unimogjohn

I did respond to "Roof". It is Thursday, October 27th. Hard freeze tonight so time to drain the water out of the 28 and 23. That is the job for today. Greg had a great day at the foundry in Baltimore. Here is his report. "The Baltimore foundry was there waiting for me this morning. I had the V8 patterns and core boxes on board. Bob Eagan looked them over in order to understand the casting method prescribed by patternmaker Art Bergstrom who was working from brown paper drawings I had done. Remember this engine built by the Wrights in spring of 1910 was a prototype that doesn't exist anymore. Armed with clues from a couple period photos, a surviving camshaft drawing and what I've learned about their other series of engines.....I'm shooting in the dark. Liking what he saw, Bob directed Will, his able assistant, to begin making the sand cores while he finished another job. Sticking close to Will and watching his method, it wasn't long before we were first mixing the sand. This foundry sand uses a syrup like binder. We were loading the mixer with three one hundred pound bags of sand at a time. Who says foundry work isn't glamorous? Then Will had me working along side him packing sand and making cores. Hard to believe, but this one crankcase mold requires a total of sixteen sand cores. Bob rejoined us and after studying the patterns for the case exterior, he decided how he was going to gate and vent the mold. First the bottom "drag" was prepared, then inverted and the pattern for the other side of the case mated to it, and the "cope" half completed. In the photos you'll see how the mold is then split, the wooden patterns removed and the sand cores installed. When all that is carefully done (any grains of sand scuffed into the bottom of the mold where you can't see them can ruin the casting) the cope is reunited with the drag, the mold is then closed and ready for the molten alloy. Photo explanation: Pic #001 sand is packed in a corebox, the large knitting needle is for piercing the sand randomly. CO2 gas is then injected into the sand to harden it. #002 Hardened sand core is carefully dumped from the box. The white dust is mold release. #003 Lineup of sand cores, eight large and eight small ones. # 004 Drag side before removal of the exterior pattern. # 005 Drag side with the other pattern mated # 006 Cope and drag with patterns removed. Will is blowing away loose sand. # 007 Bob is fitting the individual sand cores. # 008 All cores in place. # 010 Bob and Will closing the mold. I don't know if this is too many pics to send at one time. I took my "email" camera for these shots, the "work" camera for detail study. I also brought back with me the first casting, the case sump. It looks really good. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see a picture of it, the holes I drilled in the Toledo pump as well. For me it was another good day. To be put to the test in another specialized skill and not screwing up is always satisfying. Bob learned foundry methods from his grandfather, who was taught by his father. We're doing things the old way.

Oznam, send me an email at unimogjohn@aol.com with your email address, and I will send you the S/W repair manual. Might help. John

It is Wednesday, Oct 26th. Here is Greg's report from late last night. I don't think that he ever sleeps. "My early start this morning found Scott and I on our way to Udvar-Hazy. Here we were joined by our associate Paul Glenshaw and we met staff member Jeannie Whited. The early start was due to the fact that our examination of the Langley Aerodrome A must be concluded before the museum was open to the public. We took turns being elevated to the areas of the machine that interested us. I think on my camera alone we added over four hundred photographs and that doesn't count what Scott and Paul captured on theirs. I had taken ol Seabiscuit (aka maroon Avanti), it did fine. Before I put it away this evening, I used it to find some dinner. That's when I found a big puddle of coolant under it. Although it didn't overheat on the way back to the tin shed a brief examination revealed a lazy fan clutch. One thing I didn't renew, now it will need replacement. Maybe that was the cause of the car's hot tempered impatience with traffic lights? With that added to my list, I resumed the Toledo pump caper. Tonight I set it up on the mill to machine the bottom of the mounting pad. I'll be drilling holes next. Photo expanations: * Paul Glenshaw taking photos as Jeannie skillfully manoevers him into position. Scott looks up in awe of the size of that dinosaur. (The photos are washed out because they were taken in a gigantic format. I don't know how to downsize them so what you get are views photographed from my monitor. Sorry. That or nothing.) * Paul taking my picture as I took his from the balcony. * Machining the mounting pad of the Toledo pump. Off to the foundry tomorrow with the Wright Brothers V8 case patterns. I'll have a camera along this time.

