Hot Rods On the road again—Got My A Roadster back in action after a 30 year hiatus!

[ChevyGirlRox]

When we last left off I was in the process of tearing the A apart in preparation to make it a safe driver. I last updated you here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=296389

(For those of you just joining the program I am referring to my 1931 Ford Model A roadster I pulled out of barn 2 weeks ago yesterday. The find post can be seen here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...5376&showall=1 )

Since I was tearing the front wheels apart pretty much completely I decided to do it right and take off the backing plates to clean, blast, and paint. I spent quite a bit more time with my favorite parts washer




Needless to say the parts were a little dirty—this is the filter from the parts washer from just my parts!




Nice and clean!




My favorite stuff on earth, self etching primer




In the meantime my new kingpins FINALLY arrived. They were supposed to be here Friday but got here Monday instead. Oh well.
Getting the old ones out had been a chore!






All ready for new ones…




New ones installed






After I put those on and greased everything the seal of one tie rod end blew out completely. I decided I might as well go ahead and replace those as well. Don’t think I got any pics of that though.

Once the kingpins and tie rods ends were installed I was ready to start putting my wheel cylinders all around and running the brake lines.
First I had to convince my assistant the backing plates would be much better on the A rather than a hat on his head!




Front backing plates ready for reassembly




Getting closer

[ChevyGirlRox]

Adjusting the brakes to zero with the help of my mama. She has learned if she wants to see me she needs to visit the garage! In all seriousness, she is great and always willing to lend a hand, preferably one that won’t get dirty


I was adjusting both the tops and bottoms to zero to be adjusted once they were on the car. There are four points of adjustment (top and bottom on each side). This is what the top adjustment looks like. You can see that there are two of them on the next picture.




I don’t have a good picture of the bottoms but they are little square pegs inside of nuts.

This site recommended by Bruce Lancaster is helpful in this area:
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/F...s_46-48car.jpg

As is this site recommended by Lowcab:
http://www.btc-bci.com/~billben/brakeadj.html

Once they were all back assembled I put them on the car and repeated the process on the rear brakes.




I was happy to see one touch of kustom in this roadster, a little bit of metalflake in brake pads!


Once those were all reassembled it was time to run the brake lines. I got new brakes hoses for the front and all new lines. The old lines had been pure copper! I didn’t take really any pictures in progress, it was tough enough just to lie under the car and do the job Here are some of the progress/finished product…




I went ahead and ran the brake line down the left side of the frame figuring I would probably convert it to open driveline someday.

Along with the new brake lines came the new master cylinder. As I mentioned before it is from the mid to late 40s and most readily used on Kaisers. It was also used on lift trucks they tell me.
Into my little access panel


I had to ruin this little critters cocoon, oh well


Bench bleed the master cylinder


Then install. The access panel did make the job a whole lot easier!


That was a big job, glad that is over.

[ChevyGirlRox]

About the time the brakes were done the electrical shop was done with my starter and generator. They both appeared to be working but to make the car dependable I felt it necessary to take them both in for a check up. Good thing I did. The starter had four dead spots and the generator was full of crap.

Newly rebuilt and ready for installation




Normally my guys at the electrical shop paint them all up shiny black but I’d asked them to refrain this round. I wanted them to retain their barn patina.
Back on the car


I also had to locate a new fan. The old one was cracked pretty bad. I’d deemed it as a weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately a guy I know just bought an A sedan and wasn’t using any of the stock parts.

The new fan


Now the cleanest part in the engine compartment!


That completed putting the engine back together. It was almost ready to go!

I didn’t get any keys with the car and I didn’t want to hot wire it forever so I decided to do some searching. I pulled out the seat and started looking hoping at one time the former owner had slipped a set under there. I found lots of interesting stuff--- a crescent wrench, a glass jar, a wooden spoon and a sign the car was meant to be mine--- a tootsie pop wrapper from back in the day! I didn’t realize they were around then but according to Wikipedia they’ve been around since 1931, how ironic! (anyone that knows me knows I love my candy )


The Tootsie Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tootsie_Pop

After some more searching I came upon a key! Just what I had been looking for, well, not really, this was more like a house key!


Cool key chain for the A none the less.

After I concluded the search I removed the ignition with hopes the local locksmith just might be able to make me a key. When I took it to him he told me not to get my hopes up, it seemed awfully frozen. About 25 minutes later he called me up to tell me it was done!


