Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

It's hard because I know the twists and turns that are coming.

 

Dang it man! You're piling on the drama. Now I'm watching this thread like an old guy with a new hot young girlfriend.

 

Those knurling marks, lead me to say the pistons were old and worn and recycled at some stage , hence the fitting of spacer rings was a common fix for worn piston grooves, (I did a few myself)
The groove was machined slightly on the bottom and top, to the thickness of the spacer, the cut of the bottom of the groove allowed the ring to sit a few thou lower, on an unworn surface and the spacer took up the top land clearance.
The spacer was always fitted above the ring, if it was fitted under the ring, the stroke of the piston would push the new ring past the wear/groove of the cylinder and bounce it over the worn (removed) lip ridge.. Rings don't like bouncing over lips..

 

Oh my! Uh, I may have oversold this. Anyway, here goes.

At the end of July the Northwest Vintage Speedster Club held its annual running of the HOT 100, a 100+ mile timed endurance rally with multiple checkpoints. It’s been cancelled the last few years, so good to have it back.

My brother was going to be my navigator and ride-along mechanic but had to pull out at the 11th hour. My wife very kindly offered to step in, even though she was not thrilled at the idea of many hours in an open roadster with temperatures predicted in the mid-90s. But she’s a good sport, as is further evidenced by her willingness to paint our official club number onto a magnetic sign.


The starting point was at a private lake an hour or so north of Seattle. There was an impressive array of more than a dozen speedsters on hand. I was in the minority with a flathead. The Chevies and Ts were mostly all overheads. There was also a Buick straight 8 that was competing as an “exhibition,” since club rules dictate a ’34 or earlier four-banger. It’s the burgundy car third over from mine; the owner is 93 going on 18. Quite the character.


Anyway, with the bang of Remington shotgun we were off! And holy cow, those guys drive hard! As you can see, I had pole position at the start (a nice gesture for the new guy, I assume), but was already in 3rd by the time we’d reached the “driveway”, which is a 2-mile-long cut through second-growth forest. That meant 2 miles of eating dust. And it was a blast! Wish we had a video, but it was all my wife could do to snap a quick photo.

Once we reached the highway we each went our various ways. Our route took us under I-5 and then up toward another lake. We were on an uphill climb when the car started to miss and I started scouting for a place to pull over. Then I smelled the coolant.

We were done.


The culprit was a cracked water neck, as you can see in the picture above. I actually consider myself lucky. It was spewing so much coolant that it washed down the plugs and caused the miss, which gave advance warning. So I got it shut down before the car overheated. But it was an abrupt end to our very short run.

In the background above you can see a fellow competitor driving off. He very kindly stopped to offer help, which is a generous thing to do in a timed event. Needless to say I declined, but the offer was appreciated. Later, I was pleased to see that Karma rewarded him with first place.

Fortunately I was so close to the start/finish that the race coordinator (club president and friend of mine) helped us get the trailer so we could haul the car back to the start. I guess Karma was with me too, because all of this took place maybe 15 minutes from @Hitchhiker's shop. I made a call, and God love him, Hitchhiker was there in 20 minutes with a replacement water neck and gasket. We had everything fixed and running in under an hour.

My wife, meanwhile, borrowed a bathing suit and spent most of the hot day in the lake. She was on cloud nine. She won’t say it to my face, but I think she enjoyed that extended swim more than she would 5 sun-scorched hours in an open car. That’s OK. There will be other events.

 

Its pretty cool to know, that there is a one stop shopping place, that can deal with all of your four banger flat-head needs, when you really need prompt service !
Bravo Matt !

 

Having driven down that driveway, that's the true under sell. It would be hard to drive in my truck at any type of speed in comparison to what it looks like you're doing there!

You also forgot that it was possibly the hottest day of the year!

While I'm sure your discretion is the reason, the pictures don't tell the full story of just how beautiful a place it was to go repair a speedster under a shady tree.

 

At least it made for a good story. And it's better to have a good story than to keep the car in the garage because something might break.

 

Awesome

 

Usually karma is a b**ch; but it looks like you got on her good side that day.

 

Clark has an abundance of Karma from helping me move so many times.

 

Glad the mystery motor worked out Clark! Your speedster is looking and sounding as good as strong as ever!

 

It’s Christmas Day and time again for my annual holiday take on the speedster. It’s a tradition now as far as I’m concerned, right up there with the Grinch, Charlie Brown, and the recurring revival of the legendary Hamb hippo boat thread.

I’m going to start out with a little tribute to my dad, who passed this year. It was dad who got me and my brothers started in the old car hobby, so he’s directly responsible for the joy I now take in this speedster. That makes him “on-topic” as far as this thread is concerned.

