Cool story and car. Really like the subtle hot rod touches, doesn't need much more than that to turn a Model A into something really special.
@Ardent Motors, Hamber @Chris has brought out the best in many distressed natural survivor finishes...I suspect you have already visited some of his threads...to say the least I am surprised it has revived some deteriorated glory...great coverage by the way...
Your story is a great one and so cool that you have a multi-generation community there in your farm country. Having moved around a bit, I see some real goodness in that. And I really like the finish you are preserving on this body. It looks great in my opinion.
Thanks for the comments, and I couldn't agree more. Not that we all wouldn't love to have something in a little better shape, but the rust and the scars tell it's own story. And really for where it was sitting I am constantly surprised for how little actual rust there is on the car. The thing that I think helped is the the chicken coop that it was stored in had chicken wire over the windows, and while it let the elements in, I think it also helped dry out the cement floor which prevented it from really going bad. Now that I have the shell off, I'll get a few close ups of it, and of the inside.
Thanks @BrerHair for the comments, I'm from Wisconsin. Not necessarily the hot bed of Hot Rods in the 1950's. But someone back then had their act together!
Thanks, I have been really surprised how well it did. And that there was actually paint under 60 years of dust!
Thanks @NeoSmith I can really say that I have been very blessed in my life, and growing up in "small town" USA where you only need an intersection and a bar to have a town, has been really wonderful. And thanks for the finishing comments, I wasn't sure at first myself but am happy with the results so far.
Thanks @Lepus, that engine is really neat. I did some research on it when it was unearthed. They used them on mostly kit airplanes and is the same basic engine as the motorcycle. With some differences, there are a few people online that will take and convert it back for motorcycle use - which I agree would be amazing! I may be helping the owner sell it - most likely on Ebay but not too sure yet. He originally bought it in the 60's from a guy who was going to make a air boat with it! Here's some more on it:
Thanks @Stogy, I very well could have, to be honest I probably was online for 4+ hours until way too early in the morning one day, and all I can remember is what I scribbled down for notes. And it always helps to have a nice place to go and get some "shop therapy".
XI. DIS***EMBLY: Finally! I would say the car is “clean”, “clean-er” or probably better categorized as less dirty. And really just on the outside. I have yet to deal with the interior cleaning and that will happen when some of the more major rust is dealt with in the floor pan. I will also be given the underside a good cleaning, not only to inspect everything, but to also do some rust prevention. But that will wait until it can be done on the lift – because why not do it standing up verses having all that **** fall in your face! I have been waiting literal months to be able to start “working” on it – as in removing parts in order to put them back together. I have probably told my Dad 20 times not to take the carb off… I wanted to get the outside cleaned first, not only to have a little less dirty when crawling around on it. But for the motivational factor of “seeing what the car could look like”. Again to keep with the preservation theme, as little dis***embly as possible is the plan. But certain things need to happen. My game plan is really to dive into the engine 1st. Leave the block in the car, pull off the pan, head, side cover, etc and give it good look. (As a side note, while working through college I worked at an automotive machine shop that had a wide range of capabilities. One if which was pouring Babbitt bearings. I’ve seen more than a few Model A engine guts, and some inline Buick's for good measure.) While at it the accessories like the starter and generator can be inspected and the radiator tested for leaks. I do need to pull the wheels off and look at the (mechanical) brakes in order to see what parts I will need. And that’s just the start of the list, but it’s a start. RADIATOR - We’ve got a great local radiator shop and my goal this past weekend was to get the radiator pulled along with the starter and generator. In order to get the rad out. 1st had to come off the grill shell. That beautiful grill shell. And before 1st – whatever that is, the headlight bar had to be removed. With a little convincing the headlight bar nuts were removed and off came the bar. Next only 3 of the 4 screws affixing the grill shell were removed and gently the grill was taken off the car. It’s such a simple thing, but man it is good looking. Now that the shell is off and the radiator is exposed, it’s interesting to see the modifications. The original inlet was soldiered closed and a new neck was added so it would be accessible from inside the hood. In order to get the clean lines of the filled grill shell. Other than its age, it’s these modification why I also wanted to have it checked out. After removing the hoses, and cutting the mounting bolts that would not be budged loose, it too was removed. All without a drop of water being spilled…. Because it was empty. OTHER BITS - With all this access the starter and generator were also removed, both turned freely and looked really pretty clean. Especially the starter, as there was not any rust on the internal mechanism. A good sign for the clutch I hope. As a side note, I do feel like I want to make mention of my goals. Things will be rebuilt properly not only for peace of mind when driving, but also for pure practicality. My goal this year is to get it on the road as soon as possible (while doing things correctly, and safely). I am trying to hold off on larger items, so they can be better planned out to do over the subsequent winter. These items are all staged and ready to go to town to get checked out With all of that removed, I continued to pull off parts, such as the carb. (Well actually I let my Dad to that since he’s been so patiently waiting to do so). The fuel pump, the horns, and the wiring in the engine bay. Not a bad pile of parts collected for a few hours of effort. It is so refreshing to work on something so utterly simple for a change. It’s looking less and less like a car, but more and more like progress. And with that, we are now current to the actual work taking place. Progress I know will be slower than I would like, but that is a fact of life. But I will make sure to keep everyone on here posted of the progress that is achieved! I had been wanting to get this posted for so many weeks now and it feels great to do so. Thank you all for the warm comments, and encouragement. This really is such a great hobby! Or sickness
Get one of Snyders leakless water pumps. Some of the best money you can spend.Every Model A I have now and have owned got one. And one of their wiring harnesses. Cheap! Work great. Love these old beaters! Where do ya stop?? Dave
Thanks @dwollam I couldn't agree more, the leakless water pump is/was on my shopping list. There really are some things that have improved with modern engineering. And the wiring harness is a must as well!
