Projects '23 Model T Gow Job - AKA: Sand Creek Special

@62pan looks like he's going to use the old 4 dip cover on the new pan.

 

I'm going to use the stock 4 dip inspection cover......see the outline on the bottom of the pan, second to last pic.

 

I was wondering how you were going to torque those pan bolts!

 

Picked this up today. Thought I you might like to see what is still out there.

 

Yup, the bottom inspection cover will let me do it. The real Frontenac pan was made of aluminum and had studs---this is a reproduction pan below:

Nice find, luckily the door I have is in decent shape. A friend in a couple states away has been honing his metal working skills and I think he is going to whip up some lower patches for my body. But yes, there are still a whole bunch of parts out there available for sure.

 

Trouble where I am at is finding a Canadian left side door. I guess the T's around here were American cars.

 

I hear you, I maintain that the folks out there today, zipping around you way in access of the 75MPH posted on the interstate...with a phone in one hand....have never been for a ride in an old open wheeled, topless car to see what that roadway looks like zipping by thru the holes in the floorboard....
Carry on!

 

If I had to find a replacement for my stock T, I think I'd be in the same boat. I am sure they are out there, but in 15 years, I can not say that I have seen one offered already off a car. Glad mine is in good shape. And I went to Canada to buy my pickup, so there must be at least a couple up there, LOL.


@winduptoy if most people nowadays went for a ride at some decent speed in a pre-war car, I think they might have a different view on driving----at least for a week afterwards...they forget and are oblivious all to soon.

Thank You all for your encouragement. I hope you all are enjoying the ride as much as I am. I am by no means a pro at this stuff.

Happy Holidays to all!

 

All it takes is to have them hop on the back of a motorcycle and watch the ground just below their feet at anything over 45 MPH. Pavement, gravel road, dirt trail, it doesn't matter. Thinking that the only thing between then and connecting with that double ought grit is the foot peg and the smarts to keep their leg muscle flexed tends to instill a healthy respect for motion and mass if there is any self preservation in there.

 

Enjoying the hell out of your build!
This and my friend Charlie's 27 roadster have inspired me to build another T. 2 of them in fact. One roadster and one C cab. It should be fun.

 

So I decided that the Canton Racing pickup was a good start. Rather than butt weld a pipe thread end onto the pickup tube, I decided the best course of action was to cut it apart and make it right.

I needed to be able to unscrew the pickup for bottom end maintenance, so off came the plain 1/2 ID pipe and on went a piece of 1/2 NPT pipe.




I admit I was a little anxious to wok on this project, as I finally after a 15 year hiatus, got my TIG welder up and running. I finally after 15 years of living in this house have good 220v service to my garage, and fixed some items that deteriorated on the welder from sitting for so long (Lincoln TIG 185). It's like learning all over again, but well worth it.




I needed a way to make sure it was tight and to be able to un-tighten it, so I welded on a nut I cut from a -12an fitting they included with the pickup. That's better, all done with this small detail. Stay tuned!

 

Back on working on the oil pan. cut the inspection hole in the bottom and mocked up the oil pickup for welding the fitting to the pan. Man I love having my TIG welder back in action again. The welds come out so much nicer in my opinion.




I had to move the oil filter, the only downside was having to weld the holes up I already drilled. but looking pretty good I think so far.

 

Ya know if you only looked at the last few pics you would swear you were building a dry sump, crank scraper, windage tray modern race motor. Which I guess you are,,for 1924.

Kinda makes me chuckle a little . No in a bad way though. Keep up the neat work!

 

@dumprat , something like that

 

Whittling away at this, relearning TIG welding. I missed on some of the metal cleanup and it was a pain to weld. The pan rails are now welded, still need to work on the front and rear panels.

 

Small victories. I didn't feel like really working on it today, but wanted to get something done. My fitting order came in so I made the feed hose that goes to the filter.




At the rear of the pan, this back area and how to enclose and seal it up consumes me still....and probably will for a long time. It will have to get opened up more on top of the cap to clear the real bolts and nuts that go with the billet cap...as well as allow the oil line to hook up to the rear main cap.

 

for your rear pan - main seal .
The rear main cap has an arch on the front , same as the back .
Make a saddle on the inside of the rear pan bulkhead that follows the arch of the main cap .
Then just seal it with gasket sealer on final assembly .
Next problem , sealing the rear main bearing to crank

 

Not done with the pan, just felt the need to jump around some more. I have builder ADD.