Here’s a picture of dad working on his Model A project, probably shot around in 1969 or ’70. That’s my super-cool stingray bike in the background.

Dad was an engineering professor at the University of Washington, and this is one of the few photographs of him in which his shirt pocket does sport the requisite pen, mechanical pencil and slide rule. The chassis pictured was actually dad’s second Model A. His first was on old jalopy he shared with two high-school buddies in the late ‘40s. I honor that with a framed magazine cover from 1950 that perfectly captures the flavor of this bit of dad’s automotive history. (Many thanks to the @The37Kid for sourcing it for me.)

The framed magazine is adjacent to a Hubley die-cast model that dad gave me for Christmas, shortly after the above photograph was taken. The model car exhibits all the flaws you’d expect from something assembled by a 7-year-old, and I love it. It was my first build, after all.

Anyway, dad had a good life and a peaceful ending, and probably would have been mortified at having a fuss made about him on the internet. So let’s move on to the speedster.

As recent posts have indicated, it was a weird year for the speedster. My seemingly strong engine was overcome by a scored cylinder wall and broken babbit. To salvage the driving season I installed a temporary stocker of unknown caliber and spent the summer dealing with the to-be-expected shake-down issues; this included a rather abrupt early wash-out at the beginning of an endurance event (scroll back a couple posts for details), and also a late summer appearance at the re-painting of our local street mural. That would be my ever-stylish wife in the foreground; she designed the mural.

With the winter build season on us, the speedster is slated for a Model B engine. This is something I acquired long ago from the vast @Hitchhiker collection. It was earmarked for my truck project, but plans there have changed (I’ll post something about that on my truck thread soon). Here’s a shot of the B block wallowing in the temporary chaos of my shop (I’ve got to get this truck cab out of here and onto the chassis so I have room to work).

This B engine has had some work done. It’s been drilled for full-pressure oil, the steam holes have been filled to accommodate an aftermarket head, and it’s been given a seriously beefy center-main cap.

All the babbit appears to be fresh and within tolerance. However, beyond the counterbalanced crank, con-rods and pistons, it is missing everything. So I’ve got some parts collecting to do. Which is always fun—one month to Turlock!

In the meantime, there’s nothing I enjoy more than noodling over esthetic options on the speedster. And this is where you all come in. I’m contemplating what to do about my front bumper. I’ve got three options which I will show, and while I think I know what I prefer, I’d certainly welcome any input. So here we go:
Option #1

Option 1 is the status quo. This is the so-called bumper I’ve been running for several years. It’s more of a glorified spreader bar, really. It’s a swap-meet find, a chromed headlight bar of unknown origin. I bent the ends to fit the frame horn. It’s not really a bumper. More a tell-tale to let me know if I’m too close when parking, and something to keep people at shows from absentmindedly walking into the radiator. I actually kind of like its minimalism.

Option#2

Option 2 is kind of crazy: It’s a Track T bumper I got with a bunch of stuff at an estate sale. Big and brutish. I think it’s a super-cool piece of history (kind of like my old bike!). But technically it belongs to a subsequent automotive generation and is not really speedster-era appropriate. If I don’t use it here, I may try it on my hot-rod truck—not that it’s really appropriate for a truck ether. (by the way, I’m not sure if that bumper is being shown right-side up, but it’s the only way it would balance on the jack stands.)

Option #3

Option 3 is this little single-bar bumper. This is another Hitchhiker acquisition, and I have no idea what it originally came off of. It fits like a glove and has been re-chromed. It’s nice—almost too nice. In some ways it strikes my eye overly formal, but perhaps that is appropriate. The graybeards in my club tell me the Mercury was considered the gentleman’s speedster at the time, a refined step up from raw cut-downs and sometimes crude aftermarket bodies. I’m leaning toward this one.

So there you have it, three different looks for the front of the car. Something to contemplate while digesting your Christmas dinner and perhaps recovering from having a bowling ball dumped in your lap (this thread wouldn’t be complete without a Christmas Story reference).

Merry Christmas, all!

 

Option 3 is off the rear of a 1936 Packard

 

I think #3 would be more period for your car. I like #2, but as you mentioned it’s just the wrong era.

 

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the reminder that I sold you the Post cover. My Dad passed on in 1983, his Roadster hasn't seen the road since then, that is 40 years of sitting. Time for some Kroil down the spark plug holes.

Bob

 

I like # option 1, because its very minimal, but # option 3, because of the time period its from, seems to be the correct choice.
" Complex in its simplicity, and simplistic in its complexity "



And then there are the little exotic embellishments, that have their place as well.


