Luv2Wrench

Holiday season has (rightfully) slowed progress a bit but I did get the new wrist pins made along with the aluminum buttons. The wrist pins are 0.750" precision ground A2 tool steel. I bored out them out to 0.484" which left a wall thickness of a little over 1/8". The buttons are made from 6061 aluminum and are a press fit into the wrist pin. They go in .400" and are proud of the wrist pin by .220". They're not perfect but should be functional and another piece of the puzzle complete. In the first picture the bottom wrist pin (the "5th" one) was my prototype and I decided to make the buttons a bit more proud. In the second picture you can see one of the pins installed in the piston with the button sitting just below the surface. There is 0.025" clearance on each side to allow for any expansion.

I added 3 inline fuses for lights, horn and something else that has slipped from my memory. Nothing fancy, just the simple inline fuse with leads on each end that you get at the local auto parts store (picture below). I'm glad I did that because I blew the fuse for the lights twice before I got everything squared away. Had I not... it likely would've melted some wires and made a mess. I simply connected one end of the fuse to the switch (say for the lights) and the other end to the wire in the harness that would've gone into the switch.

How is the house coming? We all miss the car updates, maybe we can get house updates.

Taking a mental break from the wheels I decided to work on the pistons and wrist pins. I made two pilot extensions for the adjustable reamer. One that is .740" in diameter to match the existing bore in the piston. The second is .750" in diameter that goes in the other side once it has been reamed out. While a bit of overkill, it was easy to do and made it very easy to ream out the pistons given that I had a pilot for both sides. With these complete I will start on the wrist pins tomorrow. My engine builder says the overall length (with the aluminum plugs installed) should be 0.005 to 0.007 less than the width of the piston. I will work on some drawings tonight to decided on the length of the pin, the length of each button and the diameter of the inside of the pin. I have enough ground drill rod to make a couple extra so I'll have at least one practice run.

There's a sheet of white copy paper under the wheel for a reference. I put it there so that my camera wouldn't make the wheel look completely white. It likes to find something in the shot that is "white" and do a white balance based on that. Any samples I've seen from parts I had were mostly yellow. That isn't how Metz described the color so I assume what I've seen was not original. I've seen some pictures of a car that was probably original and that does have a bit more yellow it in. I chose the color because another Metz restorer (on this forum) chose it after a considerable amount of research. At the very least there will be two restored Metz cars with the same wheel color. My basic dislike of the situation is that I know I probably don't have the correct color, it most likely was not a high gloss finish and certainly didn't have that distinct two-part polyurethane "blob" finish. On the flip side, had I slathered on a cheap paint with a brush like they did in 1913 it would look "terrible" to someone today. My thinking is that since it isn't actually going to be "as it was", I probably should've done natural wood wheels as I prefer. I think the whole "as it was built" mantra is a slippery slope. I restored the MG TD that way but I also laid down 6 layers of clear coat with about 50 hours of wet sanding and buffing. Something they absolutely didn't do. All that said, @cudaman is probably correct, with the pinstripes and tires on they'll look fine.

Stunning!

I painted one of the wheels with the cream color. I gotta say I hate it. The color is fine (note the contrast with the white sheet of paper lying under the wheel) but I think it looks comical. I really wish I had ignored the "make it original" and just stained the wood and left it natural. Obviously at this point I'll paint the other 3 to match. In the end it'll probably look OK. Pin striping should help though I won't do that until I get the car finished. I don't like the way the paint laid down either. It has that "blob" look. I'll try to make some adjustments for the other wheels and if that works I'll sand down the first one and reshoot it.

Wheels finally arrived. They were shipped via UPS on November 24th. For some reason they travelled between Atlanta and Ohio multiple times. To make it even more fun the 4 packages got separated as well. Eventually they all arrived and, of course, the workmanship by Stutzman was stunning. I went through many hours of trying to convince myself to ignore the "as it was made" restoration rule and keep the wheels natural wood. It almost made me physically sick to paint over the beautiful wood. Wheels have two coats of epoxy primer and I'll shoot a single stage "Mini Pepper White". I'll wait a few days and then mount the wheels. With any luck I'll have a rolling chassis this weekend! As a bit of humor... check out the tracking information for the last wheel that finally arrived this Saturday. The other wheels had very similar but slightly different tracking history.