I started carving a 1/4" thick, about a 9"-ish diameter steel ring---which also acts as a spacer, for the flywheel housing. This will hopefully be the base for my rear block enclosure to keep the oil in the oil pan.






It was at about this point @David Mazza said "that does not look like a fun project". I think the flurry of metal chips told the story.....




And so it goes....






All of you that have mills and such will wonder why I struggled....please move down the road from me so I can use your services.

 

A Man with a plan!!

 

Well sort of----some of it I'm just winging it, LOL.

 

You didn’t the pic of your injury!

 

Holy chit thats alot work by hand.If you lived like in Minnesota i would have helped you for free

 

"All of you that have mills and such will wonder why I struggled....please move down the road from me so I can use your services."

Made me laugh out loud! Been enjoying watching your build.

 

That was for your eyes only.

LOL, I get it done one way or another. It's only time, right? I do appreciate the sentiment though.

It made me laugh writing it! So many assume it's easy or you need fancy machines. Well, they are nice and save time for sure. They poor old souls in the 30's had it worse! Thanks for following! More to come obviously.

 

You do have a mill....a hand mill, and a pretty precision one for that. I'm interested to see how this turns out
Carry on...

 

Motor is back from my sort of local machine shop. He did the final boring, honing and balancing.

Stock Model A crank (converted for T block) and A rods, custom Ross Pistons.
Rotating assembly is all balanced, this should be a very smooth runner. Even so, I am definitely considering a Sterling Damper flywheel. I just need to scrounge up some more cubic dollars.

 

I realize it's been a bit since I have done an update. It has been REALLY cold out in the garage, ahh the great northeast and an unheated garage. I can heat the garage but it is one of those deals where I better plan a full 8 hour day of work as it takes a good 3-4 hours to get to a comfortable 55-60 when in winter time weather. Plus only heating and going back inside after a short times breeds condensation, so best to dive in for a day of fun and ensure all the condensation is burned off in the garage. Anyways, it's just as well Iv'e been inside, I have had general life things happening, and trying to work on my house.

Anyhow, this is from one of my work sessions a few weeks back. The huge sump oil pan needs some baffling. After some thought, this is what I came up with. It surrounds the oil pickup, the open side is where the pickup tube enters from the side of the pan. I decided to add a trap door to keep the pickup well supplied on acceleration and also keep it surrounded on deceleration. It is obviously attached to the bottom inspection cover of the oil pan.

My only issue was the oil filter impeded the placement of the front wall, so the trap door hits the pickup and doesn't open very far---about half of what I would like to see. But the reality is any opening will let oil in and that one side being almost all open will let plenty in. I have a few more baffles to add before I'm done, this was the major one that required extra thought and work.

 

Still didn't feel like going out in the cold, so I decided to hibernate to the basement to whittle a little more off my Model A flywheel. In the first round I went from the stock 63lbs down to 50.5 lbs. This time around I wanted to see if i could get to 45lbs. I found the schematic on a older HAMB post and was able to confirm some areas I was already thinking of cutting more out of. The result is 44.45 lbs. That's good enough for me. Now to change the starter ring gear and have it rebalanced.

.

 

LOOKING GOOD! I know that in this cold, ya gota do what you can where ya can!!!

 

One of my biggest issues has been solved. I am no tinsmith by any means. However, a couple of years ago I met a nice young man. I didn't realize at the time the scope of what was happening, but this fine young lad out of want, and determination created one of the coolest model T era racecar bodies out of metal, all hand formed with little tooling at the time. In a very short time, he has become one hell of a tinsmith. I mentioned to him he was the right fellow to make my repair panels....panels that surprisingly aren't made already by someone.

To not draw out the story to much, he was on his way to Chi-town and I said, well hell, your driving right by me (he's a little over 3 hours from me). We coordinated and he made the proverbial (well almost literally) midnight drop at a predetermined meeting location. I thanked him, gave some words of encouragement and praise and we went back to our ways. This is in my opinion, the amazing work he created from flat sheet metal:



That's some amazing work, in about a days work (not all at once).






Now for not having my body panels there, he used his '25 body as the template, I think he did remarkably well. As any of us into this know, not even two consecutive cars of this era rolling down the assembly line were exactly the same. So they will need a little tweaking. I need to seek advice so I don't totally screw up these fine panels, trying to fit them better. All in all, pretty dang good for someone who only a few short years ago never attempted anything like this. I hope my installation can do them and him justice.