Projects Kurt’s Puddle Jumper - 1930 Model A Extended-Cab Pickup Build

Hey RG! Glad to see you back on this thing. I was missing you!

 

great project!

 

Thank you JRS50, Loudbang, and Parnell for the encouragement.
Worked on routing and mounting brake lines on and to read axel. I need to form them a bit tighter to the axel.

Used my double flaring tool I have had for almost 60 years. Can't remember what project I originally got it for.

 

Make that Rear axel.

 

Not a lot to show for 4 days work. Had a bunch of chores to do.

Got new wheel cylinders installed for rear brakes. Waiting for FedEx to deliver the brake shoes and hardware.


Cleaned up rust on rear of bed support bar and made brackets to bolt it in place. Cut a piece of plywood for a temp floor to bed.



Made a mounting plate for fuel pump relay and circuit breaker and got it mounted. Wired relay and fuel pump.



Sorry for poor picture.

FedEx delivered brakes and rest of Speedway plumbing and wiring order so I have my work cut out for me for the next few days.

 

Got to work yesterday making up hoses for the fuel tank. After reading a lot online about the difficulty assembling push-on hose fittings and seeing a picture of an expensive tool to help, I cobbled together my own tool using my trusty flaring tool, a couple of big Irwin clamps, and some aluminum angle in the vice. Other than really needing 3 hands to use, it worked slick.


Resulting in:




Did not work with the Stainless Steel Braided hose from the pump to the engine. I figured out the fitting is in 2 pieces and if you unscrew them, you can thread the braided hose into the ferrel (sp?) and then screw the inner boltish piece in. Sorry no picture. Of course I held the braided hose in my trusty flaring tool clamped in my vise.

Results:


Got started making bracket to hold battery disconnect switch. Need to weld on the bracket and drill holes for hose and wire clamps.

Best part, yesterday I saw real progress!

 

Battery disconnect switch bracket welded in place, switch installed, and wired to battery and fuel pump relay. Line clamps installed on fuel line. Need smaller clamps for the battery cable. The one you can see is a brake line clamp and just temp to hold it in place.



The lower clamp was a real pain in the @#$%. No problem drilling the hole but no room for tap handle. Had to use visegrips a quarter turn at a time.

 

Been a couple of days since I reported progress. Spent 2 days removing the whole floor support framework and finish welding the bottom side. Always planned this, but kept putting it off. Gave it a good coat of Gibbs before reinstalling it. Nothing worth taking a picture of however.

Cut the tails off the quarter panels to give room to route emergency brake cables. Been meaning to do this for a long time also. Got the left emergency brake cable installed and the left rear brake assembled. It has been a long time since I put drum brakes together. Thank God I took a picture 4.5 years ago when I took them apart. A real pain since in 65 years wrenching, I never bought a brake spring tool to use on the twist locks.




Mocked up the emergency brake lever and the brake cables. Was going to mount it to the transmission but decided to mount it on the floor support framework.



Still need to work out a balance adjuster since the right rear cable seems to be longer then the left. Held off putting the right rear together till I decide if I'm going to shorten the cable so it doesn't snake above the rear end.

 

Got the emergency brake pretty much done. Needed a way to attach the left rear's cable with original ball end to an adjustment screw. Took a piece of 3/8 id tubing and cut a slot with a hole in the end.


Stub cable is just a scrape used to check it out. Welded a flat washer on the end of the tube. Then welded a bolt in the other end of the tube. Added a coupler to attach a longer piece of threaded rod. That took care of the left side.


Right side the cable was too long, so had to cut it off. Thanks to Drive Em and his article:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/attaching-parking-brake-cable-ends.424506/
I drilled a 3/16 hole in the center of a 3/8 inch bolt, stuck the cable thru and hit the end with a good pulse of the mig. Then welded the bolt into another 3/8 id tube and welded another longer threaded rod into the other end. Sorry, only took a picture before the welding.


Finished up the mount for the brake lever and bolted it to the floor framing.


Here is a pic of the adjuster / balancer inplace.


Still to do. Adjust the brakes. Emergency brake will now stop the rear wheels from turning, but only at the max applied. Need to workout some mounts for the cables under the fuel tank, trim off the excess adjustment rods, cleanup and paint. Then on to the front brakes and get back to work on the floor.

 

Small update. Brace made and installed to hold up emergency brake cables and battery cable.


Installed some of the right sized cable clamps on the cutoff switch to starter cable.


Got one of the rear brakes adjusted. May need to back it off a couple of clicks.

 

2 good days of work done. Got brakes adjusted and emergency brake parts cleaned up and primed. Got starter cable clamped in place with correct size clamps.



Got rear brakes plumbed to master cylinder, balance adjuster, and residual valve. Got front brakes plumbed from master cylinder to base of firewall thru bulkhead connector. Need another 90 degree fitting.






Need to clamp lines on firewall and provide support for them under dash.

 

Front brakes plumbed, clamped in place, and brake hoses installed. Happy with the way the lines look on firewall. May redo the Front lines when I pull the engine. Still need the one 90 degree fitting to finish.





Will not leak test for awhile as I need to remove the master cylinder and underdash framework for final welding.

 

A bit of progress to report. Got the emergency brake parts painted and reinstalled so I could get back to work on the floor.


Fitted new 45 degree bottom bends for the firewall to link up with the toe boards. Tacked in place.


Fitted passenger side toe board.


Tack welded a straight flange on the rest of the bottom of the firewall. Running out of welding gas.


Can start to visualize the floor being filled in.

