Another report on the " Simple T". By now i have driven the car to the Road Rocket Rumble ( Indy) and back to the shop and have taken quite a few people rides in the car. The car is a dream to drive, rides really well and i have had the car out on the road at 50mph etc. Now the tuning work begins. The front wheels seem to want to give ya the "wave" at hghway sppeds. You know Ts only ran 40 or so on a good day. The front wheels are new as well as the tires but there is no shocks or stabilizers etc to help it out at speed. My goal is to run 60mph with ease ( no wide open strains). I will in the near future balance the front wheels add some period friction shocks and install a front dampner. The body needs to come back off the car for refinishing the parts i hacked up to get it on the road at the last minute and i think i will seal the primer when i get it off for body work. The engine seems to run out really good and i have plans to add a three speed period muncie aux gear box on the back of the t transmission. The three speed muncie will give me the option of 6 speeds forward. The trans is underdriven ,direct driven and over driven. I also will plumb the rear disc brakes when the body is off. I have been stopping the car pretty well with the stock T brake band in the transmission. Video of the ride will be soon , we got rained out last wed evening... I also have a leak in the waterpump ( 20s stuff) to fix as well. Other than that its a great little ride.
Good to hear. That little T is just about perfect already - getting rid of the high-speed shimmy should get it even closer.
Tim, I will get an update together next week, been thrashing on our Bonneville truck for Sept " world of speed" event. Engine out etc. Updates on that project may be found at www.gasolinealleyshops.org I did remachine the water pump shaft and reseal this week. Cant keep my hands off this car. Got plenty more to do but keep falling over the T and thinking about this and that. Test drove again wed night the pump doesnt seem to leak and the car runs good! Got to raise it just a bit. The "simple T" is fine i just havent had time to finish the little stuff. Once Bonneville is over then i got to thrash the T for the hundred car pile up show. ( our last show each year) keep on reminding me and i will get er done.
Awesome! Didn't know you were headed to the Flats. Good luck! That's a nice looking truck you got there BTW.
Ok we are back on it. Been a little busy with some other stuff etc. The car is way too low and i drove it over to Toms ( Culbertsons Customs) to have him raise the front end a couple inches. He saw something i had never thought about before , the "laurel" lowering brackets will fit and work both ways! Wow, just flip them left to right and the radius rod goes on top ( required some welding) raises the car just the right amount!! Now the rear is too low, making the car look wrong. Out with the rear spring, put in a astock lower leaf and paint. Now we are gettin it done. While i did the spring , Lindross rewired a new lamp for the old taillamp. Looks good and actually works... Took a new holder socket and a little soldering. We made the shortened lower windshield frame work out of a old t lower windshield, i blasted and painted black , will take to glass shop monday. looks ok.. Still got some firewall finishing to do, this engine wont allow me to run my dual carbs as it uses a split manifold and high volume intake. Its dyno tested ( 31 hp) and i figure i will leave it alone for now.. Still got some more upgrades to finish the next couple weeks . It sounds really good... Sitting next to the 20 dodge . http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/bonneville06/?action=view¤t=Mvc-001w.flv http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/bonneville06/?action=view¤t=Mvc-147w.flv More next week.......
Another fix for the simple T. I have always had some leakage problems with my model T engines. Seems as if when the clamps and hoses are tight they get hot and then cool off and seep a little bit. Just seems to be the nature of the beast! My last truck we built i used the new Gates Power Grip bands instead of clamps. The car could set forever and never seep a drop! The simple t is using a water pump ( I know i was told never to use one) and my friend Steve Long made up a killer radiator and i rebuilt the pump with new packing etc and still had a hose leak from time to time. Well after cleaning up a mess for a few weeks i went in this morning and installed the set of Gates Power Grip heat clamps! The cool thing is that every time the engine heats up the clamps get tighter!! A little expensive at approx 3.75 each and not very traditional ( i guess you could put a clamp on there just for looks) but they work!!! They install with a heat gun and come with a special tool to remove if needed,( a cutter).
Ok , this car is kicking my ass getting all the little things cleaned up. I decided i didnt like the rake of the car and changed the rear spring. Today i put in two more leaves and changed the spring for the third time. Finally got the look i wanted. been driving the car every where i go, and last night early i hit a huge chuck hole with the left front tire about 45 mph and just noticed this evening ( hot rod night) that the radius rod on the front drivers side had broken a weld and the axle may be a little tweaked. We removed the complete front end from the car and i am going to run it back to the welder ( he has a axle jig) to make sure its ok. Appears my water leaks are stopped and i finally got a amp mete to work as well ( took two before i got a good one of those) (SW by the way, two new ones out of the box were either shorted or read wrong) We aint giving up and will stay on this car until its perfect if it takes another year..........
I will get ya some pics later this week. I have driven it enough to break a front radius rod and redo the entire front end ( i went back to a T three point) and still use the dropped axle etc. Still low but up a bit from first pics. I took the car over to Culberson Customs last week to have Tom finish a couple things on the car ( battery box etc). He was the guy that orginally did the body work. Hopefully i can get a little stretch of weather and put a hundred or so miles on it just to shake it down a bit.
I guess its time for a update. I kinda got lost in this car everything i did needed to be changed and it has been shoved aside from time to time just because i was growing tired of not getting any where. I took the car back to Culberstons and had Tom remount the battery box, change the rear body mount and make me up a hood. Tom is the man and gets more stuff done in a single day as some do in the entire life!! I now ,need to hook up the choke and throttle main jet adjustment inside the car. Mount the hood, finish the floor boards, add a electric fuel pump , repaint some areas when i do the hood paint and drive the hell out of the car. I will update as those items happen , hopefully over the next few weeks. My goal is to finish up my three Ts and park them ready for a fun filled summer and move on to a couple other projects. A few pics from today.
No more brass radiator? Or is it buried inside that steel shell? Regardless, it looks great. The hood really makes it flow. -Dave
"Tom is the man and gets more stuff done in a single day as some do in the entire life!!" True. I was there yesterday afternoon and talking to Tom. He was just chillin. I said what are you gonna do today and he mentioned a couple of things...one of which was "build a hood for Bubbas car" as he tossed a piece of cardboard that direction. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. Sometimes he reminds me of the Spanish butler from the Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds. He's very very sneaky.
Yes , the brass radiator is still there. When i orginally pieced the car together we had a shortened grill shell on the car, after my friend (Steve Long) made me the radiator it was such a piece of art i couldnt cover it up. I finally decided the radiatorovershadowed the rest of the car and put the grill shell back on the car. I think the hood and grill shell once painted the yellow primer will look really good. We plan on lettering the car up a bit as well..
Holy shit! The car looks great with that hood on it. I wouldn'd have thought it would look that good. The car just gets better and better.
Ok, got the wire T done , maintained with new hood and front wheels bearings. Fixed the steering and added some Marvel Mystery Oil to the gas tank and parked it in the garage at home for the winter. Got the hood finished and dzus mounted on the "Simple T" and painted the hood and grill shell red ( suggested by Naomi from Culbertsons) Terry came in today and started on the side scallops , just grabbed some tape and the next thing i knew he had them on the car. We plan on adding a large number "30G" behind the red paint back on the car. I also put the T lights back on the front an dhave a cool pair of lights to compliment the rear. Maybe someday this ride will be done ???
Is that one finger paint?! It looks great! That and the hood sure change the look of that car. I dig it.
The Jalopy Journal
