Projects I Just Bought a Hot Rod Model A Roadster That Was Built In 1959...

As you can imagine, everything is pretty crusty after sitting for 50+ years. I got a couple kits to repair the clutch/ brake MCs from Baxter's. I also got a couple rear wheel cylinders as one had some bad threads and the other a little pitted. I just happened to have a couple new front cylinders as well so I will use those in the interest of time.



I filled the brake MC with some of that miracle rust converter as it was a little crusty in the resovoir. The bore cleaned up pretty well. Hopefully I can use them both.

 

I have been working on the BB when time allows. We have been traveling a lot in the last month.

Before we left I pulled the brake drums to find they were all pretty thin. Also, I was able to pull the rear drums by hand (no puller.) Yikes!

The rears were mis-matched and I happened to have a set on the shelf for another project with a similar mis-match? Weird.


After some practice on an old drum I put my new (to me) brake lathe to use. It worked a treat!



I greased the wheel bearings and added all new seals of course. I put everything back together and got it all bled by Sunday evening. I thought I was doing so well and then noticed all the brakes were stuck like chuck...dammit. I pulled the fronts back apart to see what was going on and did a little Internet research.

It turns out the tiny bleed(?) hole in the MC was barely plugged not letting the fluid return and acting like a check valve. I got that cleared and put everything back together and re-adjusted and crossed the brakes off my list! (Hopefully they're still holding when I get home from work!)


I also got my new set of lifters from Egge so I was able to get the heads installed and torqued to spec. I want to roll everything over and get the oil pressure up before I button up the lifter valley.


Thanks for following along!

 

.... stalker bookmark. Check !!

 

Shit! I almost forgot! I ended up flying out for the Hotrod Hill Climb the weekend before last. I was introduced to a gentleman named Gary Wooster from Salina, Ks. He is a couple years older than Lanny but remembers the car from when he was building it around the corner from his shop! Gary had a gentleman with him (who's name escapes me darn it) and that fellow also remembers the car. He said he never got to ride in it but helped push it several times and even got his foot run over by it in the process! He said he thought his foot got cut off!

And oddly enough shortly after I spoke to these gentlemen Lanny called me from a car show back home in Kansas while I was walking around the pits in Colorado. He said he had copies of the other pics of the car for me and even found his old car club plaque he wanted to duplicate and give me the original to go with the car. Exciting! I'm hoping we can get together this week so I can get the pictures from him.

 

They must have been bias plys eh...

This is one great big story coming together here. I always say if the car could talk but we know thats not gonna happen so we gotta do it for them. Good stuff @cactus1.

 

GO MIKE GO

 

To cool man

 

"That" guys name is Gerald Squires, very good friend of mine. When I told Gerald that a HAMBER bought Lanny's car, you would have thought he saw a ghost. He thought that car was long gone forever. Gary Wooster is an old time hot rodder, very talented guy with cars.

 

I was hoping you would see this and tell me Gerald's name! You are Greg correct??? Gerald told me he'd been looking for the car for years!

When my friend John Swander came over to see the car when I first got it he mentioned Gary's name and that he would probably remember the car.

 

That would be me...

 

Missed the Hill Climb this year, sure wish I had gone to meet you.

 

Likewise! I wasn't actually suppose to go but my lovely wife convinced me to at the last moment!

Next year I plan to have the BB there!

 

That's a special woman right there

 

The other guys name was Gerald Squires. Hope the spelling is correct. Don't know if they said anything but I was the guy with the broken hot rod still in the parking garage at the Isle hotel that made the trip out with them. Sorry to have missed meeting you. I also recall that car from back in the day.

 

wow, great car, great find, great story!! I know how finding something on craigslist can haunt you. Same thing happen to me. I was in the middle of a total kitchen redo, when I got MRSA real bad from work, and was out on disability for 3 months from my job, two weeks before i was finally able to return , im on craigslist and see a 51 ford coupe thats been sitting in the second owners garage since 1967. I couldnt get it out of my head.. I ended up telling everyone about it, hoping someone would get it, finally i couldnt take it anymore ,talked to my wife about it(she was awesome too!),and put up one of my bikes for sale. A guy called up that day, showed up with the full amount, he left and then i went straight to where i bought the car. When its meant to be, its meant to be!

 

This is so darn cool. I literally cannot get enough of this great little roadster, it's history and your adventures with breathing life back into it. It just gets better and better.
Thank you for sharing all of this with us Mike. This has Hot Rod Deluxe feature written all over it.

 

Your name did come up! I was hoping to meet you as well. Next time for sure! Sorry about your hot rod. I assume you got it mended and back home???

Thanks man and congrats to you as well! It's nice when the stars align!

Thanks for the kind words Dave! I can't wait to go for a rip down the road!

 

Yes we got it repaired enough to drive her home, thanks for interstate highways and no stop lights. I do hope to see this car at some point down the road. As I liked it back in the old days around Salina.

 

I stopped by to see Lanny and Sally on Friday after work as he had some stuff to give to me.....





The first iteration, around '59-'60.


Pushed of his parent's garage for pics in Salina around '75?


And where it spent the last 17 years.

 

Very cool!

 

That's great!!

 

Cactus1 : You have clearly hit the mother lode on this great old hot rod! I had been asking every Tom, Dick and Harry for 40 years if they knew anything about my raggy '32 to no avail ; till I finally gave up about 5 years ago. It's so cool you can follow your cars history! I'm diggn' it!

 

This is the kinda stuff I like.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Too cool! I hope you put that plate back on the car.

 

I am very fortunate to be able to trace the history on this car! It's neat to hear from the folks that remember it from back in the day!

It will go back on for sure! Lanny wants a couple copies so I contacted Dennis O'Brien to see what it would take to get that done. He said he could do one or 100 so that's good! If any of you Salina locals/natives want to get in on the order let me know?

 

It took a little persuasion but I got the bitchin' headers put back on over the weekend as well. We are getting close!

 

That seems perfectly normal for the headers I've messed with.

Enjoying the slow build up to success you have going here!

 

Ha! Thanks! I think???!

 

Congratulations, keep her period perfect but make her better!