I dig this build. Too many guys get a Model T coupe and chop the daylights out of it, and I think it ruins the car. I like the roofs on the Ts to be stock height. You guys are doing great work!
We're painting it at Tony's in Richville. We got the por15 seal coat and primer on Saturday. We finished up late , so we'll lay color on her today. CBB
A big THANK YOU Goes out to Tony Who let us use his Garage for this Painting adventure! With out his help it would have been Summer before we would have been able to Paint. THANKS TONY! With the unseasonablely warm weather over the weekend we were able to get Lizzy painted This is the Story of that adventure. It started on a warm dark Friday night with a 25 mile ride on a trailer. Shortly before reaching the warmth and safety of Tony's garage. Lizzy wash washed in a local car wash. After spending the Night drying and acclimating to her temporary home. She was drug out into the drive wash and washed again. This time with Por15 's Marine Clean. After toweling off she was sprayed down with Por 15's prep and ready. Twentyish minutes later she was out of the shower, Toweled dry and back in the garage drying. With Lizzy wet and alone her assailants went to lunch. An hour or so later..... It was Time for Jim and Bruce to "SUIT UP!!" There was some vandalism of My Suit!! The First coat that was applied was Por15 Rust preventive. The Goal was to coat everything with 2 coats of this. (by the way this stuff does not wash off of you with anything... Trust us we found out the hard way!) We shot in the inside. The OutSide. The Underside We ran through the whole quart in a few hours. After waiting the required time (45 ish minutes) and refueling (pizza)...Thanks Tony! We Started with the Primer.... I thought I asked the guys at NAPA for Black Primer... But was greeted with baby poop green when the can was opened. It's been some time since I bought the primer so returning it is not an option. But after spraying it for a bit... We all decided that we liked it. In Fact had this been a 40's car it would have stayed this color At this point is was about 1Am or so.. We turned out the lights and left Lizzy to spend the night warm in her underwear for the rest of the evening. Sunday morning after church and a quick lunch we laid down the "Color" Black. We mixed up some Valspar Tractor and implement paint with some Naphtha to thin it enough to Spray. We Cleaned up and Called it a weekend! She has a nice matte finish. It's not a smooth see your self in it Show finish...it sorta looks like a teflon pan. But it's what we were going for. One side note... For those of you that have never painted (like us) a car before. It's not hard... Read, follow the directions and take your time. The prep work took almost as long as painting did. Having some realistic expectations helps too. we knew that we were not going to get a perfect paint car with the setup we have... nor did we expect it. If we wanted that most likely it would have been in paint shop. It may not look like it but painting is a workout .... so expect things to be sore!!... Once the paint dries we'll post some more pics of her. Let us know what you think... CBB
Bravo guys......BRAVO! As "First Timers", you have done excellent work...and you have given hope to the rest of us "first time body workers" out there. Guess I don't remember reading about the satin finish look, but I swear you were going for gloss finish. I'm going old school on the roadster when I finally paint it....Gloss Black Lacquer
Remember it's more authentic if you hand dip each part Clayton, The satin finish look is more forgiving to the first time body workers It doesn't show the mistakes quite as much. CBB
Very true....but what would someone have used to re-paint their "gowjob" in the 1930's or '40s though....that is the question Good point....I guess I need to practice a bit before I tackle a full gloss factory job on my Falcon.
A brush. Maybe a vacuum cleaner, but I think that's more '50s. In either case, enamel. Unless you're Clark Gable trying to recreate a hopped up T that beat your Packard in a street race.
Linseed oil paint My '27 touring body was painted sometime in the distant past with linseed paint - it's pretty dang tough. Another option is a good quality alkyd enamel like those made by the Geo. Kirby Jr. Paint Company - their paint colors & formulas have been around for a LONG time http://www.kirbypaint.com/index.php
Don't chop a "Tall T" it takes all the character away what is very cool body style. Lots of cars look good chopped, but the "Tall T" isn't one of them. CRUISER
So a Long time ago (the beginning of November) we were working on getting the MKII drop shackles ready for installation.... Now that the paint is done we're back to the chassis again. We picked up were we left off. the MKII drop shackles. We were able to get holes for zerks drilled and tapped. The bushings and zerks were then installed. We reamed the bushings to 9/16". We then installed the drop shackles onto the rear end. We left the Tails long and still need to trim some of the corners off . (the yellow paint marker marks are reminders) The design change on the drops gave us the clearances that we needed. But also showed us that to keep the Axle centered now we're going to need to add a panhard bar. Designs for that are still bouncing around in our heads. We also started the task of moving the Body mounts back 2 1/4" on the frame. We have heard horror stories about how hard it is to drill through the Model T frame... So I picked up 6 Cobalt drill bits and 2 Carbide tipped drill bits to help. Since we were not using the drill press and the Carbide tips are so easy to chip we opted to start with the Cobalt drill bits. I'm not sure if it was the Sharp new Cobalt bits or if it was the size of our Drill...But we had two 1/4" holes drilled in the rail in less then 3 minutes. We were able to get the two "easy" mounts moved quickly. We have to look for some creative solutions to most of the rest of the mounts as we have things like E-brake handles and running board braces in the way. We're going to knock all the holes we need in the frame. Then we're going to have a "Rivet Party" with some buddies coming to heat and beat some rivets into the old girl. Comments are always welcome So let us know what you think. CBB
Is a Watt's linkage a better option? A Panhard rod can cause sideways movement, especially if it is only short. Just my $00.02. Love the project, though! Davo.
