Projects The Gin Runner 1926 T Gow

I bought the rolling chassis about 13 years ago from Neil Tuckett down in the south of England, it was one of 3 or 4 ex fairground/pig n ford style racers that he had bought and shipped over from Model T Haven. It would start and run and drive but at the time I was a bit tied up with an Indian bike build and work/family commitments so it got put into storage for later...
I lost my storage place so the T got moved from one mate's place to another and ended up in the field at the back of our family business place in Wester Ross, then eventually to our small farm on the Black Isle where it lay in the long grass until 2017 when I created a bit of space in the barn and pulled it inside. I got in touch with Mark at Model T Haven and bought a cut down '26 Touring body and he shipped it to me via Neil Tuckett in a container load of cars and parts.

 

The years outside in wet grass had not been kind to the motor, with the short stubby exhaust pipes exposed the valves had rusted up in the ports and needed a lot of work to get free and then replaced, the steering was pretty solid and I ended up completely stopping it, replacing the cut down shaft and planetary gears with good used ones that i got form Neil T.

 

Over the course of 2018 and 2019 I did a little bit here and there to the Gin Runner, I made a rear trayback out of 6x2's to make it useful around the farm, fitted some used enduro tyres kindly donated by a friend to the 21" front T wheels and what I think are 18" Chevy rears and fitted a model A inlet and exhaust manifold with an 1.25" SU carb that I had used to get my 1940 Indian Sport Scout going. i tried a Texas Truefire kit to get it going but had issues with it (later traced to a broken wire) so borrowed a Texas T dizzy kit from my mate Shaun and she fired straight up

 

I wrote this on my blog at the time.. "Almost a year of short T breaks, 10 minutes here, 1/2 an hour there.. fitting new valves, cleaning up and freeing off all of the pedals and linkages and getting the radiator re-cored. Fitting a modified Model A manifold and the SU carb I used on my old Indian with a 90 degree adapter, fitting a Texas T distributer (kindly lent by my mate Shaun).

Four weeks ago I pulled the T out of the barn, jacked up the back wheel ( to let it spin and free the transmission off) pulled the choke on cranked the motor over twice to prime, switched on the ignition and second crank she fired and kept running A few adjustments here and there later I was driving around the paddock. The motor feels crisp and responsive and its driving in all 3 gears.

There's a still a bit to do tidying up the body tub and the emergency brakes to sort out but with the road wheels and tyres on it should be roadworthy in the new year. It needs some fettling, the SU and inlet manifold needs modified to clear the bonnet, the ignition feed cable tidied etc. but, it is finally a runner! "

 

I picked up a pair of windscreen frames and stanchions again from Mart at MTH and a bonnet from Neil T, I have recently bought a set of 21" front and 18" rear road tyres to go on and have a 2 speed Ruckstell axle to swap in so plenty still to do. The plan is to get it roadworthy this spring and then work away at improving it.

 

Bob,
This thing is great. I love the reactions of the dogs in the video.

 

Hi Bob, Absolutely love this!!!! You probably don't remember me, but, I used to live on Skye and we used your café at Achnasheen when you had (I think) the Indian. The "T" chassis was behind the shop. spoke to you a few times. We were building Irene's 318 Chrysler Moggy at the time. The last time we passed (well over a year ago) the shop was closed and the "T" was gone.
We have since moved to Boston Lincolnshire. I am in the process of building a garage so that I can finish my 35 Ford pickup.
Good luck with the build, although, it looks pretty finished to me.
Charlie.

 

Yes, Archie got a face full of dirt when the tyre hit the deck!
cheers
Steve.. BlackBob is the name of my Triumph Bobber

 

Hi Charlie,

long time no see, yeah I remember chatting to you. We sold the shop and cafe about 4 years ago and i moved the T to the farm, still got the Indians and my old Triumph (BlackBob)

cheers
Steve

 

Neat little gow job! Thanks for sharing it.

 

Love the simplicity of this car, those tyres look the part and suit the countryside,
We stayed in a beaut little pub in the Muir of Ord last year, beautiful area as are the surroundings.

 

It has been great fun to work on, the original T design is so well thought out and the metal quality is astounding. I love it. The bike tyres were a bit of fun, I'll keep them on for a bit yet!
Muir of Ord is about 15 miles from me

 

My memory isn't what it was . I kind of knew your name wasn't Bob, but, I was damned if I could remember what it was, AND, it was the triumph that you had also. Jeez! I'm getting old.

 

Haha, aint we all.. i struggle most times to remember what I came into the room for! The BlackBob name was from the old Jockey Journal and ChopperUnderground forum days and it kinda stuck, a bit like the bike

 

Afternoon dog walk in the sleety rain followed by a grinding session to part the T wood hub centre that our erstwhile fairground racer had welded onto the rear wheels with no provision for brake drums. They are 6x5.5” stud pattern so not A hubs, im pretty sure they are late 20’s Chevy .. anyroadup with a 10mm spacer and some lathe/drill work i can adapt them to the 6x5” wood hubs and get 11” drums on to give me some brakes .

 

Awesome!!

 

They could be mid 30's Chevy wheels, being 6x5.5" pattern. I'd like to see the details of putting brakes on it as I'm in a similar situation.

 

I may have an odd Chevy wheel spare. I'll dig it out for a measure.

 

Tyres or Tires

Since my plan is to go trialling with the T (i'll have to take the trayback off and fit a little boatttail so the car is not a pickup) I wanted tyres with a bit of bite at the back. Luckily I got 3 used Lucas all weather 5.50x18's for the back from a fella who had run them on his Wolesley Hornet Special in 2 VSCC trials. The fronts are a pair of BFG 4.50x21's that I got on ebay a while back, propped up next to the car for now

 

That would be great, thanks


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

For those of you who havent heard of trialling ...


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Trailing, now that just looks fun.

 

What's not to love, friends, mud, old cars having a blast! Thank you for sharing, now you got my one brain cell spinning.

 

Boys and their toys playing in the mud. Dad once told me our redneck ancestors were Scotch. Maybe he was right.

 

I love trialling - done a bit in the hotrod and the Tourer.

Not particularly good pictures. I'll dig it out and get some more.

 

There is a great wee video you put up on youtube of you trialling the v8 hotrod.
That looks ideal.. let me know what you need for it? .. and if you have any more?

 

You can have it if it's the right size - and I only have the one...

 

Thank you Phil, 6 x 5.5 stud pattern and to take an 18" tyre is all I need for a spare Let me know the cost to post and I will PayPal you

 

I got this Lizard hi compression head with some other parts from Mark at MTH last container load. I didn't do enough homework before I agreed to buy it, it seems, going by the MTFCA they are a pain to get to work on a T. Now I tend to be a bit of an optimist and don't take too much of what is sad on the MTFCA forum as most of the guys on there won't modify their cars beyond simple bolt on jobs. The Lizard heads were produced by Charlie Yapp of model A Lion head fame and people seem to be able to get them to work. . A head that is reported to be raising the compression to around 6.5:1 is going to need a fair bit of modification to both the induction side and the ignition, most of the MTFCA guys won't modify either of those.. so, with that said there are a few other issues reported. The heads don't have all the steam holes drilled to match the T block, i'll have to drill them to suit. It looks like there may be a bit of casting sand still in the water jacket so that will need cleaned out. One of complaints is that the plug positions are in the wrong place (same as the Lion heads) that I can't really do anything about unless I do a lot of machining/welding and put 4 new plug holes in above the valve heads. That would be a last resort. Anyroad up, Im $400 into it Ive got to have a go at getting it to work!