blog721

First up today was another weed-pulling session behind the shop. About noon Steve Behrendt came down from Winfield to help with the runbabout and we towed it. We went up to the cemetery corner a quarter mile east, and back. All the way the car coughed intermittently but never started. Back in the yard we stopped in the shade for an inspection. The carburetor was cold and sweaty. The front two plugs were carboned. The back two were wet. We checked the plug gaps and set them all at .030. We towed again, and after two or three hundred feet it fired. I backed the car up to the shop, but didn't have enough reverse pedal to make it up the ramp. The brake and low pedals were also too loose, so I shut it off and tightened all the bands. Restarting the car to back it up into the shop took a lot of cranking before it finally started. So now it sits in the shop awaiting further attention. It starts with a wheel jacked off the floor and a lot of cranking, but I wouldn't call it smooth running. It does run a little stronger on MAG, so at least I didn't mess that up. But before I attempt driving I'll have to fix the hand brake, which slips forward into high gear unbidden. I'm glad to have the thing finally running, but it's still not quite right.

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Today's outside work was spraying water seal on my new front porch shingles. Then I dismantled the scaffold and put it in the garage to dry out. The tarp didn't keep it from absorbing enough moisture to weigh at least twice its normal weight. It will come back out when I water seal the shingles on the rest of the house.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Busy day. In the morning I replaced all the studs on the right rear wheel of the Suburban. One of the original studs was broken and the other four had mashed threads from the wheel being loose. With the wheel fixed I wasted an hour and a half driving to the Lowe's store in Ponca City. I was after EMT to make a brace to keep my clothesline poles upright. Naturally the store was out of both sizes I might have used. The Orscheln farm supply here is out of them too. I might find them at the hardware store, but I don't want to pay Ace prices. I'll wait. In the shop I drained all the coolant out of the runabout, getting ready to deal with a leaking head gasket. The instructions with the gasket said not to use any sealant. That didn't work out so well. The last chore of the day was a partial laundry. Being out of clean sox, I washed a load of overalls and sox. I'll get to the shirts and other stuff later.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Spray day, again. The weeds across the road have been growing like weeds, so I mixed up ten gallons of killer and resumed the war on unauthorized vegetation. By the time I used up the ten gallons it was getting to be too sweaty a job to suit me, so I'll do more later. When I went to town for groceries I stopped at the co-op to sell my share of the wheat that was stored there. I should have sold it last week when the price was $6.16 a bushel. Today it was back down to $5.57, about where it was a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately I sold most of my share at ADM last week and got $6.30. Some years the crops pay my property taxes and insurance, and it looks like this will be one of those years. With the wheat out of the way, Phillip is planting soybeans. Those are harvested in November or December, about when the taxes are due, and should put me over the top, maybe with even a few bucks to spare.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

It was a stormy morning with quite a bit of rain, and I worked in the shop until about ten, when a lightning strike shut off the power for a couple of hours. It was too dark inside to do much of anything, so I took a nice nap. After the lights came back on I reinstalled the head on the 1915 engine with a new gasket. After refilling it with coolant I discovered a little leak at the #1 head bolt, right where there had been a leak before. But I noticed that it wasn't a leak from the bolt hole. It was coming from a tiny hole in the head near the bolt. So pulling the head and installing a new gasket was a waste of time and money. That wasn't where the leak was to begin with. At least this little hole looks like it won't be difficult to patch up.

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Laundry day, Part II. I washed the shirts, sheets, and other stuff I didn't get to on Monday. While the clothes were washing and rinsing I wrote checks to pay some bills. I received an email notification that The Henry Ford was ready to receive applications for the Old Car Festival in September, so I spent an hour filling out mine. I will take the 1915 runabout again if they accept it. You're supposed to submit three photos of the car with the application. I sent these:

Friday, July 9, 2021

First up this morning was more weed pulling in the yard behind the shop. My indoor job was fixing the parking brake lever in the runabout, which lately has acquired the bad habit of jumping forward on its own. The problem was caused by the ratchet being loose on its rivet from wear and slipping off the quadrant. I took the handle out of the car, turned the rivet red, and mashed it with a BFH. Problem solved. No more slipping, no more jumping.