Thanks for the update!

Enjoy the day!
From Dennis.

 

Since we're giving our opinions, I like what is currently on the front.

 

I say 1 or 2, sell 3 to a Packard guy to fund more engine parts

 

Another vote for as is

 

I like # 3

 

Thanks for the update Clark...such an awesome project...the Speedster looks awesome...Condolences on the loss of your Dad...



https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-1-7-22.1252602/page-2#post-14342111

Bumper options...I did an inspiration some time ago and used a bumper a bit beefier but similar to #3 so that would be my choice since this Speedster does give off Stately vibes especially when driven by such an enthusiastic Couple...



#1 would be my second choice...it's nice to see the lower radshell...

I suspect even with #3's size, depending on where one is looking at it from may offer adequate views of the lower shell and offer protection where little is offered...

Merry Christmas to you both...​

 

Condolences for the loss of your Dad.

I'd probably wouldn't have even considered bumpers, but seeing how you have posted it, Option #3 actually looks just right on there.

 

I'd say 1 or 3 but if you pick 1 then I'd say 3 would look good on the back of my roadster.

 

I like your wife's street mural design. I did one on my street, but it is just twin black circles, not as pretty but probably a lot quicker to apply.

 

Great update, and a very nice writeup about your Dad.

As for bumpers, I LOVE the #2 bumper on it's own, but it's totally wrong for this car. It's great though, a whole car could get built around a cool part like that.

I like the #1 the best. It's just barely enough which seems right for a speedster. The Packard piece is pretty but in my opinion it's too heavy looking for a speedster. If the car still had the fenders that turned with the wheels I would think differently.

I had saved a ton of cool/interesting shit to use on my T roadster when I was putting it together, including a cool pushbar for the rear, but I ended up using very little, and didn't use the bar at all. Some parts and pieces are so incredibly cool on their own, but when you try to use too many on the same car, they become clutter.

 

...Clark, I shared this image elsewhere and thought I'd post it here as these racers like the one above may have been an inspiration for what the builder had in mind when he was fabbing what you pulled from the weeds some time ago...

...its interesting you brought it in a more complimentary vision and still in a size class that it could still compete with these bigcars...It probably feels like a race getting these types of cars on a highway together...
​

 

Hey Clark, i found this right now in the vintage shots thread and thought of your cool car.

Cheers, Carsten

 

It's been cool reading about the rescue and evolution of your speedster. What a great discovery of the high-end speed parts already in the motor. I got a little lost though, is the B engine you got from Hitchhiker a third one then? Is the first engine not savable?

I'm new enough here that I can't speak to era-correctness and such, but I'm pretty adept at aesthetic considerations and build philosophy. So my opinions on the bumpers are 3: works with the other elements on the front end well, strongly anthropomorphic - puts quite a "mouth" on the "face". 2: is old-school cool but adds disparate lines to what is an otherwise unadorned car. 1 gets my vote. Covers the base and doesn't introduce new visual elements. It looks like it belongs there.

 

Merry Christmas all, and welcome to my annual thread-anniversary post. Truth be told, it was such a mixed year for the speedster that I was considering skipping this year’s summary. But then I read through the Christmas Edition of the Friday Art Show and felt inspired. So what the heck, everybody likes a story, right? Even one with a less than ideal ending.

To refresh everyone’s memory, my original motor succumbed to a scored cylinder and failing babbit a few years back. As a stop-gap, I substituted a more or less “good” stocker that would let me have fun while building a more robust engine. “Fun” for me generally means attending local cars and coffee events and cruising the backroads near our family cabin. But in addition, I like to get in a few endurance events every year with the Northwest Vintage Speedster Club.

This year my brother and I took part in the club’s Dam Pass Tour—so named because it’s a huge loop starting in Western Washington and running through Eastern Washington and back, taking in 4 hydro-power dams and 7 mountain passes along the 600+ mile route.

I was a little apprehensive about doing this trip with an essentially unknown motor. I became more apprehensive when, at the 11th hour, we learned that the club had lost the use of its Trouble Truck, which usually follows in support of the event towing what I call “The Trailer of Shame.” After discussing it with my brother, we volunteer his truck and my trailer as substitute. Our plan was to take turns behind the wheel of speedster and truck. Frankly, it was a better arrangement, because the two of us in that speedster is a tight squeeze.

So on a sunny Tuesday in late June, 10 speedsters took off from Mount Vernon (3 Chevies, 3 Model Ts, 3 Model As and a Buick). The start was inauspicious: two hours in, we lost one Model A to a ventilated piston. Here’s a picture of the driver confirming that No. 3 cylander is dead. He rode a rollback home while we pressed on.


