Projects 1924 Model T Speedster

Well, first off, I have a ton of projects. This one kind of has been thrown in my lap, but I look forward to it!

My parents are moving from Seattle to Miami and bringing the 1924 Model T back and they are wanting for me to work my magic on it and make it reliable mechanically and something that they can tinker with and drive around Miami for car shows. It will take some of my room in the garage, but it will be easy to fix up!

Here is a picture:



Some history on this car:

My grandpa, who was in World War I, a man who still used wax in his mustache and looked like he was still from the 20's, owned this car. He passed away from spinal, throat, and brain cancer in the 90's from consuming huge amounts of Sweet 'N Low in his coffee. He raced the hell out of this thing. After he passed my grandma got a lowball offer from some junk peddler in her little town. She was only going to get 400 bucks for the vehicle as it sat in way better shape 15 years ago. My dad said hell no and we took a road trip from Indy to Arizona to go get it. We got it home changed the oil and gas and she ran like she never skipped a beat. The T then slumbered in our garage for another 7 years until my dad wanted to move it to Seattle.

I has been running up in Tacoma on random sunny days, which they don't get up there. My dad got a bid to work from Miami and took it, but the sea air took its toll on the patina on he engine and other components, including flaking the paint.

This T was built long ago and has been on MANY endurance runs and races with him, winning various places. The testimate that this is true is that it has plaquards all over the dash of places it won. This is a REAL speedster that has raced all over the country. It has been featured on Across Indiana, Episode 1107 and was pretty much star of the show in 2000.

When we originally got it we were in a Model T club based out of Indy, I will not mention the name, but it was a miserable experience for us. Veterans of the club were incredibly upset because our ACTUAL Speedster/race car got way more publicity than it should (but really it deserved every second because it was much nicer than other club rides). They were so chapped about it that they forced our hand into quitting the club months after joining. We were not looking for the spotlight, but the camera loved her. I will try to contact Across Indiana to see if I can get a hold of the episode. I had it on tape at one point, but cannot find it to save my life.

The Plans:

Redo the wood floors, reupholster the seats, polish all brass, clean up the engine (stock engine from 1924 that has been hopped up a bit), clean up the wire wheels, probably have them powder coated, new tires/tubes, fix the brakes, get the wiring sorted out, possibly repaint, add
my touches to it, possibly lower it a bit (sits really really high, and I am kind of short, so it is a struggle getting into the passenger bucket over the exhaust that runs the span of the car on the passenger side (3" exhaust). My Dad wants it to be fenderless, but I think that ruins the look and I am refusing to do this. Since the paint is finally flaking I will look into painting it too...

Stay tuned! Number 88 will fly again!!!

 

Great T Speedster with family history, it doesn't get better than that. PLEASE, keep the fenders, and post some updates. Bob

 

Yeah I am not going to lol that is not a good idea. It should be here within the month

 

Cool pride'n'joy project. yep, got to keep it as true to being original as possible. instead of lowering can you hang a step of some type on it to get in? how about some type of shield to go over exhaust, sort of like that used on early Corvette side pipes?

 

Great family history on the car and keeping it as is original , on the exhaust , would a small tool box on the running board be enough to get you over and a heat shield just for safety

 

Well it is an old enough to still have the asbestos cloth wrapped around that part of the exhaust. The problem is that every time you hit it or go over a bump you see little white clouds of death coming from it. It has crappy trailer lights from the 70s for tail lights so that will be another upgrade. Anyone have a good place for replacement parts for the Rocky Mountain brakes or stuff like that? I need to find some good cost effective vendors. For tires what is a good brand? I have heard of a lot of problems with them for white walls but haven't heard anything for the smaller tires for the t's

 

I am a little too fat and sassy for an old tool box to hold my weight. I can make it work though! Great idea. I will look for something to use at the swap meet.

 

Very cool car....and do look up Tower Shops (Shoppes?) when you get to Miami. It's a little north but worth the trip.

 

Great car! Definitely lose the fenders. I'd drive that car everyday.

 

Well it is here, we literally pulled it into the garage during my lunch hour! I will post some pictures tonight!!

 

Subscribed!

 

Keep it as close to the way it was raced back when! Too much history wrapped up in that old girl to mess with it.