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Auction day. I arrived at the Defore auction in Winfield about fifteen minutes after the 10:00 AM starting time. That's absolutely no problem because they always start with stuff you'd have to pay me to haul off. Sometimes when I check out an auction I find little or nothing to keep me there. That was not the case today. I stuck around until 4:30 and bought several items. First was a good tripod like I've been using for about fifty years, but much less used than my old one. I paid $1 for it. Soon after that I bought a pair of speakers for $1. At that point it was gong to be a long dry spell before they got to anything else I wanted, so I took a break for a little shopping at Walmart. When I got back to the auction they were approaching the next thing that caught my interest — a 1920's radio. I paid $1 for that too. I didn't find a brand name on it, but a closer inspection might tell that story. As usual, the guns sold for hundreds. The coins were a mix of good buys and paying too much. I was amused to see Kennedy half dollars, like the ones I have in my pocket for change right now, selling for ten or twenty times face value. If I have an auction I will go to the bank and buy a roll of halves, put them in little plastic envelopes, and sell them for $5 to $10 each. The biggest single item in today's auction was a 1928 Whippet sedan. It was pretty complete, but in desperate need of a lot of work. Gary Wilson bought it for $1800. I told him, "You know that thing's a money pit don't you?" He was well aware of that, but said he'll clean it up, get it running, and sell it for twice what he paid for it. Gary knows old cars, so I expect that's just what he'll do. Back to the sale of lesser items. I bought two drill bit sets in metal boxes, one complete and one with a couple of bits missing, for $5 each. My last buys of the day were a 3" belt sander for $1 and an electric drill for $3. If they both work I got a smoking hot deal. If they don't I'm out $4. I got home about chow time and decided to skip my usual Saturday night dinner in town and a movie. The theater was showing nothing I wanted to see. Comic book movies put me to sleep. Dinner was tostadas, which functioned as a tasty treat and a good way to use up that onion in the fridge before it could go bad.

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Mowing day. Before mowing, though, I took the clippers and Tordon and waged war on some of the little trees coming up in the front lawn. There's one particular unknown kind of tree that's infested the lawn for several years. Each year there are fewer of them as I cut them off and poison the stumps. I expect I will eventually eliminate them. There's another type I have to just mow over. They're offshoots from the roots of the big trees by the road that were planted by my grandfather's brothers and sisters when they came here around 1870. If I poisoned the little offshoots the poison would spread through the roots to the big trees, so I just mow over them. After the seedling battle I fired up the tractor and mowed all the lawns around the house and along the road by the west field. I need the smaller ZTR mower around trees and bushes, so I tried starting the "new" one I bought for $100 recently. The starter wouldn't turn the flywheel, so I installed a known good starter from a dead mower. It wouldn't spin the flywheel either, so the "ran when parked" engine has gotten tight through several years of not being run. So this week I'll take it to the small engine repair guy and see if he can revive it. The last job of the day was pulling weeds on the east side of the house. There are always plenty of weeds to pull.

Monday, July 12, 2021

Never went off the place today. First up was spraying again. What I did last Tuesday south of the road was effective on grass but most of the broadleaf weeds were unaffected. So I mixed another 9½ gallons and doubled up on the active ingredient and hit them again. I'll find out in a few days if the new mix does the trick. I finished about a quarter after eleven and outside work was sweaty enough to send me inside. I worked in my office testing and adjusting Model T coils. They were good coils, but all needed some adjustment. I took the best four and put them in the runabout. Since we tow-started the car last week to seat the new rings it has been easy to start, but has run rough. I thought that might be due to coils needing adjustment, but that wasn't it. Adjusting the coils so they checked out good or excellent on every test didn't make the car ru

n any smoother. So I checked for an intake manifold leak. With the car running I squirted ether at the rear port. It had no effect. I squirted ether at the front port and the car almost died. Aha! A leaking manifold. So I took the manifold off the engine, cleaned it up, and reinstalled it with new gaskets and hi-temp RTV. That cured the rough running. But wait! There's more trouble. The engine runs too fast. When I try to throttle it down to a slow idle it wants to die. So that's the next thing I have to fix.

