The distributor is a sorta high-end air cooled VW distributor that has both vacuum and mechanical advance, and comes with a Pertronix built into it. As a backup I've got a rebuilt German made Bosch 009 with points and a condenser. [/QUOTE] Great story! And man, i haven't seen Hawaiian print Vans (shoes) in over 35 years. Reminder, that 009 has retard built into the #3 cylinder to overcome the overheating of that cylinder due to oil cooler location. If you want a full mechanical advance look for an 050. There is likely others as i haven't built a bug engine in over 35 years either...
Great build, very thorough. No wonder “mechanically minded folks had these cars. I can understand taking off the Wilwood name but it makes no sense to bad mouth or not stand a product …. then use it.
Back to the build up of the T! We hit another milestone a few months ago, so I'll update the thread to there. After a few more test drives we found that the valve cover (aka side plate) was still leaking. Because of it's proximity to the manifold and that it has to slip behind the alternator, I couldn't use the rigid cast aluminum plate. And, we couldn't use a thick gasket. So, we tried a thin rubber gasket. Then a thin closed cell foam gasket. Then a cork gasket glued to the block. All of those failed. So, I admitted defeat and glued both sides of the cork gasket. Now the side cover is glued on and doesn't leak. I bought a half dozen spares to use when the valves are adjusted. Now, we're starting on the roof. Back when we were about halfway done with the engine I cut some feet and backing plates on the CNC plasma cutter and welded the feet to some 1.5" x 1/8" angle iron. These would be the uprights for the canopy. Though I had worked out most of the truck in CAD, I fudged on the height of these uprights. We wanted to have the bottom of the body done so we could judge how high we could get the roof and still make it into the garage. We had to make the uprights high enough to clear the windshield, but then the planned curved roof would hit the garage door opening. After some measurements we found that we'd have to thin the roof by shortening the side boards and lowering the curved crown. Planning done, it was time to cut the uprights to the correct length. We bolted them into the corners of the bed. And added backing plates to the underside of the bed. Square nuts are a requirement. All four uprights on the Model-T. We bought some lumber to make the roof frame. Started by drawing out the lateral crown of the different sections of the roof. This was done with extreme precision.
Mocked up the side pieces of the roof frame. And mocked up the wood spacers that would be applied to the uprights. These were done because we needed a filler piece here for canvas sides, they will have a step in the top to help support the roof frame, and the step can be a shim that helps square up the roof. I chiseled out notches in the side boards to locate the narrow curved lateral rib between the two full height boards. We tapered the front of the side boards and mocked up the layout. I used this tapered router bit to pie-cut the side boards where we wanted to bend them inwards. The pie-cut section. We hoisted the assembly onto a suitable work surface, drilled the holes for the pegs and glued it up. Held it tight with straps. Once the square part was dry, we steamed and bent the pie-cuts and used straps to pull them in. That's a plain old clothes steamer Jeff is using to soften the bend. Trying to get the bends right. After the bends were set we trimmed the angles on the front of the header and brow and pegged them into place.
Next we laid out some slats to see how they rested on the roof frame and what sort of angle we would need to put on the edge of the frame. And we built up an overhang on the rear of the roof. We rough cut the rear overhang and then fine tuned the curve with the sculpting tool, aka the belt sander. The first slat goes on, perfectly centered it will be the piece all the others are matched up to. These are glued and nailed with a brad or two per joint. We laid the slats out with a 50% coverage using another slat as a spacer between the fixed slats. All the slats are on. Then we cut a lot of small pieces to act as filler around the perimeter. Front, rear and tapered edges all needed filler pieces. All of these edges were rounded off with the belt sander. Then we test fit it and realized the taper was lopsided and the front header was shifted over about two inches. Ouch! So, we cut apart the offset corner, trimmed the header, bent in the side a little more, and reworked the slats on that corner. High precision indeed! And test fit the corrected roof frame.