Thanks for the positive comment @LWEL9226 , the story was too good not to share with others! I'll try and not let you down on how this plays out...
XII. More Dis***embly and cleaning, and more cleaning Progress continues, slowly… I removed the dash, which was only held on with 2 of the screws, and only one of them was correct… The wiring is almost completely out of the car, just the rear light section to go. Overall for how pitted the dash itself is, the gauges are really in decent shape. It was interesting to see the seal on the back of the speedometer / odometer. I have recently picked up a spare dash along with several other parts that I may or (probably) may not need. That will yield me the missing hooded light, and it’s not new and shiny, a plus for this build! The ignition cylinder I will also need to remove so it can be keyed since I did not get one with the car. Since I wasn’t sure yet what to do with the running board covers as they are very dry and brittle, and because we’re now crawling all over the car. I cut some cardboard to cover them for the time being. They match the look of the rest of the car, but I feel like may disintegrate after a season’s worth of driving. Either try and condition and seal these, or find another worn out set to put on the car. I don’t know, and that’s a job for down the road… Radiator and Electrics The radiator is currently in the shop. Some soldering looks to be required around the lower outlet and the upper neck that was added is very thin. It is going to be repaired and will be good enough for the next couple of years, however at some point a more permanent solution will have to be found. The Generator had a bad armature, so 2 more were dropped off, and hopefully between the 3 of them I’ve have one good one! The Starter checked out fine, other than the solenoid that was mounted to it. The car does not have the normal rod starter instead it has an electric solenoid that controls it. More on this once I have it back, which hopefully is soon because one of my next goals is to do a compression check on the engine. The CARB. The carb has been in various stages of dis***embly and cleaning. Between the carb cleaner and ultrasonic cleaner it should clean up very well. It’s a Carter W1 which was used on a variety of cars, and actually came in several versions. Mikes Carburetor Parts has a nice video on how to ID them, and that’s also where I bought a carb kit from. My particular version could have come off of a: Auburn 1934-35, Chevrolet 1932-43, Es*** Terraplane 1932, Federal Truck 1933-34, GMC Truck 1940-43, Hudson 193,3-36, Oldsmobile 1939, Packard 1937-39, Pontiac 1933-42, Reo Truck 1938, Studebaker 1937, Studebaker Truck 1935-38, Terraplane 1932-33 Since this is a Hot Rod after all, let’s all just ***ume it was off the Auburn rather than the Reo Truck… although the latter is probably much more likely…. Here’s a tip that makes working on carbs and other items that have a very specific slot head, like the inner orifices, a lot easier is to use a gunsmith set of screwdrivers. That way the correct width and thickness can always be used to reduce the risk of marring the slot, especially the soft br*** ones. This is a very simple Weaver set but has come in very handy. Engine - Cleaning The part of any process that isn’t fun, but sure makes all the subsequent steps a lot nicer. S****ing and getting all the years of hard dirt and grease off the engine. I used a screwdriver and putty knife to get the big chunks off. Then used Mineral spirits in a spray bottle to spray the entire engine. After letting it soak the stiff brush from the parts washer was used to agitate everything so it could be wiped off. Another tip is using a large pan meant for mixing mortar or cement in as a catch pan. It helps on containing the mess and is the perfect size for cleaning engines. After doing a couple rounds of spraying and wiping it was clean enough to move onto some initial dis***embly. I still will need to come back and do it again with a de-greaser to remove the white(ish) film left on by the dried mineral spirits. These pictures show it as it started, after s****ing, and finally the mineral spirits wash. The original builder of this did love his bright red paint!I wonder how much horsepower he added by doing all these pieces, it had to be at least 15 to 20 HP!
