Projects Shade tree Model A speedster kind of thing

So cool. Yes, certainly motivation to keep going!

 

Thanks, man. For those who haven't been following from the beginning, maybe I should describe this engine. It's the 1928 mill that belongs with this frame. Still got what I assume is the original babbitt on the mains and big ends, although after I checked it using that tinfoil method I had to remove almost all of the shims. Has a "police" head, Brierley C camshaft, valve spring shims, self-locking adjustable lifters, and new rings. Model B distributor. The carburetors are SU H6's (1 3/4" throats) with trial-and-error modified tapers on the needles. That's a homemade conduit manifold. The exhaust manifolds are the ass-ends of two stock Model A ones with the front ports cut off and plates brazed over the resultant gaping holes. It's a mid-year 1928 car, so it has the multi-plate clutch. I had our local machine shop remove about 15 pounds from the flywheel. I don't have any idea what the numbers are, but it seems plenty peppy to me.



As far as the brakes, I'll fine tune those with the old school skidding on dirt method. Just get going good in 2nd and slam on the brakes. Examine the skid marks and adjust accordingly. I had the original brakes set so that the fronts left tracks about twice as long and the backs, all even from side to side, and I was real happy with how it stopped on pavement. Hardly pulled at all, and never tried to swap ends on me. I can't see how the cables should really change things there. It's all about getting the lengths even and then using the shoe adjusters to finesse it all. I'm not stressing on it at this point, though. I feel now like they should turn out OK.

 

Thanks for the details on the engine, clutch, brakes and your method of adjusting those brakes. When I was 19 and bought my first car, a '29 A standard coupe, I drove it home through rush hour traffic and along the way lost two of the brake clevis pins, broke one brake rod and was relying on just one functioning right rear brake and the E-brake to stop or slow it. At one point I had to stand on the brake pedal and yank the E-brake so hard to avoid a nasty rear-end crash that I smoked the right rear tire - I mean BILLOWS of smoke! Scared the hell out of me and the guy in front of me who I narrowly avoided slamming into. When I got it home and tried to park it on our driveway, I pulled the E-brake again to lock it down and the pin fell out of the clevis - broken cotter pin. Finally got it stopped and waited for my dad to find a large enough concrete block to put in front of the wheel to keep it from rolling into the next yard.
I recognized those carburetors from the '64 Jaguar XK-E I briefly owned three years later. Horrible car! Sure wish I still had that '29 A coupe. Ran great after I worked on it.
Keep up the great work and keep us posted.

 

What a good story, @osage organge. I guess that's maybe the main advantage of mechanical brakes, the way they are independently operated. Hydraulic failure would have left you nothing but the emergency brakes, and those thin little Model A bands might have let you down for real. Still, trying to stop with just one skinny tire, though...

I'm on to the front part of the floorboards. First, had to heat and bend the clutch and brake pedals again to give me as much room on the outside as possible.



They are pretty close together, but work for yard driving. I don't anticipate any speed shifts in this thing, so I should be able to plant my clutch foot pretty deliberately. As far as braking goes, the clutch travels much farther than the brake, and that helps get my left foot out of the way. If it proves to be a problem, I'll just have to address it. I'm planning on rigging up the hand brake, which will work on all four wheels on this rig, so that should also help in emergencies.

Next was the familiar mark/cut/adjust/cut/repeat fitting process. Masonite Assisted Design. Haha. I did the driver's side first because it was the most involved. See that white-ish blob on the firewall? Epoxy doesn't like heat. Momentary lapse while bending those pedals. I can fix it.



These are just the patterns. I can finesse that shift tower cut-out on the real thing. Passenger's side was easier.



I am going to have to move the battery. I'm planning on a recess in the driver's side floorboard to drop my heels down a couple of inches, and the stock battery location interferes with that. Also, since the car is so much lower, it just seems prudent to get it out of there. I'm thinking of putting it behind the seats. It's about the only option.



That means it will be sharing space with the gas tank, but I think if I put a bulkhead between them so I don't have to worry about spills when I'm fueling up, It should be OK. I can also put the battery in a box. I guess I could always spring for one of those tiny, expensive lithium jobs?



That's the recycled air tank from the original build. It ended up about 30 feet down the road after the wreck, still full of gas. The brazed-on filler pipe broke off, but it took enough force to bend that thick tank. Hard to see in that picture, but the edge of the hole is pretty deformed. I was impressed.

