MTFCA Forum

Built a stainless steel muffler from scratch.

Not mine but helping a fella with a "sentimental" TT project - fired off the rebuilt engine yesterday - next is chassis restoration & new rubber.

This morning I finished my box of spare fasteners to carry under the seat. Nuts, bolts, and washers are stripped of cad plating, etched with phosphoric acid for paint adhesion, painted, and baked for several hours at 180º. Threads chased with taps and dies. Size ID tags on small bits of card stock are in each bag. 5¢ casting plugs and three sizes of cotter pins are included. With all that, I've probably forgotten something.

I do not see any valve stem parts or repair tools.

I do not see any valve stem parts or repair tools.

Right. All the tire stuff is in its own box.

Continuing to assemble the body as parts are returned from the painter. I still have the restored wheels to finish as well as the rear seat riser. I fitted all the parts before having them painted so re assembly wasn't especially difficult. I just notice the blue color of the body platform and seats appears much lighter than in real life. It is actually quite dark, almost black away from direct lighting.

Looking good Richard !

Thanks Steve!

Preparing to pull the engine in my 1912 Comm Roadster to address magneto issues, make repairs to hogshead, and putting pan on a straightening table. I had hoped not to go to this length, but found it necessary. I hope my car turns out as nice as Richard's (who has been most gracious in answering my pestering questions). I have the headlights sitting on the forks while I clear a place to safely store them (man, my shop is cluttered up). Certainly, they will be out of the way when I go to lift the engine out. Fenders, splash aprons, and hood are at the paint shop. After I am done with the engine and it is back in the car I will finish my new Stutzman rebuilt wheels and get them ready to go to the painter.

Rally nice car, Greg. Hard to find an upholstery job that good. Was that Ernie Romeros work?
I feel for you having to open up that engine. Hope you don't have to replace the magneto.

Richard, I don't know who did the upholstery as it was done when I got the car. It was originally restored by Ken Jones, Kim Dobbins' cousin, so Kim may know. I think, however, that Ken had the upholstery done in the Seattle area if my memory is correct.

Depending on how long ago the upholstery was done, it was most likely Harold Hansen - he was right up there with Ernie !

Upholstery would have been done in the latter part of the 1970's. Ken lived in Aberdeen, WA in Grays Harbor County at the time. So did I. The name Harold Hansen tweaks a nueron in my memory so I have heard the name before.

I got her to move for the first time in years. I plan to take her out and drive her around this weekend.

Here’s the video of me moving it: https://youtube.com/shorts/EZWXlvhG0Es?feature=share

Today I pin striped my spare '09 wheel. I should have learned to do this by hand but have chickened out and used tape to mask off the stripe. This allows me to double coat it. I can peel the tape while the enamel is still soft. This leaves a nice, sharp edge. The spare wheel will allow me to rotate the rear tires for wear and to tighten a loose spoke on one of them.
Rich

Nice work, Rich. I will send you a plane ticket to my neck of the woods when I am ready to pinstripe my wheels. I value experience!

Reinstalled the starter after having it rebuilt.

What's the weather like in SC, Gregory?
Today I made one of these. Not wanting to search for the right size tubing, I just rolled some 22 Guage and hammered it over. The notch won't show with the stem nut in place.
Quick and dirty gets it ready for the tire. I'm sure some work fine without them.
Rich

I got hold of some stainless steel hand rails and finished welding them up into an exhaust system.
It's not pretty but it's solid. Vern

Drove it! Guess I'm lucky..all mine are in pretty good shape so other than some routine maintenance I just drive drive drive. Already about 1,000 miles across all three of 'em. Finally saw the owner of this gorgeous old house from the 1870's for a photo op. This time with Stanley. Other 2 cars as time permits when I'm in the area.

Changed out a cracked wire wheel on the 26 Canadian Foredoor, maintenance on tail light and blinkers. After a good cleaning, now ready to load up and head out to Manhattan Kansas for our first national tour in 6 years!