 

Yeah, she needs a bit a of work, but I will keep it as close as possible. I will rechrome what needs to be rechromed, fix the cracks, fix the exhaust, clean everything up, maybe run some new tail lights (running trailer lights right now), new rubber (tires and tubes), reupholster it, I need to rewire it, clean out the gas tank, etc. Most of the dash decals are in the trunk on the back.

Here it is:

 

Well I pulled the battery since it has a hard time keeping a charge and found that it is a 5 year battery that was made in '08. It looks like I will be picking one up shortly for it and running new cables to the firewall voltage regulator, etc. The 1 gauge wiring for the battery has been chaffing for a long time, so it needs a refresh since it has rubbed through a bit in a couple places. I will take some shots of the underside and post when I have the time.

Does anyone have any info on getting something that looks stock for these cables? Right now they look like they maybe cloth wrapped over the regular coating. I am looking for something similar.. I would like to keep it looking stock/older, not some bright and shiny new cable.

 

Sweet. Everyone ditches the fenders on speedsters, if this one was built with them I'd keep them for historical value alone. Surprised it has a 12 volt battery though. I'd look for some Model A era tail lights for it.

 

Yeah it was swapped to a 12v battery about 15-20 years ago because we had a hard time finding something affordable locally.

My plan was to keep the fenders and swap to a set of Model A tail lights or something like that. Great minds think alike!

 

There is a shop called The Hot Rod Company that sells cloth wire in different gauges along with cloth spark plug wires. Not sure they have as large as a 2 gauge for batteries, but they may have something like a cloth cover to run your lines through... never used them so do your own research...

 

Awesome man. Subscribed. Shoot for the Race of the Gentleman and cruise out to the East Coast!

 

Sweet, thanks Jason. I was looking through the vendors and skipped over this one because it didn't seem like the place to look.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Thanks cmarcus! I have never heard of it, I will look it up

 

You would fit right in! It got a crazy amount of coverage last year, in Hot Rod Mag, The Rodder's Journal, etc. Check it out...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=815578&highlight=race+of+the+gentlemen

 

Cool thanks cmarcus, looks cool, I just don't think I can take the time off.

It looks like I maybe able to take this to the hill climb this season, but need to work out a couple things first.

The new battery goes in tonight. I will fire it up and make sure everything is okay, I may even take it around the block.

 

Looks like it has a Warford. Windsheild is a little tall, but cool car nontheless, nice to have a piece of family history like that.

 

Nice car Scott! can't wait for a ride in it! My brother has agreed to trailer it to the Newport Hill Climb, if you want to come. I'm already registered.

 

Thanks! I am going to be pulling the floor boards up sometime soon to determine what everything is. You sit really high in this thing, that explains the windshield. I am 5'7" and my nose is above dead center on the upper part of the windshield, anyone who is taller is going to get a face full of bugs

 

Yeah we will have to see how far I get with it. The brakes are what scare me at this point, so I will have to take care of those in short order.

 

Well the new battery is in and it cranks really well and seems a bit more stout when starting. I need to fiddle with it to get it started, but she seems like she is ready to go! I will post a video sometime soon

 

Yeah, I would simply live to attend, but same thing with time off! Still can't wait to watch the build!


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Well I got her fired up tonight and found that the brake lights aren't working with the E-brake lever... and not with the Rocky Mountain Brakes either... So that should be an easy fix... This thing needs to be rewired badly, everytime I touch something it falls apart or breaks lol.

I will post a video tomorrow of it running tomorrow. It sounds like an old biplane.

 

Thanks to 36dodgeram for helping me carry my new tail lights and looking through the vendor meet for stuff I needed to try and fix the T. There weren't any T parts vendors there and only a few folks there that had some stuff at the real swap meet. I got 2 tail light buckets and 1 original glass tail light lens for $20.

Here is what I was doing last night after I made the 1.5 hour trip home from the NHRA Nationals:

Before:



After



Both together:



I guess I will let everyone else decide, but I like the new ones a lot better than the cheap trailer light ones

What I am thinking of doing is buying a new pair from Early Ford or a vendor from the Alliance, gutting them and put all of the new stuff in the old tail light housings so everything looks old and stock, but is brand new