Given that I can buy new pistons if I mess them up and can't get new connecting rods... I'm going with reaming the pistons and making new pins out of .750" drill rod. The current plan is to use an adjustable reamer and machine an extension on it to sever as a pilot. The adjustable reamers have threaded ends so it should be fairly easy to turn a shaft down to .740" and cut some threads inside. In theory it will thread on to the reamer and serve as a pilot. McMaster even sells these extension but not one that is .740" in diameter. For the wrist pins McMaster has a bunch of different flavors and I haven't decided which one to get. While I can turned hardened 4140 and tool steel on my lathe, I don't have any drills that would work in hardened steel. I could get it hardened after machining but at this point I think I'm going to do without. Knowing myself... I'll probably order both and try to find some drills to work with the hardened steel.

Another day another problem... When I order the aluminum Model T pistons I had them check that the wrist pin was 0.750" in diameter like the Metz pin is. It was. Or so they said. If you've built a Model T engine you likely know that they are not but rather 0.740" in diameter. Obviously 0.010" is too much slop to use the new wrist pin in the Metz connecting rod. The Metz pin, obviously, doesn't fit in the piston. I believe there are two solutions. Solution one is to ream the new piston out and reuse the Metz wrist pin. Solution two would be to press out the bronze bushing from the end of the Metz connecting rod and replace with one that is bored and reamed to 0.740" in diameter. I'm not 100% sure that I can press out the bushing and if I can't that would mean boring it out. I'm not sure how to hold the connecting rod such that the bore would be perpendicular to the rod so I think boring that out, at least for me, is unlikely. A further complication is that the Model T piston isn't machine to accept wrist pin clips. My solution to that is to use teflon/nylon wrist pin buttons. A further complication to that is that if I reuse the Metz wrist pin I will likely need to make it shorter to allow enough room for the buttons to seat. Isn't building old cars fun?! Any thoughts?

Went to the machine shop Friday and picked up my block. I had the cylinders bored out and sleeved back to original (3.750") size. To save you scrolling back... one of the cylinders had a small void in wall. I'm fairly certain that's how it was originally. Obviously that couldn't be bored out so it had to be sleeved. The others needed to be bored out a bit I was concerned there might be more voids. Sleeving seemed to be the best solution and that's what I had done. The engine will have new pistons, valves, valve springs and tappets. I had the crankshaft polished. I'll be reusing the connecting rods, rod bearing and main bearings. The bearings were in great shape and had a bunch of shims so they had little wear. I have a reasonably good Holley G carb and, of course, a rebuild kit. Stutzman Wheel company finished my wheels and shipped them out Nov 24th so I should see those pretty soon. Once they get in I'll shoot them in epoxy primer and a cream single stage. I need to put the bearings in the hubs and figure out a dust shield for the inner bearings. With any luck I'll get that done before then end of the year and just a short dozen years after starting the project I will finally have a rolling chassis.

Wow that looks great! I'm jealous now. I also now know what those three pieces of wood trim were for that I had left over at the end... they were for an MGA not a MG TD.

While the 4 jaw is bigger than my 3 jaw it weighs less, I guess because it doesn't have a scroll. It is a bit easier to grab and hold over the spindle as well. It is just enough weight difference that I can easily get it on and off without having to place a board over the ways like I do for the 3 jaw. I'm leaning towards bronze. The originals are some sort of cast iron. Cattail will be able to tell me what type and recommend what to cast the new ones with. I'm guessing they say bronze.