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

The first exciting adventure of the day was sandblasting. I blasted the lower windshield frame for the 1915 runabout and shot it with primer, then started blasting the "new" flywheel for the 1923 touring car. I quit that a little after noon to do some research on parts I need to order. After grocery shopping I went to see Dave the small engine repair guy to see if he still does that work. He does, and I'll take that "ran when parked" Dixon mower to him in the morning. This afternoon I was pleased to note that the weeds I sprayed yesterday are already starting to wilt. The forecast is showing a good chance of rain Thursday night. After that I'll spray what I missed yesterday.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

This morning I finished blasting the flywheel, then took the sick Dixon to Dave the small engine repair guy. In the afternoon I was sifting leaves and twigs out of the blasting sand for reuse when it occurred to me that shaking it through a piece of window screen was too slow, and it screened out the coarser sand that would be perfectly OK for blasting. So I went to the farm supply and bought some screen wire with a 1/8" mesh. That's much better. I don't have to shake it at all. The sand falls right through it into the pail and the leaves are screened out. That speeds up my sand recycling considerably.

Thursday, July 15, 2021

A lot of today was housekeeping chores, or shop-keeping chores. During the February cold spell that brought temperatures around 0º F, I bought a bale of straw to insulate the water valves in the tool shed. So today after I took all the auction plunder out of the Camry, I took out the trunk carpet and vacuumed all the straw off it. I screened the sand left over from yesterday's blasting, and put away the blasting equipment. I sanded the primer on the runabout windshield frame and gave it another coat. When I took Shorty to the vet for her heart worm test recently I had them send me a rabies tag to replace the one that had fallen off her collar. Today I installed it on the collar and welded the steel clip that holds it, so maybe it won't fall off. After chow this evening I sanded the primer on the windshield frame again, then gave part of it another coat. The upright piece on one end has a lot of orange peel to fill, so I don't know how much more priming and sanding I'll have to do on that part.

Friday, July 16, 2021

Back to spraying. I mixed up another ten gallons of weed killer and hit the unauthorized vegetation I missed Monday. A thin layer of cloud cover and a little breeze kept the work from becoming too hot, and I finished about 12:40. I sanded that orange peel upright on the windshield frame again and gave it another coat of primer. Contemplating the task of pulling some small trees out of the ground, I went looking for my good tow chain. Not finding it, I was stuck with another chain that had no hook on one end, so I went to the farm supply and bought another hook. I still have to find the old car wheel that goes under the chain for upward leverage. For the last job of the day I turned my attention to the rough-running Dodge. It didn't take long to solve the rough running. I tested all the spark plugs and found #1 intermittent and #2 dead. So back to town for a couple of new plugs. With those installed I got the truck running and found gas pouring out of the glass bowl filter. Cutting a new cork gasket solved that, so now I'm ready to haul some yard waste.

Saturday, July 17, 2021

And I did haul some yard waste. After getting up late, having breakfast and a shower and putting on fresh duds, I got to work at 10:30. I went around and pitched a few piles of pulled weeds into the truck. I was about to begin the main project of the day, removing little volunteer trees west of the shop, when I discovered that I was almost out ot Tordon to kill the roots. After a trip to the co-op for a new quart of Tordon I got busy cutting off little trees and poisoning the stumps. I did that until almost 2:30, when it was time to head for Wichita. I went to stock up on Diet Squirt, not sold here, and to get a new lens cap for my Canon F-1. I got the Squirt, but I got to the camera store a few minutes after four and the store was closed. So the lens cap will have to wait until another Wichita trip. After a tasty dinner at Mexico Viejo, I went to see Pig, one of those movies that will never play down here in Podunk.

