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

If he wants more work/jobs you should spread his name & contact info.

 

Agreed, But he is in the midst of building a new shop to do so. If he see's this, he can respond to that.

 

Wow those are gorgeous! I could use a pair as well.

 

Beautiful Work!

 

Im guessing you just used a remote oil filler mount and mounted it in the oil pan/tank That will look so clean and simple. Ive seen this on vintage motorcycle but not a car Good Idea.

 

Well, I had to see how this was going to work. I knew the drivers side had some type of repair, I assumed it had plastic body filler in it....I was wrong, it's got lead or lead type filler in that area. Good news is about half of it will just be cut out.




Test fit the panel again...one of many times to come. I also noted that the first time I set the panel on, I had the door opening in the panel fitted around the door body line. That made the back fit a little funky. So I concentrated on the back curve and lining that up first, and it fit a whole lot better. But then I realized it over lapped the door body line. Well, as my friend that made the panels and I discovered, it seems the later from mine bodies, were just a smidge longer---and he used his '25 body as the template....mine is about a '22-ish body (I'm calling it a '23 because I am using a steel firewall vs. the earlier wood firewall). Not really a big deal on this side, just re trim the opening at the rear where it overlaps. The passenger side could be an issue though with an actual door opening, but I'll worry about that later.

 

That is correct. Thank you for the kind words.

 

I have always been puzzled that nobody makes those patch panels either. It seems every body you see needs them. nice work from your pal there

 

@rusty valley I couldn't agree more. And as a startup business, and considering he has the tools and knowledge, I had to pay up. The material was cheap. The tools and knowledge is what I paid for, it was worth it but it would turn alot of people off. They are nice long panels that repair a lot of area at once, that's what I wanted.

 

A lot of people do not recognize that. Machine shop work is similar, setup to make sure it is right is 98% of the time spent. People think you just chuck it up and go. Not thinking of it being on the correct axis and plumb. Other people think that they should not pay set up time just the time it takes for the machine to run. If it were that simple then everyone would be doing it. You get what you pay for. What you got is not mass reproduced and is a one off. Nice work is to be appreciated. You get what it takes for this one off work.

 

@warhorseracing , I totally agree. I do work for others myself, and try to explain my knowledge and tools are worth something. I can appreciate that, others as you point out can't.

Anyhow, on to more fun. This week is supposed to be warm out and I want to wash my engine block, mask and paint it so I can start assembly.

 

Yesterday I decided to try and do something, So I ground out all the sins of previous body work and paint and got down to the real metal. Found a couple of holes and a decent tear in the metal. Luckily some of it will be cut out, so that's fine. It's going to take some fineness to get it all back together. It will be my first time using my TIG to do body work, so I am sure I'll have a learning curve. Ive really only done exterior sheet metal work a handful of times before so I'm not super experienced by any means. If the TIG starts pulling to many impurities out of the metal I guess I'll have to resort to the MIG. Sometimes it's hard to get this old metal clean, and mine as you can see is pretty pitted.




You can see where and what I will be left to deal with here. We should be ok I think.




Also installed the new starter ring gear. I've read people doing these with a propane torch----either they were lucky or they are lying. I tried a map gas torch---nope, I tried the oven at 450 degrees for almost 25 minutes, nope, finally resorted to the oxy-acetylene torch, bingo! Had it on in a matter of minutes. Any discoloring you see wasn't from me, that is the way I received the new gear...thinking maybe they heat treated these?

Anyhow, now I can give it to the machine shop to balance.

 

Took a day off work this week while it got warm out around here. Cleaned with mineral spirits then acetone, masked and painted the block with some self etch primer then Duplicolor Ford semi gloss black.

I just have to make a pushrod guide and I can then start assembly of the engine. Still a ton of oiling system to hammer out the details on.

 

Looks racy!

 

Best part about a black engine, you don't see the oil leaks, LOL. Now that's racy!

 

Today's progress, I was able to make my pushrod guide plate. The bigger lifters Stipe provided with this cam are just flat on top. Because I am using a more conventional ball and socket adjusting rocker, the old valve guides need to be opened up a little to allow the pushrod the slight arc needed through its travel. So keeping the pushrods centered on the lifter was going to be an issue. By the way, this isn't how the original Fronty head setup was, but because I bought a head sans valevtrain, I am left to figure it all out...which gives me an opportunity to fix some shortcomings with the original setup.