Next will be duplicating what I did on the firewall for those front floorboards (I'll use the thin plywood, because I won't be standing or sitting on them) and figuring out an appropriately substantial way to mount the battery and fuel tank. Piddle piddle.

 

Time for speedstering has been tight lately, but I've been chipping away at the front floorboard project. I refined my rough masonite patterns with some card stock and masking tape, then transferred them to the same thin marine plywood I made the firewall out of and cut them out with a jigsaw. The fit is pretty good, if I do say so myself.





That jigsaw did splinter the edges a bit, but I can pretty that back up when I fiberglass these. I know that's not period correct, but it's thin fiberglass, not really for strength, just so I don't have to replace these so often. I might just coat them with epoxy and not worry about the 'glass.

I hopped in (on?) the car and tried it out. Seems workable, but I would like my clutch heel to be a little lower, so I decided to make a box for it. I thought about folding one up out of sheet metal, but in the end I just used the same plywood. I just eyeballed the design, taped it together, and glued it with thickened epoxy. Again, not period correct, but they are just floorboards. Jeez. Haha.







Then just cut a hole in the floorboard (I had already figured out the maximum size it could be and still clear the frame rail and the brake rod) and glued the box in. Tried the modified mess out and discovered my usually reliable eyeball had let me down. Much too deep. Easy fix, though. I just cut the bottom out, marked and cut a new bottom, and boom.








Much better. There is barely room for both heels, but I think it's mostly for my clutching foot, anyway. The throttle is comfortable at floor level, and I usually just tip my foot to go from throttle to brake in normal driving situations. We'll see, I guess. I have run epoxy fillets around the new bottom and it's drying now. A little cosmetic sanding will finish that part of the project up. Oh yeah, I did have to remove the stock battery box, so I will have to put the battery back behind the seats.

 

Very cool, great work.
Greetings Harald

 

Thanks Harold. Glue is dry enough to handle. Here are both front floorboards semi-installed:



And here is an idea of how much foot-room there is.



Dead pedal/throttle.



If that turns out to be too crowded I'll just bend the cutch pedal back a little bit and plan on putting a bubble in the body for dead pedal room. One way or the other, it should be fine. I don't think this thing is going to have perfect ergonomics, no matter what. Just the nature of the beast.

 

Congrats on that first drive. It looks and sound great. I like the slightly raspy bark. Mediocrates you most certainly aren't.

 

Hahaaa, Jack. I forgot I had that shirt on in those pictures. I feel like I kind of am, though. Certainly not one to polish a sow's ear, at any rate.

I have started my battery/fuel tank tray thingamabob. It's just an angle iron framework that will be bolted through the rear bulkhead and the rear crossmember. All of this will be under the eventual bodywork. I found some heavy 1" C-channel that was just right to space it over the lip of the crossmember. I didn't want to compromise the strength of that thing by notching it, but I want the tank to be really securely attached this time.



I'm sticking with my tried and true converted air tank idea for the fuel. Since it's going to live right behind me I like the comfort of that thick metal, and I can't justify spending money on a custom or antique tank for this thing, anyway. This one is just for mocking it up. Haven't decided on a size yet.





I have a completely non period-correct plastic battery box coming. Remember, it'll be covered up, and I sure don't want to have to worry about spills and shorts burning this thing up. Personally, I don't stick to that period-correct business religiously. I want as much of this car as possible to be Depression era parts and practices, but I'll make exceptions for my safety without any qualms at all. Just hide or blend them as best I can and live with it. Safety is a moving target here, but no sense not doing what I can. Especially considering this car's recent history. Haha. I'll also put a thin bulkhead between the tank and the battery, for added peace of mind. Probably more of that marine plywood. Got to bolt this thing down and run a long positive wire to the starter, and I can trundle around the yard some more. What joy.

 

Looking great!

 

I got the battery moved and wired. Decided against the plastic box. Covered or no, I just couldn't like the idea of such a modern monstrosity sitting back there. I think I'll make a plywood one, instead. Anyway, since it's running again I decided to adjust the brakes a little better. My procedure is to get going pretty good in 1st, maybe 15 mph or so, and stand on them when I hit a spot in the drive where there are a bunch of little iron ore rocks. I use the adjustment screws on the backing plates to fine tune each wheel until they all skid, front before rear by a bit, and evenly side-to-side. I can tell by the length of the skid marks and by whether or not it's sliding straight when I'm close. As it is now, I can also just watch the wheels. Hahah. I didn't video the whole procedure, but here is where I am at the moment.



