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1929 Roosevelt restoration


Guest 29 roosevelt

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Guest 29 roosevelt

I am starting this post to document the restoration process of this car. Picked it up about five years ago in Pennsylvania. Never got around to it until recently. A few months ago I installed a rotary vane fuel pump. A couple of weeks ago I brought the bumpers into Denver Chrome. the radiator cover and handles I am bringing to a place called Quality Plating in Yuma Colroado. The car was stored at 67K miles in very good unmolested shape but the storage shed had a leak so the radiator cover and stone guard are quite rusted. I got a replacement cover at the Hershey car show a few years back. The rock guard I will have to try to patch weld together because the quote I got to fabricate that part was $1500. I have a Millermatic 200 that I am getting .023 drive rollers for. I am a certified MIG welder but don't have that much practice especially on sheet metal. But money, or lack thereof, is a great incentive;)

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Guest 29 roosevelt

I looked at the odometer and I was incorrect. it shows 54K miles. Might be accurate since the vehicle is is fairly good condition. The pedals don't show much wear.

Here is what I believe is the original paint and pinstripe on the wheels.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Here is the compressed air supply lines I added a few years ago. I had a flexible hose made at R-N-R Supply. Connect that from the compressor to a union going to galvanized piping. I ran this through the wall from the un-insulated side of the garage to the insulated side. The pipe runs about a foot from the ceiling sloping downhill to a 90 degree elbow down to a valve which you can open to remove water. From this pipe I run two taps of smaller diameter up from the pipe so water can't go to the regulator. These taps then go down to the water separators and regulators. This works great to cool the air down so the moisture is condensates out and the supply air is dry for attachments like sandblasters.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

I don't have a decent picture of the car right now but here is the same model and original color. Also shown is a dust cyclone separator I made for my dust collector.

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I can't wait to see the car. If you don't mind my asking, is the car registered with the Marmon club? If you have body/Engine numbers we would appreciate you letting us document the vehicle for our records of existing Marmons. If you aren't a member, The Marmon Club is a great group of Marmaniacs and sources for parts and knowledge. If we can ever help, please feel free to contact me through the Private Message feature here or go to our website

The Marmon Club

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Here are some pictures. The brown on the front door and hood is not rust but where the blue paint that was painted over the tan came off.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Here i just received belting from hitnmiss.com for my Delco-Lovejoy shocks. I will use this for the strapping. It is a 3 ply Belting, 1-1/4" which is the same dimensions as the original shown in the attached pictures. I just finished dying it black.

Also today I was removing chrome and nickel hardware. one of my back seat hand rail pot metal arms broke. Going to see if I can get them done in stainless. I am curious if all rivets have to be removed from any pieces to be chromed?

Also shown is a tail light lens I am looking for. It is about 4" in diameter.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Here is the fuel pump I have added. It is a carter 6v rotary vane from Napa, (quieter than a solenoid type). A holly fuel pressure regulator. Next to the gas tank. And a pressure switch for a 1976 or so Vega, (on the engine). This pressure regulator has three posts which will shut down the fuel pump in case the oil presure is lost. I have not removed anything original to the car. I just bypassed the vacuum fuel pump. I will provide the part numbers in a future post.

Today I drilled out some rivets holding on the headlamp bezels. Getting ready for the parts to be chromed.

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Edited by 29 roosevelt (see edit history)
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I'm curious, why did you change over to a fuel pump and not keep it original. The vacuum system worked very well for those cars and the tanks can be restored today by several people. Can you get the pressure down enough for the system as to not flood or blow the system out. I've heard many have had more problems with fuel pump additions than keeping them original.

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Well I am a stickler about appearances being period correct. But Mechanicals I am more apt to upgrade. I have read enough posts about the vacuum tanks and heard enough personal commentary for me to consider the fuel pump approach. I then just tried to improve upon that so I wouldn’t hear or see the pump working.

Other things I will consider are using single stage urethane paint, but I will take down the glossiness with matt additive. I will likely use an electronic voltage regulator but it will not be visible. I will likely use detergent oil. Led Tail lights, etc

What I personally am not into are accessories like fog lamps and turn signal lights below them, (like the web photo of the tan 29 Roosevelt I posted earlier). Overuse of white walls, odd colorful paint schemes, door step plates. I want a vehicle to have the patina or feel of an actual old car that a farmer might have driven around in the day.

Edited by 29 roosevelt (see edit history)
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Sounds like your a man of my own heart. I like authenticity in a restoration as much as possible. I think we owe this to future generations. If all the old cars are modified with too much modern accessories then what will the future generations have to use as a reference. Anyway let me know how your fuel pump works. I haven't really decided which way to go on my car yet.

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Just a caveat but even with regulators in place on the one car I haven't replaced the electric fuel pump with a Vacuum system, install a cutoff switch so when the car is hot and the engine fails, the updraft carb won't dump gas on the exhaust manifold. It is the scariest looking white cloud I've ever seen!! I'll run the pump a few seconds before start up then shut it off (to keep down amperage drain) start the car, then turn the pump back on. The switch is the first thing to shut off at shut down of the motor. I'll turn it off then let the car run for a minute to empty the carb (the pump refills it before start up). I have installed a spin off oil filter inside the stock oils strainer body and couldn't be happier with its effectiveness, BTW

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Thanks, I will definitely consider the cut off switch. Also note that I used the term regulator when I meant the pressure switch. (I know you know this but some may not, the regulator is how one can adjust the pressure down to 2 PSI or so).

