CliffordK

Hello Henry, Where are you located? Do you have complete wheels in good shape, bare rims, or something in between? I haven't done much on the truck for several weeks with the wildfire evacuation (no damage here, but a hassle), and a few other projects. My rims were 24" (bead seat) x 5 1/2" (internal width), I think. I think there were 12 spokes on the front and 14 spokes on the rear, with an external band brake on the rear. No front brakes. Spokes have a generally square profile with rounded corners. I am missing all the trailer rims. However, I believe the American Locomotive wheels were originally 14 spokes, and rebuilt at some time to 12 spokes. If I was doing it a century ago, they could have been hard rubber wheels from pre-1913, then rebuilt to pneumatic to match the truck in 1919/1920 or so. One of the ALCO hubcaps is cast metal (bronze?), and the other is rebuilt steel. So far, think I found some similar 25" rims, somewhat narrower.

I've promised @bullrun (He is from the DC area) to meet him in Fort Collins or Denver at the end of this month... The check is in the mail. I'll be traveling light going East, and not-so heavy westbound. If I can get some juicy bits... Tools? Then I might be able to make the trek to California, then carry some items to Salt Lake or Denver. He'll being doing a return trip to DC, although one would have to talk to him about places and cargo capacity. Mid sized items? I still haven't decided if there is anything good enough to come to California to pick up. I might take the carburetor above, but the wheels don't appear to be quite right. I am hunting for a frame machine/rack, and every once in a while an interesting one pops up in the South. There was a piston lathe mentioned above. I'll probably try out some babbitt sometime, and so, I'll need to consider some kind of line boring for the babbitt. I may be able to make something work here when I get to that point. Anyway, the trip east from Eugene is happening. I just have to decide if I also want to go south.

Ok, back to the drawing board. The dash switch appears to be headlights only, and is in really bad shape. The Ammeter is marked "Roller-Smith Co", and "Bijur" (which matches the Bijur generator). There appears to be an oil pressure gauge that is in really bad shape. No close-ups at this time. No other dash switches or gauges. Crank start. Kill switch would be elsewhere. I think there is a "choke cable" attached to the steering column. Perhaps it is worth inspecting that more.

One thing that many forums have is a pass-through to subforums. So, one then builds a tree: Sales-->Cars-->(Ford/Chevy/etc) Sales-->Parts-->(Ford/Chevy/etc) So, if one looks at "Sales", one gets all ads. If one looks at "Cars", one gets all brands. Or one can plunge down to a specific brand. etc. The problem with this kind of a tree is that it gets complex if one wishes to do multiple attributes, such as adding in age. This is one of the annoying things I have with E-Bay. For example, with bicycles, they have "general", and "Classic/Vintage", but I can't just get say all frames without checking both places. Interesting items also get hidden under something like Classic/Vintage Transportation which just doesn't pop up with general searches. And, they often try to narrow searches based on categories, skipping interesting stuff. Even with Hemmings Motor News, I'd prefer to look at cars & parts, rather than doing independent searches. One could also add check box attributes. Brand (Ford,Chevy,Buick, etc) Age (1800's, 1900-1920,1921-1945,1945-1969,1970+,undated) Cars, Parts, Misc If parts are selected, then there are the major OEM brands, but then literally thousands of small brands for specific parts. (Bosch,Mopar,Champion, etc). Then there is the problem of getting sellers to spend the time to correctly fill out the attributes. Done right, and it would be pretty sweet. Done wrong, and one gets the "Garbage-in, Garbage-out" problem. Does AACA charge for some ads, but not others? The other thing I find annoying about some sites is when sellers use a bunch of unrelated keywords, or apparently intentionally miscategorize items. BAN USERS?

Is the truck Right hand drive or Left hand drive?

Oh, that would be fun. I'm very tempted from the other side of the country.

That engine also has the head and block cast together as one piece. So there is no separate head. Pistons are installed through the bottom of the engine. Valves are accessed through bungs around the spark plugs, and a second bung. It is very similar to the Continental engine in the truck I'm working on, although the block casting appears to be deeper, and the upper water jacket cover is different. I suppose many aircraft engines use a slightly different approach with a single cylinder/head casting and overhead valves.

Oh, that looks interesting!!! However, that is a Monobloc, and not an L-Head!!! Or, can one have an L-Head without having a "Head"?

I'll look at the dash switch a bit closer once I get moved back home. It has 2 gauges and one switch, I think. One ammeter or voltmeter. One oil pressure gauge, I think, And the switch. All three are in very poor condition, and I think the contacts in the main switch had mostly fallen apart and crumbled.

@1912Staver Thanks for the scans. As mentioned above, I've been "Evacuated" for fires for the last week. I think the fires have stopped short of my house, but it has put the disassembly and cleaning work on hold for a bit. I see the confusion on sizes. Firestone is sizing the rims based on tire sizes. So, on the second page of scans it lists a 36x6 tire on a rim that is 4.3" wide, and a 38x7 tire on a 5" wide rim. I think mine currently have that "steel band for wood felloe", although from the image, the steel felloe appears to have a simpler construction. I'm going to go poking around the Springfield Wrecking Yard as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks for the response. I was informed that the book: Branham Automobile Reference Book At least some copies are online (1925) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112054727372&view=1up&seq=5 Had the serial number information that I needed, dating my Commerce truck to late 2019.

I know the Model T had a spark advance. But, I don't remember seeing anything going to the magneto with a spark advance. I'll have to look at it a bit closer. I had assumed that I had two levers coming off of the steering, but that "quadrant" looks like it could match.

That may well be similar to what is missing on my Commerce truck. I don't know if I took a photo of the steering. So the lower part is rigid, and the upper part turns? Throttle?

Not much progress for the last few days. Monday night, storm and lost power (possibly intentionally shut off by utility. A forest fire started about 4 miles east of me.... and expanded about 20 to 30 miles in the first 24 hours. Tuesday... progressed through Level 1, Level 2, and finally Level 3 fire evacuation (technically drop and run). However, Wednesday they were allowing people to continue to haul stuff out. The truck remains. I decided that it could largely survive a fire, and loading and unloading the cradle it is sitting on using hand tools would be a major task with other easier and more valuable stuff around. It looks like the fire is stalling short of my house, but it remains a potentially dangerous situation.

Someone mentioned a Canyonville Swap at the end of this month, and I may head down there. It should be fun, especially if I make a list of things to hunt for. @1912Staver A copy of the Firestone catalog might be interesting. I'm pretty sure my rims are about 4 1/2" wide on the inside, but perhaps there are different ways of measuring. Nonetheless, 5" would fit well. I think the Coker rims at 3 3/4 would be too narrow in general, although I suppose I don't have to build the truck for carrying much weight. Nonetheless, I don't want to spend a fortune on parts, and a ton of time building them up to only do a half a job. I'll work on getting a rim disassembled and cleaned up in the next couple of days. I think the felloes are primarily wood, although perhaps there are both wood and metal components. While I may have a couple of reasonably solid spokes, all the wood components will need to be replaced. The truck came with 6 hubs (truck + trailer). 3 rims/felloes/outer wheels. 1 rim appears to be far beyond saving. The other 2 rims are also very rough, and probably should be replaced, but I'll inspect closer soon. The 3 wheels that I do have appear to have good wedges/clamps. But, that means I'll need twice as many as I have... I.E... a bunch!!! Another hurdle as I get a little further along.