Dave Neuhaus

After completing the JB weld repair I numbered the spokes and removed them. Then I weighed them with a postal scale. I thought the spokes with the most JB weld would be the heaviest, but the opposite was true! I think that is because the heavy and dense spokes held the correct shape and the soft and light spokes did more bending. I made some thicker washers to use on the bolts of the lightest spokes. It's not perfect, but better than it was.

As I understand it, someone at Ford left to work for Metz. The name Kettering pops to mind. Someone correct me, please.

I found one. Came with the whole engine (poor) but with a good head. It might not be a 1913 because the lettering is different. Thanks everyone for your help.

Wow, that was pretty far gone. That is a great transformation.

1913 Metz with friction drive Explanation of the friction drive that you need to know to understand this post: The drive disc is attached to the back of the engine and spins with the engine. The driven wheel can be positioned anywhere against the drive disc giving it a (theoretically, but not really) infinite ratio. Moving it just past center is reverse. Where other cars have a clutch the Metz has a pedal that brings the driven wheel against the drive disc. The pedal gets locked down to maintain pressure when driving. My car's drive disc uses a 1/4" thick aluminum disc that is supported by 12 wood spokes. I replaced the drive-disc spoke bolts and discovered that the wood spokes were all skewed. Only 1 was square, while the rest were bent forward in varying amounts, some as much as 0.150". I found a quick and easy way to repair them. I used JB-Weld to fill in the gaps to return the original spoke to square. Squareness was achieved by using a flat and straight hunk of wood. I added a spacer to make it just fit between the "driven-shaft" and the drive-disk. I taped wax paper to the wood to prevent the JB-Weld from sticking to my jig. The spoke surfaces were prepped by sanding and gouges from a file were used to give the surface some teeth. After applying the JB-Weld I dropped my jig in place and applied the drive foot peddle, locking it in place. This moves the shaft forward against the jig and squeezes out the excess JB-Weld. After 30 minutes I can remove the jig. The wax-paper peals right off. With the repair not yet fully cured it is easy to trim off the excess with a knife. There are bolt holes at the ends of the spokes. I still have to clean them up, but it won't be bad because I filled them with modeling clay before I started. I am not quite done with the process yet. I may find that some are not yet square. If that's the case its a simple matter to repeat the process or even sand down some spokes if needed. The worst case scenario would be if I created an imbalance producing a vibration. The worst spokes are not all in the same area, so hopefully it will be ok.

Thanks for the images. That would be great if you find a head there.

I live in Wisconsin. Next Friday (Oct 20, 2023) my wife and I are leaving for the Revival Glidden tour in Georgia. If someone between these points has a suitable Model T head for sale you should let me know.

Thank you all for your advice.

I'm not familiar with Model T model year changes (if any). Is there a date range that I need to look for?

Bozo sent me a cylinder head image stolen from the internet. The image he sent belongs to this restored 1911 Metz.

No, I said NOT a scammer.

So does anyone who is not a scammer have one?

If it were mine I would weld it up and machine it. But that's easy for me to say, since I am a machinist with my own machine shop.

Mine has cracks in multiple directions. I've heard that a Model T Ford head will bolt-up. Which years of Ford would fit? I would rather have the correct head, though. Dave Neuhaus

I just checked the tube for leaks, surprisingly none in the area of the tire iron. It had a failed patch and a leaky valve core.