*Mr.ModelT Re-builds his '26 Roadster ~ Official Build Thread*

[MrModelT]

*INTRODUCTION AND FORWARD*
A build thread of epic proportions!

There are many of you here that know me and this car from the H.A.M.B.....for those who don't, enjoy

This first time around with the build up of this car, I had not found the Ford Barn, or it's "partner in crime" the H.A.M.B. yet...so I didn't get a chance to to share my build as it progressed. Now I can.

The reason behind this re-build is my friend Chris and I's journey to Bonneville for the "Speed Week" this coming summer. It started with just a simple engine rebuild....and ended up engulfing the whole chassis, body removed and all!

...But this gave me the chance to "right some wrongs" that I was never really happy with.

So here follows my past updates starting in August to present and I will be continually updating with new updates.

Enjoy,
Clayton - Mr.Model T

[MrModelT]

UPDATE:
A new heart for the beast.

It has been quite awhile since I posted a decent update here because I haven't really done anything new on the roadster with the exception of driving the hell out of it.

I know that many of you have followed this thread and my many exploits...and those in league with my "partner in crime" Chris Becker (powerwagonmaniac) here on the H.A.M.B. with great interest and respect. For this I am honored. I also know that many of you know of our plans to DRIVE our T's (my roadster and the "Becker Special") to Bonneville for Speed Week in 2012.

In light of this somewhat daunting journey, I realize that the "Special" is all new and fresh...yet my ol' roadster is not in it's prime and needs a full "work over" before we go. This "work over" will include an entirely new engine, transmission, rear axle, suspension and general clean up on the under carriage.

The new engine will be a bit more of a "monster" then it's predecessor and specs out as follows:

'26-'27 block, bored .080 over
'26-'27 "EE" series crank
Egge .080 pistons
.300C full-race cam
289/302 Ford SB V8 valves
New babbit bearings (rods/mains)
fully balanced engine/transmission

Also have a pair of Stromberg 81's on the way from Uncle Max here on the H.A.M.B. to go with my Burns intake. This new "monster" power plant is complete and will be here at the end of next week....so stay tuned for a new update and plenty of pictures!

I will also be updating regularly over the next several months as the tear down and rebuild gets into full swing!

Here is the link to my "Bonneville 2012...Cruise with me!" thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...light=mrmodelt

..and the link to the build thread for my roadster's traveling companion: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...light=mrmodelt

More to come! Stay Tuned!

Clayton - Mr.Model T

[MrModelT]

UPDATE:
A new heart for the beast: Part Deux!

On Saturday morn, my brother and I left the hotel (where we were staying for the wedding we had come to Spokane for) and headed over to the Antique Auto Ranch to pick up the new engine for the roadster. We followed our directions to the industrial side of town to find a small shop (consisting of several older buildings and garages joined together) creating a delightfully awesome shop full of old engines, tools and parts EVERYWHERE!

Tom and Mike both met us as entered and Mike gave us the grand tour...including the awesome "wrecking yard" out back. After the tour, we headed back into the shop to get my new motor. $2,400 later (Sooo...worth it ) we were on the road headed back to the hotel. Her is what we brought home:

The Short Block:


The Underside:



The new vales (289/302 SB Ford) with new hardened Stainless Steel seats:


The bottom side of the valves with new modern style keepers:



The rebuilt transmission:


I also received my new carburetors on Monday. I have been asking around on the H.A.M.B. as to the type of carbs I should use and if the pair of 97's I had intended to use would be too much. No matter who I talked to, I always got the same answer..."Go for a pair of 81's, you'll be better off"

So I got in contact with Uncle Max here on the H.A.M.B. who specializes in Stromberg 48 , 97 and 81's and does AMAZING work! He was kind enough to custom build a set of 81's for this motor. Monday they appeared on my desk at work:



That concludes this update, but there shall be more to come as we tear into the roadster to install her new "Heart" .....Stay tuned!

Clayton - Mr.ModelT

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
A little paint...and little blasting...and some Model A bones

Well, not a whole lot to report right now except that the new short block is now in color!.....Red of course, like it's predecessor.



I also bead blasted the Burns intake and picked up a fairly complete Model A front axle for parts (courtesy of fellow H.A.M.B.er North Portland Custom) ...as I intend to put the Model A wishbone to work as a replacement for the Laural lowering brackets currently on my car.