I have only heard of a 1928 distributor and drive gear working in a 26/27.

and you need a reference manual and a shop repair manual. Both are available on Ebay and other places. Best books you will ever have for not much money. 1926 BUICK STANDARD MASTER 6 SIX Reference Book Owners | eBay 1926 Buick Standard 6 and Master Six Repair Manual 26 | eBay

Allan, I agree with you. If you are going with all metal then I would certainly place them inside the top. Here is a factor pic of the top. Good luck with you restoration. Keep us posted on your progress from time to time also.

Still Tuesday. Vern, received this back from Greg. Thanks for the advice. John, For the cover plate I usually use that brown wrapping paper. When I took the pump apart I found them to be about .012" thick. I had some .015, so I put back what I thought the last guy used. I considered the .003" but I didn't really think that pressure was an issue on this puny pump. After all, I recall the owner's manual stating that if you were reading FOUR pounds on the gauge, you had a problem. Something was stopped up to cause this excessive pressure. If the DB parts dealer says use the thinner gasket, I don't have a problem with changing to the .003" and thanking Vern for the tip. GREG.

Enterprise, are you bows wood or metal? If metal then they are US Buick type and would behind the top on the sides. Also can you post a pic of the folding mechanism as it connects to the car?

Thanks Vern, sent Greg your note. It is Tuesday, Oct 25th. Felt better today so pulled the 23 out of the tent shelter and pushed her back into the garage. Alice was driving. Tomorrow I plan on taking a look at the starter mechanism to see if I can see any obvious issues/problems. Here is Greg's Monday report. "Tonight's progress: reamed the bore of the Toledo pump. Movement in the right direction. Studebaker and Dodge divisions given a vacation day. Have to get an early start tomorrow. A Hazy museum research mission. I don't do the Dawn Patrol very well."

Here are a couple of pics of John Lee's car early in it life in Australia. And the last pic is of a MB advertisement.

It is Monday, Oct 24th. Finally, I am starting to feel human again, cold is getting better. We are heading to Iceland in a couple of weeks so I better be all well. Wonder what they are driving? But Greg was busy this weekend. Here is his report. "A productive weekend shot. Nice weather is conducive to progess. David (Trimacar) Coco arranged truck shipment of that NOS Avanti axle from Georgia. Delivered to him, he met me for the exchange. Time was found to work in the tin barn. Pulled the right door of the black Avanti, windshield, quarter windows and loosened the rear glass. I stripped the paint from the left door and began work on that right one. It's stripped of components and ready for de-painting. I've found a problem with the outside door handles. The handles are retained to the escutcheons by a rollpin. There is just enough room to install the assembly in the door opening. Three of the four (two cars) have had the pins work partly out which prevents removal of the handle. I was able to get a die grinder and cutoff wheel inside the door to cut away the exposed pin. Took a while. Then it was warm enough to lie under the Dodge to tighten the oil pan. New gaskets were cut and the oil pump was reinstalled. Photos: *5054 with more parts removed. *The Avanti rear axle home at last. *A door with the paint removed down to the Featherfill. *The Dodge oil pump. *A camera shy squirrel. It was a weekend of good company and work done.

If your car does not have the top ribs on the outside then you have something other than an MB. The exposed, wooden ribs were a mark of a MB. Here is my car without the side curtains. It is a model 45, 1923.

John Lee in Australia has a 24 MB and has all the info you need. He has just had side curtains made for his car. Here are a couple of pics. John's email is johnlee@hydroilex.com.au The gentleman is one of the pics is not John, but the trimmer who made the top and panels. I have original curtains for my 23 MB if you need pictures of them, but they looks exactly like John's.