I changed oil yesterday. A generator bolt keeps the funnel from going far enough into the hole, but a piece cut off of a too long exhaust pipe fits right in the hole. That makes the funnel fit just right. I worried that it was time to grease the front wheel bearings. I can't remember the last time. However, there was plenty of grease in there. I did palm new grease into them. It's a good excuse to wash the wheels and easier than when they are on the car. The excess grease will push out and wait until the bearing gets warm to flow back in. We have discussed packing the whole cavity and wasting grease before. Not that much is really needed.
Rich

Installed the starter and decided to run a ground to the frame.
Top screw was backed out and replaced with a carriage bolt.
The "carriage" was deleted, a slot across the head, and the diameter cut down.
The ground strap drops straight down to the frame and bolted to clean metal.
I crimped some 1/0 gauge wire for the positive side and ran it to the switch.
The generator was also installed at which point I realized that I forgot the starter gasket.
So, I installed the starter again. Vern

Having Ol’ Henry repainted & upholstered in time for some nice spring driving. I have done a lot of work to this car as it was a dead vehicle when I bought it in Feb ‘22.

At last, it was time to put the spare wheel on the '09. I have been working and reporting on it for many months. 3 rear wheels allow me to rotate three tires without demounting the any from a rim. I had noticed one loose spoke some time ago when washing them. So, I looked for which wheel had the loose spoke. None of them was loose today. I guess I will drive on the two current wheels until I find a loose spoke. Otherwise, they look fine with no cracking visible. I narrowed some 3/8" heavy nuts to mount the brake drum. They match the originals. I had saved the wheel bolts and nuts, but new nuts will be better. The next task was to clean the timer. Reinstalling it, the bolt that holds the timer spring arm on kept turning and didn't tighten. That's a new one on me. Considering how many times we loosen and tighten that bolt it stands to reason they can wear out even if we are careful not to over tighten them. Running a die over the threads, they looked much better. The threads in my "There's no generator here" casting looked to be worse than the bolt threads. Having a hardly used Heliciol kit in the drawer, it seemed like a good place to put one. I have always liked those castings as I can make my '20 block look much earlier with it and put a generator there if I ever see the need. It's one advantage in using the wrong engine in this car.
The Heliciol solved the problem and all fits nicely. That would have been a poor part to come loose on a tour.

Made these for a 1911 torpedo runabout.
The black one is a NOS original.

Respectfully Submitted,

Trent Boggess

A strip, bodywork and paint job on a customers 14 roadster.

Joined the 2 piece crank club. A pleasant 80 miles on day one of the tour. 30 miles into day 2, a big bang!

I took Henrietta to the Mannum Truck and Ute show last Sunday. A very impressive lineup of heavy prime movers, the pick for me being a couple of 50th Anniversary SAR Kenworths. Look these up on the net, as I believe SAR bodies are unique to Australia. There were classes for utes too, and she won the gong for Best Other Ute. I got half way there before realising I'd forgotten my phone, so no photos.

Allan from down under.

Finally arrived in Manhattan KS for this year’s National Tour !!

Rebuilt the coil box with the help from a Fun Project kit that I bought years ago.
Like everything else, it has come a long way. Finished it this morning.

Vern

was this the car which was flooded?

Scott,
According to a prior owner, it was flooded several times. I bought it in August 2016 and am still working on it.

I've been working toward a goal of driving my Model T on every mile of every non-interstate road in my township. It is fun seeing how many waves I get as I tool down dirt roads that probably haven't seen a T in years.

Installed the battery and cover. Cut a rubber mallet to make stand-offs for the battery lid and then used the wood to fix a broken handle on a hammer. Mounted the water intake and outlet, horn, coil box, and a battery cutoff.

Vernon,
I like the idea of the rubber mallet pads, but the pads need to be directly under the battery hold down clamps.

I dropped a FULL SCOOP OF black Cherry ice cream on the floor.

Thats icecream abuse Mike. I took the TT to supper in town last evening.

Rebuilt coil box, Complete new wiring harness, and a new exhaust manifold over the past 2 days.

Finished making the radiator apron from SS.
Since I added a battery cut off, felt the need to make another SS battery cable bracket, not yet painted.

The old tailpipe had a few pinholes and rather than trying to patch them I had a local muffler shop bend a stretch of 3" pipe for me and weld in a resonator. Added a reducer between the tailpipe and the manifold and it came out great!

This morning I drove my 26 Touring to town to pay my gas bill at the local CO-OP, then I went to the Post Office to mail the old generator for my Model A pickup and put money in my checking account to pay for the rebuilt generator for my A. She wasn't running good till I adjusted the fuel mixture then she ran great.

made a triple gear pin ring. This should keep the pins from backing out since this flywheel will be without magnets.
Bryant

Spent some more time behind the wheel, working toward my goal of driving on every mile of road in my township. Today's excursion looks like I took a trip back in time to the Dust Bowl...