The Laural brackets don't allow the front suspension to flex much...at all really so as part of the "Bonneville Build up" I am taking the time to completely redesign the front end with a new Model A split wishbone style setup.

More to come!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
.....IT BEGINS!....

As much as I hated to do it.....I started pulling the roadster apart last night ....in preparation for the Bonneville rebuild and new engine!

Here are some pics from the "party"...





The new pan....painted and ready!


More to come....stay tuned!

[MrModelT]

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*UPDATE*
Demolition continues...

As painful as it is, I continued my disassembly of the roadster Saturday with removing the body and getting the car taken down to a bare chassis....a state that the car has not been in for 6 years

..But we all have to think positive...it's for a good cause

Here are the visuals:



After 40 more minutes, the body was off...




The body on it's new stands. Bill used these 5 foot tall saw houses for painting for years. Saturday I widened them by 19" to allow the chassis to roll under them.


And the final package: It's new storage situation while the chassis is being rebuilt.


...All in a days work

Stay tuned for more!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
...More Demolition....

I continued on the disassembly of the roadster this weekend. With the help of my lovely girlfriend, we got the chassis pretty much stripped. Just the suspension remains. Here are the visuals from this weekends exploits:

My girlfriend Julia even got into the fun....and had a great time!

I did find some damage to the Chicago overdrive which I will need to fix. I will do a post on that next time as I pull it apart.


More to come later, stay tuned!

Clayton

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Made some drawings... but not much else

I haven't made much progress in the last two weeks because me and the girlfriend (SaucyNordicTart here on the H.A.M.B.) are in the midst of a move. I have had some spare time to work out some of the old, still present issues with the suspension. After waking up with the "light bulb" of progress at 2:30 am, I scribbled out my ideas and refined them into the tech drawings bellow the next day:

The Front Wishbone Setup:
I had intended to do something different for the wishbone and front suspension on this car as early as 2009, but never could work it out like I wanted. The Model A wishbone idea just hit me after staring at it for countless years on a friends T...DUH! The only thing I was not satisfied with was the ball-joint ends at the frame...what to use? They couldn't be newer style, just wouldn't fit...then It hit me: Model A Tie Rod ends! Model T Ball caps and Tie Rod ends have been used in split-bone setups on dirt track and speedsters throughout the 'teens and 20's ...and they are far more "scary" then the Model A rod ends, plus you can buy them complete new tomorrow


The Rear Lowering Brackets:

The rear axle has been giving me a bit of "bottoming out" problems as of late and I'd like to give the car a slight rake (not too extreme, but she is sagging a bit these days). The only problem is that I have no room for adjustment with the current setup.....then I got this idea for another spin on my current lowering technique. My current spring is hung from the bottom of the axle (with the tubes flipped R for L), This design would flip the tubes back and hang the spring from the top but give me almost 12" of adjustment of ride height.


More to come! ...

Clayton

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Chicago Breakdown

I also had some time in the last few weeks to pull that Chicago apart and go through it. When the motor was pulled out 2 weeks ago, I found some damage to the Chicago Overdrive..in the form of the input shaft bearing retainer which had walked off of it's threads and been rattling around in the void of the rear ball cap for who knows how long. In light of this, I decided to pull the whole gear box apart and go through it:

The Chicago Mark-E Overdrive:


My original paint work had taken a beating, so I thought it was time for a good repaint.....and a color change:



The gear clusters all looked good...Low gear was a bit munched, but that is common in these accessory gearboxes. All bearings are still tight so they will stay:


The only bearing that gives me concern is the rear output shaft bearing, who's race contains a large chip. I will replace this bearing:

Here is the damaged input shaft bearing retainer. The threads have been wiped out on one side, so Chris and I will need to make a new one:


Once I get the new bearing for the output shaft, I will have more pictures of the assembly process.

More to come!

Clayton

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
I'm actually able to make an "Update"...Hooray!

It has been far too long since I got the chance to make any progress on the T....3 weeks in fact (moving has that effect sometimes), and I was having withdrawals!

Last night I made it out to the shop and had the whole place to myself, so I attacked the most important "starting point" of the build: The Frame.

When I originally built the T, I "added" a few things to the frame that I was never really happy with...it was also one of the first projects I tackled when I started the project 5 years ago...and it showed I had added some extra bracing to the rear end of the frame, mainly because I thought I would need it for the rumble seat and to add some aesthetic frame "horns" at the rear to match the ones I added at the front.

...This did not pan out well and looked awful.

