blog719

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Busy, busy. The first job was unloading the engine I brought home yesterday. The special stand I made for hauling engines in the Suburban worked just as planned, so I was pleased with that. My supply of clean sox determined that today would also be laundry day, so that was next. Then came my dental appointment, followed by grocery shopping. I shouldn't have taken the time today, but somebody asked on the Model T forum how to remove headlight rims, so I made a page about it for the website. Some questions get repeated, so instead of repeating my answers I make web pages about the most common questions so all I have to do is post a link. I also started preparing for a little trip. I plan to go to the Iola swap meet and visit my Wisconsin cousins.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Travel day. I got as far as the Mile 203 rest area on I-90 in Minnesota and bedded down there for the night.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

I was up at 5:30, on the road at 5:37, and got to the Walmart in Whiting four hours later. After a shopping stop there I went on to Iola and trudged through the swap meet until about four. I paid $10 for a Ford oil can and $5 for a 5Z-157 connecting rod wrench. 3Z or 5Z indicates a Ford tool that was used in a dealership repair shop. Getting into the meet brought a bit of sticker shock this time. Admission is now $15 a day or $28 for the weekend. The swap meet and the car show have both drifted increasingly in a postwar direction, with fewer and fewer Model T and other prewar cars and parts. Given that and the high prices, this may be my last Iola swap meet.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Today's swapmeet hike wasn't a complete bust. I came away with a good Hayes clincher rim for $10, an NOS oil change pan for $3, a bag of 45 two inch abrasive wheels for $20, a pair of wire brushes for $1 each, and an original New Day timer cover for $1.

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Headed home. I've decided to quit doing so much restaurant eating when I travel so I won't return home weighing a lot more than when I left. Carrying my own food is also less expensive. I'm using a cooler and a picnic box my aunts bought decades ago, probably in the fifties or sixties. That works fine in the modern car, but I may have to come up with something more compact when I go Model T camping. We shall see. Today I left the Walmart in Whiting WI, where I got ice for the cooler, at 8:56 AM. I stopped to eat at the first Missouri rest area about 5:30 PM, then drove on to the first Kansas rest area where I stopped to snooze at 9:35 PM. That was a drive of 651 miles, more than enough for one day.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

This morning I drove the remaining 177 miles home and immediately hit the sack for a couple of hours more snooze time. In the afternoon I got a nap on the front porch swing, then another hour of the same after dinner. Between naps I unloaded, went grocery shopping, and took a walk down to the wood lot for an inspection tour. It looks like the north loop is OK to drive now, but the south road is still off limits. One section is still boggy with water standing in the ruts. The ten day forecast shows nothing but dry days, but that road probably won't be driveable before August.

Monday, July 15, 2019

In the cool of the morning I resumed the weed war, mixing up a batch of my MED and spraying inconvenient vegetation. We're about to plunge into deep summer, with several days near 100º in the forecast. I expect I'll be doing my yard work in the mornng and evening, and in the shop during the heat of the day. When I came in from spraying this morning I heard a sound that led me to a new batch of precious adorable kitties in the garage. I saw four and heard at least one other. I hope some will survive and become good mousers. My shop work today was preparing nuts and bolts for the fresh engine I brought home last week. I did more lock washers than I need so I'll have some already done for the next project. I stripped off the cad plating (it sheds paint), prepped with phosphoric acid, dried, and painted.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

At a quarter to nine, working in the direct sun was already becoming a sweaty affair, so I called a halt to spraying as soon as I used up today's five gallons. If I spray five gallons every morning it won't be long before the worst of the weeds are under control. In the shop I continued cleaning up fasteners for painting. I was wire brushing bolts, but the grinder with wire brush is in the barn. The building acts as an oven, and by two in the afternoon I gave it up. I'll finish that job when it's cooler. When I went to town for groceries I also picked up some pipe fittings to install a new air outlet in the east end of my shop building. I need to get a blasting cabinet set up so I can blast parts without having to set up the outdoor equipment.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

The early morning barn temperature was a nice cool 76º, and I finished wire brushing the bolts, painted them, and put them in the oven to bake. I mixed another five gallons of the MED and sprayed weeds, then when that was used up I got back to work in the shop. The job at hand was masking the runabout engine and giving it a new shot of paint. After that I started work on a Ruckstell rear axle I need to rebuild. After cleaning, derusting and inspecting parts I'll know what new parts I need to buy. One will be a replacement for the ring gear that has several broken teeth.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Lightning bug season is winding down. They arrive in late May or early June and by the middle of July are on their way out. You may see a straggler in early August, but the show is pretty much over by then. Soon the evenings will be filled with the droning summer song of cicadas in the trees. I was up before daylight this morning, a little after five, to take advantage of the morning cool. I finished wire brushing nuts to go with the bolts I finished yesterday, painted them and set them baking. I didn't have time for spraying weeds today because I had to go to town for more paint. Then I gave the runabout engine's head a fresh coat of paint to match what I put on the rest of the engine yesterday. I finished taking apart the Ruckstell I started yesterday, and put some rusty parts to soak in a treacle bath. That's a 50/50 mix of feed grade molasses and water. I've read that it's a good rust remover, so I'm giving it a try. If it works well I'll use it a lot, because it's much less expensive than Evaporust.

