Projects Shade tree Model A speedster kind of thing

It's great you're still having fun with it.

 

Very cool, and a continuing source of inspiration. I'm going to "leverage" that leather oiler mount idea.

 

Seems to me that if there were a screw in that extra hole it would then have the appearance of being a necessary addition.

 

That damn hole was bugging me all day and night yesterday. It's raining here, so I decided to do something about it. Off came the bracket, and then off came the mirror from the bracket. First, I put a slight countersink on each side of the offending hole. Then I cut a short slug, just longer than the thickness of the bracket, just smaller in diameter than the hole. I peened the inside curvature first, just resting the outside curve on the vise anvil, then clamped an extra ball peen hammer, peen up, in the vise so I could back the inside curve with it and peened the outside part. A little sanding, and now all it needs is paint. I'm not sure how easy that description is to follow, so of course I'll include some pictures. None of the actual peening though, it took two hands.



Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I just include it to illustrate the inside curve. You can see how I needed to back it with the other hammer. No way to get that onto an anvil.









A little paint, and nobody would ever know. Except all of you. Haha. While I'm at it, I'll include a couple of other little mods I've done in the past year that didn't seem to be a big enough deal at the time to justify documenting on their own. Just a rest for my heel on the floorboards, plus another to keep my foot from flopping over. I can't remember if I ever posted that bronze accelerator pad when I made it, either, but it originally had some cute little bullseye rings turned into it. They caught the tread of my shoe and hindered smooth operation, so I mostly removed them. Sometimes I just get carried away and have to correct myself.





I was getting some leg fatigue from having no anchor points on long trips. I say long, but it's a relative term. 30 or 45 minutes and I started feeling uncomfortable. Also, you can see the little permanent magnet alternator brain hiding up there, as far out of sight as I could get it. Just ignore that.

 

That's a great looking car!
My little toy gets a little uncomfortable after about 45 minutes, sitting position is not that great.

1930's Style race car build
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1930s-style-race-car-build.1266721/

 

Your car is spectacular, Jay. I've been following that thread with great interest. Funny how some people are so free with their opinions, but...

Anyway, I have always disliked the headlights on my car. They are just a collective monstrosity that I threw together using Model A buckets, Triumph Spitfire guts, and Volvo 544 rings so I could get road legal. Borderline embarrassing. I recently stumbled on a pair of late Model T headlights, so I jumped at the chance to have something more appropriate. Of course, Model A lights would have been simpler, but where's the fun in that?

Both Model A's and T's used a concave to convex mounting system that allows you to adjust the lights, but the A has the convex part on the headlight, and the T has the concave part.



Also, the T lights mount at a different angle.



See that cup under the light? That's the concave mount that needs to be convex. My first inclination was to just heat the posts and bend everything up to close that angled gap but I decided, since I had to convert that concavity to convexity anyway, maybe I could kill two birds with one stone and compensate for the gap at the same time. Also, I just ran out of oxygen in my O/A setup yesterday, and Airgas is closed on the weekends, so...

Anyway, I found a little leftover piece of bronze shaft just long enough to do what I had in mind. First, I bored a hole in it on the lathe, then I rounded each end of it on the edge sander. Just let the belt spin it on that little piece of pipe, checking it against the light every so often. Had to be careful not to burn myself, but it was a kind of fun job.



I did both ends.



Hacksaw, vise, eyeball protractor.



If there's an angle at the top, there's going to be one at the bottom, so:



Here's the basic idea. I added washers and a lock washer to the bottom, just checking the fit in this picture

.
Here they are. Still need to be wired, waiting on the plugs for the back of the sockets, which are on backorder. I like these so much better than what I had, though. The lenses don't match. One Ford, one Parabeam, but I don't care. Kind of suits the nature of the whole rig.



By the way, a little silver polish works wonders. Before and after:






Well, that's that. I've been driving the tar out of this thing and having a ball. It's rustier and raggedier than ever, but suits me just fine.

 

Glad to have you back with an update
Your build was very inspirational and informative when I was starting my build https://jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/a-v8-speedster-‘sat-nite-spcl’.1270422/
I still have alot of pictures from your build that I use for reference
Thanks
Todd
Edit
I got the idea for using British knock-offs from your build

 

Thanks. I like your special. That video is a cool way to show your progress.

Not being one to wait on backordered parts, I decided to get these lights working. They have two pins, high and low beams, grounded through the attachment to the chassis. Looking into the socket from the back of the bucket:



Turns out I have some small brass tubing in the model airplane stash that is a friction fit, so I made some temporary crimp-on connectors.