Here is a video of me 2 weeks from the day I picked it up driving using the new key and my starter switch!


Yay, it really ran! All on its own with its own points, condenser and coil!

That was also the first night I had the ‘kustom’ exhaust hooked up.
Remember my fancy exhaust?


Used this flex pipe to get the job done


The first time the car fired through it there was a bit of a mess


That left only a few things left to button up. One being my worse nemesis—wiring
I kept reminding myself there was very little to wire in this car, really only 4 elements—ignition, tail light, brake light, and headlights. I picked up a little fuse panel at Napa and went to work.

[ChevyGirlRox]

First of all I wired in a new solenoid since the once on the firewall had started to periodically stick


A little bit longer under the car running the wires to the back


Finishing up the headlights


I also put in a new headlight switch because the old one had decided to work intermittently. The stock tail light isn’t working so I wired up one to get me by until a I find a stock replacement.

With all of this done I was ready for the big show. I spent a lot of the day Saturday driving it. I probably put 40-50 miles or so on it. What a hoot to drive! I have learned a lot about the timing and idle levers and how to listen for everything to be in sync.

Finally a day time drive!


Sunday morning I awoke to chili temps (mid 30s) and lots of fog. It was early (5:30am), dark, and foggy but nothing could keep me from this drive I had been thinking about for so long. As I made my way over to a friend’s house to join them for breakfast, I only passed one car on a isolated county road. I can’t help but think the must have thought it was a ghost car rolling through the night in the heavy fog! After filling our bellies with yummy pancakes we headed off to the show. We took back roads to beat the traffic (which would be heavy no doubt for a show expecting a 1000+ cars with only one entrance). The A performed flawlessly on the bumpy, gravel and dirt roads. I was so proud The more I thought about it the more I realized this is the kind of road these cars were made to drive on! I made it to the show without a hitch a grabbed a nice spot on the tree line sure to provide shade from the afternoon sun.



I spent the day chatting with old friends and making new ones. I can honestly say I was shocked at how many people stopped to chat and see the A. For what a 6 year old friend of mine calls “a little piece of history” it sure garnered a lot of attention. People kept telling me I was sure to win the ‘Survivor Award’ but none were given. It didn’t matter to me though, driving the car there was all the award I needed!

The ride home was somewhat eventful but I’ll sum up a long story by saying I’ve learned when a Model A is out of gas and backing up hills is really a reality

There are things left to be done and lots of decisions to be made but I’m really happy with how the little A is coming together. I’d still like to put together a hopped up B and throw in a 5 speed. As for the fenders, we’ll see about the long, boring, cold nights in January and if they survive them

Thanks to my friends and family for the help. Now I am going to sleep for a month. Ok, not really, I’m headed to Hershey!

[dirtbag13]

too cool ! glad to see ya got it back on the road a& havin fun with it !

[Church]

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Does this mean I need to make you a roadster shirt?

[HellRaiser]

You've done good Megan. Congratulations,,,


HellRaiser

[Gotgas]

Sounds like a sweet little drive. You're doing good work! I bet you got a lot of rust in your face, hahaaaa.

Leave the fenders. It's very Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[Malcolm]

Nice Good for you, Megan - all that hard work has certainly paid off!

Malcolm

[fisher_man_matt]

Congrats for finding a cool old car and fixing it yourself.

[3dnsouth]

Absolutely GREAT!! Good job Megan. That thing is soundin' good! You sure didn't waste any time gittin' 'er goin'. I'm really happy for ya. Definitely days that will be remembered!!

[Ryan]

Straight up ruler.

[NoSurf]

That is so great! Congrats.

[ryno]

congrats, as usual cool story and pics.

[SUHRsc]

good job megan it looks great!
see you in a day or so

Zach

[greasemunkey]

Congrat-you-frickin-lations....

[Elrod]

WOW! I've been overseas for a little while. I didn't know you had inducted yourself into the Banger club! haha! That roadster is too awesome! A lot of period upgrades on it from stock. Very cool. Congrats Megan!

[scotty t]

leave the fenders, please!

[Dick Dake]

Nice Ride. I would keep that one original as long as I could.

[Cajun Kenny]

congrats on getting your ride on the road megan! excellent job..