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What are you working on right now?


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   I have followed this forum off and on in the past. I find the effort and perseverance of the people who post progress on their long term projects fascinating and inspiring. Not enough inspiration though for me to take on some of these big projects.
   I have often thought it would be interesting to learn what others have done to their cars on a short term basis. Like “what have you done today” or this week or this month to fix, improve or whatever your car(s).

   I will start by posting a picture of my humble Model T with its newly rebuilt and installed front suspension. The driving nature of this car was totally  changed by this procedure. Very rewarding. 
  What are you doing to your car now?

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Work is limited this time of year because I filled my garage with cars and do most of my cleaning and painting outdoors in the warmer months. (I only paint smaller parts myself).

I'm presently restoring an early 1901 curved dash Olds engine (number 96) that spent about 80 years in an old barn. Although I don't expect to ever have the rest of the car, I feel this (and a modified '03 engine) are worth fixing up,even if only for display. The cylinder head is restored and a new water jacket cast. They are not shown in the photo.

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Working with a pro to share some of this work, but trying to get chassis, running gear restored on our A this year.  Front end and front brakes to be done by a pro, I removed as a unit a couple weeks ago.  This weekend I will pull steering column, and install a rebuilt steering box and shaft.  We will then tackle back end, both ends springs on down.  Uph and top.  Maybe clutch but that may wait till next winter.  

 

Oh, I just ordered a new stone gaurd mounting kit to put my stone gaurd back on!! 😁

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Jeff I was able to remove front end in around 3 and a half hours, working alone in our 1 bay mini barn.  Tight conditions were biggest factor, off to Pat's restoration where Pat is doing front end and brakes while I prep new spring.  Car was tracking ok but 90 years of wear, I am fairly certain this has never been done on this car before.  Replaced crappy rubber ball and cup for radius rods, and want to go back to stock motor mounts vs. Float a motors in there now.  

 

Another project, replace my john deere yellow powder coated wheels with something a little less...yellow!  They were on the car but I have 2 sets to pick from...  A people who drive 'em should always have a few spare rims! 😉😁

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Have a long list of stuff to do on both cars.  Victoria and the 51 Dodge roadster which got kind of shoved to the side when Victoria arrived.  So far just some wet sanding and buffing as well as some comprehensive cleaning.

Of course working on the heater in the garage has been an almost daily project as well.  

 

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Oh yeah, on getting pushed to the side, Gretchen is likely pissed.  She needs some preventive maintenence, nothing earthshaking, hoses, thermostat, coolant and oil change and plugs rotor, cap, wires.  Took same approach with this one as with the A, some DIY, some help from a friend who is a mechanic, some work at German car shop.  

 

Someday a pro cut-n-buff on paint would be cool, its decent, original and last year for single stage super thick MB paint.  Gotta love factory color "Hellrot", or red in Yank...

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Woodgraining the dash and conserving the original plastic on 1939 Packard Super Eight, painting steering column, general re-fit of shift linkage and trying to make the steering wheel at least semi-presentable. Dash has had toner coat applied/rubbed out and is waiting a warm day for clearcoat. 

1939 vintage Tenite plastic hasn't stood the test of time well. It is responding well to carefully applied and regulated heat and epoxy. It wont look new but it will be the original material.

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8 hours ago, JimKB1MCV said:

Woodgraining the dash and conserving the original plastic on 1939 Packard Super Eight, painting steering column, general re-fit of shift linkage and trying to make the steering wheel at least semi-presentable. Dash has had toner coat applied/rubbed out and is waiting a warm day for clearcoat. 

1939 vintage Tenite plastic hasn't stood the test of time well. It is responding well to carefully applied and regulated heat and epoxy. It wont look new but it will be the original material.

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Super pretty dashboard, but also SUPER challenging.  I saw http://packardplastic.com was no a valid website anymore ?

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When I bought the Pierce Arrow last year, I started with a wiring harness and relining the brakes. After we took it to the first local show I started looking inside the engine. It had poor compression, so I figured I would give it a valve job and be okay. While I was working on it, I found that the Babbitt is delaminating from the rods, then I found that one piston was honed you to .010 oversized so while I wait for the rods to get done I am bringing the cylinders all up to match and getting custom made pistons to fit.

 

On a side project, I was looking for a new taillight bucket only to find out that what I had was better than what I could find, so I did a little brass reworking too. It’s not show quality, but plenty good enough for my original car...

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Can’t post photos......cleaning up a car for Amelia in two weeks........pulling wheels, detailing chassis, cleaning the bottom of the car to match the top.

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I've been working on the heater in the garage.  Of course with below zero it went out last night when i went out to check it at 11PM.  Finally got it up and running at 3 AM. Lots of fun playing outside below zero in the dark to get it running.  It has long cycle periods to stop and start.  The culprit was a little water in the fuel line which froze.  I think it was tricking me because it would only restrict the fuel supply not stop it.  Every time I would reset the heater it would cycle and run but eventually run out of fuel.  It has a down hill pitch to the garage and through the wall but has to go up hill a few inches to actually go into the heater which made a low spot outside as well, right where it came through the building.  I pulled the line apart and separated it from the tank, blew through it and ice came out inside from what I could see when I came back in as some chunks were scattered on the floor.  (would have been nice to have an extra set of hands,  but I'm sure the wife didn't want to wake up and come out and help me at 2AM outside) Blew through a few more times and thought I was good.  Put it all back together cycled it up again and it ran out of fuel.  Pulled it all apart again blew through it and this time flushed it with carb cleaner. put it back together and finally got it to come on and run.  Though I think the flame is low it worked all night and was running this morning. 