Bernie, now we are getting somewhere. Looks great! A Packard is re-born. Thanks for the excellent pics.

It is Friday, Oct. 21st. Greg was busy, busy. Here is his report. "Good news from the foundry. Bob poured the eight cylinder Wright crankcase sump. Called me to say he had shaken it out of the sand and it looks good. I'd say that opening the mold to see what you got is like having a baby, but it is more like the old days when you went to the drug store to pick up the pictures you had developed. You didn't know how they turned out until you opened that envelope. Otherwise, spent most of this evening setting up the Toledo pump body. Mounted it on a small angle plate and then chucked it in the lathe. Took a while to get the casting centered, and it had to be right on the money. The casting had just enough diameter to allow me to turn the diameter (and I mean it just cleaned up on the final few thousandths cut). Although it was a shaky setup, I was able to cut the threads for the outlet gland nut without blowing anything up. There will only be one more lathe operation, the impeller sits in a counterbore, but I need t ream the bore for the shaft, then press a shaft into it to use as an arbor to grip. Need to order a reamer. Next comes some mill work to machine the mounting pad, drill and tap the threaded hole for the grease cup. After that success story, I took a few minutes to pull the door off of Avanti 5054, brought it down to the shop and gutted it. Now it is ready for paint stripping. Taking the rest of the night off."

Greg and I are glad that you all are still enjoying our daily activities. We actually have a great time doing it and has led us to make many more friends in the old car community. So we will continue until you guys tell us to stop. It is Thursday, October 20th. I am fighting a bad cold, so I did nothing. But Greg continues to press ahead on several fronts. Here is his report from last night. "Another good day with an unexpected turn of events. Got up this morning and decided it would be a good time to take part of the Wright 8 patterns to the Baltimore foundry. I gathered all required to cast the easiest component, the sump. A quick call to Bob Eagan verified that he'd be there, so hi ho hi ho, off to the beltway traffic I go. When I confronted Bob with the goods, I told him that he was to call me when he had them rammed in the sand, I'd come back to take some photos. See ya, bye. He said "You ain't goin nowhere." Before long we were playing in the sand. Several hours later we had the pattern molds and cores done. Art Bergstrom had done an excellent job and everything fit together. Nicely thought out. I didn't have a camera along, so Bob took some with his phone and will send them to me. We closed the mold, and he plans to pour them tomorrow. They were originally aluminum, he'll use 356 alloy. After Bob treated me to one of Baltimore's famous corned beef on rye with mustard sandwiches, I found myself fighting my way through the rushour traffic for Baltimore, then through the DC beltway and Rt 66 crawl made me late getting back, but after a little R&R, resumed the Toledo job. I've gotten the stepped bore done except for reaming for the pump shaft. Then I cut the external threads. I'm looking forward now to finding a way to chuck the pump body to turn the threads on the outlet tube. Also, enclosed is a photo of today's UPS surprise. A gift from the world famous Temple Baldwin. I guess he got himself a new air compressor. He sent me his old one. Enough for now."

Here are six pictures of my 1928 standard generator and distributor. Let me know if you need anything else. I know that folks are swapping the 28 distributor and drive into their earlier 26/27 motors as the distributors tended to crack, swell and warp over time as they were made out of a pot metal.

Bernie, I can see a wheel in one of your latest pics. Do you have a shot of the frame with all four wheels on? She certainly is starting to look like a car again. Great work and thanks for keeping us updated every day.

What great work. I can hardly wait for the first engine start. Just too realistic!