Since we wanted to sleep in the bed of this truck, we had to have supports for the side gates to keep them flat. We added clevis eyes to the side gates and made up adjustable height legs that were attached to the gates with loose clevis pins. And, it was time for more paint. We painted the roof frame the same color as the body. We reinstalled the frame and drove it around for a while like this. Then we started on the roof. First was a layer of 11.5oz cotton duck canvas. I wet down the canvas to stretch it and stapled it to the frame. I touched up all the staples with Super Glue to keep the canvas from pulling around the staples after it was trimmed. Both of us really liked the look of the natural canvas through the blue slats. Next we trimmed the edges of the first layer of canvas. And added the second layer, a sheet of heavy wool felt to pad the roof and help eliminate any bumps. We weren't quite happy with the loft of the wool felt, so added a second layer of padding using Quilt Polyester Batting Fleece applied with spray glue. The next layer was the guaranteed waterproof layer, a piece of plastic sheeting applied with spray glue. Then the -final- layer, a piece of heavy #6 21oz canvas duck. This was wet down to smooth it out and we used a jig to get the staples the right depth from the roof. We scabbed together this little sample of the roof materials as a show-and-tell for the Model-T club. Next we masked off the painted roof frame and applied two coats of primer to the canvas. That canvas soaked up a lot of primer. We are rolling on Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer here. The second coat went on easier. Then we applied three coats of gloss black Rustoleum Professional using a foam roller to get a vintage vinyl texture. The gloss black turned out a little too glossy, so we added a final coat of Rustoleum flat black to reduce the shine. We mocked up the edge trim using push pins. It was a two man job to spread the trim open and staple it over the edge of the canvas, hiding all the ragged edges. And installed the roof onto the Model-T.
After driving it for a bit, we found the edge of the rubber mats needed to be secured. I picked up a pair of 1919 thresholds and we added them to the truck. I didn't like how we had configured the shifters. The Warford was in the primary spot, but it was used like a transfer case. And the Ruckstell two-speed axle shifter was in the secondary spot, but it was used like a transmission. So I bought another Ruckstell shifter to replace the one we had bent and had Jeff's dad, Craig, bend the Warford shifter. We did a little maintenance while the shifters were out. Here we're tightening the bands after they took a set. By this time we felt the truck was reliable to actually do stuff with it, not just take it on random trips. So we dressed it up and stuck the kids in the back with a five gallon bucket of candy for the local 4th of July parade. The next step was to build the gussets for the roof. I bought a cheap Harbor Freight tubing bender (for curving tubing, not bending tubing) and a set of small dies and some upgrade parts from Swag Offroad. This made it super easy to get the curve I wanted in the roof support gussets. Some torch work with a rosebud and the ends were bent. There were three different sized gussets. They were all bent to match the layout on the cardboard. Then tapped internally and a clevis eye added to the top. Hmmm, a couple of those need a touch-up. These were added to the uprights and roof frame to help keep it stable.
I had bought a bunch of crappy 1925-26 front fenders to make some rear fenders from. We cut two left and two right fenders up to salvage the front curve and fender brace. What's left of a cut front fender. By retaining the fender brace and bending it over it became a mount. After some eyeballing to get the right droop front and rear we trimmed the fender pieces to length and gas welded them together. Four bolts per fender fasten them to the bed. There is some additional reinforcement added to the braces where they were bent. The access hatch to the under-bed storage didn't have a handle yet. So I routed out a pocket and added two of these flush handles. While we were bending and welding we made up these armrest brackets. Then made up the armrest pads and covered them. That finishes the body except for the canvas, which we're working on now. I've unearthed my circa 1915 Singer 31-15 industrial sewing machine and have been getting it tuned up in anticipation for the canvas work.
Wow.....couldn't help but notice the giant supply of Red Bull on the floor in some of the pictures.....is that the secret ?? I am blown away by your project.....thanks for sharing. Have fun
I had stuck a '70s style Stewart Warner temperature gauge in the dashboard while we were working out the tuning. I sent a package of parts to Williamson Instruments to make up a phantom gauge that looked like the original ammeter, but was a water temp gauge. https://williamsons.com/ This included a few ammeter they could gut to use the housings, bezel and glass, a new gauge to potentially use the guts from, and a dashboard for test fitting. After they got all their Pebble Beach customers out of the way, they got on with my gauge. The face they made, painting over the face of the existing gauge. The finished gauge At home in the dashboard It's been working great and looks about as stock as can be.