Nice job guys as usual! The Mark II drop shackles are looking great and look plenty stout. I find it odd that you had a such an easy time cutting through that frame. I had Cobalt bits as well....and they were dull after 2 holes. I had to resort to drilling starter holes first with smaller bits, but the larger ones still kept going dull after 2 or 3 holes. ....maybe I had crappy bits?
If it makes you feel any better....we tried enlarging one hole with a Harbor Freight bit.... It took twice as long and way more oil to hut open the 3/64 of an inch....the bits can make the difference. CBB
That is a good point, but Harbor Freight is the last place I go for good cobalt bits We actually did by higher end bits....cost me $25 or $30 for them. ....maybe my frame is a super rare Chrome Vanadium version....or mine has some big hard spots Sent from Mr. ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Is it possible that the frame was made from the same material as some old iron bed frames; almost impossible to drill? I'm not sure whether the steel was really good or rather bad! It certainly did the job for a heck of a long time, though! Davo.
Ford used Vanadium Steel for the construction of the T frames which is REALLY hard stuff, but very flexible...much like spring steel. It was a brand new formula and really had not been applied in this scale at the time. This was because the Model T frame is actually designed to be a part of the suspension system..allowing it flex and twist over the bumps and ditches of the less then perfect roads of early America. Because if this, it is best to bolt or rivet to these frames rather than welding to them. Welding to or boxing these frames impedes this ability to flex...causing extra stress that can lead to cracks and breakage.
Clayton, We're using a Hitachi D13 Drill I think the cobalt drill bits are from Enco or the Yard (aircraft supplier) They were $2-$3 each. Just to show how easy it is here's a video. This is the seventh Hole we drilled in the frame with the same bit. CBB
I can't wait to flip my front crossmember. I need to learn to rivet, as I don't really trust bolts in a shear situation.
It's a blast, but it takes at least 2 guys to do it....one to put the hot rivet in the whole and hold the shaping buck and the other to run the rivet gun. When we did the wishbone brackets on my roadster we had 4 guys and it went smooth and quick: Chris was heating rivets, Brian was putting them in the frame holes, I was on the shaping buck and George was running the gun. It is a great skill to learn and was totally worth it. Sent from Mr. ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Wow.....can't account for that. It took me twice as long...with cutting oil and cobalt bits... Not to mention they were going dull after ever other hole. Weird... Sent from Mr. ModelT's DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
left my 26 unchopped and get favorable comments for leaving it that way. even got recognized at goodguys for "timeless traditional" award.
Great thread guys. I have enjoyed the reading a bunch. Learned a few things too. Keep it coming along.
So with the winter weather here and some scheduling conflicts progress has been slow. We were able to drill all the new holes for the body mounts, get side tracked on the brakes (swapped cams etc to get clearance around the radius rods- no pics ). But this weekend the weather broke! and we had some friends stop by the shop to help. We had a Rivet party! We started off the day modifying one of the body mount brackets to fit over one of the running board Straps. This meant milling a slot in the bracket. Using this "modified" drill press as a mill. (the professional machinists and safety conscious members may want to look away now!) Needless to say it took a few guys to run this machine...safely.. With that complete it was on to the riveting. All the rivets were heated one at a time with the torch (we swapped out the rose bud for a standard welding tip for more control) The Rivet was then put into the hole, Bucked and peened with an air gun/set. Even the youngest member of the crew jumped in and tried her hand with the rivet gun. After a few hours and quite a bit of fun all 14 rivets were set in place and work was complete. Next we have to figure out the Front Radius arm mounting Plates and Rivet them on... That will be another day! So what do you think? CBB
Cool! Rivets are just the trick for this kind of build. I don't trust bolts in shear and welds just look anachronistic.
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