4-jaw chuck is mounted and works great. Many thanks to @JV Puleo for his help getting the right cast iron blank. It is a bit big at just under 12" in diameter but given that my lathe has plenty of power it'll be fine. It is great to get this capability added and comes just in time as I will soon need this to turn the brake shoes. I was never able to find brake shoes for my Metz but a fellow Metz owner and forum member @MAG473 lent me one that was cracked and brazed back together. I've sent this up to Cattail foundry to get a dozen or so made. I'm going to discuss with Emmanuel King what kind of metal we'll use for the castings as I know there have been issues with these shoes cracking. They are very similar to the one piece Model T shoes though not similar enough that they are interchangeable. I'm wondering if I should get the cast out of bronze. If you have any thoughts, let me know. Whatever it is cast out of I will need to turn it down once I get the castings back and a 4-jaw will be helpful in getting the casting mounted reasonably centered before turning. Over the Thanksgiving break I got the final pieces I need for the friction disc. I'll be starting on that this week or next.

Electrochemical Products Inc (EPI) EK-SR148E E-Kleen (cleaner/degreaser) EP-258 E-Prep (activator) IB-333 Insta Black ET-503 E-TEC (sealer) The cleaner and activator are optional but I thought the activator did 50% of the work so I'll continue using it. The cleaner was probably good and given the results I will continue using it again. The sealer I think is very nice. Not too glossy but definitely so protection there so it shouldn't be rusting any time soon (thinking more about car parts as obviously my tooling is going to be rusting). Credit to this video on YouTube (have your speakers turned down when you visit) for the solid demonstration of the product.

I'm back! A little over 2 weeks ago I had double cataract surgery that was resounding success. My vision is phenomenal now! It wasn't that bad before but right eye was degrading at a far faster pace than the left eye which caused some issues. My insurance thought it would be best to do both and at the same time. I couldn't be any happier. Right after the surgery I went out to Arizona to visit my daughter. We went camping up at the Grand Canyon. That was the first time I've seen it in person and it was fabulous! We're planning on going back next year and get a back country permit so we can camp at the bottom. Can't wait! Per the metric threads, I ended up 3D printing 34 and 24 tooth gears. This combination allows me to turn 1.00, 1.50, 2.00 and 3.00mm threads. It took a couple of test prints to get it correct because of the shrinkage. The gears performed fantastic. Next week I'm going to turn 47 and 37 tooth gears which will allow me to turn 1.00, 1.25, 2.00 and 2.50mm threads. Since I'm printing them with 100% infill it takes a long time. The 34 tooth gear took a little over 7 hours. The 47 tooth gear will be nearly double that at just over 13 hours. With the metric gears in hand, I parted off the bad threads on the end of the ER-40 collet chuck and turned a new section down to 50mm. From there it was easy to single point the threads and get the nut turning on nice and smooth. I had to recut the taper but that wasn't a big deal. I measured about 5 tenths runout which isn't terrible. I think the collet chuck is just about perfect but I did buy cheap ER-40 collets so there's likely some runout in those. Even with that... it is night and day better than what I had before. Anything under a thousandths is good so I'm thrilled. I tried out a new cold blue system that I plan to use on the Metz. It is easy to use and I think it leaves a great finish. Riding the momentum of getting the ER-40 collet chuck completed I started on the back plate for the 4-jaw. I was able to get it bored out and threaded pretty quickly. Once mounted on the spindle I got it faced and squared up. It is about 7" in diameter right now and the register on my 4 jaw is 5" so I'll need to turn off about 2" tomorrow. Shouldn't be a big deal as the cast iron turns like butter. After working with the 4140 for the last few weeks the cast iron feels like wax in comparison.

The body work is incredible. So many hours must be in that, just incredible.

It looks great Chris! I can promise you people will love the finish and when they compliment you, while you'll think of the flaws... after a month or so you will not. Your super critical eye will go away and it will look unbelievable. Six months you'll look at the car and just be blown away. Drive it, show it, wax it and it'll be perfect by next year. While you might do a better job next time, you'll always be bursting with pride looking at this one, it looks fantastic!