Sunday, July 18, 2021

In the morning I finished sanding the windshield frame and gave it a couple of coats of black lacquer. In the afternoon I made another trip to Wichita, this time to see The African Queen. This was a seventieth anniversary release. I'm sure I could watch it at home on TV, but I like to see pictures like that in a theater on the big screen. It's still a great movie, and beautifully restored.

Monday, July 19, 2021

Last night after dinner I prepared some carriage bolts, nuts, and washers for painting. This morning I painted them and put them in the oven to bake. The four carriage bolts are for mounting the windshield on the 1915 runabout. I did a couple dozen each of nuts and washers so I'll have plenty ready for other projects. Today I also ordered some parts from Chaffin's Garage in California. It was their turn. I like to support all the good Model T parts dealers, spreading my little purchases among them.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Spray day again. I mixed another ten gallons of weed killer and spent most of the morning waging war on stuff I missed last time. In a couple of days what I sprayed today will be wilting and I'll see what I missed and where to spray next. In the afternoon I installed the repaired lower windshield frame on the runabout. With an online search I found Ford's 1915 glass dimensions, and when I went to town for groceries I stopped at the glass shop and ordered new upper and lower windshield glass. Today I received an email notice that the runabout has been accepted again for the Old Car Festival in September, so I need to get it ready for another drive to Detroit.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

The morning project was wielding the clippers and Tordon to slaughter umpteen zillion little volunteer trees southeast of the shop, removing some low-hanging branches with the pole saw, and mowing the area with the push mower. I wrapped that up about 12:30 with about thirty feet done and maybe another seventy or eighty to go. I was cooling off in front of a fan when the small engine repair guy called to tell me he had the Dixon ZTR ready to go. So I went to town with the trailer, brought the mower home, and did a little mowing with it. I bought it at the Defore auction for $108.50, bought one new tire for $42.55, and paid $140 today for repairs. A total of $291.05 is not a bad price for a working Dixon. This afternoon I sent an email with photographic information to a young photographer. He may already know what I told him, but if he doesn't he might find it useful.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

The morning project was more clearing away seedlings and branches, then mowing. I graduated from southwest of the shop to west of the shop.

I used the electric pole saw (foreground) to bring down some branches that were too high to reach.

Shorty wore herself out watching me work.

After a noon break I went back at it. I slaughtered so many little trees that I used up the quart of Tordon I bought Saturday, and had to buy more when I went to town. What I did today got me well over halfway to where you see the truck. After that I'll clear away some of the little trees on the right. One or two more sessions should wrap up this job. After that I'll have a lot of branches and little trees to haul to the brush pile.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Back at the same project, I continued along the west side until it was in direct sun, then worked on the east side until the sun hit there too. In the shop I got a start on installing the new glass in the runabout's windshield frames. That was interrupted by the lack of correct machine screws. I had to go to the hardware store and pay Ace prices (57¢ each!) for two little screws, strip off the cad plating, prep and paint. When the paint was dry enough to handle, I hung them in the oven to bake.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Auction day. I drove up to Winfield to see if the Defore auction had anything I wanted. It did, so I stayed. I gambled $9 on a Seth Thomas electric wall clock. I say gambled because clocks bought at auctions sometimes work, but often don't. This one does work, so I won that bet. I got a 27" x 39" rug that appears new for $5, a like new 3/4" garden hose for $8, and most of a bundle of cedar shingles for $1. That last item alone would have made it worth staying all day. The bundle I bought at the lumber yard last month cost me $135.57, so most of a bundle for $1 is fantastic good luck. That's why I go to auctions. Often you get something good for a tiny fraction of the retail price.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Today I was in a Zoom meeting. The occasion was my cousin Hulda's 90th birthday. Her sister Mary is 100 and is in a nursing home in Winfield. I was going to sit in with Mary during the meeting, but when I arrived I found the place on Covid lock down with no visitors allowed, so I had to come home and join in from here. This was my first real Zoom meeting. It was good to see the cousins in Virginia, Idaho, Montana, and California, but I would much prefer seeing everybody in person. With the poor internet sound quality I had trouble understanding what some people were saying. After the Zoom adventure I got back to work on the runabout. Specifically, I finished installing the windshield. That's one more thing off the list before the car is ready to drive.

