Took a break from the car over labor day weekend to build a new mantel for our fireplace. After that, though, it was back to the grind.
I wanted a leather fan belt, and actually sourced a couple companies who would make them for me at reasonable prices, but I thought I'd try my hand at making one myself first. Got a 1" wide strip of tanned leather on ebay, cut it to length, skived the ends, glued with contact cement, and then stitched the joint. Conditioned it with neatsfoot oil before installing.
Found an old Schwarze horn (possibly a model 10C?) on ebay and brought it back to life. These were made in Adrian, MI. I also have a Trojan-branded horn in the '21 that was made in Adrian. Were there multiple horn manufacturers in the small town of Adrian, or where they made in the same factory and just branded differently? Will we ever know? Does it really matter?
It was advertised as working, but needed some help, so I stripped it down, cleaned, derusted, and painted everything, cleaned and lubed the motor, and replaced all of the hardware.
Made a mounting bracket out of a scrap of angle steel I had in the corner. Bench tested it with a 12V power supply. Works great now.
Hung a new muffler from the old mounting brackets using some rubber hangers I welded on. Still need to figure out the connection from the header. I'll probably rig up some temporary flex pipe until I can get this thing to the exhaust shop.
Derusted the inside of the radiator with citric acid to get the major crusties out. I was originally going to take it to the radiator shop in Ferndale, but I think I'm going to try running it as-is to see how it does before I commit to that. Didn't see any leaks when I had it filled and laying on the garage floor for a few days. Will likely run some evaporust through the water jacket for a while to see how that goes. I did throw a pantyhose filter in the upper hose as a crud catcher.
Also got the headlights cleaned up internally. Polished the mirrors as best I could, but they'll eventually need to be stripped and resilvered due to rust. The old Liberty Glass lenses cleaned up pretty well though. Installed new LED bulbs.
Pieced together a working Dort-branded Boyce motometer and dogbone cap:
I started tackling the wiring, which has been consuming most of my time over the past two weeks. There were no wires left in this car when I got it. Opted for vintage-looking cloth-covered wire from Brillman, at least for the stuff that was easily visible.
I found conflicting wiring diagrams. The one in the Dyke's manual says the car was 6 V negative-ground. I have another from the Standard Auto Electrician's manual that shows 6 V positive ground on 1917 and 1918 models, which is how my '21 is wired. Either way, I'm starting from scratch, so it's going to be 12 V negative-ground from now on.
First order of business was the headlights. I didn't have the original bakelite bayonet connectors, so I got some 1156 bulb ends and 3D printed some right-angle caps that slide into them.
Added modern fuse blocks under the dash, somewhat hidden from view.
Cut out some floor panels from plywood and painted them with some heavy duty deck paint I had from another project.
Added a vintage ammeter and some modern horn and light switches, at least temporarily until I can get something that looks more period-correct. The horn switch in the steering column is shot and I haven't yet figured out how to disassemble it without breaking. It still moves when I push it, but either the wiring is broken or the contacts are corroded, as I don't get any continuity when it's pressed.
I converted most of the grease fittings on the car to zerks and lubed all the chassis points. Added 600W oil to the gearbox and lubed the throwout and clutch shaft before I buttoned it up and installed the floor.
To-do list for the next month:
- Move the American Bosch starter from the '21 to the '20, as I'm still waiting on the rebuild of the '20's original Westinghouse starter.
- Install the battery and wire the solenoid and starter.
- Install and wire the tail light I just finished cleaning up. I'm going to try a magnetic reed relay mounted at the brake pedal to control the light.
- Order and mount tires to the set of nicer, non-broken wheels I have.
- Plumb the exhaust
- Install new cowl lacing
- Fill the radiator
- Fill the engine with oil
- Fill the rear axle with 600W
- Set the timing
- Dial in the carburetor
- Maybe install an oil pressure gauge. This year didn't have one standard, but they added them in '21. The plumbing is mostly there already, just need to run it up to the dash.
My goal is to get this thing moving under its own power by the end of October, in time for the Trunk-or-Treat event at my kids' school, which is only about 500 yards down the street. Seems doable.