Look how that passenger seat back flips. Hahahaa. Once I get it on the road, I'll wait for a rain and go out to a parking lot and do it all again on wet pavement. I did that with the first iteration of this car and didn't really have to touch the adjusters, but it was good to check anyway. You may be able to hear that I also reinstalled my exhaust pipe/baffle deal. It's too long now (the car is shorter and the engine is farther back proportionally), poots out on the inside of the starboard rear tire, but at least I can hear myself think. It'll get modified in due time.

 

I'm still doing what I can down here. Time is at a premium these days, but I try to make a little progress every week. I've been concerned about the front springs on this heap since I mocked it up. One of the things I love about this 1937 stuff is the elegant way they pointed and rounded and tapered the ends of each leaf. If you aren't familiar, it will show in the pictures that follow. Somewhere in this stuff's mysterious past though, some of those ends got pretty torn up, and I may have used those damaged ones to make knives out of, not really thinking I was going to use them anyway.

The end result was that I had a limited number of leaves to apply to the front suspension, and it's ended up a little floppy, so I wanted to put a few more in the stack. I had a couple of the shorter top ones I could add, but I needed one to bridge the gap. Again, the pictures will make it clear. There originally was this full thickness leaf that rode over the first leaf. Had little bent ends that hooked over the eyes. I haven't seen one like that before, but these axles came off of a truck, so maybe it's specific to that application? Anyway, when I disassembled the spring pack I discovered that it was broken clean in two. The longest leftover part was long enough to pretty much bridge that gap I was talking about.



You can see the hook on the right and the break on the left. I was limited to the space between the hook and the spring bolt hole, and you'll see at the end that it's a little shorter than it should be, but I'm fine with it. Shaping the ends was simple, if time consuming. Just cut rough points on each end and sanded them to fair curves.





By the way, those sparks indicate the carbon content of the steel. If they look like little fireworks like those do, that's good news for things like springs and knives. Let me get back on topic, though. Tapering the ends was what took some time. I used a 36 grit belt on a table top belt/disk sander (didn't have a grit that aggressive for the big edge-sander) and beveled the edges down to where I wanted them, then ground away the hump in the middle until the bevels disappeared, then back to the edge sander to smooth it all out.







Notice all of those 36 grit cross scratches are gone. Ended up with this on each end:



Here it is with the other two leaves I'm adding:



And all buttoned up:



You can see what I mean about it being a bit short. Oh well. You work with what you have, sometimes. That busted up roofing square is just to show me how much the ride height changed. Only about half an inch higher, which is OK. Honestly, I was worried it was a tad too low, anyway. I'm not one of those frame dragging guys. Those two Model A shorties are just spacers to give the oil pan a reasonable amount of clearance. Standing on the frame horns and bouncing shows a real improvement. I could bottom it out easily before, but not so much now. I did get the frame to tap the axle one time, bouncing my 195 pounds for all I was worth. I'll think of some way to add some low profile bump stops, but I think when I figure out some kind of shock absorber arrangement, I should be good.

That's all for now.

 

Nice work! Love your shifter knob. Haha! I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll squeeze my size 13-14 between my T5 and the frame rail on my speedster build.

 

Dang. And I thought my 11’s were a challenge. I think the car that inspired your build uses a hand brake? That might help? Looks good, either way.

 

Thanks! Hand brake yes, but he has three pedals cramped into this space. lol! It’s a two-seater as well.

 

Ahh. I remember. Chain drive GN transmission, no real bellhousing, I imagine. That’s why his pedals can be in the center like that.

 

Yep.

 

Thank you for your time to post - very inspirational for me and my attempt at building a speedster.

 

Thanks for that. You should start a thread on that project. Looks fascinating.

 

I made this old-timey race style gas cap for the old car. Turned it out of a short piece of bronze shaft. It kind of came off, got a little skint up, and fell apart during the wreck.



I still want to use it, but I need a better way to attach it to the tank than the jackleg business I used before. I'm kind of embarrassed about that. I found this malleable iron floor flange with a pipe nipple that I could turn down to fit inside the cap.





Then I cut off what I didn't want of the flange and sanded it to shape.





That white stuff is leftover sealant from the jackleggery I mentioned before. It won't stay there.

Then I contoured the bottom to fit the 12" diameter of the tank I'm using.



(Notice the difference in sparks between the cast iron and the spring I was grinding before?)



That also got rid of most of the cast-in cavities on that base. I'm not stressing about the little bits that are left. I'm planning to bolt this thing to the tank with a squishy gasket between the two.

