MikeC5

The gasket set I bought from Olsen’s did have a gasket for this but you could make one easily enough from a roll of cork gasket material.

OK, good luck with it Ray.

Hi Ray, Here are photos of the stem bending I did. I think I deflated the tire in order to maneuver the bend into the slot (I'm certain I didn't dismount the tires). I think I used a 1 - 1.5 inch round bar to bend against to obtain the radius. When I did the spare, I bent the stem before installing tube/tire.

I was able to do it without a rotisserie. I first measured the door openings before unbolting body from frame. I did hook up some wooden braces as I recall. I then used 4 lift point with cargo straps to a chain hoist to slowly pick up the body. Mine did have rust in the side sills and floor pan under front and back seats were rusted away completely so I was very careful. After lowering body to the floor, with a helper I rolled it upside down and blocked up the rear to take most of the strain. I checked the door openings and the began repairing the bottom. Some pics are in this thread but I have more. http://forums.aaca.org/topic/165852-just-bought-a-1925-touring/?page=2

I will Ray. I’m flying home from a business trip (Istanbul) on Saturday so I should get to it on Sunday. I did purchase a new tube a couple of years ago for my spare tire and I seem to recall only straight valve stems were available. But it is long enough that I was able to successfully do the bend trick with it as well. The tubes on the other tires were installed by the previous owner but I did the bending without dismounting them.

I ran into the exact same problem Ray. In desperation, I tried carefully bending the valve stem and it worked! There must be a brass tube inside of the stem that holds the bend. It still has enough pre load against the slot that chafing wear has not been an issue (yet). I can take some close up photos if you like.

I hear you Dave. If this turns out reasonably well and I gain enough confidence, I plan to eventually re-do it with the 'good stuff'. I was afraid to plunk down that much on materials without ever having sewn anything prior. I was concerned that it wouldn't be strong enough for those straps so I looked for something better.

Hi Tony, I'm not sure about if there is a regularly scheduled bus route between Harrisburg and Hershey. Your hotel should be able to recommend a taxi/ride service for which you can reserve a ride each way. I suspect the cost may approach that of hiring a rental car for the week though. If you do decide to rent and plan to get to the grounds early, parking near one of the entrances will be no problem. If you arrive later it will just mean a little bit longer walk to the entrance.

Hi Dave, I don't know if you saw my reply from Sunday on my pads question. I realize that using top material for the pad wrapping does add strength to the whole pad assembly and that using bowdrill exclusively instead for the wrap gives up some strength. I have tried to compensate for this by the separate straps (one in middle and two diagonal) which have are made from seat belt material wrapped with bowdrill.

Hi Dave, I’m using a less expensive top material that has a white cotton inner liner. I’m planning to have the inner liner of bowdrill go on separately before top material. So I’m just using bowdrill for pads and have no side seam. (I just used a single piece of bowdrill for the pad outer wrap). I secured the bowdrill to each bow, then installled the jute straps, then the cotton wrapping was glued to the straps, then the cotton batting (also glued). I then tapered the cotton batting at uppper and lower edge of pad, then folded the bottom cotton wrap piece over the batting, then upper cotton wrap, then folded lower bowdrill flap up on top of cotton wrap and finally folded upper bowdrill flap over. No glue on these folded over pieces. As for the bow coverings, I erred in using staples in some areas where I originally thought they would not be exposed. I plan to add a strip of bowdrill with tacks to cover these areas. I can’t use glue with the bowdrill since it absorbs it and shows through. A lesson learned...

I did my first pass at tapering the cotton batting and have temporarily folder up the cotton wrap and the outer bowdrill as in these pics. I''m unsure if I should taper more of the upper side. The 3rd photo shows the pad on 2nd bow from front and 4th photo is same with my finger squashing it down. Is the gap here between top of squashed pad and bow surface too large?

Maybe media-blast first, then light coat of filler over whole face, sand filler on a flat surface until filler only remains in pits and letters, prime/paint black. Carefully scribe paint & filler out of letters and then wipe white paint over lettered areas and clean off excess. I would think scribing out the letters would be easier than trying to mask them and they appear to be well defined enough to allow that. I think that's how I ended up doing mine and it was more heavily rusted than yours. Another possibility might be to mask the letters with something like vaseline. But then it would be tricky to get the surrounding surface clean for paint without removing the vaseline from the letters.

So I'm doing an initial test fitting of the cotton batting pad material and I'm not quite sure if I should try and taper the pad so it gets thinner at the bottom edge of pad or leave it full thickness? I suspect it needs to be tapered up top in order to avoid a visible ridges on the top panel. I'm guessing from David's earlier photos of the Dodge top that it does need some tapering.

Ha ha! No, I stopped keeping track a few years ago.... I'm sure I'd be much further ahead if I started with the one advertised. The rear window I got from Bob Jacobs is the correct measurement and seems to match others I've seen where there are no fasteners exposed on inside or out (i.e. two halves of a wood frame sandwiches the glass). It will be tricky indeed to install...

I like the word 'prevaricating' too. The first time I remember hearing it was watching Wallace & Gromit. "There's no prevaricating about the bush...."

I have no affiliation with the seller, blah, blah, blah. Seems like a solid car for the price. https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/dodge/dodge-brothers/2022416.html

Phenolic has been around for a long time as a composite (some kind of fabric or paper embedded in the phenolic matrix). You could probably find it at a store selling hobbyist electronic bits & pieces. Delrin is more like a plastic (it must be a brand name) and is easy to machine. This place appears to sell both http://www.bayplastics.co.uk/tufnolfabric.htm

Hi Ray, if you really get stuck for fixing what you have, it looks like you could turn some non-conducting material like phenolic sheet or delrin to the correct diameter and drill all the holes and glue/press in pre-threaded brass pieces for the contacts. Or maybe try pressing the existing brass tubes out and re-using them. Just thinking out loud... I'm guessing the bendable tabs must have broken off when someone tried opening it up too many times. Maybe it would be possible to use silver solder to build up the contact buttons on the spring loaded contacts.

Nice job.

I agree Carl. The synthetic gives you extra margin in oxidation resistance, flash point, etc. so if something unexpected happens you are less likely to seriously damage expensive engine parts.

You may want to purchase the replacement shaft before bringing it to the machinist. He'll probably want to ream the bushings after installation to fit the shaft properly.

It doesn't look that bad. Maybe you can touch them up with a rat tail file?

The size of those drums!

Good advice. You may be surprised how much wear the packings can inflict on the shaft. Mine had very deep grooves on what was probably the original shaft. Hopefully the rest of it is in decent shape.

It doesn't look that bad. I like it!