Project Thread: My 1929 135 Victoria Brougham

[Edwin The Kid]

Hello Franklin friends! After 2 Treks I have my own car now! I usually post on the Buick section of the AACA forum with my projects and I like to document my progress, so here's my Franklin thread.

 

I bought the car, a 1929 series 135 Victoria Brougham on October 6th. Myself and two other friends drove a truck and trailer from McPherson Kansas(I am a current student at McPherson College) to the Boston area over fall break to pick up the car. We covered over 3,000 miles in about 4 days. Thank you to all involved!

 

The car as it sat in Ed's garage for years.

Moving the car outside with go-jacks

Car loaded on the trailer and strapped down(used the uhual straps as well as straps on front and rear axles) Me with Ed Daly, the former owner. I'm dressed in the appropriate amount of franklin merchandise!

 

 

The long drive back!

 

 

 

 

Unloaded in my workspace in McPherson.

 

 

Had to give it a quick wash and get it introduced to the rest of the air-cooled fleet!

[Edwin The Kid]

My first goal was to get the car running. I pulled the plugs and rocker covers. After ensuring all the valves moved, I went to turn the engine over by hand. It spins nice and free! The engine was rebuilt when the car was restored in the 1980s and is in very nice condition. However, the car had not ran in at least 5 years, probably closer to 10.

 

After making sure the engine turned, I pulled the oil pan to clean and inspect the bottom end.

There was some sludge, so I'm glad I got that out of the engine.

 

I decided to pull a rod cap to check the bearings.

Insert bearing conversion! The bearing looks to be in great shape, so I checked the clearance with plastigage.

Right on at .0015". I put the cap back on and sealed up the oil pan.

 

After confirming the engine was in great shape I moved on to getting it running. The goal here is to get the car running and driving enough to drive the car into the school shop to work on the interior. I ordered points, condenser, cap, rotor, and plugs on rockauto. I'm glad its a delco ignition! I cleaned up the fuel pump, and took the carb apart and cleaned it. I cut new gaskets and installed the carb and fuel pump. Once the ignition parts arrived I put them in the distributor and put the distributor in the engine, setting the timing per the factory instructions. I hooked up a fuel line to the carb and prefilled it by gravity from the auxiliary tank in case the fuel pump didn't work. I threw a new battery in and hooked the coil wire to the battery and was pleasantly surprised when the engine fired to life after a few cranks! It even idled right away. After just a little tinkering with the mixture the car was running beautifully. I'll try to post a video sometime.

 

[Edwin The Kid]

The front bumper came with the car but wasn't on it, and the rear bumper bracket was broken in two, but came with a replacement, so I reinstalled both bumpers. Also pulled the gas tank to get it sent out for cleaning.

 

 

It doesn't show up in pictures but the actual color of the car is much more teal. I love it!

 

I'm currently taking a trim class at McPherson, so I brought the front seats in to start rebuilding them. The interior of the car was totally stripped, but most of the pieces came with it.

 

The seats are original but in very rough shape.

New roll of cloth that came with the car.

 

 

Seat stripped down to the bare frame, in excellent original condition.
 

Hand stitching some of the corner details on.

 

 

Padding and bottom frame installed.

 

 

Burlap layer before hair and cotton

Hair and cotton layer before trimming

 

Boxing

First attempt at the bottom cover. A little wrinkly, might go back and redo this at some point. I'm still new to trim work, especially pattern making, and I've learned a tremendous amount already from this project. Currently working on the top section. It can only get better from here!

 

 

 

[alsancle]

Looks great!  Keep us posted.  My only suggestion is to throw the tire covers in the trash.  Good luck!

[Smartin]

Awesome!

[theKiwi]

Looks like this car is in great hands now!!

 

Congratulations!!!!!!

 

Will we see it at Trek 2024?

 

Roger

[Edwin The Kid]

7 minutes ago, theKiwi said:

Looks like this car is in great hands now!!

 

Congratulations!!!!!!

 

Will we see it at Trek 2024?

 

Roger

Thanks! I would love to have the car at the 2024 Trek! Not sure if it will happen yet, lots to get done first. Main thing holding me back is expense. I need to save up to redo the hydraulic brakes in the spring. Stretch goal is to drive to the Trek in 2024, if not then hopefully the car will make it to the 2025 Trek!

