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Sunday, February 1, 2009

After cleaning out some space in the east end of the barn yesterday, today I moved the mowing tractor in there to make a place for the new car in the west room of the shop. I brought the car home and got it off the trailer with no trouble. I took it for a test drive down to the corner and back, a little over a mile. The first thing that was obvious is that I need more practice driving. It's completely different from driving any modern car. I also found that coming back up from the corner, on a bit of a grade, it was jackrabbit time. I'll have to do a little tinkering and figure out a reason for the lack of power.

Monday, February 2, 2009

After work today I spent most of an hour cleaning up small TT parts. A little bit at a time, I'm getting closer to starting reassembly. After stops at the bank and the grocery store, the afternoon was pretty well shot. I had just enough time to bring in wood for tomorrow night. I didn't light a fire tonight because I had a meeting of the Kansas & Oklahoma Steam & Gas Engine Association to attend.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Spent aother hour on small parts this afternoon. Not much to report.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Stayed in town after work again to paint TT parts.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

It was a warm afternoon over 60º so I got in some driving practice in the touring car. One thing I've noticed is that these cars were made for smaller people. First I drove down to the corner and back, a little over a mile, then I put Zeke in the back seat and drove around the block a couple of times. He had a grand time barking at all the neighbor dogs along the road. I'll need more practice at driving to do it smoothly. It's sort of like being a kid learning to drive all over again.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Today I drove up to Wichita for the annual Sunflower Swap Meet at the Kansas Coliseum. It turned out to be a very worthwhile trip. The first happy find was a good 1923 license plate for the touring car. It's unbent, and should paint up very nicely. The second good buy was a Holley NH carburetor for $20. The carb that came on my touring was so rust-damaged that I replaced it with the one on my TT's engine. The one I bought today has a good body with only minor rust, and that's the part I needed. I could buy a newly rebuilt carb for $190 to $240, but I think $20 for a body and maybe $40 for a few new parts is a better idea. After the license plate and the carburetor, I was free to shop for nothing in particular, and ended up with a TT jack and several Model T and Model TT tools.

While all this was going on, a ten-year-old cousin who is a great kid was having brain surgery to remove a tumor. This evening I learned that he came through the surgery OK and is able to talk. Now it's a case of waiting for the lab work to find out what kind of tumor it was.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

After doing laundry, I spent the day on old car chores. I took apart that $20 carburetor, derusted it, and painted the body. I stripped the old oxidized paint off the 1923 license plate and found that it had no rust at all. I gave it a couple of "primer" coats of white appliance epoxy. I put the fixed generator back on the touring car, and found that it's too fixed. The ammeter showed a charge of 20 amps with the lights off and 10 amps with lights on. I'll need to study the manual and learn how to adjust it down. There should be a slight charge, just above zero, with the lights on. I finished the day checking the gap on three of the spark plugs. The fourth one was rusted in so solidly that I was afraid to exert enough force to get it out. I squirted on some Kroil and left it to soak, and I'll try it again later.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Today I did more painting on the 1923 license plate, then spent the afternoon trying to get that generator to work properly. I think it will have to go back to the repairman.

Monday, February 9, 2009

This afteernoon I spent an hour and a half after work finishing the license plate. I put the black paint on the lettering, and it looks very nice.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The rain arrived this afternoon. I don't have a rain gauge out to tell how much, but in a couple of hours there were a lot of nice big puddles in the yard. The warm day, around 52º, made for considerable thunder. With all the warm days we're having, this moisture will get some of the plants going. I saw some hen bit blooming yesterday. and daffodils are sprouting. With another forty days remaining until spring, I expect before long the warm weather will go south and give them an unhappy surprise. Meanwhile, the rain has demonstrated that the leak over the bathroom door persists. I thought maybe I had fixed it with the patch I put on the upstairs roof, but all that did was eliminate a possible source and narrow the field of suspects to a couple of others.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Today I drove up to the court house and had the paperwork done to use that 1923 license plate on my touring car. When I got home and started to install the plate, I found that the mounting bracket was made for modern plates, and is too short for the old longer ones. I drove back to town and got a foot of 1" x 1/8" steel and made an extension for the bracket. Tomorrow I'll paint it and put it in the oven, so it should be ready to use Friday.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Burned up a good chunk of the afternoon with grocery shopping, and then hit the computer and looked into that real estate website I'm supposed to be working on. The more I think about it, the more I think I really won't want to take the time required to do the job.

