges were distressed and installed with square nuts. A hollow rod was used as a hinge pin. The end was trimmed, threaded and a large square nut was used to secure it. Threadlocker and slightly deformed threads will keep the nut in place. To install the latches we first installed threaded inserts. Then the cast latches were installed to the bed sides. The bed is a flatbed with drop gates on three sides. Rolled the body outside and primed and painted it. Didn't get many photos as it was too risky to handle the camera while painting. Painted all the metal hardware. After some debate, decided to add some wind wings to the narrow firewall. The angled wing was a little tricky to dowel in place, but we did it. Assembling the painted body. Rebuilt the headlights with all new springs and bulb holders. Added some super-bright LED bulbs. I've seen this version in action and they are superb. They've been hard to find and out of stock almost everywhere, but I found a shop in Holland that had some. Bolted up the taillights. Unlike the original cars, we wanted two taillights with brake lights.
Added brackets and a panel for an access hole into the box below the bed floor. Added heat shielding above the exhaust anywhere it was close to the wood body. Installed the rebuilt headlights. Had to buy a couple more one-year-only lights to get all the parts necessary to mount them. Made windshield templates to get the glass cut. Having laminated windshields made. Glass glued into place and center seal clipped over the lower half. Detail of the retainer for the glass.
The engine builder in California had some delays. A local car museum asked him to oversee the mechanical repairs to an antique car that had been crashed. And then he moved his home and shop in preparation for retirement from his day job. Then his dad died. I chose this builder because most Model T engine builders don't build custom engines. They build stock engines, only deviating for modifications that have been the norm for more than 50 years. This builder builds racing engines and had no issues with any of the modifications I'm making. Eventually he got around to my engine. First was a little machine work to restore the manifold mating surface and clean up the freeze plug holes. There is some more erosion in the ports, but I'm using intake and exhaust gaskets from an Australian Austin to help seal them up. Then the main Babbitt was completed. And the better of two pans I sent him was straightened. This is important because the "4th main" at the output of the transmission rides in the end of the pan and depends on it being straight. I've made some modifications that make this straightness less important, but it still has to be addressed. The table the pan is on is actually a vintage jig made to straighten the pan. That little fork-bracket you can see on bottom of the pan is where the front suspension bolts on. Yes, the front suspension is bolted onto a sheet metal oil pan!
Thanks for the detailed build here...surprised you did exhaust turn downs and going to run dirt roads...I hated the turndown exhaust on my T for that reason
This is a cool thread! I not a fan of the disk brakes but I understand why you are using them I would probably do the same. I bet they will actually stop the car now. I know nothing of 'T's' as I am an A guy and love driving my car all over the place. So I will be following your build.
I may end up hating them too, in which case I'll saw them off. The issue is that they don't go to the edge of the body. And we didn't want to get burned by the exhaust by bringing it to the edge of the truck bed. So the decision was made to to turndowns. I'll bet they are fine on the Colorado and Utah trails, and suck in the Mojave.
Normally I'd hate the discs too. But we'll be on steep trails with big dropoffs in Colorado and Utah. I'd like to have some control over the decent, and be able to keep the truck from rolling back when we're stopped without having to jump out and stick a rock under the wheel. Photo from one of my scouting trips in Utah.
Started working on the front seat. I bought a few cheap trailer springs to make the backrest support out of. First order was to cut them to size using the spinny wheel of death. Drilled a bunch of holes in the springs using a masonry bit and a LOT of pressure at slow speeds. Fortunately, we have a mill for exactly that sort of thing. Then drilled holes in the body and a backrest and bolted up all the parts. All that extra thread will be chopped off. We thought for a half second about doing the upholstery ourselves, then dropped off the seat base and back at an old school shop near us and had them do it up in a vintage style pattern. Next was the footrest. First were the cardboard mockups to make the templates from. One of the complications is that the floorboards have to be removable to access the top of the transmission so the bands can be adjusted as they wear. Moved those templates to wood. The uprights on the sides are rigidly mounted to the floor below. The floorboards drop in and will be held in place by swiveling screen attachment hardware and a heavy rubber mat. Next on the list was the fuel tank. Early cars had the tank under the seat, and had issues going up hills because the carb would be higher than the tank. There was no pump, no it relied on gravity to deliver the fuel. Later cars had the tank higher up in the cowl, so they were less affected. But, we have no cowl. And we have a downdraft carb mounted high on the engine. So it's an uphill trip for the fuel all the time. That meant we'd have to use a fuel pump. Easy enough, as we will be converting to 12v and there are a lot of small pumps that would work. For simplicity I used a Holley pump and regulator mated to an early Model T fuel tank and brackets. Because the fuel comes out of the bottom of the tank, we had to cut a relief in the floor to clear the fittings and fuel line. The tanks and brackets are a tight fit. Tighter than I wanted. Pump, regulator, and filter are all under the seat at the end of the tank. The feed line goes back under the body until it enters the engine compartment. At this point we had to move the Model T back to the warehouse while we worked on another project. We'll have it back for more work when the engine is finished.
The Jalopy Journal
