JV Puleo

Really? Those "70 year olds" (like me) were born in the 1950s and have no more personal involvement with the 30s and 40s than they do with brass cars. The problem is price...they would all sell if the prices reflected the market but car collectors seem to be oblivious to the fact that prices have fallen...that, effectively, we've priced ourselves out of the market. It will take time for reality to set in but it eventually will. If those cars appeal to an older age group it probably has more to do with how much time and disposable income they have. I suspect there would be a lot more people in their 30s and 40s in the market if the prices reflected the current reality. I was helping my cousin clean up his parents property last summer. Geoff is a long-time Model A enthusiast and had piles of parts. One of the neighbors came by to look at a tractor we were selling and his son, probably in his 20s, asked Geoff if he knew anything about Model A's...because he'd just bought one. I've no idea what he paid and this is a wealthy neighborhood but there is no question that "20-something" was interested enough to actually buy one.

Further to the above...when making the wrist pins. I'd drill about .010 under the finished dimension going in about half way from one end, flipping the piece around and going in from the other end to finish the hole, then reaming to the finished size. If you'd going for a 1/8 wall thickness on a .750 pin that would be a 1/2" hole. I think the late Harold Sharon said that the wall thickness doesn't have to be any thicker than 1/8. I don't know what he based that on but it sounds right. Drill rod in it's annealed state is plenty hard enough for a wrist pin. I would not harden them. A twist drill will wander when drilling a deep hole (which is why they aren't used for deep hole drilling). The further it goes, the more it goes off center. That's why you drill from both ends. The wrist pins are short so it won't wander much, certainly much less than the amount left to be reamed.

I borrowed a picture from ebay...this shows the sleeves that fit over the pilot and center the reamer in the hole. A one-off sleeve wouldn't be hard to make. You just need to ream it to fit the pilot (which will be smaller than the hole) and then turn a taper on it holding it on a mandrel. I'd get a pilot that fits your reamer and make the sleeve. EDIT: I just checked the "product detail" in the McMaster catalog for the reamer that covers those dimensions. To my surprise, the extension comes with the tapered sleeve. Those parts are all ground to very fine tolerances. Given the choice, I'd bite the bullet and just buy the extension you need...that eliminates a good deal of worry about how accurate the tool is.

Jeff...the pilots worked with a sleeve that fitted over the extension and had tapered ends. The tapered end is pushed into the hole opposite the one you are reaming. I can take a picture tomorrow...I may even have a new expansion reamer that is right that I can send. I have two sets, one with extensions and one without and I'm not sure if the extensions are interchangeable. Actually, I've been meaning to check that. I may even have a spare tapered sleeve. I'll look tomorrow. You ought to be able to drill the drill rod with HSS. I've done it. There is too much carbon in it to thread well but it does drill and turn albeit with very sharp tools. I'm not sure what you should use for a collet...3/4 is .010 big although the ER's may hold it, 18mm is about 3/4of a mm too small.

I'd press the bushings out. Actually, a cheap way if you don't have a press would be to make two sleeves...one with about a 1/2" hole in it and the other slightly larger than the OD and longer than the bushing. Then you put a bolt through the center, with thick washers on each side, and screw it down. It should press the bushing out. Failing that...I have a fixture for holding a connecting rod flush on a mill table. It's heavy and will be expensive to ship but you're welcome to borrow it. Or...I could take a picture and you could make one. It isn't complicated. If you bore it you can get it down to the point where the bearing wall is paper thin and then just peel it out. That way you don't risk hitting the inside bore on the pin end. On second thought...maybe it would be better to ream the piston. You could take it out to about .748 with an expanding reamer and then hone it for a perfect fit. It would be tedious but certain. Are the Metz pins really good...you could make the pins from 3/4" drill rod with the center bored out. That way you could make them any length you want. And yes...this stuff is NEVER easy and always demands imagination.

Allen's patent was in 1910 but he didn't invent the socket head screw. They had been around since the mid-19th century. Allen invented a method of "cold heading" to manufacture them. The earlier ones had been very expensive to make...Allen's patent made using them practical.

Metal stitching is the only way to fix that. I would not even consider welding it. This has been discussed many times on this forum. Do a search. I recommend Frank Casey in Mass. He was resting a head when I was there a few months ago.