Next, I silver soldered the cap base to that pipe.





It was a close fit, but not interference. My Stay-Silv flux had dried up, but I mixed it with some rubbing alcohol and it seemed to work fine. I'm pretty sure I got it stuck together.

Then I just had to rebuild the hinge that got torn up. Still thinking on the best way to bolt it up, but It is definitely going to be superior to the old rig.





I'm going to leave that pavement rash on the cap. History.

 

I'm going to show what I came up with to marry the fuel cap and tank, but first I went ahead and dealt with the pick-up. It's pretty straightforward, just a copper line soldered into a hose barb fitting that I drilled out just a bit, then bent the line and adapted the fitting to the outlet on the tank. It would only bend so far and still screw in, but after I cut the hole for the cap I just reached in with a stick and bent it on down.









I don't know why I clocked it vertical in that one shot. Should be rotated clockwise 90 degrees. Anyway, this should work better than what I did last time, which was to position the tank so that bung was on the bottom, which meant that any trash that got in the tank immediately went into the fuel line. Not ideal. That rig was still gravity-feed before I replaced the original carburetor, though, so I didn't really have a choice. I'm planning on using the air pressure business I ended up with last time on this one, so no reason not to improve it.

Now, on to the cap. After measuring and hole-sawing the tank, I cut the ends off of a muffler clamp u-bolt, leaving a bit of the unthreaded part on each one. Threaded nuts all the way down, and fed them up through slightly oversized holes I drilled.



Next I put bolted the cap at the very top of the threads and propped it over the tank. That pulled the nuts on the ends up tight inside the tank so I could braze them. Heated the bolts pretty red so the brazing would hopefully run down in there pretty good. I didn't remember to take a picture after I brazed it, and I don't feel like taking it all apart now. You'll have to use your imaginations. It's really not very dramatic. Haha.



Edit: Turns out I did take a picture of the brazing results. I'll add it here.



Then I cut a gasket out of some closed cell foam rubber (hope it holds up to gas), bolted the cap down tight, cut off the extra length of the studs, and replaced the standard nuts with cute little brass acorn nuts. Done.







Might have to hit that bronze with a fine Scotchbrite pad or some steel wool. We'll see.

 

The fuel filler turned out great, and the tank cap is very nice, too.
Very good.
Regards, Harald

 

I'm in the middle of mounting the tank to that angle iron frame. I first cut some cradles out of 1" thick Hickory.



Drilled holes through the long ears. I started with the drill press to get a pilot, then finished with a long 3/8" bit in a hand drill.





Tried those out.



Then added crossmembers. Just to make sure that they stay upright in case of violent motion. This design is largely based on the post-mortem of how I mounted the old tank, which did not stay attached to the car. Destruction testing.



Those joints are glued (which isn't much use with end grain like that) and pinned with glued-in oak dowels (which should be some use). Then I bolted the whole shebang to the angle iron frame with 1/4' carriage bolts.





Don't worry, I'll come up with a better hold-down for that battery. The tank will be strapped down with 1/4" U-shaped steel rods that will go through those long holes and terminate in threaded ends. In the front, they will also go through the angle iron. I made that frame as long as I could with the angle I had on hand, but the rear ends of those rods are only going to be in the hickory. I think it will be fine. Seems like I say that a lot. Ha.

Anyway, here is a perspective shot. It was taken before I got it all boxed and glued, but you get the idea.



Honestly, this thing would probably gravity feed until it was pretty low on fuel if I had the pickup in the bottom of the tank, but I like the idea of my pressurized system.

 

I was looking around for some scrap steel rod to make the tank hold-downs out of when my eyes fell on the old bent up Model A rear end propped up against a tree. Brake rods. Duh. I snatched them off and rough bent them around the tank. Perfect. Just had to grind off the little bumps that catch the return springs.



Cut them to length and threw a 5/16x24 tap on the cut ends (the other ones were already threaded) and done. I need to go buy some nuts for them, don't have any that size, so they aren't tight yet, but this should hold it.



I read something on the internet (may have been here, I wish I could remember and give proper credit) about the way fuel tanks are attached to cars like this, and how many of those rigs aren't strong enough. The poster knew a lot of specific mathematical details that I don't recall, but the point was that g-forces make things effectively heavier than they really are by some startling factor. The tank here is 11 gallons, so it's safe to say that it will probably average 50 lbs or better. As I have found, there is always a possibility of unexpected g-forces. Hence the beefed up system from my first attempt.

