Projects The Hardscrabble Hop-Up; A 1940's Style 'T' RPU build

Gary, it's been a long time since you took a step back and snapped an overall pic. Detail pics are great but I want to see what you're working with overall, currently.

 

Thanks for the input, @dwest999 (I need to see the new ride), @Speedy Canuck , @waxhead, @tb33anda3rd, @Runnin shine, and @dumprat. That green paint is a custom color-match to original Ford green (by Roy Nacewicz), so it's correct...just don't know that I'm 'in love with it'; red is over-done and would look hideous, black might look OK, but would make detecting leaks difficult; I actually thought about painting it white, but that would be a total mess. I'll probably live with the green for a while.

@-Brent-, I do need to do that...will have to move some crap around in the garage so I can get a nice 3/4 shot. I guess my hyperfocus on the details is pretty evident by the stuff I've posted...there ain't no forest, just trees! Haha! @3wLarry where are my meds?!?!?

 

Navy Gray or Massey Ferguson Gray come to mind of a possible engine color. I just finished reading your thread for the second time. I found a pair of Dodge front shock mounts at Conroe yesterday, that will work much better on my 29RPU. Thanks for the tip

 

Gary, if you have Albert Drakes book Flatout check page 75. It shows a Winfield Yellow head on a street motor used to pull a race car to the meets. It looks like they just added the head to a stock motor as the water inlet and block are a darker color than the head. One of the reasons I stuck with the orginial green when doing mine. Not the best photo of my motor but once all the stuff is added it doesn't show that much.

 

Gary, stay with your theme of a '40's build and the colors that are most appropriate. Anything else to me would be a crime... Just my 2 cents. Btw, you're right we've got to hook up soon...

 

Took the head off to oil the cylinders for long storage (will be a while before I'm ready to fire it)...test fit a (new) old FelPro asbestos gasket to make sure it fit the head and the 0.060" overbore.

Fits good!


Ended up having to strip all the paint off the head...I made the mistake of using rattle can "engine primer" under the One Shot. The 'ceramic' primer had cracked & chipped, ruining the finish.

This time around I just used One Shot & added a little Ford green to the cast-in lettering.


Still need to have a header fabbed up & get my carbs back from rebuilding, in the meantime, gotta get the suspension bolted together...

 

Looking good. Sounds like your list is as long as mine.

 

Got the motor buttoned back up last night...took a hipster pic. Going to start on the front suspension tonight, hopefully can get some wheels on it soon so I can roll it around and take some more 'pretty boy' pics of the overall project

 

Looking forward to seeing the pics

 

Are those nuts torqued? The paint looks amazingly good around the nuts.

 

Good question, Tony. I torqued them down to 45 ft-lbs...they'll end up requiring another 10-15 before I fire it up. I normally give 'em a 'mild' torquing so I can check stud height, will need to go back and adjust a couple of them (should only have 2-3 threads exposed above the nut...looks like I have one stud that's either a little long or that I neglected to thread fully into the block).

My 'trick' in keeping the paint in good shape around the nuts is to file the bosses on the head so that they are perfectly flat and parallel to the deck surface...that, along with an extremely thin coat of paint (just enough for proper opacity) seems to work. Correct Henry style head nuts make a big difference too; they're machined with a small pad on the bottom that bites into the bosses on the head, so the paint there is certainly marred, but as the pad is smaller than the circumference of the nut, you can't see it topside. We'll see if it continues to hold up once fully torqued.

 

wtf is proper opacity

 

Hahaha, was easier to say that than to say "I shoot just enough paint to make sure the color is solid, non-transparent."

 

Warning...do not watch video!
I think the upper anterior quadrant of my brain just imploded

 

lol .... wow !!! The mind and search terms needed to find that vid' ..... are so above my pay grade. You are a special person sir !!

 

One stud is longer for the distributer ground strap. Should be the 4th from the front in the middle.

 

Love that motor. Maybe one day I'll find me an original Winfield. Anything but Ford green would be wrong.