I have a 14 inch 4-jaw that weighs close to 100 lbs. and is a real bear to mount. I've gotten to the point where I only use it when I have to and then only first thing in the morning. When I'm tired I'm afraid I'll drop it. I have a 6" 4-jaw that was given to me by a friend who was the shop teacher at a local HS. When they eliminated the shop classes they sold the lathe and threw all the tooling in a dumpster...most of it never having been used. He also gave me a 3-jaw and I bought two big slugs of cast iron to make backing plates. The plate I sent you was one I'd bought for that project but it turned out to be the wrong size. I've never made the backing plate for the 3-jaw but on the rare occasion that I want to use it (almost always to hold big hex stock) I put it in the 4-jaw. That allows me to center the work piece perfectly. I would go for bronze on the brake shoes...it's very tough and not prone to cracking. What were the originals made of?

This seems to be an endless question, one that only the future will answer. There are a couple of fundamental issues here though. For the most part these laws are being pushed by a political class that is pandering to what they perceive to be their "base"...a group that has virtually no conception of the problems involved and is looking only at the "appearance" of doing something. This is not new. Politicians have been doing this since time began. Really, what is the likelihood that a gaggle of lawyers understands anything about the electrical grid, the needs of the general public or even what it's like to simply not be able to afford the "advanced technology" they are so devoted to. The mere fact that no EV would be affordable to the average user were it not for subsidies, which I highly resent when taxpayers are footing the bill, should tell us a great deal. Although I think it farfetched I sometimes think the goal here is to make personal transportation unavailable to any but the well off.

I think that is an old-fashioned door bell button. Of course it would work for a horn but I wonder if it isn't just something added by a previous owner....a long time ago.

I can see the price on the Franklin...the colors are appalling and I think it would have been difficult to get that price here. The '27 Hudson was a good buy but not exceptionally cheap. Prices for '20s sedans have always been soft.

The SAE standard thread size was 7/8-18 at least until the 20s.

You are right. I'd originally thought my car would take 10 years. It's been 11 now but that doesn't include about 2 years of being distracted by other jobs (like rebuilding my mill) or the kitchen I'm currently working on. However, I think my purpose is unusual, if not unique for this forum. Beyond sharing technical information with like-minded enthusiasts, the social aspects of the old car world don't interest me...especially the desire to be "seen" by the general public. I've no interest in any of the local car shows...I'm not likely to be going on any tours and I don't own a trailer or even anything to pull it with if I did. For me, it's all about the challenge. I do like driving them and if I finish and still have the strength to do it I will go one one of my "adventures"...a long trip on back roads, probably alone and entirely reliant on my own skills to get where I'm going and back again. Although it doesn't look it, my car is probably about 2/3 done. The difficult part will be assembling it because I can't do that in my shop and I don't have a garage. I do have a foundation so before I can put the car back together I'll have to build one. None of this makes any sense if the goal was to make money and leads me to being slightly hostile to idea that a "hobby" needs to be profitable.

Pads? Do you mean linings? Are you talking about the internal or external brakes? The external bands are thin steel and tighten around the outside of the drums. The internal brakes are similar but somewhat more substantial. But...you say the linings? are new...what are they? If you went to a brake shop and got the latest and greatest brake linings, they are completely wrong. You cannot use hard, modern brake linings in these cars. They take soft, woven linings, preferably with little brass wires in them. Some cars, like my 19i10 Mitchell had cotton linings about 1/4 inch thick. I've had two REO's, a 1910 and a 1911 so I'm familiar with the system. They work as well as any brakes of the period provided they have the right lining, there is virtually no play in the brake rods and the brake equalizing bar that runs across the chassis turns easily with no drag. What do the drums look like? Those are pressed steel and can be heavily worn. They aren't thick enough to turn like a modern cast iron drum. I had a set spray welded and turned them back to flat. Have you made absolutely certain that the axle seals are there and working? If it's leaking oil onto the linings you'll never get them to work properly. It's all very simple but quite unlike a modern car. The original seals were felt. If they are still in place they are badly worn. If they have been replaced look at the outer bearings and races. Those cars have a 3/4 floating axle with Hyatt-type roller bearings on the outside (they have tapered roller bearings on the inside next to the differential). The Hyatt bearings were never very good and if badly worn the axle will have excessive play. That will ruin any seal very quickly. I've seen a REO axle with a groove nearly 1/4" deep worn by bad Hyatt bearings...