Friday, February 13, 2009

This was the day to get that licnse plate installed on the car. It took a bit of improvisation getting the bracket extension to work, but now it looks fine. I also put the generator back on the car after the repair guy worked on it again. It's charging too high again, and I'm afraid to adjust it down. I don't want to break it again. I can't let it keep overcharging though, so I'll just have to adjust it very carefully and hope I don't break the insulator. I also have to take the radiator off the car and get the leak fixed.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

It was a pretty chilly day, so I spent most of it indoors, sorting papers and receipts to file.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

This morning I did a lot of catching up on filing receipts. After about three hours of that, I went out and took the radiator off the touring car so I can take it to town and have a leak repaired. Then Zeke and I drove over to Oxford to check out an auction. There were a few items of interest, but I didn't want to take all day waiting for them to come up, so we came home. After weeks of being a cold weather sissy, or too busy, I went out and did my three miles this afternoon. Surprisingly, I made it in 31:20. That's pretty good after such a long layoff. It shouldn't take too much effort to get back to doing it in less than thirty minutes most of the time.

Monday, February 16, 2009

This was a day to stay after work and get more done on the TT project. In this case, it was sanding the spokes on one of the front wheels with 800 grit sandpaper and spraying on another coat of paint. With that done, I took the touring car's leaky radiator to the repair shop to see if they can stop the leak. At home, I noticed that some tulip leaves are starting to poke out of the ground. With 34 days of winter left, I'm ready for it to be over. The forecast is for highs in the fifties for several days, except on Thursday. It seems that Thursdy night I may have one more fire in he fireplace. After that, if highs are over 50º and lows are over 40º, I won't need to bother with another fire.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Stayed after work again today and painted the other front wheel. Then I went and got the repaired radiator, took it home, and put it back on the car. Later I'll put in some water and try it out.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This afternoon's project was making front spring clips for the TT. Today I did the cutting and drilling, and tomorrow I'll do the welding and bending.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Curses! Foiled again. I started welding and bending the clips, but ran out of oxygen. By then it was too late in the day to go for more.

Friday, February 20, 2009

What a wonderful day! As usual on Fridays, I finished work about 9:00 AM, then did some grocery shopping. When I got home I took the truck to town and got oxygen, then got back to work on those spring clips. With those finished, I set up the sandblasting equipment and spent most of the warm afternoon blasting TT parts. I did the tie rod and spindle connecting rod and both headlight buckets. I had to quit at 3:20 because the shade had moved over my work area and I couldn't see what I was doing. Tomorrow will be about twenty degrees colder, but maybe I'll brave the cold and do some more.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Nope, no sandblasting today. After doing laundry, I worked on the TT project. One of the headlight buckets had about a half dozen pinholes from rust, so I had to solder those and grind them smooth. About noon I went to an auction and bought a five foot blade for $90. A new one lists at Orscheln farm supply for $259. I'll have to build an adapter to fit it to the tractor, then I can use it to level the yard and the driveway. After bringing the blade home, I got back to the TT parts, painting the items I sandblasted yesterday. With those done, I reassembled the front wheels and gave them a coat of polish.

Sunday,February 22, 2009

Today I did more painting of TT parts, then I started up the touring car and filled the radiator to see if I could spot any drips. What I found was not a eak from the radiator, but from the engine. There's a water leak from under the head. I'll need to install a new head gasket.

Monday, February 23, 2009

With only 25 more days until spring, I decided to put everyting else on hold for a few days and start getting ready to garden. After work I spent the rest of the afternoon removing dead weeds. Soon I'll get busy on preparing to plow and disk.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Today I finished dead weed removal. Tomorrow I'll check out the tractor and see if it's ready to plow.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

By the time I finished running errands and pying bills, I didn't have time to start up the tractor. Maybe tomorrow.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

After looking at the forecast for the next few days I decided to spend my time after work splitting some wood for the weekend. It seems we're going back into the freezer.

Friday, February 27, 2009

With grocery shopping and banking done, I spent most of the day wire brushing and painting the head and head bolts off the touring car, and working on TT headlight buckets. The buckets had lot of pitting, so I spent a lot of time priming and sanding, priming and sanding, priming and sanding to fill the pits.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Back into the freezer is right. At 7:00AM it was 20º. By 10:00 AM it was 15º with a stiff wind blowing. I went to a farm equipment auction, and I was glad when I didn't find anything I wanted, because I sure didn't want ot stay out there. I went back to work on those headlight buckets, and started making a list of parts to order and pick up when I go to the Chickaha swap meet in about three weeks.