It is Wednesday, October 19th. Raining cats and dogs this morning. An inside day for sure. Just received two new oxygen sensors for the 02 Chev Trailblazer. The check engine light has been going off and on lately. Figure it was due a couple of sensors after 165K miles. It is inside the garage so may attempt to tackle that work today, maybe. Have a cold from Las Vegas, go figure, so really do not feel like doing much. But Greg is busy as usual. Here is his report on multiple items. "I wasn't expecting today to be so nice. I found time this evening to scrape more Studebaker paint. I'm trying to get the sloppy work done around the front and rear glass so that I'll be ready to take them out. I went over the top again and then below the windshield and rear window. The '21 Dodge still waits reassembly. Can't be every place. Then I began the boring of the Pope-Toledo pump casting. It has a complicated bore and my boring bar isn't quite long enough to go all the way through until I rough out some of the counterbores. Taking it out carefully. Not the time to screw up. And a couple pics from the day job. I'm really knocked out by the exhaust cam operation. The crankshaft has a gear inside the port side (as they identified the components. Guess they knew the Aerodrome A was going into the drink) drum. This is the leading gear in a train that communicates with gears outside the drum. End result is a counter-rotating two lobed cam that runs one fourth crank speed. The Stephen Balzer/Charles Manly/ Samuel Langley engine is a four stroke five cylinder. The cam lobes will operate the rollers on the "punch rods" to open the exhaust valves. Beautiful. I have yet to determine whose contribution this was, Balzer or Manly. Remember this was Eighteen nineties high button shoes engineering."

I did take just a few pictures of the start of the Las Vegas Indy Car race, and a short video of the tribute laps after we had been told of Dan Wheldon's death. I think that the first picture I took was of the actual race was at lap two. They were really close together and you just knew in your heart that they were just too close, three wide in most places and going like heck. By lap eleven they had separated into two groups, but both groups were still very close. It was really exciting to see them running so fast and so tight, but you were waiting for everyone to back off and line up. Then it all happened so fast. You could hear the crowd do a collective "gasp" when it happened. So many cars at once, you just could not believe it. They started to bring the wrecked cars in and most went directly to the garages. However, two cars were covered in large yellow tarps and were brought over to a corner of the track and set down, and officials were guarding them. One was Dan's car. I assume that IndyCar officials had impounded them for investigation. I knew that seeing this was not good news. The last few shots are of the tribute laps after the crash. You can see the all the crews from the Indy Lights and Indy Car lining the outside of the pit area. Here is a link to the five lap tribute run after the crash. And for those that are interested here is a link to the race.

Here are a few pics of the Indy Cars in the fan area of the hotel. Getting ready for their hot lap down the Vegas Strip.

For the Las Vegas Indy Car race there were several vintage race cars in the hotels. Here are a few of those neat old cars.

Here are a couple of pics from Greg of his weekend work. "Planning the next setup in the Pope Toledo water pump escapade. Found a little time to scrape more paint off this next Avanti."

Still Friday, here is Greg's post for his weekend. No pics, sounds like he had a great time. "Just a quick note after a hard charging weekend. Friday I was paid a visit by Thetan Ogle who is working on my Stoddard fender fabrication. Nice to see him and we found time to visit Jason Repass, local painter who shot my maroon Stude and should do my black one too. That evening my sidekick Barbara made the trip with me to load the Stoddard in Rob's trailer to be ready for an early start to the Rockville show. The show went well, weather was very nice, lots of interest in the crowd. A special treat for me was to discover the factory prepared "Sherwood Egbert R-3" Avanti on the field. Cutting it close, we got the car loaded, dropped the truck and trailer at Rob's and was only fifteen minutes late at a class reunion for my high school in Winchester. Today the car was unloaded, and although the day was sunny, it was quite windy and brisk. Nevertheless, Rob and I drove it about twenty miles . Probably the longest duration run the Stoddard has done. We found some issues for me to take care of over the winter. With the oil thoroughly warmed, there is a loss of oil pressure at idle, so I'll need to readjust that. And the leather fan belt is still stretching, so once again I shortened it. Then, with Barb in the backseat holding on for dear life, Rob took us out in his two cylinder REO. A pleasant run in the car, it is running progressively better for him. The return was a driving lesson for me that left Barb white knuckled. The thing about these early cars. They are so diverse that it can leave a long time enthusiast feeling like a beginner. Now, the past weekend is just a blurr."