Engine – How does it look inside there? I’ve been very curios on how the inside of the engine looks. I already know it turns over from putting it in 3rd gear when we pulled it out of the shed several months ago. But have not tried again since. Before getting too far into the engine, I wanted to share another tool tip. This has been an amazing addition to the shop; a flame-less torch as we’ve been calling it. It is an induction heater and works amazing on all sorts of rusted ferrous metal hardware (which is basically what we all deal with here right?). I can swear on this tool for sure, just place the coil over the nut/bolt and hold it for 10-20 seconds it will start smoking and if you do it enough times can get it cherry hot. But really the heat cycles help loosen everything up. It has been invaluable to use in hard to reach places or in areas where a flame would damage surrounding materials. This one is from Induction Innovations (theinductor.com) but there are several brands out there. Just Google or YouTube it if you haven’t seen one in action, you’ll want one. Not cheap, but well worth the money. We used it to help pursued the spark plugs, everything else came out without a fight. The exhaust, ok I wouldn’t even call it exhaust, was cut off just past the 90 degree bend. Half the muffler crumbled to ground, while the other half and the rest of the tail pipe somehow was amazingly still held into place with an exhaust hanger. (10 year old cars have them rust out these days…) With the exhaust cut the manifolds could be removed, then the crossover tube and inspection cover. Here you can see the modification to the intake manifold. The bottom was plugged and a new section was brazed onto the top. It hope to clean this up and get a better look at this in more detail. That was all I wanted to remove of the engine at this point. I was very pleased with how the valve train looked. I nice coat of oil on everything, but not full of sludge, and no rust. Looking into the ports, the valve/seats had a bit of rust around them but not bad either. Before turning the engine over to see if the valves were stuck or not, we stuck a bore scope done each cylinder. We don’t have some fancy thing, it was a $15 unit from Amazon that plugs into your smart phone, another great addition to the tool box! Each cylinder looked good! I tried to take some pictures but it did not cooperate. Before turning it over we did spray some Kroil and put some AFT in there just for good measure. We turned the motor over by hand to see the valve train move and all the valves were free except cylinder #3 had one that stuck. In the week since we first did this after exercising it several times, it seems to move fairly freely, it still does stick a little before releasing. Once we get the starter back and can spin it over continuously that should also help it out.
Onto the Inside (More Dis***embly and Gunk) In order to continue to gain access to everything, the wooden floor board was removed, after fighting with a few of the screws that is. The throttle linkage was taken off, as well as the fuel shut off, line and filter. More mouse nests were found, sadly, this one hiding in the valley behind the dash. I should also note we looked into the fuel take already, which still has its original screen! And it is super nice, no rust, and no gummed up fuel. We should not have to do anything there which is great! We started s****ing the gunk (a very technical term for a specific mixture of grease, oil and dirt aged over decades to precise consistency) off of the transmission. I ran out of time but it was a start. Future plan will be to clean it the same as the engine so when I take the top cover off I don’t drop “gunk” inside of it. Upcoming Steps One my next trip to the shop I hope to finish cleaning the engine and have the starter back from the shop in order to do a compression test. If all looks good after the test, I want to replace all the gaskets on the engine and re***emble it. This also means getting it up on the lift to be able to drop the pan and see what’s going on down there. While it’s up there the rest of the transmission will get cleaned and both filled with fresh fluids. And hopefully see what’s going on with the brakes. I haven’t even had a wheel off this thing yet… Christmas in July – I mean March This past week I went shopping, no not to the grocery store or to buy toilet paper… but online at Snyder’s and a few other parts houses. I don’t have everything I need but I did order a lot of parts that’s for sure! Wiring, Tires, Ignition, rebuild kits, gaskets, bolts, etc. etc…. Finding every little nut and bolt (literally) online honestly feels like cheating to me. I am not used to working on a car that is so heavily supported by the aftermarket. I’m used to forums, clubs, FB Groups, swap meets and my favorite - junk yards to source parts. I feel like my buddy who’s into Mustangs and just gets everything from CJ Pony… I’m not complaining, I’m glad I can just order it, it’s a lot faster that way. It is just an observation. That’s it for now, and as always more to come.