That wasn't for a ground strap. It was for anti theft, so you couldn't simply unscrew armored cable from the distributor and bypass the key. I carry an extra wire with alligator clips on the end to bypass the key "in case" the repo key switch fails on the road.

 

Yeah, I replaced that one with a regular length stud since I'm using a B distributor - no need for the armored cable & pop out. I still have one that's sticking up too much. Could just be that the stud boss on the head is lower than others - or that I didn't screw it in enough. I was taught to screw the studs in just till they start to get snug (not quite finger tight), just tight enough that they don't move. Might have a little debris in the hole that gave some resistance...

Thanks! They're out there...at the 2014 Chickasha Pre-War swap meet, there were 2 7:1 "Red Heads", both reasonably priced. Might be worth a trip!

 

It always impresses me how much better, and specific, factory fasteners are compared with generic nuts and bolts etc. They almost always make a better job.

BTW, do you ever use any kind of lube under the nuts when tightening to torque settings?

 

Another fantastic question...I use a dab of ARP's "Ultra-Torque" lube on the upper threads and under the nuts...on the block end, I use conventional anti-seize. Because I'm using Ultra-Torque thread lubricant, I'll probably only go to 55 ft-lb, as lubricated fasteners require (generally 10%) less torque to achieve the same clamping force than assembling 'dry' (these are 'shot in the dark' figures, as I don't know that the relationship between lubed fasteners and clamping force has ever been studied or tested on Model A engines).

Generally, I torque (sequentially) in 10-15 ft-lb increments until I get to within 10 ft-lb of the 'target'...then I try to torque in 5 ft-lb increments. Dunno if this is correct from an engineering standpoint, but it's always worked for me.

I'm sure there exists a vast multitude that would disagree and who could validate their different methods through years of experience...I'm probably a bit too careful, but then again, I iron my underwear

 

Unless the torque spec calls for a wet torque, I never, ever, use lube on a nut. Anti-seize yes, but Lube or oil no.

Lubricant in threads actually hydraulics, and can increase the applied torque by many fold. This probably isn't a huge problem on the low torque numbers that we use on automotive applications, but I can tell you from experience; if someone wet torques a helicopter's rotor head retaining bolt to the specified 6500 ft pounds, it can take as much as double that to break torque back off.

Another problem is lubricant, grease especially, can get caught between the nut and the part it is getting torqued to, creating a false torque. Another example; someone torqued down another rotorhead, but the shaft was ridiculously greasy. That grease got trapped between the rotorhead and the flange that it seats on. While torqued to spec, after a few flights that grease flung out from between the two parts. When we did a torque-check on the retaining nut due to an increasing vibration, there was 'only' 2000 foot pounds, rather than the minimum 6500, holding the 'Jesus Nut', and the whole shebang together.

Sorry for the long winded response to a trivial question, but I got too far into it to not finish and post...


PS: looking great Gary!

 

ultra torque thread lubricant? i would have expected, some sort of wwI surplus radial engine push rod grease.........even super detail, picky head types have a line.

 

Holy shit! How big is the wrench?

I remember seeing a chart many years ago comparing torque readings and 'squish' achieved from threads lubed with oil, moly, a 'thread lube' as well as dry. I think bolt stretch was was also measured. Anyway, there were significant variations.

I also worry about paint under heads as it can have squish and give also. Not such a big deal on things like manifolds I guess, but perhaps so if it were a helicopter rotor!

 

Gramps used 30wt oil on the top end and beeswax on the block thread...probably doesn't matter what you use, as long as the fasteners don't gall. Perhaps I'll stumble upon a recipe for Henry's own anti-galling thread lube, hahahaha

 

I just had a look in my Henry Ford Trade School shop theory book and there is no mention other than a recipe for thread cutting lube. Might have to search the shop manuals...Ford had recipes for everything!

 

I had no problems with my paint when torqued to spec with no oil.

 

Good to see this thread cranking along again! Eagerly waiting on updates

 

You guys know that video is pure bullshit, right?

 

all except the synchronization of cardinal gland meters.

 

Are you keeping the A tranny?