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Yesterday my speedometer was skipping around to all sorts of crazy numbers (26, 52, 47, 19, 300, etc.). I found that in a hard right turn the bracket holding the sensor was pressing against the axle. This forced the tube covering the sensor against the wheel (thus the scratches on the spokes), and the covering was now gone, with the sensor hanging loose. So today I narrowed the bracket so it wouldn't contact the axle, installed a new sensor cover (3/8" brass tubing), and sealed it with Ultra Black. Later I drove up to the county seat to renew my driver's license (a round trip of 37 miles), and the speedometer worked perfectly. I checked it against the "Your speed" sign in Winfield.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Today's work on the touring car was undercoating. Recently while working under the car I noticed that the guys who "restored" the body left some of the sheet metal bare. No paint, no coating, nothing but bare steel. This is not a wise plan. So I spent a couple of hours today masking what I didn't need to coat and spraying on the undercoating. I would like to go to the Model T tour in Coffey and Osage Counties this weekend, so I spent part of the day gathering gear to take along. I also started preparing maps. The Kansas DOT county maps are excellent except for some of the roads not being well identified. So I print out copies of the areas I may visit and fill in the missing names. Whether I actually go on the tour depends on the weather. I still don't have a top on this car, so a high chance of rain will keep me home.

Friday, May 3, 2019

The weather gods dumped .6" of rain and I stayed home. I'll have the maps for some other time. I was not only deterred by the falling precipitation, but also by the likelihood that some of the back roads I use for Model T driving would be flooded. When the current pattern of frequent rainy days lets up and the forecast shows several dry days, Shorty and I will have our own tour.

Saturday, May 4, 2019

This morning I checked out a couple of auctions. The first, just north of town, was a big one. There was a lot of stuff, mostly in good condition, but I sawalmost nothing I needed or wanted. So I drove on to Winfield to see what they had at the other one. That was better. There were several things I thought worth bidding. so while they were selling all the stuff you'd have to pay me to haul off, I came home and took care of some other chores, and went back in the afternoon to buy a few things. I ended up paying $12 for two sets of shelves, $1 for a drill, $6 for a box that included a dog bone wheel puller, $1.50 for a box which included a tubing bender, $5 for a few dozen wrenches, and 75¢ for a box of stuff that included a new handle for one of my shovels that has a broken one.

Sunday, May 5, 2019

What a mess! I tried to add descriptive titles to the URL's of some web pages. It didn't work, and I spent all morning and part of the afternoon editing HTML to put my website back the way it was. About two in the afternoon I finished up and was able to go do something useful. That was fixing the hand brake lever on my touring car so it will stay where I put it. A slipping lever is at least annoying, and in some circumstancves could be dangerous. The pawl that's supposed to catch on the teeth of the quadrant was worn down to a nubbin, so I had to weld it up and grind it to fit. Of course I built it up too much, so when I installed the lever it wouldn't move at all. So I had to take it off and grind some more, then reinstall and try it again. After the third time removing the thing to grind it some more I finally got it right.

Monday, May 6, 2019


A mess of another kind greeted me this morning. Last night a big hailstorm hit. It knocked down a lot of leaves and small branches, beat most of the tall grass down to the ground, and broke a kitchen window. It also broke the temperature gauge on my mowing tractor. It went on much longer than most hailstorms, which are usually pretty brief, but fortunately it was nickel and dime size so it didn't damage the outdoor vehicles.