XIII. Dis***embly. Clean. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat… I feel like I’m now at the stage of this project where the car starts looking less and less like a car, as more and more of the pieces are removed to be cleaned and rebuilt. Where your phone is your best friend to take countless pictures so you know how on earth to put it all back together again at some future, (undefined, hopefully soon, but probably not) date. Oh and Ziploc sandwich bags and a Sharpie so you can label all the random hardware and small parts. Presents –I had to pay for… I mentioned Christmas, and it certainly felt like it a few weeks ago. Package after package in the mail! The haul included a bunch of parts from Snyder’s (which came in a much smaller box than I would have thought for how much I ordered). I guess I’m so used to Amazon where they send you a 2’ square box for something that could have fit into an envelope….but I digress. And some new inner-tubes for my new tires. I also picked up a pile of used parts from a local guy selling some left over Model A parts from his past projects. Not sure if I need them, but “parts are parts”. I also picked up my starter, generator and radiator from the local shops that had been looking them over. The starter needed a new armature and luckily one of the spares I dropped off had a good one. The starter checked out just fine except for the electric solenoid that was mounted to it. It does not have the original “pop-out” ignition system on it anymore. I really enjoyed the Bendix patent numbers on the collar of the starter. The radiator also was boiled and checked. The lower neck needed some minor repair. And quite a bit of new solder was added to the top filler neck where the metal was very thin. Overall though the tubes and fines look really decent for a car of this age.
The Starter The starter had an interesting solenoid on it. It mounted on top of a bracket that had an insulated copper connector to the lug on the starter itself. Pretty interesting, but not the run of the mill solenoid I was going to find. I did however find one on eBay which looked like it was for the same purpose. Once it arrived though it was a bit shorter than what was on the car. After some gentle (and not so gentle) m***aging, it did fit and used 2 of the existing tapped holes in the starter. And it worked. But I didn’t really like it… for no other reason than it didn’t use the old bracket and didn’t “look right”. Insanity I know… So… anther eBay shopping spree later I found another solenoid that looks to fit. I had to cut off the original mount from the end of the coil. But I was able to re-use the original bracket. The copper lead to the starter was also larger on the original than the 1st replacement (as I justify this extra dinking around…). So after the 3 iterations, it is back together, and works!
Ready. Set. Compression! Test. The real goal of getting the starter put back on was to spin the motor over so we can do a compression check to see what condition the engine is in. Well after getting all ready to do it, we realized that we didn’t have – or couldn’t find the adaptor to the larger spark plug size that the Model A uses… Of course. It actually worked out fine since that gave us a few more days to lube and exercise the 2 remaining stuck valves that we didn’t realize we had until we cranked it over with the starter. Fast forward several days and we gave it another try. Drum roll… - Cylinder #1 – 50-55 lbs – that’s good news - Cylinder #2 – 55-60 lbs – Consistent, that’s good - Cylinder #3 – 55 lbs – All right I think we’re on a roll - Cylinder #4 – 30 lbs – Sad trombone sound… waaawaaa….. Well it’s actually not all that bad, at least there IS compression. At this point I made the decision to leave the head on and not mess with any of the valves or anything until we can get the car running. Hopefully it is just a stuck ring and after it’s woken up with some time running it will free things up. We’ll see… Carter Carburetor Completion After different baths of carb cleaner and ultrasonic cleaner the carb was all laid out for re-***embly. One interesting item of this carb is the split choke. It is hinged with a spring so only one side can opened or closed.
Great story and an awesome car. This is what the HAMB is all about. I can't wait to see more! Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Random Bits All the random hardware pieces were de-greased and cleaned. Then shot with a film of Gibbs oil to prevent rusting and bagged up for future re ***embly. All this work up front will make putting things together really nice. I have to keep telling myself that… since cleaning bolts is not my favorite task… The dash surround was rusty, for sure. But everything came apart without a fuss. I did scrub the surround with some 0000 steel wool and Kroil just to bring back a little bit of shine, and also knock off those razor sharp flakes of old chrome. Nothing like getting a chrome sliver when starting the car…. The right side of this picture is what I did so far as a comparison. Overall it turned out nice. And even the AMP gauge still works! I didn’t get a key with the car. So I plan on taking the ignition cylinder down to our local locksmith to have a new one cut for it. Organization is king when it comes to longer term projects like this. All of the cleaned parts are put in a bin to keep together and out of the dusty shop environment. Likewise all my new parts are together in one place when I need to find something. Even though cleaning isn’t the most fun game. It is nice to see some interesting things along the way. Like the throttle linkage. One end is modified to fit the Carter carb with a new end welded on to it. With some actual penetration and nice looking weld on it. Neat when you think this was probably acetylene welded in the 50’s. The other rod has modified itself and the surround for the spring has worn to the point where the spring is exposed. It still works so I’m going to leave it. It’s just a neat detail.
