We just wanted to keep that "old" spirit in the girl. She looked too good to go all new age on her and such
Awesome work! All that riveting really looks great and brings back good memories Sent from Mr. ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
So, anything new? All of us loyal watchers are waiting contently ..... Sent from Mr.ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
We do have some small updates.... But first I have to get off my butt and post the pictures You may want to check back next week. As I think we'll have some things from over this weekend to add. CBB
i love love love love this build!!!! it is looking great and i really admire the direction you are taking it in.
Thanks guys for the positive reinforcement and the gentle prodding! We've had a few things get in the way of a lot of show-able progress. Mostly family related life stuff, and fixing everyone else’s cars. On top of it the shop is getting an upgrade. Jim is installing insulation and a Whiteboard wallboard. Hopefully it will be brighter and cooler/warmer when complete. So With the distractions we've gotten the following accomplished. The emergency brakes got relined. The Front Radius arms to frame mounts turned out to be a little more complicated then first planed. We Started with 6" x 6" 1/4" steel plates and rounded the bottom section. (lost the pics). With plates flat the angle between the Radius rod and the plate was too much for the model A Tie rod ends we're using. So we came up with the Plan of cutting a slot into the Plate just below the frame. Then we put the top into the vise and bent the "bottom" tab to an angle that matches the radius rod (about 15 degrees). The angled "pie wedge" will be filled with a piece of 1/4" plate. Once the wedge was welded into place The mount was test fitted to the car. This was to make sure that the angle still matched and to locate the hole for the ball to be mounted in. Once that was worked out the Ball was welded into place. The Mount was then again test fitted to the car. To verify we didn't screw anything up welding. Then This weekend Jim and I made the Drive (about 9 hours or so) to Manitowoc, Wi. Home of Baileigh Industrial to attend their one day metal shaping class. It was enjoyable. I learned a lot, and saw some nice tools. We also got some advise on one of our upcoming items we're taking on in this build. How to take this add 2-1/4" and turn it into aluminum. For the aluminum part we start with this... We're not quite Ready to tackle this just yet, We really want to wait till the body is back on the frame to start. For that to happen we need to Rivet the front radius arm mounts to the frame. Repaint the frame. Install the e-brakes. Install the Rocky Mountain Brakes. Shorten the drive shaft and torque tube. Make an exhaust pipe. Button up the motor and start it. So it looks like we'll start on the hood about July 10th, 2013. If all goes to plan. Till then we can dream. CBB
Bravo guys (slow clapping)....Bravo! Well worth the wait Those wishbone mount plates turned out really nice and clean. How is your clearence between the tie-rod end and the front edge of the frame plates? I had a little bit less then I liked, so I notched it for a little extra. I noticed you off-set the ball studs towards the front of the plate....so you should be okay. I also like the plans for the hood, thinking about doing the same on my car.....making a full working butterfly unit again, sick of those removable sides. Can't wait for the next update and the riveting party....just hope we don't have to wait a month or two Sent from Mr. Model T's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
So some of you were hoping for a big update after the "Long" Weekend here in the USA..... Sorry we didn't get to work on the Car this weekend. Some more of the insulation and wallboard went up in the shop. Then we spent some time "playing in the woods". Here's a little something to keep you pacified for a little longer...or not.
