Wow, and I was going to mention he should warn her of the hazards of 100 year old tetanus and offer to suck the poison out!
Got the wheels balanced today. That is the biggest wheel weight I've ever seen. Rides great now though.
Joey's Morons CC sticker is a callback to Blazing Saddles which is mostly set in the town of Rock Ridge. Don't worry, I had to be reminded too...
RUST!!! Got caught in the rain yesterday and today everything is rusty as hell. I have been liberally applying oil to all the bare and polished metal (like the windshield frame) but it doesn't seem to have done any good. The car sits under a carport so it's kind of difficult to completely protect it from the elements. I guess I just need to start painting shit?
I will defer to the rust belt inhabitants. I had to drive the truck today, since the fur ain't getting doused with 4 fenderless wheels.
Put her on the highway proper for the first time to pick up a fourth hub cap from a neighboring town. Cruises OK at about 55 but any more than that I get a pretty rough miss. Not sure if it's a fuel mix thing or points or what. Clears up if I bury the pedal but it starts stumbling again if I try to get it to cruise so I'm thinking fuel mix. That odometer showed 84,389 miles for years sitting on my shelf and probably many more years sitting on the last guy's shelf. Really enjoying watching it count up. She'll get a bit of a rest for the next week as I am heading to Vegas for my 30th birthday.
Landed back at DFW yesterday. By the time I got home it was too late, and rainy, to mess with the car, but today I jumped right in. I was able to resolve the hi speed miss and the car now cruises comfortably at 55. My points closed up... which means the felt pad on the breaker arm is wearing, I guess. Not sure what to do about that. I grease it frequently... but it's running good for now. Also put an exhaust pipe back on it. Over the next few days I want to polish up the top frame so I can start thinking about a lid. It's too damn hot here.
Responded to a neighbor's ad about a garage cleanup and scored some useful stuff for the shop- tools and things... which led to me driving around with the sun beating down on me for a while, which reminded me to work on the top frame. The wood parts of the bows are tapered at the bottoms and the metal parts are tubes with a corresponding taper which they slide down into and, it appears, were nailed in place in a few spots. Since I have chopped the metal tubes to bring the top down, I must shave the wood bows down accordingly to reduce the diameter of the tapered foot where they fit into the tubes. I can't figure out a good way to do this... and these particular bows are over 100 years old, so I don't get any retries if I experiment and fuck it up. Wood is not my strong suit. I am tempted to take it over to a local woodworker whose daily conveyance is a 1941 Chevy COE grain truck. He gets it... and he might be able to set me straight. But I don't want to farm it out if I can do it myself.
Regarding the woodworking; I get that you would like to do everything yourself but sometimes it makes sense to go to an expert and IMO this is one of those times. It will be money well spent if he gets it right without ruining your wood bows....
Worked up the nerve to finally bring the car to work, which is about a 30 mile drive, 20 or so of which is highway. The car cruises pretty good at 55 mph now... I pulled off at the rest stop at the halfway point between towns to make sure she was running cool and hadn't lost a bunch of oil. Highway 180 is relatively hilly between Weatherford and Mineral Wells, and this rest stop was installed in the 1930s so that cars traveling between the two towns would have a place to pull over, cool off and fill up on water before finishing the trip. I wonder how long it's been since it was visited by a Model T? Everything looked great, so after a brief rest, we pulled back out and finished the journey. It will stay here for a little while so I can use the facilities to service the brakes, wrap up some welding and pinstripe it.
Got most of the oil leaks wrapped up, which involved hand making some gaskets that are not available at parts stores. Still got a persistent leak from the rear of the transmission, but I think it's actually gear oil from the differential wicking up the torque tube. My local exhaust shop made me some bends so I can get the lake header done, hopefully.
Phase 1 complete- flange is done. The bends cleared the intake nicely. Soon I will cut these short & bring the pipes out into a cone, but today I loaned my modern truck to my friend and needed transportation, so I banged it together with the dollar tree zoomies so I could get around. The welds are not great... one of my guys put regular MIG wire in the flux machine at work, so it was acting kinda funky, but it got it done. Just don't look too close. Visited my friend to help him pack to move. I love seeing this among modern cars.
Glad I could help! Here's a little bonus from when I first fired it before everything was fully welded up.
Been sprucing up the RPU a bit. I have pretty much addressed all the oil leaks... it's pretty weird to not come out to a puddle of oil under my prewar car. I decided the rusty engine bay wasn't that attractive but I wasn't quite ready to pull the engine for paint just yet so I tried this Permatex brush-on rust converter product. It seems to work pretty well. The generator had become all scungy and rusty despite having been relatively freshly painted and now it looks pretty good. The carb bases, which had turned orange, took it really nice and the engine itself looks much better. I also touched up the front suspension with it (not pictured). Then I saw a Model A engine and transmission on marketplace about 30 miles away. The guy had had it listed for $700 for a while; I messaged him, he told me he'd take $400 if I came and got it today. So: This thing really is a gem. I pulled the valve cover and scoped the bores through the spark plug holes. The lifter galley is so clean you could eat out of it, the bores are shiny with visible cross hatching and you can still read the Ford script on the valves. Why is this engine so nice? Blah blah blah restored car blah blah hot rod blah blah. Look, here's the bottom line: Yep, 501 miles on it. The transmission feels like it too... the detents are super snappy and it shifts great. So- the transmission is going in the T and the engine is going in the AA. The machine gods have granted me a great boon today and I couldn't refuse the opportunity to take the T to a car show right around the corner. It was a hit to say the least- the next oldest car was a '51 Tudor (so my car was already a classic when it was rolling off the line...) and I got to answer a ton of questions. This is where the car gave me the first spot of trouble since I started driving it regularly. My ground wasn't very good; it was easy to diagnose and easy to fix. After a couple hours of meeting and greeting and fixing the sun had set. No headlights on the car yet, but home was a short hop away so we fired it up and, with the road lit by my friend's classic BMW, we made it back to the shop and split for the night. Quite a day! Tomorrow we are tucking in to the engine and transmission to get them ready for their respective new homes. When the engine comes out of the T to put the new transmission behind it, I will paint it up.
Really happy for you! Sound like a great week and lots of reward for your efforts. A loose ground is minor, so I'd suggest that it's a warning of the car saying "it's time to do a lube, nut and bolt and adjust and look over things". I know you have been working on it and fixing a bunch of stuff, but these old cars were designed to have regular going over. It helps you keep track of what's stayed the same, what's being cranky and what's going to need future work.
As of today we have no structural ratchet straps and no bungee cords. Getting ready for the seats. Rebuilt the driver door latch, which wasn't that hard but involved a trip to the hardware store for a good stiff spring, a little grinding, a little welding, and a little paint. The battery is secured in the bed with a hold down until I get around to making the hatch & box to sling it under the bed floor.
Picked up big ass nails in two of my modern truck's tires & the tread is just about gone anyway so the T gets to earn its keep today. I used some throttle springs to lock the doors open, folded forward. Really helps bring air through the car on hot humid days like today. Thinking about bolting some latches to the firewall for a more permanent option...
Haven't talked in a while. Are you living in Weatherford and working in Mineral Wells or vice-versa? Looks like you are collecting some nice toys..... Randy
The Jalopy Journal