The frame horns on the rear of the car looked really bad, so I cut them off...leaving the rest of the "monstrosity" (from the end of the "turtle deck" forward) still welded to the frame because removal of the body was required to cut it off. I also had some clearance issues in the rear and did some "cutting and hacking" to try and solve them. So needless to say....that was left to "haunt" me...

..until now

Since I had planned to do a major rebuild and was forced to pull the body to remove and replace engines anyway, I decided to strip it down to the bare frame and "right the wrongs" I had made the first time around. I started with cutting off all the "crap" that I had welded on.

This photo shows the rear end of the frame in it's original configuration with the added "support" frame still in place:


After removing the "crap"....I set about repairing the butchered rear cross member ends. I had made a major (and rather nasty) weld joint right on top of them and had "hacked" on them with the plasma cutter, butchering them pretty good before finally removing them. I had kept the originals that I cut off and had an earlier cross member ends to use as replacements. Sadly, the earlier ends were too narrow, so I decided to use them to patch and rebuild the original ends.

After much cutting, welding, grinding and shaping I had the had the rear cross member rebuilt and looking almost as good as new!

Here is my handy work:











I also noticed that the front frame horn on the RH side was considerably lower than the LH side...so I cut, re-adjusted and re-welded it back in place correctly at the same level as the other. Placed a Level between them and the bubble was perfect

I still have much more to do: Front and rear shock mounts, new cross member "amidships" to help support the Chicago O.D. and a few other small cleanup and repair jobs, but I don't mind because I'm doing it right this time...the way I should have and always wanted to.

More to come, stay tuned!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
The front end finally underway!

I did make a little more progress on the roadster. I got a start on the split wishbones, getting them ground to fit the T axle and Chris turned some pieces on the lathe to finish up the wishbones on Wednesday night.

Here is the latest:








More to come

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
More fun with Wishbones

Got a little more work done on the wishbones last night. In my search to find a period alternative to modern split wishbone ball-joint ends, I came across the method of using Model A tie-rod ends and replacement ball joints. I really liked the way it all worked out and I could buy all those components new....so I did. After buying up all the extra parts I would need, I made up a few drawings to get my ideas straight and make sure I do it right the first time.

First thing I did last night was re-hang the front spring and center up the axle on the front cross member.





Last week I got the radius rods re-ground to fit the T axle. Last night I got the wishbone ends cut and welded in. For the adjustable threaded ends on the 'bones, I bought a second sacrificial tie-rod and took 6" off each end (with the L and RH threads) and welded them into custom adapters that Chris was kind enough to make up for me on the Lathe (to size them up the the ID of the 'bones....then I welded those assemblies into the 'bones...



With all that welded in place, this is what I got ..Was quite pleased with how it turned out...still have some more clean up to do.




...that concludes this weeks efforts, more to come!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Fun with wishbones Part Deux!

This weeks update is rather large, as I made a considerable amount of progress this weekend. My main focus this weekend was completing the wishbones. I had already fab'ed and welded up the the adjustable ball jointed frame mount ends of the wishbones the week prior



....so my first line of business was to get them finished up, by getting the front axle ends modified for the right fit and the correct Castor angle. First I mocked up the frame and the front end to actual ride height...front wheels and all and a little more space between the front cross member and axle this time around.







Next, I mocked up the the frame mounting places using a Model A Pittman arm.



Next I pulled the 'bones off and carefully cut the tubes so that I could remove the castings.



Then I reinstalled the cut 'bones and adjusted the front axle to the appropriate 5 1/2 degrees of castor....actually 6 1/2 which is specified in "The Secrets of Speed" for Ford race cars





...Then they were all welded up



My other endeavors for the day were to cut the new shackle plates for the front wisbones....







And I used the ol' press trick to reverse the main leaf..



I have a few parts on order, and a few more things to make, but I should be able to finish this and get the front end complete and hung next weekend.

More to come!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Fun with the front shackles continues....

Thanks to "Mr. Machinist", I was able to make some more much needed progress on the front suspension on the T this weekend.

After Chris had turned the tubes I needed for the front spring perches, I set about putting them to use as I had intended. I had already cut my spring perch plates the week prior, so all that was left was to trim the tubes down to the right length, machine the holes through the perch plates, set everything up for a test fit and weld it all up. I didn't meet my welding goals, but got everything setup and ready for tomorrow...since I have the day off

Her is what I left last night:




The fit is still a lil' rough, but I still have some work to do. Look at all the clearance it has now!!!