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

One of today's chores was taking the broken kitchen window and a window from my shop, also broken by the hailstorm, to town for new glass. I also shopped for a small can. I think a two-inch round can will be handy to make a housing for a speedometer light in the touring. I thought maybe I would find one containing baby food, but all of that was in jars. It turned out that a small can of sardines is the perfect size. That will provide me with a couple of tasty tostadas and a handy light housing for my speedometer. During that trip the touring car's starter quit working. It's sounded pretty sick for awhile, and now it's dead. That was no problem, because I could still start with the hand crank—until I got home. When I started to back the car into the shop I stalled it, and couldn't get it going again. No amount of pulling the crank produced even a cough. Choking once, twice, thrice, no choking at all, on battery or on magneto, nothing. It was getting late so I put a big tarp over the car and I'll work on it in the daylight tomorrow between rain storms.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Fortunately it was a new tarp. The rain overnight left 2.8" in the gauge. When I looked at the touring car I found that the tarp had sagged enough to collect water and formed a tub between the front and back seats containbing about forty to fifty gallons of water. I bailed out most of it with a pail until I was able to lift the tarp to remove the rest. I was happy to find that all underneath was dry. So I set about finding why the car wouldn't start. I set up the plug tester and checked all the spark plugs. They were sooty, but all tested good. So I cleaned them and put them back in. Still no start. Next was the timer. I took it off, cleaned it, and reinstalled it. No start yet. In a dozen pulls of the crank it was easy pull a few times, as if it wanted to fire, but no go. Next was the carburetor. As I was removing it I got a hint of the trouble when a little bit of gas ran out of the throttle end. Sure enough, when I removed the bowl and checked the float level I found it set way too high. The service manual calls for a setting of about ¼". It was at only ¹⁄₈" . So I set it at ¼", put the bowl back on, and reinstalled the carb. Problem solved. With the float reset the car starts easily. The problem all along was flooding. Now it starts easily with one pull of the crank on battery or one or two pulls on magneto. I am delighted. We don' need no steenking starter. But apparently I fixed that too when I took the switch out and oiled it. After reinstalling the oiled switch I found that I could start the car easily with the starter or by hand. Now I am even more delighted.

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Brrrrr. 45º isn't bad in February, but it feels mighty cold in the second week of May, especially with a north wind blowing it at you. This morning the glass shop phoned to let me know the new windows for my shop and the kitchen were ready, so I headed for town to fetch them. I found Chestnut Avenue closed. Last night I heard that over the past few days parts of Butler County had received 14" of rain. Today a lot of that water was arriving here by way of the Walnut river. After installing the new windows I went back and took pictures of the flooding.

It's not unusual for Chestnut Avenue west of the bridge to flood.	The river was well up over its banks.
I expect this much water, moving this fast, will require some road repairs.	Looking east at Chestnut Avenue from the other side of the river.
This house is usually on a little island during floods, but this time the water came right up to the house.	Even US 166 east of town was under water. I don't recall seeing that before.

Friday, May 10, 2019

I was off to Tulsa for a work day at Mike Bender's shop. I mostly did grunt work like sandblasting and cleaning, while Mike handled most of the work that called for knowledge and skill.

Taking off a shartp edge.	Machinist at work.
Checking the pan for straightness. It was straightened a few years ago, but now is a little off. I wonder if that big pothole in Chicago bent it.	Removing old gasket.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Once again I'll quote Bushytail Squirrel when Santa brought him a sackful of nuts: "Oh, I am so happy!" The source of my joy is mowing. Today I installed the new deck belt on the Dixon mower. Having a belt of the correct size makes all the difference in the world. I mowed in front of the house, on both sides, and in back. There's more to do, but I did more than half the job today. My next chore in this department will be finding out why my Allis mowing tractor is too gutless to mow, and fixing that.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

When I was at Mike's Friday he suggested that I should get a better front axle for the runabout. He was right, of course. The one I've been using has a pretty noticeable bend in it. So this morning I went to the parts pile in the back yard and found one that looks nice and straight. I spent a big chunk of the day removing the old spindles, wishbone, and perches, and the real time killer—some aftermarket hardware used to adapt the thing for use as part of a farm wagon. I spent a lot of time with a breaker bar and an impact wrench, but several times I had to resort to the heat wrench, firing up the acetylene torch, turning the rusted-stuck part red and letting it cool. The heat breaks up the rust and lets the stuck part move. Sometimes it moves easily and quickly, and sometimes I have to pour on the penetrating oil and work with it awhile. During the times heated parts were cooling I picked up trash along the road and went to town for groceries. Yesterday I found US 166 open into town, but today Chestnut Avenue was still closed. It will soon reopen, though. The forecast shows several rainless days coming up.

TW is the mark of Transue Williams, one of Ford's parts suppliers. I don't know what the U is for.