[EmTee]

Good for you!  Looks like a great car - did you find it through the club?

[Steve Braverman]

This is terrific Edwin! I hope to see it in Schenectady next year.

[Edwin The Kid]

8 hours ago, EmTee said:

Good for you!  Looks like a great car - did you find it through the club?

Yes! I'll make a post about the history of the car once I learn more about it. Hoping to make contact with the previous restorer of the car.

[sebastienbuick]

Beautiful car and very good work !!  

[RansomEli]

Edwin,
My Franklin mentor had two 1929s, one of them a Victoria Brougham. Black fenders, wire wheels, pale yellow body and dual sidemounts. I maintained the car for him when he finally became too old to wrangle tools.

The car was a great runner and a joy to drive. You will love driving yours.

[63RedBrier]

Congratulations, Edwin!  I'm a 40+ year Corvair nut!  Last summer I drove my '63 Greenbrier from central Virginia to the Wisconsin Dells for the Corvair convention, but I too am on the hunt for a Franklin!  I don't think we met at the Trek, but I was there with my wife for our first experience.  I'll be following along on your future posts!  Good luck with the Franklin!  Greg

[Edwin The Kid]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:53 PM, 63RedBrier said:

Congratulations, Edwin!  I'm a 40+ year Corvair nut!  Last summer I drove my '63 Greenbrier from central Virginia to the Wisconsin Dells for the Corvair convention, but I too am on the hunt for a Franklin!  I don't think we met at the Trek, but I was there with my wife for our first experience.  I'll be following along on your future posts!  Good luck with the Franklin!  Greg

I'll make sure to meet you at the next trek! We can talk Franklins and Corvairs.

[Edwin The Kid]

Made some progress the last few days.

Seat progress:

Could be worse! The next seat will go better.

 

Pulled the transmission to check the sticky clutch...

 

Time for new clutch lining! Definitely not going to run the old stapled lining. One of my professors at the college had a stapled clutch lining fail on his car a few years ago and I'm not willing to take that chance. If anyone has a good lightly used or new clutch they would sell to me for a reasonable price I'd greatly appreciate it! Hoping to get the car moving under it's own power to work on the interior soon!

 

 

[Steve Braverman]

On 11/16/2023 at 7:42 PM, Edwin The Kid said:

I'll make sure to meet you at the next trek! We can talk Franklins and Corvairs.

There are a bunch of us that own Franklins and Corvairs.  The air-cooled force is strong. I own eight air-cooled cars and they're all American.

[53 New Yorker]

Hi Edwin,

 

 Just saw this news of your Franklin Aquisition!  Couldn't be more happy for you!

The work you are doing to it is terrific, and I'm sure you'll have many years of enjoyment driving your Franklin.

Congratulations!

Bill and JP

[Edwin The Kid]

Thanksgiving break starts this week so I'm taking some time to clean up my workspace. The Franklin needed to move so I could push it outside and sweep the floor. I pulled all the wheels off and removed the nasty wheel cylinders and adjusted the brakes so they weren't touching the wheels. This was just to get the wheels to spin freely, I will go through the brake system in the spring. I also cleaned the old grease from the front wheel bearings and repacked them. With all 4 wheels moving freely I was able to roll the car outside and give it a good wash, as well as sweep the floor so I have a nice clean floor for reinstalling the transmission. 

 

Friend came by in his Model A

 

And his Marmon 68 

 

Marmon made itself useful pulling the Franklin back inside after a good wash. The spots I missed in the first wash have been driving me nuts, so this felt great. 

 

Franklin sitting pretty on a clean floor. 

 

 

[ericmac]

Nice car. I like it. I want a '29 Franklin too. Someday... 

[Steve Braverman]

I just noticed that your car only has one side mount. 

[Edwin The Kid]

1 hour ago, Steve Braverman said:

I just noticed that your car only has one side mount. 

I'm pretty sure it originally had dual side mounts. I have old photos of the car during restoration that show the wheel bracket on the passenger side. Not sure why they got rid of it.

 

[Steve Braverman]

16 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said:

I'm pretty sure it originally had dual side mounts. I have old photos of the car during restoration that show the wheel bracket on the passenger side. Not sure why they got rid of it.