Put new bolts and bushings on tie rod ends. Replaced spindle bolts that had zerks with one's with oilers. Nothing against zerks, the bottom bushing just wasn't getting enough lube.

Last Friday night, after attending the customary cruise nite, I departed and went to the local indoor go kart track. Every Friday there they have a "tuner" car cruise and show.
The age demographic is markedly younger than that of my usual, with ages ranging from 20's to 40.
When I pulled in, I was greeted with smiles and given a space to park.
Once parked, a contingent of kids came and wanted to see and hear how the T worked. They were interested, and made the connection between their modern day techno hot rods and my '26 speedster. To put it briefly, they loved it!
I was even asked to return when leaving!
So we exposed 300 people to the world of model t speedster!
Awesome!!!

My stepson worked with a bunch of tuners that were into indoor karting. They kept trying to get him to come along. ( my stepson & I raced IKF
KT100 for some time.) One night He called & asked if I wanted to play & to bring the race gear if I did. I showed up with gear bags, Helmets,
neck collars, cloves & suits. We wiped up the track with them & were never asked back. If you deal with tuners it's fun to point out the you
have 21" wheels & one coil per cylinder. That realy makes them think about technolagey. Maybe that will peak there intrest in old cars?
Craig.

The tuner kids have an exhaust competition where 2 cars face off and rev engines. The car gathering is held outside. The contest is loud and I fail to see the productive point of taking an engine worth thousands and bouncing it off the rev limiter tempting failure.
Anyway, because I have a shotgun exhaust set up, and my '26 is quite loud, I was asked to participate.
They had no idea....
I pulled up to the line next to another car, a tuner car. Brought my rpm up to just over 1k, and turned my mineral oil injection smoke system on. I totally fogged the place out. The tuner kids were baffled as to how a 20hp car with skinny tires made more smoke than a top fuel dragster! The crowd loved it, and since the mineral oil is horse laxative, they were all quite regular the next day from breathing the smoke.....
Crazy fun!
The smoke system runs off a snowblower tank hidden under the seat. The 6v fuel pump dumps the smoke oil into the exhaust pipe right after the manifold. It produces a thick white smoke like a barnstorming biplane.

Professor Fate wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:20 am

The tuner kids have an exhaust competition where 2 cars face off and rev engines. The car gathering is held outside. The contest is loud and I fail to see the productive point of taking an engine worth thousands and bouncing it off the rev limiter tempting failure.
Anyway, because I have a shotgun exhaust set up, and my '26 is quite loud, I was asked to participate.
They had no idea....
I pulled up to the line next to another car, a tuner car. Brought my rpm up to just over 1k, and turned my mineral oil injection smoke system on. I totally fogged the place out. The tuner kids were baffled as to how a 20hp car with skinny tires made more smoke than a top fuel dragster! The crowd loved it, and since the mineral oil is horse laxative, they were all quite regular the next day from breathing the smoke.....
Crazy fun!
The smoke system runs off a snowblower tank hidden under the seat. The 6v fuel pump dumps the smoke oil into the exhaust pipe right after the manifold. It produces a thick white smoke like a barnstorming biplane.

Dan,

A friend of mine used to get his beat-up Fordor sedan running super rich, then ignited the exhaust, shooting flames at least 6 feet. He also used to throw a few bottle rockets in the tail pipe as well, to increase the fun. Most folks were very entertained... while a few were "concerned". It was great fun.

Ah, the ever-joyless "Concerned Community".

Replaced the Pitman arm, ball joint, installed spring caps and bushings. Front end is now pretty tight.

With the air quality terrible here with the "Canadian haze" today, I spent the afternoon putting around my '26, sheltering in the cool garage.
I decided to pull off my home made shotgun muffler and increase the back pressure a smidge more, to try and increase.low end torque.

Just had a nice little ride around town, but did not see or feel any increase in low end torque. So i guess I'm gonna "set it and forget it," and call tuning the muffler done. It runs excellent and pulls like a 20hp ox!
My little car is so much fun! It's still proper "speedster" loud, but it runs so well with some back pressure for low end power. The car is so light with no top or fenders, it seems to just laugh at the smaller hills found around here at the bottom of the old glacial lake.
Last ride of the month! And it was a goodin'!