Monday, May 13, 2019

Goodbye, old friend. The sandblasting hood I made many years ago has finally reached the falling-apart stage where it needs to be replaced, so I'll buy or make a new one. I made the old one for the perfect price (scraps on hand), so you can guess which course Mister Thrifty will take. This morning I used the old hood one last time, holding it on with one hand and blasting with the other, as I sandblasted my "new" axle. I spent the afternoon going to Wichita for an appointment with the eye doc. She found the pressure in both eyes excellent, so the medicine has been working and we were both pleased. This evening I painted the axle. It will dry overnight, then I'll set it outside to bake in the sunshine for a few days.

I use Rustoleum satin finish on chasiss parts. I think glossy would look ridiculous.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Wash day, with a twist. For decades I've used coin laundries. But the last time I did a wash I found that the only local laundry had gone all-cold-water. All the warm or hot water controls on the machines had duct tape over them. So today I decided to see if I could use the old Maytag wringer washer that's been sitting on the west porch since the sixties. It took considerable cleaning up, then I had to find out how to operate it. I found a couple of videos online that weren't great, but gave some clues. A note with one of the videos told about the safety device that would most likely be defunct, and how to bypass it. There was a long tube with a rubber bulb on the end. You were supposed to stand on the bulb to activate a switch that would let the wringer operate. In an emergency you would take your foot off the bulb and that would stop the wringer. Well, rubber deterioraters with age, and the bulb was long gone. The online note told of unscrewing the plunger that's supposed to operate the safety switch and screwing in a half inch bolt in its place. That's what I did, and it worked. Those rollers turned for the first time in decades. I proceded to do a wash the way we did when I was a young kiddo, and I made a video of it.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

It's an old joke. A first grade teacher looks at the damage to her wrecked car and comments, "Oh, oh, oh! Look, look, look! Damn! Damn! Damn!" That was approximately my reaction this morning. All the recent rain has turned the roads in my wood lot to a quagmire, but the road to my north brush pile looked OK. Nope. The truck's rear wheels were sunk to the axle in no time. I hope there will be enough dry weather in the next week or so to solidify the ground sufficiently for me to extricate the thing. I decided to do some mowing, and it was fine until about 3:30 when the mower stalled in some especially thick grass and I couldn't restart it. Turning the ignition switch brought just a weak little click. Once again, a job has to stop while I fix the equipment. I'll dig into it in the cool of the morning. Yes, we're getting to the time of year when it's better to do some jobs early or late. This evening after dinner I went out and waged war on inconveniently located little trees. After an hour of that I ran out of Tordon, so that's on my shopping list for tomorrow.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

The centerpiece of today's activity was a shopping expedition that included a drive to Winfield. We no longer have a steel supply here, so I had to go to the county seat for the material to make a replacement for a broken spring clamp. Also on the shopping list were a binder and dividers to make an atlas of Kansas counties where I intend to tour, fabric softener to keep the next wash from drying stiff as a board, a switch and socket to install a phone charger in the touring car, some groceries, and a new quart of Tordon. All the time I was gone I had the battery from the Dixon mower on a charger. When I got home I tried it, and found that the problem with the mower wasn't just a low battery. I hope the starter off another old Dixon will fit and will work. I'll find out about that later. This evening's after-dinner fun included a half hour with the clippers and Tordon removing little vounteer trees, and cleaning up a set of Model T clutch disks to take along when I go back to Mike's tomorrow.

Friday, May 17, 2019

I headed for Tulsa at 6:20 AM and got home a little before nine PM, so it was a full day. Eleven photos are here.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

This little guy was on my back porch door this morning. I'm always glad to see mosquito-eaters about the place. Checking the Defore auction in Winfield I saw a couple of good items that would come up for sale in the afternoon. So I came home and installed the new front axle on my runabout and did some other chores in the shop. About four I went back to the auction, where I spent $7 for an air chisel, $1 each for a pair of twelve volt tire colmpressors, 25¢ for a galvanized pail, and 25¢ for a valve spring compressor. From there I went to my Saturday night out: dinner at La Fiesta and a movie. The food and the film were both excellent. Dog reincarnation? What a silly idea, right? Yet a good story well told can have a real emotional impact. A Dog's Journey continues the story from A Dog's Purpose. Dennis Quaid is back as Ethan, and Josh Gad as the voice of Bailey, Molly, Big Dog, and Max. And this definitely is a good story well told. If you saw the first film you have a pretty good idea at the start where this one is going, and the first rate writing, directing, acting, and cinematography make it a satisfying journey. Mr. Quaid, the unseen Mr. Gad, Marg Helgenberger, Kathryn Prescott, Betty Gilpin, and Henry Lau all play their parts very well. As for emotional impact, I was not the only one in the theater wiping away tears. More than once. Comic book superhero movies put me to sleep, and cgi-laden blockbusters usually leave me cold. I often say I prefer a movie for grownups about something real. These dog movies, so-called family films, are for this grown-up, and they're about something real called love.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

