Back in the game

[dan]

Well, 11 years after I sold my 1931 coupe and moved to McPherson KS to get an Auto Restoration degree from Mac college, I finally bought another A.




This particular car needs a fair bit of work. But it runs, drives, and stops OK. Before I drive it around regularly, I need to fix the ebrake (which currently won't lock), add seat belts, and put turn signals on it.


A few funny things: it was repainted (not particularly well) about 20 years ago, and they didn't bother to take the gas cap off... so it's the same green as the body. Also, the roof trim is held on by... drywall screws. I got a chuckle out of that. Somebody couldn't figure out how to repair the horn button/switch, so there's a doorbell button mounted on the steering column. Horn works, though. The back seat is full of trophies. I'm not sure what tiny 80's car shows this thing was in, but it's certainly no trophy winner in its current state.


More pictures later for your amusement.

[rfitzpatrick]

More pictures later for your amusement.[/QUOTE]



PLZ DO!!

[Chuck Dempsey]

Welcome Back!

[Gene F]

I think I had an extra gas cap when my car was painted, and asked the painter to spray it. I have a chrome one, but I seem to recall I saw that somewhere a few years ago.

What is that on the front bumper?

[dan]

"Horn button"

Really, I just can't understand this one. I mean, if you can't fix the horn button because you don't understand how the mechanism works, or you don't want to pull the rod out of the steering column, that's one thing. But why do this? Why? :-)


Drywall screws

Possibly the wood had gone bad? This is another mystery to me. Again, I might understand screws that weren't what belongs there. But to just go into your garage and grab a handful of drywall screws has me shaking my head.



Trophies
Most of these seem to be from "Disney Days" car shows in the 2008-2011 range. I suppose that means that car was either in Anaheim or Orlando during that period. I have to hope it won these before the bad repaint. Who knows?

[Gene F]

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Well people make interesting choices on an old car sometimes. Think this is bad try a streetrod - everything is made up.

[Ayers1]

Nice car to start with! My cars are definitely not show winners but I had one at a show a couple of years ago I won 1st simply because I had the doors open and let people sit in it. You never know how people will react to your car!

[dan]

Other interesting things...

So, I bought the car out of state (not too far away) after looking it over, because it was within my price range and my wife liked the color :-) My coupe was that not-very-attractive 1931 tan and dark brown, which she didn't like at all. Anyway, the owner--a really nice kid in his late 20s early 30s--had bought the car two years ago and decided it wasn't for him. He said he quickly discovered that he preferred a modern "turn it on and drive it" experience.

He'd taken it to a local mechanic who'd replaced the coil, condenser, and points, put on a new belt and radiator hoses, a new carb, and he couldn't remember what else. He said the mechanic ran it at his shop, but when he got it home he couldn't get it to start. When I got there and looked it over, I asked him what he'd tried. Turns out he didn't know about the choke/gav... so I started it, ran it for two minutes or so, and then bought it.

Today while going over it and making my three-part list (must fix now, should fix soon, would be nice) I ran it for a bit longer. It looks like it's leaking at the second-from the rear driver's side head stud and has a little something escaping at the number three plug. I'll tighten both of those back down tomorrow and see what happens. Somewhere in my box of A stuff I have a new copper head gasket, so if I have to open up the engine at least I don't have to wait for that to arrive.

The doors latches were really poorly adjusted. An easy fix, but the handles are really sloppy and it might need new ones. The handle bases had been sprayed over in the cheesy repaint, so I'd probably do that anyway.

It's missing the floor wood, which I knew from when I looked at it. I bought some board today and downloaded the template, so I'll cut that out tomorrow. I should probably dive into the ebrake tomorrow too. It holds the car, but won't latch. I'm hoping it's just an adjustment thing, not a woggled-out pivot hole.

The headlights don't work. I'm pretty suspicious that there's a problem with the switch rod, because of the horn button on the side of the steering column that I posted a photo of. They're those "sealed beam" things that were popular a while back. I've done a good bit of electric work in the past, so it shouldn't be too hard to sort out. I can't register it without lights, so that's near the top of my second list.