Works like a charm. They should tide me over until my backorder plugs arrive. There's some electrical tape involved, just to keep things from rattling around and grounding themselves. Wouldn't want to blow my one fuse some dark night. Haha

 

Looks great to me!

 

As I said, I've driven this thing a good bit, and developed a mental list of improvements than need to happen. I've given them a lot of thought, so I can hopefully avoid catching accessoritus and not find myself just adding stuff for the sake of adding stuff. Having said that, checking the gas level with a dipstick is getting old. I decided to make one of those clear tube sight glass things. I found some copper and vinyl tubing that fit together well. I hand-bent the copper to match the curvature of the rear bodywork, then just sanded half of the thickness off, leaving the last inch or so on each end whole.





This is how the tubing fits. I didn't have clear. If it bothers me, I'll replace it.



Scrounged up a steel rod that was close to the ID of the copper, rounded one end, and used it as a mandrel to round off each end of the copper. I angled those ends on the sander, first.





Then out to the car to gouge out a little groove for the tube to ride in, remembered at the last minute (after starting the epoxy) to drill holes for the vinyl tubing, and stuck the whole mess on there, held by antique copper and galvanized wire staples from my father in law's stash. I may replace those with something cute, eventually. Then again, I may not. That first picture is so dark because I had to move the operation under the little tent shelter while one of these impressive afternoon thunderstorms we've been having lately passed over.







I still have to plumb it, but that should be pretty straightforward. The plan is to tee the bottom into the fuel line, and the top into the line from the hand pump. Can't see why it won't work. Knock on wood.

 

That's pretty cool thinking there, the ground away copper looks old style quality, and sets it apart from the usual tubing held onto tank stubs with hose clips.

I'm still using a dip stick on my racer, and have been pondering a period-ish fix for some time. I'm so impressed that I have a feeling something completely different but strangely similar may soon appear on my racer!

 

Great car! I love the thought and ingenuity that goes into each part addressing each need with a creative solution. Good stuff.

 

Good to see you & the car again. Love the "small details" stuff. Love the lights too.

 

Thank you. Well, the selection of brass tees in my little town is slim, so I had to improvise. I found some that would fit into my fuel and pressure lines, but the third leg was way too big for the sight gauge tubing. I had to modify them. First, I cut off most of the offending leg.


Then off to the lathe to turn some new legs that fit inside the little nub that I left on the tee.





Then just solder them up, and run out to the car to lie on my back and plumb it up. What a dammit nest.



That picture was taken from the ground looking straight up. The front of the car is to the left, the orange tubes run up to the sight gauge from yesterday's post. The curved gray things to the left are the seat backs. Wood colored planks are the top of the rear bodywork. White tubing is the pressure line. I doubled the hose clamps on the copper fuel line just because it doesn't have any barbs. The whole mess holds pressure and doesn't drip.



I'm satisfied. If I had it to do over, I might color the inside of the copper tube black with a marker, or soot it up with a candle. That might make the level easier to see. I might replace that orange line with clear, anyway, which would give me access to the inside of the copper. Probably just run it as it is for the time being.

I know it all seems a little dangerous, considering that tubing is sort of exposed, and especially considering that I'm running about 2psi pressure in the tank . That's one reason I tucked it up behind the seat and under that grab bar. All of the hidden stuff is above the frame rails, so I hope it won't get snagged by anything. At least it's all downstream of my fuel shut-off, so if the worst happens I can hopefully limit the damage. It felt good to give the little dipstick the heave-ho.

 

Most of what you've done here never would have occurred to me. Building a car out of wood... All of the innovations. It's been fascinating. Thanks for telling us about it.

I'm pretty new here on the HAMB, but my favorite build threads are the ones that continue off into the sunset and beyond. Updates that show where you take your car and how you enjoy it are just as interesting as how you put it together.

 

Thank you, Duke. I've been driving this thing a good bit over the long hot summer. I noticed recently that the hand pump I use to pressurize the gas tank was chattering, which I thought was peculiar. Then it stopped working altogether, handle just moved without any resistance. Pooh, I thought, and investigated. The leather I made months ago had been cut by the washer that held it against the pull stroke, and was just rattling around on the shaft.



This thing acts as a check valve, expanding on the downstroke to seal and push the air, then flexing on the upstroke to let new air in from the top. My theory is that the leather was too thick at the edge, which made it flex more in the middle than it should have, and the corner of the washer eventually cut through.
Of course, I made another one. Concave on one side, convex on the other. The concavity doesn't really show up in the picture, but it's there. I made it by rough cutting a round washer out of about 3/16" thick veg tanned leather, then putting that bolt through it and turning it on the lathe against a rolled up tube of 80 grit sandpaper to work in the concavity, then flipped it on the bolt and chucked it in a drill, worked the convexity on the belt sander. I hope that makes sense. Can't really see it in these pictures, but the edge is feathered to about 1/16".