I also drug the rear end over and got it mocked up behind the frame so that when we get the front done....it's on the the rear shackles!



More to come

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Front shackles are DONE and they WORK!!!!!!!!

So I took the day off yesterday and went to the shop to play and had a few solid hours to finish up my new front shackles that I fab'ed up Saturday. After spending nearly 35 minutes measuring, adjusting, double and triple checking all of my tolerances, distances and centers....it was time to weld. I first tacked the tubes that Chris made me in place, removed the assemblies and welded the heck out of them. Step two was to assemble the shackles again and weld them to the wishbones. Both went off like a charm and front end is hung and supporting the chassis up front with the blocks removed

Here is the latest from yesterday:




Also got the outside pieces for the shackle flanges and welded them into place


Here is the front end from above






Stay tuned for more as I finish the frame mounts for the 'bones ball joint ends and move on to the rear suspension!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Frame mount plates for the split wishbones

Put in a little time on Saturday and got the frame mount plates for the split wishbones made up and some clean up work done on the new shackle mounts from the previous week. Got all the welding and fab work done, but didn't get them finished up or mounted....next weeks project









More to come!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Well, I know it's not much.....but at least it's somethin'..

I did make it out to the shop last night, but couldn't really start anything major....so I got the front shocks and the head light brackets back on so that I can start on the front shock mounts and the headlight fork repair.

I didn't get a whole heck of allot done, but for all of you screaming for updates and starting to go into withdrawals this is something to tide you over....and to stop you all from eating yourselves



Basic overview of the front shock arrangement


I also rolled it out into the center to get some better shots of the finished wishbones


It's startin' to look like a Model T again!








I did get some clean-up work on the front shackles


....and for Youngster, the supports on the frame mount ball-stud plates


Just a general view


More to come this weekend...hopefully. The Christmas holiday has begun to hamper my progress a bit, but I'll be back to it full-force soon!

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Front End Work - The Headlight Fork / License Plate Bracket

Whew!.... After that whirl wind Christmas holiday, I have been itching to get back to the shop and with Monday off...I made the most of it playing with cars



I have a few more small projects to tackle on the front end of the chassis before I can "sign off" on the front end and move to the rear end, so yesterday I worked on another important piece of the puzzle who's finish was not up to my benchmark.....the headlight fork assembly.



The forks have never been right since day 1 (I was learning) and since the the car was getting a refresh, I added them to the list. I had collected the correct looking pieces (like the yellow cross bar from a White Truck) for them over the last few years, just never got around to fixing it. I got started by cutting the assembly apart (also found a bad weld in the process):



Next I made up some replacement studs (with some awesome old cap nuts I found) for the two forks as the originals were toast and broken off.



...then I got them all welded on:



Next, I cut down the cross bar. I removed 1 1/4" from each side to make it fit. I'm quite proud of my welding job







The newly welded, trued up and rebuilt headlight forks after clean up work and some bead blasting:



All assembled....







Next week, I plan to get the front shock mounts made and at least a start on the front Panhard bar.

More to come, stay tuned

[MrModelT]

*UPDATE*
Oh...A riveting we will go, a riveting we will go....

Well Happy New Year my fellow Model T-ers and what better way to start off the new year then with another great update!

Since I had a 4-day weekend due to the holiday, I was able to get some extra work done....so Friday I headed out to the shop to get my wishbone ball stud plates drilled for Saturday's "Riveting Extravaganza" as I mentioned last week.

Most of Friday was spent drilling......10 holes....because Vanadium Steel is VERY HARD and my new plates decided to have a few hard spots



sorry this one is a bit blurry, but it is the finished drilling work



The following morning, a good friend of the Shop...Mr. George Lavaco was kind enough to come out with his vintage riveting tools to give me a hand. First thing was to get the rivets laid out on a fire brick (or in our case a cinder block) and get them heated up:





Once the rivets were red hot, Our friend Brian would garb them with pliers and put them into the holes in the frame:



Then I had to put the big steel forming buck against the rivet head while George hit it with the air hammer from the back side:







And after all that (which killed my shoulder!) we got this as our final product:



I'm quite pleased how this turned out

Next week: Front Panhard bar/Shock mounts.

....Stay tuned

[MrModelT]

....Whew! ...that was ALLOT of updates!

That should keep you all busy for a little bit anyway..and stay tuned for new updates, posted regularly on Mondays and Thursdays!