Friday, July 19, 2019

The world where I grew up was much different from the one where we live today. I often refer to it as another planet called the United States of America 1950. A great many things have changed, some big and some little, some for the better and some for the worse. A small thing that is worse is ice. By 1950 most people had refrigerators and no longer needed to have ice delivered for an icebeox. We had only one neighbor who still had ice delivered. But you could still buy block ice for your cooler and it lasted much longer than cubes. Today, of course, in most places the only ice you can buy comes in cubes. Recently I bought a plastic tub that just fits inside my cooler. It will hold cheese, vegetables, and other food when I travel. But before I travel it does something else. Today I put it in the freezer and filled it with water. The next time I travel, at least for the first part of the trip, I'll have a large block of ice that fits in the bottom of my cooler. This morning I was back to spraying weeds. This time it wasn't across the road or down the hill. It was tall weeds right around my shop. These are the kind of weeds I could pull, but there are just too many of them. After using up today's five gallons of MED I moved on to shop work. The first chore there was putting more rusted parts to soak in the treacle bath. Then came the main job of the day, putting the newly painted nuts, washers, and bolts on the runabout engine/transmission. I should finish that up this weekend and have it back in the car in a few days.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Change of pace. This morning I got back to work on my home made Kansas road atlas, copying KDOT county maps in sections. I spent most of the morning on it, then finished installing nuts and bolts on my fresh engine. I also put a fews more rusty items in the molasses bath to derust. I quit at 3:00 PM and headed for Wichita for dinner and a movie. Why Wichita? This time it was for shopping. It was time to buy more kimchi. I get it in gallon jars at an Asian market there because it's much cheaper by the gallon than it is in smaller sizes.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

I got up late, about eight, but didn't spend all morning playing online. I got out and mowed, and it was long overdue. I spent about five hours at it until I became weary of bouncing over the rough ground. I got most of it done and should finish up tomorrow.

Monday, July 22, 2019

First up today was more work on the road atlas. I finished Harvey and Marion counties and got them in the book, so now I have ten. I won't be doing all 105 Kansas counties. I'm including just the ones where I'm likely to do any Model T touring. Each county makes six to twelve pages, dependng on its size. After the pages are printed out I put the road names in the margins by hand. That's faster than typing the names in the computer. After my atlas work I took a walk down to the wood lot for an inspection tour. The boggy part of the road is a lttle less swampy than it was, but there's still enough water seeping out of the ground that I don't think I'll be able to drive there without getting stuck until August, or maybe even fall. I didn't get back to mowing today, but I did resume the war on enemy plants with another five gallons of MED. With a drive to town in the touring car for groceries the day was pretty well used up.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Weed pulling led today's hit parade, clearing the tall weeds out of a grassy area I want to mow. Then it was time to catch up on clerical chores, filing receipts that have been piling up for a month. I like to keep a record of what I spend. Sometimes the need arises to go back and look up an old receipt.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Today I finished up the little project I started yesterday.

It starts with a 2" x 8" piece of 18 gauge sheet metal and a mouse trap.

Do some drilling, bending, painting, prying, more bending, and stick it on your firewall...

...and you have a place for your oil can to sit.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

I spent the morning getting ready for a trip, and left a little after 1:00 PM. The rest of the story is here.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Today I went and fetched the touring, as the linked story shows. This evening I took off the transmission cover and removed a few things, and confirmed that the engine/transmission will definitely have to come out. I added the new pictures to the story.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

First up today was a drive to Winfield to check out the Defore auction. I stayed for about an hour to bid on a radio. I was willing to gamble $2 on it without knowing whether it would work, but not $4, so somebody else got it for $3. I came home and got a little work done. I also took an inspection walk in the wood lot and was pleased to find that the road is drying out. In another week I expect it will be safe to drive without fear of getting stuck. In the shop I got one of the wheels back on the runabout and will do the other tomorrow. I also took the valve covers out of the molasses, rinsed and prepped them, gave them their first painting, and put them in the oven to bake. They're heavily orange-peeled, so will need multiple coats to fill the pits. It would be nice if I could find the covers that were on the car, but that won't happen anytime soon. They're not in any place that makes sense to me now.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

This was supposed to be the day I installed the engine in the runabout. It started out that way, but the day ended with the job undone. The problem is getting the shaft from the U-joint to fit into the back of the transmission. Sometimes that's easy and it slips right in with no trouble. Other times it puts up an exasperating fight. Today was one of those other times. I'll try it again tomorrow after cooling off and getting some sleep.

Tilting the engine back to get the pedals past the firewall is the easy part.

Aiming that U-joint shaft to fit into the back of the transmission is the maddening part of the job.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Done. While taking time out to do laundry I continued the struggle to get the engine back into the runabout. A few minutes after noon the U-joint shaft and the transmission finally slid together and it was in. With time out for grocery shopping I spent the rest of the day reinstalling various hardware. I may have the car back together and ready to drive in a couple of days.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

All day I worked on the runabout. I bolted up the ball cap, lowered the body onto the frame and installed the bolts, installed the engine mounting blocks and bolts, installed the steering column, wishbone, fan, and one valve cover. Tomorrow I'll buy gasket material and do the other valve cover, and add manifolds, carburetor, and other items. With any luck I'll greet the new month by going for a drive.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Today's reassembly included the other valve cover and the manifolds. But time out for shopping kept me from getting more done. I was able to buy gasket material and sealant locally, but the brass tubing to cover a speedometer sensor was another story. I wasted over an hour driving to Ponca City to get it at Hobby Lobby only to discover that the largest size they carry is ¼". Needing a larger size, ¹³⁄₃₂", when I got home I resorted to shopping online. I have to do that often these days. I found that I could buy what I wanted from Ace Hardware and pick it up at the local store. The question now is how long it will take to get there.

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