Projects Shade tree Model A speedster kind of thing

I'm with ya, I don't like being the center of attention don't care to have my picture taken. My wife's family is super huggie, touchy feely and I'm not. So yeah I guess we are the weird ones that drive odd ball cars.

 

Congrats on the Major Milestone @rwrj...the more time moves on the more out in a time warp these Jalopies appear...I spend a lot more time cruising areas of minimal population but I do know when in towns they do garner attention but I just go with the flow and do know when all the yapping and wondering and admiration has come to a close you get to hop in and cruise into the wild blue yonder and go for the time warp again...I think there is a level of primitive that exists with the older vintages of Hotrod/Jalopy and compounds that feeling you describe...inhale it it's part of the ambience...

 

what is it registered & insured as? It isn't a 2019 BMW.

 

Yeah, Georgia renews tags on your birthday. Oh well, it's only 20 bucks.

 

1928 Ford Model A modified.

 

Great ingenuity

 

what a cool jigger! so good, enjoy the ride!

 

Been watch'n from the start...still love'n it.....

 

Would u mind giving name of insurance company & cost. Afraid to call mine “modified” it is a “runabout”. Heaven forbid state of Pennsylvania or insurance company hears the word”speedster” or “modified”

 

Hagerty, about $260/year. I set the replacement value at $5k to keep the premium down. I just told them it was modified with a speedster body. They were more concerned with making sure it had the original motor, seems like.

 

I'm the same way, lol. I love to be unique and different in my own way, but hate to stand out in a crowd. It's an odd paradox....

 

While I'm waiting on my new springs, I've been piddling. I'm worried about the difficulty of assessing how much fuel is in this thing. Right now, I'm just using a dip stick, which works fine in a rough, inexact kind of way, but I can easily foresee running out of gas on some remote back-road and having to suffer the indignity of calling for rescue. My solution is a reserve tank. I have the old homemade galvanized tank off of an antique garden tractor my father acquired somehow years ago that I had zip-tied to the early T firewall back in the very beginning of this adventure, figured I could run it as a gravity fed reserve if I mounted it on the firewall. Got to thinking about it and holding it up in different spots, and settled on cutting a hole in the firewall and mounting it longitudinally instead of cross-ways. Fits better, and gets the fill neck a little farther from the firewall. Before any of you point it out, I know its over the hot exhaust, but I figure I'll mostly be filling it with the motor cold, so that should be ok. It does have 4 tiny holes in the cap for venting, but I don't remember it ever sloshing liquid gas out of them when it was on the working tractor. I'll keep an eye on it, I promise. Here's where I am now. and how I got there:





I know that tank looks like a mess, but it doesn't leak, and it has sentimental value to me. It was already old when we got the tractor back in the 70's, so it's a relic of my childhood.

The plan is to run the main line up in a loop above the height of the new tank so It won't just gravity feed back into the main tank, then back down. I'll put petcock at the bottom of the tank and tee the main line in below that. With the petcock off, the reserve tank flow will be blocked, and the rest of the system will operate like it does now. When I start to run out of gas, I'll reach back and crack the main tank cap to release the pressure, and I'll try to rig it so I can open that petcock from the dash. We'll see.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FUEL-VALVE...713891&hash=item262aa8fac4:g:ZmkAAOSw-W5UtAqU

 

Dang, Fabber. That's an idea.

I went for a little trip late this afternoon of about 30 miles. My cousin and his daughters were up from South Florida, staying farther out in the country. I took a roundabout route of back roads, about 5 miles of it on dirt. We had a cold front move through this morning, with rain, and that red Georgia clay was slick. The tires threw a good bit of mud, more from the wet sandy parts than the clay, oddly enough, but it didn't really get on me too bad. The washboard was pretty pronounced, though, and me and old Shade Tree got jiggled mighty good. Right after we got back on the pavement on the way out there, she started skipping and backfiring. "Dammit" says I, "you've done shook a bunch of sediment up in the tank and plugged the fuel filter, or vibrated the damn ancient fabric timing gear to pieces, or rattled the manifold brazing aloose, or..." I pulled over and she died. Hit the starter rod, nothing. The only thing that had rattled loose was the negative battery cable. Hahahaa.

Anyway, the only other eventful happening was when I passed the dipsy dumpsters at a crossroad, fellow taking out his trash hollers "that thing is cool" as I was idling at the stop sign. I thanked him and blasted off, didn't feel hardly self-conscious at all. The cousins all loved it, too, but they've been raised right. Visited until almost dark then headed home. I was smart this time and took the little wooden battery cover off so I could ride that dirt road with my heel on the battery, keep it from bouncing around so much. I'm going to have to tie it down, somehow.

Well, I'm making too big of a deal of this (some of you fellows take real trips in your hot rods), but I really enjoyed it. Even had to turn the headlights on towards the end. Here are a couple of fuzzy pictures.