 

 

The 1930 sales catalog states that certain body styles came standard with only one side mount, like my seven-passenger sedan. The 1929 catalog does not specify, but in 1930 the Victoria Brougham came standard with a tire on the rear. I would assume a buyer could have ordered a brougham with a single side mount, but more likely the right front fender was damaged and the replacement fender they found didn't have a well. Look at the bright side, you only have to buy five tires

[hook]

6 minutes ago, Steve Braverman said:

The 1930 sales catalog states that certain body styles came standard with only one side mount, like my seven-passenger sedan. The 1929 catalog does not specify, but in 1930 the Victoria Brougham came standard with a tire on the rear. I would assume a buyer could have ordered a brougham with a single side mount, but more likely the right front fender was damaged and the replacement fender they found didn't have a well. Look at the bright side, you only have to buy five tires

And only one tire mount mirror! 

[Walt G]

I have only ever seen the single side mount spare on the driver's side - this only for cars with demountable wood wheel rims. Never used with wire wheels. All of this only in the 1929 series 13 and 1930 series 14 era. Nothing prior nor after that. I looked through the sales material I have ( catalogs, folders, salesman's data books) as well as the Dealer's and Service bulletins and that topic really isn't addressed at length.

You may want to consider looking for a spare cylinder , the cylinders on the series 135 and 137 are the same and can have a crack in the valve seat. If you can find a spare that doesn't have this and intend on keeping the car for a while it may be a good investment .

We will now see the Franklin experts 🤨 chime in.

[PFitz]

I've already discussed this with Ed a while ago.

 

His car has the extra holes in the firewall and side of the cowl for the special right side interior backing plate of the sidemount tire brace, but the holes were crudely plugged when that brace was removed. 

 

As Steve pointed out, the fender may have been damaged beyond repair. And the wire wheels may have been swapped for wood. I know of a 151 owner swapped his 6 wire wheels with a 16A owner to get wood wheels. Reasons were the wood wheels are lighter and much easier to clean than wire wheels.

 

Paul 

[franklin28]

Here are the facts. This car did come with wire wheels and dual side mounts. The wire wheels and the passenger side mount hardware and fender were removed and installed on another Franklin. The non side mount fender from the other car was installed on this Franklin. I know this to be true because I helped Ed Daly make the conversion. We felt the wood wheels actually improved the looks of this car.

[Edwin The Kid]

The wood wheels definitely look great on this car! Case closed.

 

Here's a mystery: what is this loose ring in my transmission? I pulled the cover to reseal it and check the internals.

 

[PFitz]

3 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said:

The wood wheels definitely look great on this car! Case closed.

 

Here's a mystery: what is this loose ring in my transmission? I pulled the cover to reseal it and check the internals.

 

Been a while since I've had a Hi-flex apart. I believe that is the snap ring for the front end of the main shaft. If so, it goes in the groove formed by the gap at the ends of the main shaft splines - up against the bearing oil shield. Helps hold the bearing in place on the main shaft. 

 

Paul 

[PFitz]

I dug out my notes and pictures of a 31 T3A, the later version of that '29 Hi-flex. It has that snap ring in the groove up against the front bearing of the main shaft (aka sliding gear shaft). You may have to move the shaft in relation to the bearing's inner race to make the gap wide enough for the snap ring to fit in the groove again.

 

Paul

Edited November 24, 2023 by PFitz (see edit history)

[Edwin The Kid]

3 hours ago, PFitz said:

I dug out my notes and pictures of a 31 T3A, the later version of that '29 Hi-flex. It has that snap ring in the groove up against the front bearing of the main shaft (aka sliding gear shaft). You may have to move the shaft in relation to the bearing's inner race to make the gap wide enough for the snap ring to fit in the groove again.

 

Paul

The ring is between the first/reverse sliding gear and the rear bearing

Potential assembly error at some point? 

[PFitz]

Ok. Wasn't clear which end of the trans you meant. 😁

 

There is also a snap ring at the back end of the main shaft. Serves the same function as the front one.

 

Does not show in the exploded view drawing like the front snap ring, but it is listed. Page 1304 of your 135 parts book - drawing #41887. No drawing comes up of the snap ring, just the index card.

