The New Arrival: 1926 Roadster

[Flatee]

I picked up a 1926 Roadster from New Mexico two weekends ago and have it squared away for the time being. The body is something close to a Ford cloud mist gray, which I like, but the fenders, (insert vomiting emoji here). Burgundy might have been okay, but Ford red isn't doing it for me.

The body is very solid. I put the top in the shed since I won't be using it much, but the bows are nice. Unfortunately, the previous owner didn't take good care of the car. The engine had about a quart of oil it when I looked at the car, and the seller said, "I just drove it last week" when I asked the last time he used it. When I let him know the oil was seriously low, he just shrugged. Not surprisingly, it has a main bearing knock, but the rods sound good and the engine doesn't smoke. I wish it were the rods knocking and not the mains. I threw in some 20W50 for now until I rebuild the engine. It helped some, but I should have used rear end grease

The spark advance and throttle linkage were all bent out of whack, so I straightened them and timed the engine. The carburetor float was set too high, so I went through that. The radiator drain petcock was leaking badly, so I flushed the coolant system and replaced the petcock. The clutch linkage was out of adjustment resulting in some difficult pedal operation, but I dialed it in. The brakes work pretty well. Of course, nothing on the suspension/drivetrain was greased well.

The wiring system was scary. Someone added a cheap 20amp universal starter push-button switch and wired it with 14AWG speaker wire--no relay setup--with full amps through the switch. The wire insulation was melted pretty well, but the switch surprisingly still worked. At some point, someone reversed the ammeter wires and ran the generator hot straight to the ammeter, so the gauge was reading backwards and the battery was never being charged by the generator. No wonder the seller said he had to replace the battery several times the last couple years. I temporarily rewired another universal starter switch I had on the shelf with a relay until I can renew/replace the OEM unit, and I sorted all the wiring bugs. Luckily the factory loom isn't too hacked up. There's something off with the magneto or the swtich to where when I switch to mag the engine develops a nasty miss. I'll sort that later and run it off the battery for now. I get an occasional miss when the engine is warm that I've traced back to the coils, but I don't have a machine to set the coils and will have to wait to sort the issue once I start the restoration.

The kingpins are worn out with a good 3/16" slop each, and the replacement oak spokes have a lot of slop in them. Anything above 25 mph with bumps results in death wobbles. It was a hairy drive 14 miles round trip to the inspection station to have the chassis numbers verified for DMV to get the title in my name (required in Colo for out of state titles), so I'll not be making that long of a journey again anytime soon. The car ran great, but there were a few tense moments when I couldn't avoid manholes/potholes. Until I get around to starting on this project, it'll be a 15 mph cruiser through the neighborhood a couple blocks over to the local burger joint for dinner and Friday cruise nights once COVID-19 settles down. It's our first Roadster and is a hoot. I have a 1940 Ford coupe that is taking my current attention and funding, and the '27 coupe still has a couple things needing attention. We might sell the '27 to fund the Roadster, though. I ran across this Roadster and couldn't pass up on the deal for its condition.

[Norman Kling]

A nice looking car except, I would rather see black fenders and all the other red parts painted black. Looks like a straight body. The extra heavy oil might make the knocks quieter, however it will not flow down the oil tube very well and may actually hinder the lubrication rather than help it. I think it would be wise to go through the engine and fix everything you find wrong with it. Then you will have a dependable car.
Norm

[Rich Eagle]

Enjoy it. Model Ts are great fun.
Rich

[FreighTer Jim]

Harold,

That is a Dandy to be sure

Plus that was “ in the neighborhood “ which makes it even better

Enjoy


FJ

[Flatee]

A nice looking car except, I would rather see black fenders and all the other red parts painted black. Looks like a straight body. The extra heavy oil might make the knocks quieter, however it will not flow down the oil tube very well and may actually hinder the lubrication rather than help it. I think it would be wise to go through the engine and fix everything you find wrong with it. Then you will have a dependable car.
Norm

I agree on the black fenders if I had a choice in the matter. For now, I'll keep the revs to a minimum and enjoy the car until I'm ready to tear down the engine. I might damage the main journals doing so, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

[John Codman]

As to the rear-end grease mentioned in the OP - I know that the poster was joking, but in about 1964 a guy pulled into our gas station and said that the engine in his 1950 Plymouth was knocking and he wanted us to put three quarts of 90 gear oil in it's engine. We told him that most of the Chrysler-built flathead sixes knock slightly after about 75,000 miles, and the engine would run another 75,000 miles if he would just keep the engine full of clean, correct weight oil. He was 40ish and I was 19; I don't think he thought that I had any idea what I was talking about. He insisted on the gear oil. I said "OK" and walked into the shop to get the gear oil. I told my boss about what I was doing, and he went out to try to talk the customer out of it. The customer was adamant about it, so the boss told me to go ahead. I did, and the customer paid and left. There was a road bridge about 1/4 mile down the street. He didn't make it that far before the engine experienced oil pan failure.

[Flatee]

As to the rear-end grease mentioned in the OP - I know that the poster was joking, but in about 1964 a guy pulled into our gas station and said that the engine in his 1950 Plymouth was knocking and he wanted us to put three quarts of 90 gear oil in it's engine. We told him that most of the Chrysler-built flathead sixes knock slightly after about 75,000 miles, and the engine would run another 75,000 miles if he would just keep the engine full of clean, correct weight oil. He was 40ish and I was 19; I don't think he thought that I had any idea what I was talking about. He insisted on the gear oil. I said "OK" and walked into the shop to get the gear oil. I told my boss about what I was doing, and he went out to try to talk the customer out of it. The customer was adamant about it, so the boss told me to go ahead. I did, and the customer paid and left. There was a road bridge about 1/4 mile down the street. He didn't make it that far before the engine experienced oil pan failure.

Yes, all sorts of oddball things people try/tried. My father, similar to you, worked in a Standard service station in Southern California in the early 1960s. There was a used car lot a couple blocks down that hired my dad out for side jobs. My dad would stay late at the service station to work on any of the used car lot's vehicles that the owner couldn't get running well enough to sell. My dad said it became a normal thing to find 90 weight gear oil and sawdust in the engines that had knocks. Some of the engines in reality only had a detonation ping rather than a knock, but the used car lot owner destroyed the engines with his 90 weight sawdust mixture verses tuning the carburetor and timing.