The speedster had plenty of power going us Stevens Pass (elev. 4,062 feet), but was not happy, with the temp needle climbing dangerously as we reached the summit. She ran cooler coming down the mountain, only to blow a hole in the exhaust manifold gasket. Fortunately, while annoyingly loud at speed, an exhaust manifold leak is inconsequential.

Here’s Clementine (that’s her name) at a lunch stop in the Bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth, sporting her new leather hood strap.



Next up was Blewett Pass. This time, trouble didn’t wait for the summit; the needle pegged about half-way up the 4,100-foot climb. With the daylight failing, we loaded Clementine onto The Trailer of Shame and followed everyone over the pass and into Ellensburg, our first night’s stop. A little investigation revealed the source of the overheating problem: My home-made 2-piece generator mount had loosened up. You couldn’t see it at idle, but at speed the generator would “float” and tilt, preventing the water pump from turning properly.


Next morning, with the day’s outdoor temperatures expected to push 90 degrees, we set out nice and early to get a jump on the heat. Here’s a shot of some of us staged at the hotel.



The car ran great all morning, nice and cool, with the drive made even more pleasant by some foam ear plugs. At roughly the 200-mile mark we reached the Columbia River, where we planned to rest and regroup. As I pulled into our designated break spot, the car died suddenly, and I ended up coasting into a parking spot. Hood open, we cranked it over to investigate and saw gasoline gush out of the carburetor. Ugh. But hey, good news! I had a spare Stromberg stashed in the truck, all ready for a roadside repair.



Ric got the carb changed in record time, earning nods of approval from the club graybeards gathered around with cokes and ice cream. Then I started it up and heard that telltale sound we all dread:

Thwocka thwoka thwoka thwoka thwoka

The graybeards all groaned. “Shut it down!”

Rod knock. Probably been coming on for many miles, masked by the exhaust leak. Frankly, it wasn’t a surprise. I’d hoped that little used engine was up to it, but in my heart I knew I was rolling the dice.

Anyway, that was that. We loaded Clementine onto The Trailer of Shame, and I finished the trip riding in the air-conditioned cab of the truck, shooting the shit with my brother and sipping cool drinks while our fellow open-car enthusiasts enjoyed the 90-degree heat.

But Clementine got to make one final curtain call. That same afternoon, the remaining A speedster had a wheel bearing fail. And by fail, I don’t just mean starting to growl. I mean disintegrated into a handful of mangled crap. Amazing it didn’t wreck the spindle. At that point we were 50 miles east of Bumscrew with no part stores to be had. But good news again: Ford used the same wheel bearings from the late ‘20s into the ‘40s. So even though Clementine’s front suspension is from the later juice brake era, she was a suitable organ donor.



That was the last of the major misadventures for the trip, although over the ensuing two days we did help several participants deal with minor issues ranging from overheats to a faulty distributor. And we handed out a LOT of bottled water.

After returning home, I removed my oil pan to check everything out. I figured if I was lucky and it was just one con rod, I could replace it with a used one and save my summer. Identifying the culprit was easy: I jiggled each rod end and one clearly had play. Pulled the cap and sure enough:



So far, so good. Crank looked OK and I’ve got lots of old rods with adequate babbit. But then I sifted my fingers through the dark oil in the drip pans and came up with this:



Holy broken babbit, Batman! There’s a US quarter in the picture to give you a sense of scale. That’s a lot more babbit than came off this rod. And lord knows how much of it has traveled through the oil galleries. Clearly, this engine was well past a short-term fix.

So that was it for summer driving. In the ensuing months I’ve kept an eye out for a good motor on the West Coast (i.e. that I can pick up), but all I’ve seen are more pigs-in-a-poke. Ads that simply say “runs” don’t fill me with confidence. Heck, this engine still “runs.”

A few months back my brother put me onto a good machine shop, and they’re willing to sleeve my original A block. So unless a fresh engine drops out of the sky, that work will begin next month. I like these guys: My first encounter with them was for redrilling a flathead flywheel to accept a smaller clutch (for my pickup project). Soon as he saw the flywheel, the chief machinist started reminiscing about all the Ford 3-speeds he’d blown up with his old Mercury. Yep, these are the guys I want to work with.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this odd little story. And with luck I’ll have cause for more interesting posts soon. Thanks to everyone who follows this old thread of mine, and again, Merry Christmas!

 

Thanks for the Mercury Speedster update, great views of the country out there. Merry Christmas!

Bob