XIV. New Shoes… And Clean Feet…? The tires I decided to go with were Firestone Deluxe bias ply’s. They have the correct period appearance. Now, I am a huge fan of fully fendered hot rods that have a nice rake with a big and little combination of bias ply’s tucked up nicely into the fenders. But – in an effort to retain the car as close to what was built as possible, I decided to get the same size that was on the car 6.00x16’s. After looking at the car sitting crooked on flat tires for so many months, it actually looks nice seeing it leveled off on jack stands. One by one we got the wheels off the car for the 1st time. The old Dunlop tires came off without too much of an issue even though they were pretty hard.
That left me with 5 rusty and red-ish rims. It was hard to see exactly was lurking underneath. They were overall in nice shape. I expected to see more rust on the inside of the rim. There were several good sized dents in a few of the rims. With the spare accounting for the most damage out of them all. The tire changer (one of the best CL’s buys ever) was used to clamp the rim and the edge was straightened with a monkey wrench, which may be only marginally newer than the rims themselves. Once straight I took a wire wheel on an angle grinder to the bead, both inside and outside to knock down any scale or rust. While not the most critical since these will have tubes, but a good force of habit when doing this process. Although this did leave a good haze of **** in the air of the shop for a quite some time that day…. The next step was to wash them. Which took forever…. Not only because they were pretty dirty but all the different brushes and rags to get in-between all of the wires just took a long time. When washing you could see that the rims were red to begin with, and at some point were painted the same burgundy color that the car was. In this case it looks like there would be a 3 way combination of red, burgundy and rust which actually blend together quite nicely. Next up was a treatment of CLR on each wheel which did help bring back the red/burgundy pigments and really brightened them up after the wash. Finally the boiled linseed oil was again applied over the entire wheel to really bring out the color. In this picture the wheel on the left has BLO and the right does not.
A couple of days later we started mounting the tires. I learned something interesting when I ordered the inner-tubes. I know the radials that look like bias ply’s are a popular option. But what I didn’t realize is that all of the tubes you buy now are rated for radials. There is no bias ply one listed as an option, at least at Coker where these came from. I was really happy with the way it was turning out. The BLO shine was dulling out to a nice even color and the black rims just looked great. You can also see how well the red was preserved from the rear side of the wheel. And for good measure we balanced all 5 of them. Because when you’re driving 45 mph in your Model A on bias ply’s the last thing you want are vibrations! Haha! The trim rings were also cleaned up. And by that I mean washed with soapy water. That was it. I did not polish them at all. I think there is a lot more shine left in them, but that would look out of place with the weathered look the rest of the car has. Overall they did clean up well. And also came with some dents to prove they belong on the car. Also the hub caps are all V8 Ford. But there are 3 different styles of them in total. The trim rings were added to the rims to make the final touch on what seemed to be a task that took way longer than what I thought it would. I know, I know, every task is like that… And boy I was happy when they got mounted back on the car. To be honest, I think I stared at the car for quite a while after we got these on. They really are the perfect fit for the car, the right color and style to match everything else that’s going on.
XV. Up, Up and Away to (cleaning for) Infinity and Beyond! Now that the car has tires on it. The next stop was the lift. Which we've been using as the world’s best workbench for the last several weeks while we cleaned all of these parts…. This was the first really good look under the car for me. There really weren’t a whole lot of surprises but it was nice taking it all in. The fenders, splash aprons, running board and frame all looked really nice. There is even some 1950’s mud stuck on the insides of the fenders. There are even the original wooden wedges The floor pan is ok, obviously a lot better than many, many projects, but not rust free either. The rumble seat bottom pan above the rear spring has several holes in it. The rumble seat foot well floor is rusted and pushed out from the sub-frame. And the rear of the forward floor pan also has some holes in it. Further dis***embly will be needed to determine the best approach to fix it correctly. So looking ahead it will be more cleaning under the car. De-gunking the suspension components so they can be inspected. The fluids need to be drained and the pan on the motor is coming off to see what is hiding in the bottom of it… Exciting preview I know. But hey at least the car now rolls… on round tires instead of square ones…
The Jalopy Journal