So here in rural Ohio between making hay and insulating the shop we've not got a lot to show on the Car. But we did make some good finds. We Started by getting Lizzy an new Pet Cow! I think it will look good in her....better when my butt is firmly planted on it With the Model T's having a lot of wood (most notably Oak) in the interior we've been on the look out for a good deal on Oak... Well I found some on our Farm. We cleared a bunch of trees a few years back when we put the pond in. This pile was oak we had set aside for a barn.... Things have changed and Well now we don't need the barn so we've got Free Wood for the Car... The best price. It may not look great in the picture but it/s dry and rough cut. A trip through the planer and the color and beauty will come out in this stuff. Lastly I wanted to answer Clayton's question. The Radius Rod is close to the mounting Plate. But once we get the spring and seat in the Tie rod end it opens that gap back up to about 1/4" or so. I think we'll be ok But Please let us know if that 1/4" isn't going to be enough. We can "adjust it " now a lot easier then when it's riveted on. That's where we're at. We're planning on machining the Drive shaft soon. We need to shorten it to fit with the Aux trans and with the rear end being moved back. We have access to the tools so we're going to try and do it all ourselves.... Crazy I know. We'll see in the end we may need to take it to a drive shaft shop and have it balanced or pick up a replacement and start over CBB
You should be okay with a 1/4".......but that really seams still to tight. I ended up with 1/8" clearance and it was just way too tight so I notched them for extra clearance. A panhard rod (if you aren't planning one already) will help too. Even with a 1/4" clearance.....you will bottom out on corners for sure. I put a set on my car...best thing I ever did. I just used a Model T tie rod and the spindle arms up front and a '26 Dodge tie rod in the rear.....works great, corners like it's on rails. Frame side... Axle side... Rear Panhard rod... Axle mount... Frame mount... I know your mounting points would need to be different, but this will give you a starting point. I am also going to be building a Panhard rod for the "Special" (on which your front end is based) so I will have some more (and possibly a better) solution available as well. Sent from Mr. ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
So the Last time We spoke the plan was to have this old girl's engine running by now... It's not. We missed the dead line big. The Work in the Shop has taken way longer then anyone planned. All the hard work is done for now. But there is a lot of clean up left as everything that was near or hanging on the walls was removed. Cars were shifted to allow wall access etc. Oh and I took a few day to check out what the high desert feels like in June So other then excesses why am I posting.... I've got an update. We may not have been able to get work done on the frame or motor. But the drive shaft could be machined! We were given access to the Metal shop at one of the local high schools (sad thing is no students use this shop anymore. The Funding is gone and the wood shop/metal shop programs have been cut ) So Jim and I machined the drive shaft our selves. We want to point out a few things. This is the first time that I've used a horizontal Mill, This drive shaft is Crazy hard stuff. As such some of the pictures may show improper setup and running...We figured that out once we burnt the first bit up... We're trained idiots don't try this at home... Ok if you've got the tools Go ahead and try it... It was fun but don't blame us if you damage a tool bit, or your self! The First step in the Process was turning the drive shaft down to 1" diameter on the Lathe. Once turned down to the proper diameter we moved over to the mill. It took about 3 hours to machine the first flat. We found the Auto feed some where about hour 2... After that it was about 1.5 -1.75 hours per flat. Those of you with keen Eyes will have noticed by now that we machined a lot of drive shaft! yes the square end is about 8.5" long now. Why? we have the tools at the shop to cut it to length but not to cut more flats properly. So this way we can cut it down to the perfect size once we get the aux trans properly mounted in the car. I bet you would like to see pictures of the end results. So would I! I seem to have misplaced the memory card with those pics on it. So In the interest of getting an update up before the Month mark I have posted with out them. I'll find the card or re photograph the drive shaft this weekend and get them up next week. Like normal let us know what you think... or what we did wrong! CBB
Did you machine that without lube? I am fairly ignorant about this stuff but I just wondered. The car will be amazing when it is done. Don't stop now!!!
This mill has a manual lubrication system (us with an oil can). Oil was added every so often as we milled the flats. we had the table feed set as low as it would go and the bit going as low as we could get it as well.
Well sometimes it's amazing What you can find under the couch! Found the memory card. So with out further ado. I present the finished square end of the 1926 Model T drive shaft. With The US holiday of Independence Day Tomorrow and a couple of days off, Things blowing up and general revelry in these parts. I'm not sure what or how much we'll get done. But most of you have stuck with us this far so I'm sure that we'll catch you on the bounce. Till then... CBB
Very nice work guys! So have you measured how much you have trim off the square end so that it is the correct length for the addition of Warford? For my Chicago, I think I had to shorten mine 7-1/8th" inches (measured the peice I cut off of mine), but yours might be different. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Clayton, We got it all measured up today. Looks like we need a 48" long drive shaft so I'll be cutting a little over 5 inches off. I'm not sure if the Warford is longer or we shoved the rear back further. We are also being erroring on the low side of the measurements. I can always cut another 1/8 " off it's much harder to add it back on. Measure 20 or 30 times cut 15 CBB
So I'm sure some of you thought we had given up or lost at sea. Not the case. We just had to machine the Drive shaft ... a few more times. And Cut it down some more. But in the end the U-joint slid right on and the drive shaft is not too short. The Total length that we cut off the drive shaft was about 9 1/2 inches With the Drive shaft sorted out we turned are attention to the torque tube. Once we worked out the length to remove. The torque tube went into the saw. The Torque tube needed a lot of clean up because it has 80 years of mud and road dirt on it (and somewhere along the way someone sealed it all under a layer of paint). So Jim used the wire wheel and a scraper to clean all the dirt off of it. When he was all done we had a bit of mess to clean up. We took all the pieces of the torque tube back to the shop and welded it back up. We couldn't do all this work and not see if it would fit in the car.. Now that we know it fits we need to get it into the car. But that will have to wait till next time.