That's only 1%...I seem to remember Ed saying it was more like 2% with another 5% being driveable...but then, he was talking about "restored" cars.😋

I've been away from the Mitchel project for the best part of three months now working on my house. I'm building an improved kitchen and while I'm happy with the way it's coming out it's a lot more work than I anticipated. The whole thing is complicated by the fact that this part of the house dates from 1703. Absolutely nothing is square or straight or built to conventional modern measurements. Probably the most useful tool I have is a thickness planer because that is the only way I can get things to be "almost" square. I've finished the tile work...but I still have a lot to do to get it workable and looking good.

A nice car...too late and too complicated to interest me but this is a good example of the market correcting itself. Chances are it was inherited and the seller isn't interested in keeping it or advertising it for an outlandish price.

I like working cast iron though it seems that most don't, perhaps because there is so much free carbon that your hands get really dirty. Deep cuts and slow speeds make it almost relaxing to work with. What was the cold blue system yhou used? That looks to be a very nice finish.

I've come to the conclusion that these complicated V engines aren't worth the time and expense. Personally, I'd stick with a 6 or an 8, straight engine. I like your Franklin's better...

Someone will want them...they are nowhere near "landfill" material. I didn't mean to be blunt but they are probably the most common brass car item out there. Oddly enough, they would be easier to sell if they were just generic Gray & Davis lights.

No one ever junked a Cadillac and didn't save the lamps. There are a lot more of them than there are cars to put them on. You see them on ebay frequently, usually described as "rare" (which they aren't) and usually with a price tag much too high. I think you'd do well to get $200-$250 for the pair but you may have a long wait for someone who needs them. It's more likely they would go to some hot rod/rat rod builder who doesn't care about the name or what it originally went to.

A screw jack. There isn't much else to say about them. They were a very common item and I imagine every car had one. I seriously doubt i9t was made for a particular car. I like and use them. If you have the ground clearance they are much more reliable than hydraulic jacks since they can't come down on their own.

If you are new here, pay heed to Ed. He really knows pre-war cars and makes his living correcting issues like this. As to the king pins. Chances are you can find a NOS set with the bushings...or you could make them easily enough. The entire theory behind a king pin reamer is that it is a piloted with an extension on the end that projects through the other bushing and a tapered fitting that slides into the bushing opposite the one you are reaming. The two bushings have to be reamed in perfect alignment. Pilot reamers were a standard machinists tool so they can be found without any reference to cars. (Look for Critchley pilot reamers...or Cleveland Twist Drill) If you are not particularly experienced at this, it is very easy to ream the hole too large. Were I doing it, I would go through with the pilot reamer just a few thousandths after the bushings are pressed in. (Generally, bushings are slightly oversize on the OD and compress slightly when pressed in.) Then I would use a barrel lap to open the holes so that the pin slides in easily with no noticeable play. The beauty of this method is that it's practically impossible to take out too much material with a lap. It's slow but it will get you a superior job.

I don't know how I could have missed BSA...especially since the Birmingham Arms Trade is my particular specialty. Like the others, they introduced their motor vehicles as a way to keep the works busy when the arms business was slow. In their case, they did much better with motorcycles although they did produce a car from 1907 to 1912 and again after WWI in an attempt to make use of a factory they had built and equipped during the war. In both cases, their primary business was small arms and when war broke out that was what they made...literally millions of rifles for the British army. They also made motorcycles for the British Army...I once had an M20 army bike...a 500cc single that was so untouched that it still had war department marked tires on it. I have an SMLE made by BSA in 1915 that has clearly seen long, hard service. The company was originally organized as a joint venture between the numerous Birmingham arms makers, none of whom could afford to organize and equip a factory with the quantity of mass-production machine tools that were needed to be able to compete with American companies.

The bodies were fiberglass, manufactured by the Dyer Boat Company in Warren, RI. I knew the member of that family who was managing the boat yard at the time and, after the Ruger experiment flopped (and they left one or two of the bodies behind) I was offered one for free. They had been laying in a corner of the boat yard for years.