One other complication I ran into was I bought a new fuel pump as the pressure seemed low so they make a new updated pump.  

It came in and I installed that first.  (before dealing with the water problem) well the first cycle it wouldn't pickup fuel.   I took it out comparing it to the original and found out it's got a shorter pickup tube so it wasn't picking up fuel I reset the fuel level in the "carb".   That worked but it ran out of fuel on the High run setting.  That's when I decided it must be frozen water in the line.  It ran much better with the new pump until it ran out of fuel but ran much hotter and being I was trying to get to bed,  decided to put the old pump in and deal with the supply line.  

Well the "carb" has a magnetic shutoff and may not be able to adjust enough to use the new pump.  After several cycles and fighting with it I got it to the happy point where there was enough fuel to run the old pump and not trip the shutoff switch.  I'll have to do some research to see if I can even use that pump.  Here are some supporting photos. 

I do have another heater that I took out for parts right next to it.  You can see the "carb in the two photos with the magnetic shutoff switch on and off. 

I did manage at one point during the day yesterday to do a little more buffing after I did some touch up on one side of the grille shell on Victoria.  Imagine the work i could get done if I didn't have to keep fighting with the heater.  

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Fairly productive weekend.  Picked up my new front leaf spring Saturday.  Anyone with planning to replace leaf springs on their Model A should consider A Springs out of CT.  U S made, good stuff.  

 

Today I was able to remove the old steering box and column.  I have a rebuilt box and was a little concerned, since I have an early 30, it was one of the 10% of production with a shorter shaft, and I would need to find a longer column or rebuild the old box, an expensive job (2 or 3x the unit I picked up a few years ago), but all good.  Column will need a restoration though, bushings etc. Are tired. 

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One more pic.

When I look at this I am reminded of how much work is involved in even a local show level restoration.  My goal for now is to sort all running gear 100% so it goes straight, stops and rides well.  Lucky for me it runs a heck of a lot better than it looks under there!  Pulled pedals to find shaft bushings basically disintigrating, guessing they were never touched.  Mismatched bolts tell me steering box has been off.  You do learn a lot about a car when you start taking stuff apart.

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As everyone here who has purchased any old car the loving hands of time have touched them all. I bought a Model T years ago that did not have one, not even one cotter pin installed anywhere visible! I think I checked bolts, nuts and installed over 40 pins. 
The more you dig into these cars...........

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Working on a 1929 lasalle sedan , all new wood . Very little sheet metal work, engine ran great before we took the car apart. Had to stop on that just got my 66 Plymouth back from the paint shop { first car ever had some one paint for me }  always did them myself . Running out of room to work .  King32

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Have been evicting a raccoon from the garage with the Special putting soffit panels back in and covering the screened windows with heavy plastic then putting chicken wire over 8 windows to keep it out!

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When I finish stapling the plastic sheets on the open rafters inside back up, 

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I will be opening up the dash to replace the radio, speedometer, headlight switch, small dash crash pad and re-covering the padded dash top.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent some time today looking at some parts and making decisions with my friend Pat who is doing the real skilled work on the car.  He picked up the front end and steering column today.  We are replacing this pittman arm with a shortened unit, a popular Model A mod for easier steering.  Note egg shaped ball. Typical of what we are seeing and likely untouched since new.  Also pulled off brake rods and will be rebuilding the service brake cross shaft which has significant play in it now.

 

One unusual thing was an extra leaf on the front leafspring I removed a couple weeks ago.  Leafs also do not seem as thick as my repro.  Since repro is the one used on fine point cars I know it is correct.  I suspect a replacement leaf spring was installed at some point.

 

Was just going to replace the steering box and shaft but we are going to restore the steering column as its not a huge job and why do it later?  Will be good to have throttle and timing rods stop in the notches, this is a typical wear spot on a Model A.

 

Even with the big stuff being farmed out, dozens of little jobs to keep me busy.  Replacingthe pedal bushings, clutch clevis, painting misc. Parts, etc.  

 

We have a nice original steering wheel, I need to clean that up as well, no cracks, but I need to figure out how to bring the finish back.

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Edited by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)
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What finish is on the wheel?  Is it suppose to be shiny?  Victorias wheel seems to be rough cast to a degree and fortunately in good shape.  I was going to polish it,  but wanted to make sure it wasn't suppose to be rough first.   I have often buffed steering wheels that were suppose to be shiny with Mothers mag and Aluminum polish.  It works really well for that.  Even if you wet sand it out first.  It usually buffs even from 600 grit on the translucent wheels later offered.  

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Randy its resin (although some were made with soy and deteriorated this one is really nice) and you hit nail on the head, I want to clean it up rather than refinish it.  I think I will try thar, I have another one that is not as nice to play around with first.  Plus that can be done indoors!! 😁

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