 

You can bend 16g steel with your brake How long are your handles 16g is a B@#$tch to bend clean

 

They both were 18 inches long. I mistakenly grab one when I needed a couple of 3/4 inch long spacers. I could not find the one handle the other day and found it my scrap rod/tubing bucket. Opps! Now that one is only 16.5 inches long.

I don't find it too hard to bend the 16ga. I get a bit of deflection toward the middle of the brake, but the worst just required a mild tap with a mallet to get the bend even. I don't get a sharp corner on the bends. Need to sharpen my top bar more.

 

Not much to report. Tuesday got templates made for driver's side floor and toe board. Made from roofers sign they left last Feb. I left it in the yard till it blew down. Nice waxed cardboard.


Nothing done yesterday or today other then getting welding gas yesterday. A little under $33 for 75/25 argon/co2 125. Heaviest thing I have lifted lately.

 

Back from trip north to see daughters and grandsons. Was going to post saying I would be gone for 6 weeks or so and then remembered this is a public forum and not good idea to announce no one is home.

All the work removing and fixing MH gen did not keep us cool the whole trip. Gen would run for 2-4 hours and then quit with and ignition code. Dumb me did not even pull the plugs while gen was out. Now have to pull it back out and change plugs and coils. Too make matters worse, dash air crapped out on way back south.

As for the model A, this is what I found after 6 weeks.


I thought I Gibbs'ed everything but missed a bunch. Way too much moisture in the garage. So a couple of projects to tackle before I get back to forward progress.

 

This humidity has been awful this year. And has raining 95 percent of the days you were gone.

 

Really great build thread. Look forward to seeing you driving it.

 

Not much done on the Model A the past couple of weeks. Did get the rust cleaned up on the floorboards and 16 GA stock that developed while I was gone.


Other then the cleanup, the only time I touched the A was to push it out of the way to pull the MH generator out again. Got that done, replaced the coils, ign wires, and plugs. Back installed and it ran 30 minutes and stopped again with an ignition fault code 47. Next step is to replace the $355 control board. Had to try the cheaper repair first. Got the board today and if it stops raining will install it tomorrow. Hopefully I can get back to work on the A soon.

 

Welcome to the 'sticky south', huh?! Hot & sticky=summertime!
Never saw an answer to the painting over Gibbs question......you hear anything?
Read your whole thread.......VERY interesting.
Keep up the good work. (being a 'perfectionist' keeps us all on our toes.....thanks for setting the good example)
6sally6
Worried about making your welds prettier.....buy a TIG machine and buzz over your welds!
OR....Before painting, smooth over the beads with RTV!! No kidd'in it works for cosmetics.

 

Thank you 6sally6 for the comments. No, I never got any response about painting over Gibbs. Will have to start a thread on the subject when I get closer to needing to do it.

I have tried to be less of a perfectionist, but I guess it is baked in now. As to the "sticky south", I have been here 15 years now and 15 years older. It seems the older I get, my comfort zone is shrinking rapidly. I can't stand either the cold or the hot, and since working on the A is supposed to be fun therapy, it does not happen when I'm outside the comfort zone.

No progress on the A this week. I did get the MH parked and the A back into it's normal spot so my DD is in the garage for the first time in over a month. The saga of the generator continues. I got the $355 control board and installed it. Started right up. I started to put tools away and noticed it got quiet. It had run 5 mins. What the !@#$? Tried starting it up again and it ran for 4 hours under full load with 2 A/C running before I shut it down. The replacement controller board is supposed to only shut the gen down for low oil pressure or no output from the gen. Research online shows some problems with the oil pressure sensors, so I have one on order. I will also look ahead to putting gauges in the A and order at least the oil pressure gauge to check the gen.

Hope to get back to working on the floor this week.

 

Well I actually got some work done this morning. Got about 3.5 hours in before I was dripping so much sweat on the metal I was cutting that I'm afraid it will start flash rust. Got the drivers side front floor cut and fitted. Next up is the toe panel and secure what I fitted today.


More on Gibbs. I tried using blue masking tape to attach a carboard template to the 16ga to lay it out. Would not stick at all. Tried some Gorrilla tape and it held it in place.

 

I thought I was kidding about sweating enough to cause flash rust overnight.


That's the same piece as in the previous picture from yesterday. It got a good coat of Gibbs today. Got the side pieces attached and this floor piece 3/4 attached today.

The towel is wrapped around the top of the steering column. I have hit my head on it at least 3 times in the last 2 days.

 

Woke up early (4:30am) and could not get back to sleep. Out in the garage by 5:30 before it got out of the 70s. Got the drivers side front floor done and fastened in place.


Next up the transmission and driveshaft tunnels.

 

Love Colorado 80 and 20 percent humidity

 

Worked on driveshaft tunnel and shifter mount the last 4 days. Could get 2-4 hours work done in the am before I dripped too much sweat. Yesterday, tore it all out and got the shifter installed and working. Had to rework and move it back about 1 inch to get the cable free. Shifts from park to first slick as can be. A couple more screws and it is done and on to the transmission tunnel.

After first day:


Yesterday:

 

First piece of transmission tunnel cut and fitted.

 

Finished fitting and securing passenger side front floor and cut and fitted second piece of transmission tunnel. Have a cardboard pattern made up for around emergency brake lever. That pattern took the bulk of my time.

 

Turned the cardboard template into steel (16ga) and fastened in place.


Cut template for top of transmission. Got to get this right as I'm almost out of 16ga.

A lot of butt welding to do.