So after alot of thought, I figured it out. Seems simple now, but it took a bit to come up with a solution. I had to draw from my years of messing with off topic V-8's. It finally occurred to me, I can make a simple guide plate, and use a typical hardened pushrod meant for use with guide plates (I need to have custom P-rods made anyhow). The guide plate may wear some over time, but it's pretty easy to make another...although I indexed everything off this block specifically, and it would require some disassembly to do so again.

I'll switch out the bolts for studs so I can also attached the valve cover later on, but for now, it's another piece of the puzzle done----well, still have to clean and paint it.

 

That's a cool idea. Could you bush the holes with bronze to make it last a lot longer and have less drag or wear?

 

Probably could, but probably over kill to. The pushrods are not a tight fit in those holes. With the oil mist in the valve chamber it should suffice I would think. Pushrods are .313" diameter, the hole in guide plate is .328" diameter. I don't believe at this point I have to go bigger than that.

The pic posted above, has the lifter head (cam lobe side) just a hair below the block surface---so it's approximately at full lift. Cam lobe lift is .310", so they will come down approximately 5/16"

 

Could you have used Y block lifters ?

 

No sir, the lifter base circle isn't as big as the lifters Stipe Machine provided----we looked into that route before all of this.

 

Been a while since I checked here, but there's a few things I wish I had seen earlier.
As for the hubcaps, if the attached picture shows, you can extend the original hub cap, but I found a steel drink can almost fits. Being steel, you could reduce the can diameter where it fits the hub and solder brass wire over it as threads but I actually used fibreglass threads and glued the can on top. Keeps dust,dirt and rain out of the bearing grease.

Sent from my CPH1931 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Not much to report except practicing some graffiti
I guess it has a name now

 

Getting rid of the lightening holes?

Sent from my SM-N960U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

For sure. This body has led a rough life, I need to save whats left.

 

So I took a couple of days off work. I decided today to start tackling the repair panels I had a friend of mine form, before they rusted in my basement with the rest of the body. So out to the garage i went this morning. After a quick setup, first order of business was to remove whatever this backing panel was that was put in long ago.




OK, now that that is out of the way...for no reason on it being there....




So lets do a quick cut on some of the old stuff:




I then laid the new panel on to get a much better idea on where I was going:



OK, not so bad, so alot of cutting, test fitting, cutting, test fitting, on and on until things were satisfactory...or I just went to far and created more work filling holes

 

Your friend does a pretty damn good job, I thought that was a patch panel for a second!

 

That he does. These are one off panels so I am desperately trying not to screw them up putting them on. Which leads me to my screw up.

Things were going pretty good, and that's when I noticed I was in trouble. I was losing the outside contour of the body were the panel splice seam was. Hard to explain, but it was like there was a serious misshape somewhere behind the fake door, and I had a huge valley as the panels sloped to met each other---even before I got to welding them, so it wasn't heat warpage. Well I had the front under the door already stitched in. So as I tried to fix the valley, it became quickly clear, the cut lines behind the door were now incorrect. I had to cut more off. Hopefully I didn't totally mess this up, but as I got to the end, my body line that was perfectly lined up was now a good 1/4 off. See pic below, I highlighted the line with a marker:




Well shoot. Now what. Well, here is the deal. It wasn't really terrible (by my standards), but I had to so something. So I started tacking and hammering and repeat. I got it somewhat better...not perfect, but good enough for me...and probably most people. I fudged it the best I could. I mean I didn't exactly start with a pristine body here, right?

The other issue I was fighting in this whole deal was where the bullet holes are, if you remember back a few posts, that was a huge dent and caved in and filled with lead. That area was thin and oil canning. I knew if i was careful, I could weld in that area and shrink the metal. It pretty much worked!

And really sitting here thinking about it, where the body line is, it's on the lower section that starts to roll under, so hopefully most prying eyes don't see it in the end. My only concern is the back panel fit up, but that will have to come later and be tweaked as needed I suppose---it too needs a lower section replaced.





So here is were I finished my day. The panel is tacked in place, and needs finish welding. Maybe tomorrow---maybe next weekend, we'll see. I'm pretty happy so far. Butt welding sheet metal is a huge learning curve....especially when one side is pitted old metal.

Oh, I decided to leave one bullet hole for some character. I have to figure out how to deal with the huge crack above it though.

 

Awesome work. Thanks for the ride.

 

not my favorite part of the job but it sure feels good seeing nice new steel where rusty crap was..

Where "near Albany" are you? I spent a few years of my youth in Malden Bridge NY

 

Right outside the city, in Colonie, BTW, thanks for liking on IG too. Much appreciated.