Getting LED work lights setup at the right angle (30 degrees or so) can help reveal those scratches. If the scratches are really at 2000 grit level then a wool pad will take that out. I only went to 3000 because it was quick and saved time with the buffer. I'm not familiar with the pads you're getting. I used this (or something similar) https://www.meguiars.com/professional/products/meguiarsr-7-soft-buff-rotary-heavy-cutting-wool-pad-wrwhc7 I would note that a "proper" wool pad will also destroy all your work in seconds. Need to keep it moving, never even hover in an area. Keep it wet as well. It is a tricky proposition. You need a wool pad that will cut. You don't want to destroy your paint job. I practice on an old door I painted. I purposely burned through the clear to get an idea of what it would take. It takes a lot in the flat areas. It takes almost nothing on an edge. Just looking at an edge while holding a buffer will cause the clear coat and base coat to vanish. I don't sand or buff anywhere near an edge. I thought you did some practice panels for the paint. If you've got those try working on them. Last thought... did you get a rotary buffer or random orbital buffer? IMHO rotary is required for cutting clear. Random orbital is fine for polishing, I'm not sure it will really cut clear.

Great job! Mine was in slightly worse condition and required a complete rebuild. I also machined new bolts and repaired the three pieces that make up the metal center section. Should be done with it next week.

Looking back at my Amazon orders, I used M105 for cutting and M205 for final polishing. I'm not 100% sure what the difference is between M105 and M110, it seems like M110 is a "speed compound". Probably either is fine but I found M105 and M205 to be perfect for "our" needs. There are other "levels" between and after M205 but I think you'll find you only need those two. I wet sanded to 3000 grit, wool pad with M105 and then two different foam pads with M205. Note that once you pass 1000 grit it goes pretty quick. The extra pass with 3000 just means less work with the wool pad. I'm sure you know this but for those that might be reading... protect your pads like your paint finish depends on it. I have mine in ziplock bags and never, ever leave one out. It is far too easy for it to fall on the ground or some junk land on it. Pay careful attention to where the pad is if you have to set the buffer down. Pad *always* up. Get a bit of grit in the pad and you can ruin your paint almost immediately. When you can wax is a question for the clear-coat supplier however a pure carnauba wax is usually fine after 2 weeks. Some clear-coat suppliers will say to never, ever use anything else. I tend to agree with that. While it depends on the composition of the clear coat, in general it is a good idea to give it some sunlight as the UV light will speed the curing process.

Looks great Chris, welcome to the fun part!! I somehow missed the big moment of the body going back on the chassis, major congrats there. It is *such* a good feeling. I bought the DeWalt DWP849 and would buy the same again. The interface pads are as important as the buffer so stay with DeWalt/3M in this area. Meguiar's MirrorGlaze is arguably the best, M110 for cutting and M210 for the finish. Wool pad works best for the cutting (M110) though do be careful to keep it moist and don't linger in an area, it is aggressive. High power LED work lights shinning on the paint will help with the wet sanding and buffing. When wet sanding alternate directions with each grit. With the LED light you should be able to visually verify you got the previous round of scratches out. Starting with 800 is no shame and if it takes the tops down quicker it'll save you time and effort.