And the filter idea is a great one. Can you explain how you did that in greater detal or show pictures?

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I won't be back with the cars for a week and will send photos then but in the meantime...

We machined an aluminum block with the thread to match the oil strainer input on one side and pipe thread to fit our 1/2" pipe thread adapter on the other, with a flat round surface on the bottom and a hole through the blank for oil flow. This blank is slightly smaller in radius than the interior of the oil strainer body. The oil filter spins on to the blank, that then spins on to the input thread, through the strainer lid. Bolt the bottom of the strainer in place, although there's no oil flowing freely in strainer body, I use a cork gasket to make it look right, and from the outside it's unrecognizable as modified but works as well as modern, It is important that you retain the original input hardware to the strainer, there is a restriction on the output (return to the engine) that is crucial to keeping oil pressure up. I'll send pics next week to further illustrate, - Sam

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest 29 roosevelt

I have been busy but was able to remove the remining chrome from the car and bring it into Quality Plating in Yuma, CO. I had Denver Bumper do the bumpers and the tail light bezel. They did a good job on the bumpers but I had to reject the bezel and have them redo it. Just got that part back this week, it looks fine now.

One item I did not send in for chrome yet is the locking door handle. It is not completely operational but the key does turn most of the way. I would like to save the locking ability. Is there a way to remove the lock cylinder / tumbler from this handle so I can have in re-chromed? I have heard of drilling holes? I would prefer to do it myself but is there someone recommend to work on it?

I also removed the fuel guage cover with a prying action with a small screwdriver. The face is cracking and needs to be re-done. Any suggestions? Thanks.

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29, sorry to be so long, a bit busy around here as well. So I was building a second oil filter like the one we spoke of and got some decent photos. These may help explain better what I tried to describe, Thousand words a piece and all. They include the dissected Oil Strainer and all the neccessary parts. As well as the first modified oil strainer on the car (sorry for the sideways picture)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest 29 roosevelt

Thanks for the pictures of the oil filter modification. And I will register with the Marmon club when I find the chassis id.

On another note... I have sent in my door handles for chroming but held on to the lockable one. The plater said they just copper coat those and make them non-operational. I didn't want to do that so I was considering sending it off to a more expensive place that would remove the lock and chrome properly. But they said the lock had to be operational. Mine wasn't. It wanted to bend the key at the end. I looked it over for a while and finally decided to punch out the small metal locking mechanism. I couldn't remove the decorative piece on the shaft until I did so. This busted up the lock but I was able then to remove the decorative pieces and saw a spring I could depress to remove the clyinder. It came out in pieces. Basically broken in half so this is why the key was bending towards the end. See pictures. I found out that the diameter, 1/2", and head size is standard for many lock cylinders today. At a local locksmith shop I found a long enough clyinder that I can modify to work. First I will get the handle chromed, then I will install a modified cam lock clyinder and post instructions. $8 dollars. It is not a Basco key style but looks close enough. Yeehaw!

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29 Roosevelt:

You wouldn't have any clearer photos of the Locking Handle available? Are you going to try to source some Basco Lock Cylinders? If you locate any, I'd be interested in hearing about them! What make is the Lock Cylinder that you found for $8.00? Thanks!

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Guest 29 roosevelt

I will try to get a better picture and post later. I went out and bought the cylinder today and using my fancy milling machine, shown, here is what I have so far. :)

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That doesn't look too bad - nothing obvious broken. Always a good thing.

The Marmon inside door handles for the Model L are notoriously difficult to work with because they were stamped into the lock assembly. When the potmetal goes, you're left with a stubby shaft for a lever. I can't wait to see how this works, I have a Roosevelt Outside locking door handle on the sport coupe due to same pot metal breakdown before a tour last year and that was the closest thing I had in the shop. It would be nice to get it working, I have no key for it and can't wait to see how this works out. - Sam

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WHAT LOCK CYLINDER ~ MAKE AND MODEL DID YOU PURCHASE AT THE LOCAL HOME DEPOT OR ??? HARDWARE STORE? WOULD LIKE TO KNOW SO I CAN LOOK FOR SOMETHING SIMILAR TO REPAIR MY LOCKS. IT'S STILL TOGETHER SO I DON'T HAVE A SAMPLE! THANKS MUCH, EH!

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Guest 29 roosevelt

Willys77, See the photo of the bag in one of my earlier posts. It shows the item number of what I used. Bought from a brick and morter locksmith. $8.61.

Note that I may some day get a Briggs and Stratton key clyinder off Ebay and try to modifly that so that I can use my ignition key or similar key but for now I figured removing material rather than adding was my best bet. It might be that you have a shorter clyinder, (and a different retaining method other than the spring clip that fits the Roosevelt). Good luck.

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Willys77, See the photo of the bag in one of my earlier posts. It shows the item number of what I used. Bought from a brick and mortar locksmith. $8.61.

Hey many thanks! :) Missed the bag with the item number of the lock! Now, maybe I'll get somewhere and with a swap meet coming up in about three weeks.....who knows what I'll find. :cool:

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