I put it all together again. This time I used a stainless steel finish washer to resist the pull on the upstroke. It has a nice rounded edge. That cupped washer on the convex side is from before. Keeps the leather from reversing itself on the compression stroke.





Greased it up and finagled it back into the tube, and voila, it works better than ever. Knock on wood.





And finally, this is one of my favorite pictures. I have been hanging around with a local group of old car guys in our little town, mostly muscle cars with a few restored Model A's and such, but they have been real nice about my pile of parts. Anyway, we went out to the local old folks home this summer, and this fellow was really taken with old Shade Tree. Several of the residents liked it but him particularly. We had a good conversation about his first car, which was a Model A coupe he bought for five dollars. I actually "stole" the picture from the place's website (with permission, don't worry). It's a picture of a picture, so the quality is pretty bad, but still...

 

rwrj,
I have followed this thread since you started.
It always is amazing how you figure out the details,
and keep it all looking like you are a time traveling engineer
who brings back the old ways!
Keep going! You have a book's worth of great info!

 

Well, since some of you still seem interested...

It has come to my attention that , for shorter passengers, the car is awkward to get into. Also tough to clear that hot exhaust when exiting. Nobody has been burned yet, but my wife and daughters feel that, as it stands, the car makes graceful entry and exit difficult.



I found a pair of old buggy steps on everybody's favorite auction site. I could see that they wouldn't fit a Model A frame as they were, but they were advertised as forged, so I figured that I could heat and bend those little attachment legs however I needed.

Turns out, of course, that they weren't forged, but cast. I don't think it was an intentional misrepresentation, just carelessness or ignorance, so I wasn't upset. Just had to find another way to make them work. I found these two short pieces of heavy angle iron in the cast-off pile.





A little angle grinder/edge sander/drill press work, and I had these. I don't really need one on the driver's side (yet), but I had two, and time does march inevitably on, so I thought what the hell.





Finding a workable spot to mount them took some figuring. That passenger side one is the booger. It doesn't stick out far enough to keep your shin off of the exhaust, so I had to either figure a way to extend it farther out, or do like I decided to and stick it behind the pipe. Ergonomically, it works surprisingly well. Looks fine to me, too.

They aren't really painted, just shot with some of that rust converter stuff (don't worry, that little bit of overspray rubbed off with my thumb just fine). I hoped it would make them blend in a little. We'll see. A little dirt and grease and mud will surely help.

 

Elegant.

 

Those details are a nice addition, a mate of mine made his hood bows from a buggy fold up roof & also a couple of grab handles were used too.

 

This'll be a long, possibly uninteresting story. Anyway, I was toodling around in the speedster yesterday, and it starts popping like it's running out of gas. "That can't be" I said to myself. "I checked the fancy sight tube before I left." I worked the handle of the little brass pump vigorously, and she starts hitting on all cylinders again, but I had to keep it at 3 psi. "Aha. Fuel filter's clogged" says I. Pulled over in a discreet location (I hate for people to see me broke down) and shut the fuel valve and pulled the little inline filter off and blew through it. Clear. Huh. Opened cap to release the air pressure in the tank and tried blowing back through the fuel line (after wiping the fuel hose off with my oily rag). I could barely push anything through. Dammit. I never put a screen in the pickup when I turned that air tank into a gas tank, and now trash was plugging my fuel line. Try as I might, I could not blow it back into the tank. I was about to pressure it back up and try to get home, when I had an idea. It was the work of moments to yank the little brass pump out of the dash and plug it into the front end of the fuel line so I could pump back into the tank. Took about 4 or 5 strokes, and I felt it pop a little as it blew that shit back into the tank. I was sure pleased with myself. Plumbed it all back up and drove home. It did start popping again right as I got there, but I already had a plan. This morning I yanked the rear bodywork off and removed the valve and elbow from the bottom of the tank. I had a bunch of little fine mesh screen tubes in my father's leftover stuff, probably for some marine application, so I turned a little brass plug that press fits inside the elbow (had to press it in with the vise). It has a hole bored through it that just fits the screen tube, plus a little JB Weld for good measure (carefully applied with a toothpick).



That's the naked tank, with the elbow and valve in question hanging down. Sure enough, when I got it unscrewed, it was full of all kinds of rust and whatnot.



All the parts. See how that screen has that cute little brass ring at the end?



And there you go. Hopefully, that will be the end of that problem. Knock on wood.

 

Major clean/dejunk the barn to get to the speedster.It's getting a winters worth of lovin coming up. Found some cool stuff forgot i had.