The Hendey has a stud gear, idler and a gear on the input to the quick change gear box. The arrangement of those three gears allows 3 sets of 12 different TPI to be cut. To switch between sets the stud or input gear needs to be a factor of four from the other. For my lathe that is 120 teeth on the stud and 30 on the gearbox, 30 on the stud and 30 on the gearbox and finally 30 on the stud and 120 on the gearbox. Those three gears are on the same plane so a 127/120 or 127/100 transposing gear doesn't work. I have two plans for metric threads. First is the specific case for 1.5mm that I need immediately. I have a 64 tooth gear coming that I will pair with the 30 tooth gear. That gives me a 2.1333 reduction of the lead screw. If I cut an 8 TPI thread that will turn out to be 17.067 TPI which will be 1.49mm. That's not 1.5mm and I don't know if it is close enough for the ER-40 nut to fit. If it is then I'm done. If not I'll find another solution. If the approximation is OK, then I can probably get .75mm 1.0mm 1.5mm and 2.0mm from then 16, 12, 8 and 6TPI settings. Plan 2 is a more generic solution using an approximation of the 127/X gearing. When the stud and gearbox input gears are the same size then the QCGB provides 12 different TPI, ranging from 20 to 6. If I switch the stud and gearbox gears out for 37 and 47 teeth gears then I get a ratio of 1.27027 which is similar to the 127/100 gear solution. As you noted above, 20,16,10 and 8 TPI would yield 1.0mm, 1.25mm, 2.0mm and 2.5mm. Should both of these gear combinations work then I'll have pretty good metric threading capability. I was able to make some good progress towards getting the friction disc completed. I got all the holes drilled in the spokes for the center section. I was able to use the ER-40 collet chuck I made to chuck up some Grade 8 3/8" bolts and modify the heads such that they fit the base plate. The base plate has a D shaped hole for the bolts such that they are held in place. I turned then Grade 8 bolts down, faced them a bit to get the right height and then transferred to the milling machine to mill off a flat to give the proper D shape. This worked perfectly and I was able to knock out all 12 pretty quick. That was a really great feeling! I was a bit surprised with the ER-40 collet chuck because once tightened down there was minimal runout on the bolt even with the nut wobbling around enough to make one seasick! I guess it is the taper that is holding the collet and thus the bolt so it makes sense but boy does it look bad! Once the change gear comes I'll part off the threads, thread a new section and recut the internal taper for the collet. Glad I made the chuck a little long. All in all it was a great week and weekend in the shop. The machine shop in particular is continuing to gain capability as I get everything squared away and learn how to do things. Making things is a great feeling!

I'm still here.... just spending a good bit more time in the machine shop than on the car. I really need a 4-jaw chuck on my lathe. It solves so many problems and allows me to make more complex parts. I'd also like an ER-40 collet chuck on the lathe. Joe kindly send me a slug of cast iron to make a back plate. I've made a couple of spindle nose mock-ups, including one that is reasonable close. I'm on attempt number 3 to make an ER-40 collet chuck. This latest attempt went really good up to the point I tried to use a 50x1.5mm die to put the threads on. My lathe does cut metric threads so my plan was to use a die. I spent a fair amount of money on the die and it worked pretty good but unfortunately it is all but impossible to hold it dead square... and that really matters since it is pushing the collet in. As such... now I'm waiting on a 64 tooth gear that may or may not fit my lathe and may or may not adjust the lead screw enough such that an 8TPI selection will end up cutting a 17TPI thread... which may or may not be close enough for the import ER-40 nut to thread on to. If it works, then great! I'll have an ER-40 collet chuck for my lathe. I can then make one for my milling machine. While the ER-40 collet chuck might not be a success, I am getting a lot of experience making parts, specifically internal threads that fit my lathe's spindle. As such... I should be ready to make the back plate for the 4-jaw once my collet chuck project is finished. I'm also spending a lot of time getting the machine shop better organized. I collected so much stuff over the years. Much of which I didn't even really know what it was. If something looked like it belonged in a machine shop and the price was reasonable... I bought it. Years later I now have a better understanding of what is what and I'm going through everything. The good news is that I did a great job of getting stuff! The bad news is that storage has become an issue (things were stuffed in boxes before). To solve that I picked up this great set of drawers off FB marketplace. I restored them (before and after below) including building 3 of the small drawers. I created a drawing for the card frame drawer pulls and had SendCutSend cut them out for me. In the next week or so I'll make a die to create the indent and then turn the inside down for the "pull" part.

Did you get this fixed? I've been using SendCutSend for a lot of stuff these days. They have a lot of materials available. You might have them cut 2 out of Delrin or something and use those to replace the fiber gears while getting the center section cut from an alloy.