To warm up to sewing and figure out how our machine works, how the settings affect things, what size needle is needed for our heavy duty thread, we decided to make a slipcover to disguise a cooler to look like an antique evaporative canvas chiller. This is what an antique chiller looks like. The steel frame keeps the canvas from touching anything, breaking the water tension and allowing the water to break free. Inside the canvas is a blanket of horsehair. And inside that is a galvanized steel box. Another shot of the logo To start with, we found a decently rated cooler with no wide flanges that would make it hard to cover. We drew up a diagram of the pattern and transferred it to the canvas using a square and straightedge, marking it with blue tailors chalk. This was a process that we repeated a hundred times building all the canvas. We made the slip cover in two halves. First, the top cover with a flap to hide the closure toggles. A lower cover that would eventually get another dart in it to tighten it up. Some brass screws hold the covers to the cooler. I bought a little Cricut hobby cuter and used it to cut some vinyl to use as a stencil for the cooler logo. We took a little artistic license with the logo, adding an icy blue background behind the polar bear, and deleting one of the lines of text to de-clutter it.
Next we started on the side curtains for the truck bed. I was used to sewing finer cloth and holding everything together with pins. But the canvas we used was fairly stiff, and was treated to be fire resistant and waterproof. I took a page out of the sail makers book and used basting tape to hold all the folded seams. This is a thin double-sided clear tape that comes in different widths. The first pieces of canvas to make were the front and rear curtains. These have grommets that attach to fasteners on the uprights and ties to hold them closed. The toggle fasteners I chose worked great, but only came in plastic or polished stainless. I bought mostly stainless versions and had a local plating shop black nitride them. Added inserts to the wood and screwed another row of horizontal style toggles along the edges of the gates. The side curtains were made up and fastened to the roof. These are extra long so they can double as part of a fold-out tent. We made up a lot of these canvas ties with grommets and belt-ends. With some footmans loops on the outside and a row of toggles on the inside, we could now tie up the side curtains.
With the canvas sides done, we started on the fold-out canvas tent. We started with the steel support bars and an octagonal wood ridge pole. These are made from a metal sleeve inside the wood bar, butterfly nuts, and some set collars. A strap held them in place to get the angles right. We made up some wood battens to hold the framework in place. Test fitting a partially finished tent side to make the small triangular closing panel. One side of the canvas done. We stretched out the canvas side to layout the lower vinyl skirt. With the vinyl skirt added to the canvas sides. Next was a load of bags for the tent pegs, diagonal supports, battens, extra hardware and tent peg hammer, and some extra large bags for the canvas sides. And we made up some brackets to hold a battery powered reflective triangle for use on fast roads.
To close up the "trunk" under the bed, we made a canvas tailgate. The solid bar across the top uses the same misalignment clasps used on Jeep and Model-A hoods. Somewhere along there we added eyelets to the bed sides and made up adjustable legs to turn the drop sides to enlarge the bed floor so it's wide enough to sleep in the bed.
We took the camping car out to the local park to take some photos of it. With all the canvas sides down. With the awnings up. And the awnings way up in sunshade mode. One of the tent sides on, and the bed sides flat. The sleeping position. Both sides of the tent out. Everything rolled up for maximum air. And that's it. Done. We've been driving it around to shows and tours to work out any bugs. Dialed in the timing a little tighter, adjusted the valves again, and fattened up the jetting on the carb. It looks like we're getting about 19 mpg, and the (frightening) top speed is north of 55 mph. It was too scary to go any faster than that. But it's easy to cruise at 45 mph. Now, we're putting together some semi-period camping equipment and clothing for the trip, and finalizing the path.
The Jalopy Journal