 

Years ago old timers filtered gas as went into the tank. ( with felt hat? ) matches era of your speedster. Now we just buy gas from busy station avoid bottom of stations tank & various in car filters no one knows where they are located or how to maintain. Love your speedster, skill of builder & skill of keeping it running

 

As I have said several times, I am pretty cautious about making additions to this car. I think about them pretty hard to make sure that they are really necessary. There are a couple that have recently passed my kind of random litmus tests. This is the first one. Over the course of this build, I have taken plenty of shortcuts to get or keep on the road, knowing that they would eventually need attention. That little modern plastic in-line fuel filter is a perfect example, and this last adventure with the gas tank just reminded me how out of place that damn thing is.



I mean, really. What a gross thing. I'm embarrassed it's been on there so long. Anyway, I happened upon a pretty cool little sediment bowl with a cute built in brass filter element. Didn't even need any refurbishment. Took me 5 minutes to rectify something that had been bugging me for years.







That looks so much better to me. Hasn't rattled itself into leaking a drop yet (knock on wood). I guess I'm kind of funny, because that paint peeling off of the firewall and the general state of greasy neglect doesn't bother me at all. Haha. It's all honest, hard use patina, not the artistic kind, if that helps.

 

The other thing is, I really need a temperature gauge. This will be a bit more involved than the sediment bowl. First off, I found this old(ish) Moto Meter gauge with a long enough tube and kind of the right vibe. Right enough for me, anyway. I have no idea how old it is.



Next problem is where to put it. The little dashboard on this thing is already full, so I decided to make another dashboard up under the aluminum wind deflector doohickey. Step one, make a pattern. Trial and error style.



Then transfer the outline to a leftover piece of Tulip Poplar heartwood and sand a bevel where it will fit up against the aluminum. Square on the bottom that will bear on the body.



The body on this thing flexes a good bit. I glued the main dash in so it could also act as a brace, but I'll need access to the back of this one, so glue isn't an option. I was afraid if I screwed it to the aluminum and the body, it might creak and squeak at me, so I decided to just attach it to the aluminum and seal the bottom with a little bit of leather salvaged from an old couch. I also put a little oil finish on it.



Then just some careful measurements and drilling for screws, and I call it done, at least as far as the dashboard goes.

 

Great use of the straight slot screws. Period correct! Bravo!

 

sediment bowl looks real good, now get some period hose clamps and use lacquer thinner to wipe the lettering off the hose

the added dash panel is perfect!

 

Nah, Paul. I was sorely tempted to join the hose clamp discussion, but held back. I want this thing to look like it was built in the Depression, but I have my limits, even if they are only obvious to me. Hahaaa.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Now that the turkey's settled into the smoker, I thought I'd post another update in the temp gauge saga. I don't want to drill and tap my outlet neck, so I decided to cut the top hose into two pieces and put a pipe in the middle with a fitting for the little ether filled copper bulb sender. They sell them online, but...








I wanted to use a female coupling for this part, but couldn't find one. Settled on this bushing. Oh well.






I could blame that sloppy brazing on the strong fan I had set up to blow the zinc fumes away, but I'd be lying. I just had a little trouble because the bushing wanted to heat up so much quicker than the pipe did. It's solid, just ugly. Haha.

PS: Some of you who are good at math might be worried that I'm going to feed my family undercooked turkey. Don't worry, I was up at the butt-crack of dawn firing up the smoker. These picture uploads take a long time with my puny wifi. Enjoy your day.

 

Man I just love this thing and your ingenuity. I too have followed this build from the start and wish we lived close to each other because I like using cast off parts, slotted screws, period pieces and things that are not car related but are tastefully added to the build.
Gobble Gobble happy thanksgiving!

 

Thank you. I got the gauge installed today. Had to make another dashboard. In order to clear the sloping aluminum with the back of the gauge I had to mount it lower than the center, and I couldn't like it that way. The new dash is taller, sits farther back. I made those little gussets so I could use the same screw holes in the wind deflector.





Those little screws in the face (straight slot...) don't bother me at all. Then it was just a matter of drilling holes in the cowl and firewall for the tube to pass through and splicing my homemade pipe thingamabob into the upper radiator hose. Easy money. You can see that I just wrapped the extra length around my expansion tank for now.





Don't fuss about the hose clamps. Hahaaa. By the way, I did think to test the gauge before I went to all this trouble. Stuck the bulb into a pot of boiling water and the needle shot right up to hot. Cut the heat, and as soon as the bubbles stopped it read right on the border between normal and hot . Good to know. Drove it about 10 miles today in 60 degree weather, never got above where it is in the picture. We'll see what our 100 degree summer does to it.