Anyway, I know the sharp-eyed ones among you will notice that fuel gauge and wonder what's up with it. It's a really nice solid brass or bronze gear driven thing I found on the 'Bay for surprisingly cheap, probably because it's missing the float. I ain't worried about such a small detail.



I think it's actually an old marine item, but I like it just the same. I made this wooden spacer block to adapt it to the tank. Has that 12" diameter curve on the bottom and a rebate for the O-ring in the top.





(It was actually while walking back and forth doing this gauge project that my eyes fell on the brake rods, so this post is a little jumbled up, chronoligically speaking.)

Anyway, I intended that thing to be a pattern, planning on duplicating it in aluminum when I ended up with a piece big enough, but now I'm thinking it might serve fine as-is? It was the work of mere minutes to saw a hole in the tank and plop it in there for a test fit.



It nestles perfectly between the cap and where the rod will be, and there looks like plenty of room for the float to swing, especially oriented the way it is in that picture. I'd like to turn it so that the 1/2 mark is towards the front of the car, but I'll have to wait until I get the float and arm on there to see if it will do that without scrubbing the side if the tank. I think it will miss. If not, oh well. I liked the sight tube I had on the old car, mainly because it looked the part, but it wasn't ideal from a practical point of view. Just really hard to tell where the clear gas was in the tube. This will be better as a form-follows-function deal. That's kind of my thing, anyway.

 

Your fuel gauge looks like a smaller version of the ones used on the Versitile tractor we use . The float arm is longer .

 

Time to move to the front end of the car for a bit. I can't seem to do these jobs in a nice, clean order. Always jumping around. It gives me time to ponder, I guess. Right now I'm working on the gas gauge, thinking ahead about the body, and addressing the need for shock absorbers.

Adding shocks to the old car was probably the most practically dramatic improvement I made, as far as actual driving performance goes, so I know I want them here, too. I used Armstrong lever shocks from MGs back then, but I can't find a way to fit them here that suits me. Part of the problem is that the 1937 frame these axles came from was way wider than the Model A frame I'm using, so the shock attachments are pretty far from the frame, especially at the front end. The other issue, again mainly at the front, is that the split wishbones and brake cable paraphernalia are taking up the space just outside of the frame I need for mounting the shocks. Can't find a spot with no interference. It's a shame, because I have those, and I know they are in working condition. Oh well. The '37 rear had a set of Houdaille shocks attached. One was slack and the other was frozen, but they work for mocking up. I tried all kinds of ways to fit them on and finally came up with this idea:




That looked promising. As you can see, I even threw the lights on there to make sure they still had room. (Ignore the extra leaf. It's from the rear pack, and is too wide.) Of course, it wasn't a bolt-on fit. The tapered holes for the ball studs (on the shock arms and perch bolts) ended up oriented 90 degrees to each other, instead of inline. I considered heating and twisting the perch bolt tops, but decided to try twisting the shock links, first. I had some NOS aftermarket stamped steel links that seemed about right.



Might be a little hard to decipher that picture, but I just used two Crescent wrenches (one clamped in the vise) wedged over the ball ends and twisted. Worked surprisingly well and easy. Popped them on the car, looks promising.



I don't know if I could have done that with real forged ones. Can't use heat because of the rubber inserts at each end, so...

Anyway, I broke down and bought some old rear shocks with 8" arms (the rears are made to bolt onto the top or bottom of the frame, instead of the outer face) and bolted them on. They ended up with one hole in the frame and the other one on the modified Model T spare carrier arm. I don't think it's a problem. Might actually help hold it all together?






The angle of the links worries me a bit, but they don't seem to be binding, so it goes onto the list of things to keep an eye on, I guess. Also, those Allen head bolts are too small and are only temporary.

Here it is with the headlights stuck in about the right place:



I'll tell you what, I can't come close to bottoming out the suspension by bouncing on the front now. I know shocks don't add to the spring rate, but they do cut down on inertia, and the only way I could bottom it out after adding the extra leaves was by bouncing repeatedly until it eventually tapped the frame on the axle. These shocks stop that.

Oh yeah, I also soldered some brass tube onto the end of the fuel gauge and stuck a wine cork on it. I had to bend it just a bit to line everything up in there, but I think this will be fairly accurate. Sorry about the focus issue.



The rear shocks should be easier. I'll use front shocks on the face of the frame and standard links. Only problem is that someone torched the arms off about halfway down on the pair that I have, so I'll have to deal with that or just break down and buy a pair again. That's a post for another day, though.

 

Really like this build