 

Paul 

[Edwin The Kid]

1 hour ago, PFitz said:

Ok. Wasn't clear which end of the trans you meant. 😁

 

There is also a snap ring at the back end of the main shaft. Serves the same function as the front one.

 

Does not show in the exploded view drawing like the front snap ring, but it is listed. Page 1304 of your 135 parts book - drawing #41887. No drawing comes up of the snap ring, just the index card.

 

Paul 

Do you have a picture of it installed? Having a hard time figuring out how it gets out in

[PFitz]

2 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said:

Do you have a picture of it installed? Having a hard time figuring out how it gets out in

The '31 snap ring is a different shape. It's more of a square shape and goes in front of the 1st/reverse sliding gear on the main shaft. 

 

The snap ring on yours may be on the wrong side of the 1st/reverse gear ? 

 

Can you post a pic with the sliding gear moved to the rear so I can see if there is a groove in the main shaft forward of that gear, like the '31 has ?

 

Paul 

[Edwin The Kid]

On 11/24/2023 at 6:26 PM, PFitz said:

The '31 snap ring is a different shape. It's more of a square shape and goes in front of the 1st/reverse sliding gear on the main shaft. 

 

The snap ring on yours may be on the wrong side of the 1st/reverse gear ? 

 

Can you post a pic with the sliding gear moved to the rear so I can see if there is a groove in the main shaft forward of that gear, like the '31 has ?

 

Paul 

I have the same style snap ring in that location. I'm inclined to just remove the loose ring, as it doesn't fit anywhere

[hook]

19 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said:

I have the same style snap ring in that location. I'm inclined to just remove the loose ring, as it doesn't fit anywhere

Just a thought with no knowledge on the unit. Could this ring have been installed as a spacer to keep the sliding gear from coming against the case? I don't mean a factory thing, I mean by some early mechanic trying to correct a problem he found.

[PFitz]

2 hours ago, hook said:

Just a thought with no knowledge on the unit. Could this ring have been installed as a spacer to keep the sliding gear from coming against the case? I don't mean a factory thing, I mean by some early mechanic trying to correct a problem he found.

The two sliding gears travel are limited by the forks of the two shifter rods plus the bottom end of the shift handle inside its tower. The gear should not be able to travel far enough to need the snap ring to limit travel. And, even if it could, it would still be engaged with the reverse gear and its smallest outside diameter - the flange that the shifter rod fork engages - would be up against the rear bearing and oil shield that it is turning with, so too small a diameter to rub against the case. 

 

I think someone just screwed up and that snap ring belongs elsewhere inside the trans, such as retaining a bearing in place.

[Edwin The Kid]

7 hours ago, PFitz said:

The two sliding gears travel are limited by the forks of the two shifter rods plus the bottom end of the shift handle inside its tower. The gear should not be able to travel far enough to need the snap ring to limit travel. And, even if it could, it would still be engaged with the reverse gear and its smallest outside diameter - the flange that the shifter rod fork engages - would be up against the rear bearing and oil shield that it is turning with, so too small a diameter to rub against the case. 

 

I think someone just screwed up and that snap ring belongs elsewhere inside the trans, such as retaining a bearing in place.

My big confusion is that it isn't a snap ring- there's no gap in it, its just a solid metal ring.

[hook]

14 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said:

My big confusion is that it isn't a snap ring- there's no gap in it, its just a solid metal ring.

Someone put it in there for a spacer not knowing where else to put this spare/left over part he had.

Edited November 30, 2023 by hook
left out (see edit history)

[PFitz]

On 11/30/2023 at 7:08 AM, hook said:

Someone put it in there for a spacer not knowing where else to put this spare/left over part he had.

My brother did that to me helping with my first engine rebuild on my AMX. When I wasn't looking, he slipped several extra bolts into the parts washing operation. I didn't find them until the engine was back in and he'd gone home. Since they were grade eight bolts, I was certain I'd missed something critical in assembling the bottom end. Rather than pull the engine again, I said a prayer and fired it up anyway. Ran great for many years. 😁

 

Paul

[Edwin The Kid]

Been busy with finals week but finally finished one seat for the Franklin! 

 

hand stitching the rear cover