 

Makin memories, makin smiles!

 

Ah yes, the reserve tank....61 V W in the mid 60's. Worked GR8, i never ran out of gas. If you have an odometer, you can figure m p g & go from there. Fun stuf this is !

 

I'd do, like McGee said, and get an "old moped"-style fuel valve.

 

I'm the same way, I'm an introvert the guy at the BBQ sitting by himself that people think is rude. Truth is most of the time I just don't know what to
say, just not good at conversations.
It has stopped me from taking the car out for a drive because everyone wants to talk.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Well, I stole a couple of hours this morning from Santa Clausing and got a start on the near complete valve-train rebuild. Too bad I didn't find that camshaft when I had the engine all torn down, but that's just not how things usually go around here. It started raining after that first picture was taken, but my tarp shelter isn't leaking, so I forged ahead. I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. The only detail that doesn't show is that I have dropped the oil pan, too. Just FYI, if you cut the wheels all the way, it will just clear the tie rod and drop without much fuss.





Tomorrow I'll try to get the timing cover off. Have to remove a couple of the rear motor mount bolts and jack up the front of the motor to do that. There's a bolt hidden behind the solid front mount on AR Model A's. Might get the valve-train removed tomorrow, too. Who knows? Anyway, I'll keep the thread updated. Thanks to all of you who are following along.

 

Looking Good !! Will be watching the valve train install. I just did a clutch change and pulled the motor.. I know its
more work buy I guess Iam a glutten for punishment!!

 

Well, I found some more time this morning. The first picture shows the "hidden" timing cover bolt these early A's have behind the motor mount. Have to take out the rear motor mount bolts and jack up the front of the engine to get to it. After I got the cover off, I removed the valve springs and did a quick lap on the valves. I had good compression, so I just touched them up a bit. Did it with the old guides in, just in case some of the compound got down there, then I took the guides and valves out (don't worry, I numbered everything). That little doohickey they sell to drive the guides out is sure worth the $20 or so that it costs, works real slick. Anyway, once the valves were out, I pulled the camshaft. That sounds simple, but... First, someone had been way over-zealous with the torque on the timing gear nut (I didn't buy that special doohickey, was trying with my biggest Crescent wrench). No big deal, I already had the engine jacked up, so the gear will clear the motor mount. Dammit, it won't clear the crank pulley. Rather than fool with that, I just busted the old fiber timing gear off and pulled the damn camshaft. Shade tree, remember? Some heat and oil eventually worked on the nut. Next time I get time I'll make some spacers for my new valve springs, per Brierley's instructions, and start putting it all back together. Probably won't be until after Christmas, though. Hope you all have a good one.

 

Got up a little early and made the shims for the valve springs. Brierley suggests 1/8" spacers made from 3/4" iron pipe for this cam, which raises the springs from 32# to 40#, so that's what I did. Cut them in the lathe so they'd be square and uniform. Those little bumps on the inside from the seam kind of bug me, but they don't interfere with the guides, so... I did turn a chamfer on one edge of each to match a little radius the (new) guides have where the shaft meets the collar. I'm assuming they are supposed to work like I have it in the picture, and not somehow on the valve side of the spring? Also, the shafts of these guides (the part that goes up into the block) are about 3/8" shorter than my stock ones. They were listed as fitting 28-34 motors. I got them from Mike's A-Fordable, and those folks have been very reputable, in my opinion. I can't see how it will make a big difference. Feel free to chime in. That's it for today and tomorrow, at least. Got to get to the Santa Claus obligations.

 

The spacer goes under the spring. Install the guide first, spacer, spring then clip.

 

Thank you. That makes sense. I'll run up another batch that will fit over that bottom projection.

 

Done. I'm glad I asked for advice on here, and thank you 62pan for setting me straight.

 

I got the valve-train reassembled. What a job. Tomorrow I'll tackle adjusting the valves. I set the lifter bolts halfway in, so hopefully that will cut down on the hassle just a bit. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but the small cup on a valve lapping tool comes in handy for inserting lifters while you're lying on your back under the car. Hope everybody had a nice Christmas. I'm about to take a hot bath.

 

Yes sir, this is still fun to watch...thanks

 

Making progress. Valves are adjusted, .012 for the intake, .014 exhaust, as recommended by Mr. Brierley. Timing gear cover and valve cover back on. I hope to fire her back up tomorrow.

 

I got it all buttoned up today and ran it in for 20 minutes at a guestimated 2k rpm. Idled down and have a pretty loud ticking. I'm thinking I got one of the valves set too wide, or one of the self-locking lifters adjusted itself. I didn't use Loctite, probably should have. I'm going to check and/or set them again tomorrow.

 

Sounds good, it will take a while for everything to locate their home. Nice job.