In some ways the car seems pretty original. Just the single tail light, no cowl lights--just a plain-jane Tudor. Rubber floor mats and the rest of the bottom-of-the-line things you'd get in a 29 Tudor. But the things I posted photos of are clearly from a bad "restoration" so the car seems like an odd duck to me.

More later

[Gene F]

Wasn't for him. Everyone wants muscle car. I took my 36 Plymouth streetrod to the Mopar Nationals about a month ago. I think I saw three other pre war Mopars, and there were tons of cars at the event.

[dan]

Originally Posted by Gene F

Wasn't for him. Everyone wants muscle car. I took my 36 Plymouth streetrod to the Mopar Nationals about a month ago. I think I saw three other pre war Mopars, and there were tons of cars at the event.

Yeah and I can actually respect that. Not everyone likes the same stuff. Late 60s early 70s stuff mostly leaves me cold.

I thought it was cool that he was interested and tried it out. But you have limited hobby time and funds in life… better to invest it in something you actually enjoy. And it worked out good for me obviously.

[nkaminar]

Dan,

In post #8 you mentioned a couple things that I thought I should comment on.

One was the leaking head bolt. Related to that is the need to check the head bolt torques. The sequence doesn't matter as much as bringing the torque up to 55 foot-pounds in increments of 10 foot-pounds. If they haven't been tightened in a while you may want to start at 25 foot-pounds, then 35, 45, and finally 55. You don't need to back off the torque. To fix a leaky head bolt, remove the stud and re install with gasket cement. Drain the coolant down to below the engine level before doing so.

The other was the copper head gasket. If your head and block are perfectly flat that will work OK, but others have reported better luck with the Best brand graphite gasket and the copper spray gasket cement. If you remove and reinstall the head, re torque the head on a cold engine after the initial warm up, after 100 miles, and after 1,000 miles. And bring the torque up to 55 foot-pounds in increments as above.

[dan]

Originally Posted by nkaminar

Dan,

In post #8 you mentioned a couple things…

Thanks for the info. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had an A so I’m sure I’ll have more questions and requests for advice

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I am going to make some observations regarding this post.

The car Dan purchased was likely being considered a 'restored' Model-A. Now I have not inspected Dan's vehicle up-close however based on what I see in the pictures and things Dan described in post #8, to me it seems like this car was just a used car that at some point had some things repaired and then repainted. In many, many areas of this car it appears that much was either repaired poorly, -or just intentionally overlooked. Dan's car is not alone as I see this type of car advertised on social media every time I look.

The irony is that 30-40 years ago in this hobby from what I remember, cars like this were purchased with the plan to actually restore it. These were not considered 'restored' cars by hobbyists back then. I guess it is a good thing that Dan has spent the last 4+ years getting an education on how to properly repair & restore (-returning it to a condition equal to or better than what it was when originally manufactured) vehicles just like this as he will likely have a great career ahead of him doing just that. (Dan, I have sent you an PM.)

[dan]

Originally Posted by BRENT in 10-uh-C

I am going to make some observations regarding this post.

The car Dan purchased was likely being considered a 'restored' Model-A.

Agreed. Someone who didn't know much might have that idea. Probably the kid I bought it from bought it as a "restored" car. Of course, I didn't pay a "restored" price, so there's that. But a (bad) respray and a few repairs aren't a restoration--and a lot of folks new to the hobby don't seem to get that. And to be fair, there are guys who know better looking to sell badly resprayed, mechanically unsound cars for 10k.

Originally Posted by BRENT in 10-uh-C

The irony is that 30-40 years ago in this hobby from what I remember, cars like this were purchased with the plan to actually restore it.

Yeah. That's my plan. But looking online I've seen some really ratty cars going for 8-11k that really need probably 6k worth of work to be reliable and far, far more than they'd ever be worth to "restore." It's always amusing to see some amateur-restored standard coupe with cowl lights listed for $27 large.

For me, this is just one of the hobbies that keeps me out of mischief on the weekends. So I don't "need" to get whatever money I spend back out of it at the "end." I'll wrench it, drive it, slowly get it back into excellent mechanical condition, then maybe see about the cosmetics. I don't need to make money off of it, and I don't expect to sell it unless something unexpected happens.



My plan is that after I've restored it I'll drive it so much it needs restored again before I'm done. :-)