It seems my truck will be stuck for more than just a few days. I was going to attempt an extraction this morning until I saw standing water in the ruts. The ground is so saturated that yesterday's rain hasn't soaked in yet. Even if I managed to move the truck a few feet, it would sink in again. The forecast shows a major storm starting tomorrow morning and lasting until Tuesday morning, and pretty good chances of rain for several days after that, so I don't expect the swamp to dry out anytime soon. Anogther problem with the wet ground is the barbecue that sinks in and tips over. So this evening I spent a coupe of hours with a pick and shovel laying down a three by four foot brick pad where it can sit. I'll need that barbecue upright for our family reunion next month.

Monday, May 20, 20l9

Saturday's mail brought two American sweetgum seedlings and the customary free red maple from the Arbor Day Foundation, and this morning I got them in the ground ahead of the big storm predicted to begin around 11:00 AM. I use a water can when planting, so I walked down to the south end of the wood lot to fetch it from where I had last used it. Walking down the wood lot road I found a little surprise. Tracks and road apples showed that a horse had been there. Somebody found my road an attractive equestrian trail. This was probably the first time a horse has been on that ground in a hundred years. The first car on the place arrived in 1919, and I expect the folks gave up horse transportation then or soon after. The rain arrived on schedule, a little before 11:00, and I worked some more on my atlas of Kansas counties. I did Chase County, making eight screen shots of the map in sections. After the weather dries out I aim to make a trip up that way in the touring car to explore the area where my great grandfather settled when he came to Kansas after the Civil War.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

The predicted big storm turned out to be a big storm. From a little before 11:00 AM yesterday to about 1:00 PM today it filled my rain gauge. It looks to be about 6.1". The project of the day in my shop was a fold-down instrument panel for the touring car. Hidden behind the dash until I flip it down to use it, the little panel will have a switched twelve volt outlet for a phone charger, and perhaps for a tire pump if that doesn't draw too many amps. That will be to the left of the steering column. To the right of the column will be a switch for a speedometer light. I'm leaving space for a couple more switches in case I decide to add any other accessories. Today I made the panel itself, drilled the holes for the switches and outlet, and painted it. It will probably take a couple more days to make the mounting bracket, install the panel, install the twelve volt converter and the speedometer light, and do all the wiring. This evening brought a change of routine. I sat down to eat at five, my usual dining time, and at 5:12 the power went off. After chow the power was still off so I worked outside with the chain saw, clippers, and bottle of Tordon, removing more inconvenient little volunteer trees. About 8:30 the porch light told me the power was back on, but I kept at it and finished at 8:50. There are still a few little stragglers, but it was getting dark, so they can wait for daylight. The job is mostly done and will take just a few minutes to finish.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

After a morning T drive to town for groceries I worked on that new instrument panel for the 23 touring. Tbis evening I finished it and installed it. Making the thing was the easy part. Mounting it behind the dash was something else. Working on anything behind the dash of a car is torture. On the left is a switched outlet for a phone charger. The switch on the right side is for a speedometer light. There's room for more switches if I want to add more accessories.

When it's not needed it flips back under the dash out of sight. The panel is done, but I still need to do the wiring.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Mostly I made hardware for a speedometer light and for mounting a 6-12 volt converter. The pieces are painted and cooking overnight. Next will be assembling and installing. My after-dinner project was more work on my Kansas counties atlas. I won't do all 105 counties, but I'll probably end up with at least a couple dozen of them.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Time out. I took a day off from projects and went to an auction west of Oxford. As often happens, I got some good stuff cheap and let some other things go to people who were willing to pay more than I was. I'll need to empty the car of stuff from this auction and a couple of other recent ones before I go back tomorrow to pick up some things I didn't bring home today.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