Nicely done boys! When I did mine, I cut the torque tube on the weld seam where the 6-bolt flange (for the diff) meets the tube so I could hide the welds to be cool. ....of course I wasn't paying attention and welded mine rotated about 45 degrees to the rear axle The '26-'27 torque tubes are straight sided to the rear axle flange...yours is fluted. It also has the stepped design to the balljoint housing...that means you have an early torque tube, pre-1920 (up to 1917 I believe). Those are the nicer looking tubes if you ask me and you did great work. Can't wait for the next update! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
As the owner of a chopped and channeled (fenderless) T coupe I say don't chop a T if you're using fenders! Just my 2 cents worth - Oh yeh - no more pennies in Canada so I guess it's either a nickle's worth or it ain't worth a thing.
Clayton, When we got the T all the electrical wiring was removed and in a box. do you have a good resource or some pictures where we can see the wire routing? I've got the wiring diagram but it doesn't show where the factory wires were routed on the chassis. Because we moved the body all around I'll be making my own wiring harness soon. I'll do my best to document that here for others to review. If we can get a few more of the little things out of the way we'll be able to start her up for the first time... that will be a party day! CBB
This should help: This from the Ford T-1 service manual (page 287) Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
This weekend Jim and I took some time to get the drive shaft and Torque tube slipped into the car to make sure everything fits properly. After a little pushing and wrenching we got this. Success! turn the wheels and the aux trans turns.
Spent a bit of time working on the car this weekend. The Problem is it doesn't look like we made any progress. In fact you could say we went backwards some. First part was starting to clean the old crude out of the Aux trans. The old warford has untold amount of time sitting in a barn corner somewhere with old oil in it ... At some point in the past it turned to a sticky waxy lard type stuff. So I filled it with parts washing fluid and started scrubbing. The gears and housing inside cleaned up nice enough that when we pull the trans out in few weeks the whole thing is going in the wash tub to get the outside just as clean. The next step was backwards. About a year ago we painted the frame. We used a black undercoat that was rated for bare metal and could be painted over. the issue is it never dried right. It's been sticky and it flakes off with the slightest touch. There is no use painting over it so that everything falls of the first time a rock hits it. So I when at it with some thinner and a rag. It wiped off! a few hours later I had the out sides of both rails clean up to the engine. After getting the inside of one of the rails clean I called it a day. Why do this now? The rear end and torque tube need painted. So I picked up a quart of por15 and once it's open we might as well use it all With summer coming to a quick end the painting needs to happen soon. So we're going backwards to go forwards. Comments are welcome! pointers are appreciated. CBB
Nice work as always. My question is, have you had your Warford apart....and I mean "Apart": If that Warford was mine, I would break it down like I did with my Chicago and check everything, especially the bearings. Clean and flush it, make new gaskets and seal it up good. They are pretty easy to pull apart, so it shouldn't be a pain. I can aid in the break down if needed...had the one in the "Special" apart a few times and Chris has done plenty of work on his. Just my $.02
It's not been "Apart" yet. That was next on the list. The Bottom half was so ooey gooey That cleaning it was step one. It was only in the car so we could get the machining done on the drive shaft. Very soon the car is going to get blown back apart for paint and final assembly. Shock mounts need fabbed before we blow it apart but it's coming soon. CBB
Cool! You want them to be "Ooey Gooey"....the thicker the better. What type of shocks are you putting on? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
This "ooey Gooey" was more like Tar then Grease. It needed to go. We have a old (40s) set of dodge ?? (maybe model A but don't look right) for the rear and A set of Friction shocks for the front. I'll have to get some pictures up and see if the guys here can help identify the rears. CBB
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