The soaking continues. Rain overnight left another inch and a half in the gauge. It was over by morning and that allowed me to unload auction plunder from the Camry. That included hosing the barn dust off a pair of web chairs I bought for 25¢ each at yesterday's sale. I buy those at auctions because they're no longer sold in stores. Aluminum web chairs were common and popular for decades, but now they're made of unobtainium. I don't know this for a fact but I suspect that's due to fear of liability. My guess is that manufacturers are afraid to sell chairs that might not support today's corpulent and litigious population. After unloading I went back to work on accessories for the touring. I didn't have time to get much done on that because I left at two and went to pick up the auction plunder I didn't bring home yesterday. From there I went on to Wichita for my usual Saturday evening dinner out and a movie, which I didn't see due to a senior moment. The picture I was going to see was Brightburn. But confusion over the title betrayed me. When I got to the theater and saw that Breakthrough wouldn't be shown until 9:00 I came home. Oh, well. At least I had a great meal at Mexico Viejo.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

The best-laid plans. I set out to install a fuse kit in the touring car and discovered something else I need to correct. I've known since I got the car ten years ago that it had old reproduction wiring harnesses with many of the wires having wrong colors. As long as everything worked I could live with the erroneous colors. But today I noticed that all of the wires are 16 gauge. Some of them are supposed to be 12 gauge, and yes, it does matter in how the electrical system works. So tomorrow I'll be ordering some new wiring, and the fuse will have to wait until I receive that and get it installed.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Telling it is a lot faster than doing it, but today I installed the speedometer light and the phone charger in the 1923 touring car.

It began almost three weeks ago with three tasty tostadas. Searching the grocery shelves for a suitable container, I found this.

That can became the shade for my speedometer light.

My bicycle speedometer isn't "correct", but it does the job and the price was right (about $25).

The other part of this project uses a 6-12 volt converter under the front seat...

...to power a phone charger or other 12 volt accessory (up to 3 amps).

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The swifts have arrived and I expect they have a nest in my chimney as usual, so I need to burn trash outdoors until they go south. Today I stopped at the barrel factory and bought one of their rejects for a burning barrel. Another chore was adjusting the low and brake pedals on the touring car, then I test drove it into town for groceries. Shorty rode along, of course. She's become an eager Model T rider. My afternoon project was the Dixon mower which has been sitting dead for over a week. I took the starter off and replaced it with one from a defunct mower in my shop building. That made no difference. A turn of the start switch produced only a feeble little clicking sound. That suggested a bad solenoid, so I took that from the old mower too. Time ran out before I had it installed, so tomorrow I'll finish that and see if it works.

Wednesdsay, May 29, 2019

Well, all that swapping of parts was a big waste of time. With a different starter motor and a different solenoid, it was still no-go. Because I had charged the battery fairly recently, I had assumed it was OK. Nope. When I applied jumper cables from the Camry, the mower started right up. Although the battery was only two years old, I wasn't going to waste any time on it if it wouldn't hold a charge. So I put it in the touring car and Shorty and I took it to town and got a new one. That put me back in the mowing business, and I celebrated by mowing along the road across from my mailbox. Then, after dinner, I mowed the lawn by the west drive. It was a successful day.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Laundry and yard work filled the day. I wasn't out of clean clothes yet, but the forecast said I was almost out of sunny days for drying a wash. So I mowed under the clothesline, did a wash, and hung it out to dry. Then I mowed and mowed, finishing well over half of what I need to do. I took some time to dismember some of the small trees I cut down the other day, then I had to quit. I left at four to get to a Model T club meeting in Hesston, way up north of Wichita. I belong to two of the Kansas clubs, and I miss a lot of meetings because they're halfway across the state.

Friday, May 31, 2019

Taking advantage of another day with no threat of rain, I did a bit of house maintenance. Sometimes a heavy downpour has caused water to drip down at the west end of the kitchen. I figure it's been getting in around an upstairs window above the west porch, so today I went up and applied over a tube of silicone caulk wherever it looked like water might get in. According to the forecast I may not have to wait long to find out if I cured the leak. It shows a significant chance of rain just about every day for the next ten days. This afternoon I mowed along the north side of the road, but couldn't go all the way to the east end of the place because the ground was too muddy and slick for the mower to get any traction. A friend said I may not be able to get my stuck truck out of the mud until August, and I'm afraid he may be right.

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