Monday, July 26, 2021

First up this morning was a visit to the salvage yard at the south end of town to pick up a wheel. It's not for a vehicle. I'll use it under a chain for leverage when I pull trees out of the ground. The one I got has a dent in the rim, so I got it for the perfect price. I intended to use it right away, but the heat came on early today, so I'll get to that job tomorrow in the cool of the morning. I worked in my office looking online for LED's I can use for tail and brake lights and turn signals. I emailed what appears to be the largest outfit in that field, or one of the largest, asking about six volt lights. The reply was that they no longer have six volt bulbs, which are being phased out. So I suppose I'll have to figure out a way to run the lights on twelve volts. In the shop I did some sewing. Using an upholstery needle and heavy thread, I took the slack out of the runabout's top. The sides were loose and flapped in the wind so much that they yanked out some of the tacks holding the top material to the bows. I hope removing the slack will cure that.

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

After rain yesterday afternoon and heavy dew overnight, everything outside was sopping wet, so I worked in the shop. I attempted to get the bike speedometer in the runabout working, and failed. I suspect I don't have the sensor close enough to the magnet. I'll try adjusting it again. It occurs to me I should install the real 1915 speedometer I have waiting on the shelf, so I don't have to depend on temperamental modern equipment. When I started the car to try out the speedometer I was reminded that it wants to race. I couldn't get it to stay slowed down to a normal idle. I believe I'll try a different carburetor.

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

This morning I tried yanking small trees out of the ground with a tractor. I was successful with one out of the first three. With the other two the chain just stripped the bark and branches away and left the trunk. The fourth one broke my heavy towing chain. I give up. I was hoping to have the roots out of my way but I think I'll leave them. I'll cut the trees off at the ground and poison the stumps with Tordon, as I do in other locations. When the heat of the day came on I worked in the shop. I set the float level in a Holley G carburetor and installed it on the runabout in place of the Holley NH I've been using. It didn't make the car start any easier or run any better. I mentioned this on the Model T forum and one of the guys suggested I may have neglected to install a top gasket in the carb. Of course. I should have thought of that. Without that gasket in place the engine is probably sucking too much air and not enough fuel. I took the G off the car and made and installed a top gasket. I noticed that this carb also has a broken bowl gasket. I can make the smaller top gasket myself, but the bowl gasket is much bigger and also very narrow, so making it myself would be pretty tricky. I got on the phone to Lang's and ordered a dozen bowl gaskets, plus a full gasket set. I ordered only one full set because I only want some of the gaskets to copy, and don't need some of the others in the set.

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Most of today's activity was in my office, filing receipts and photos to get them off my desktop. I quit early to head for a Model T club meeting in Hesston. I'm in two of the Kansas Model T clubs, but don't get to all the meetings because they're so far away. This afternoon I stopped in Wichita to buy a lens cap for my Canon F-1. I'll put it on a cord so it won't get lost like the one I'm replacing.

Friday, July 30, 2021

First thing this morning I took the trailer to Dieter Mitchell's place and brought home some pieces that were left over when he fixed my mowing tractor. I'm leaving them on the trailer until I mow a place for them behind the shop. That will wait until I haul away some piles of yard trimmings that are in the way of mowing. I did trim some branches on the road to the north brush piles, but spent more of the hot day in front of a fan in my office. Part of that was corresponding with a friend who lives in Staten Island and has no Model T help near by. I try to help him with his 1923 touring, but email is a poor substitute for being there.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Before the heat and humidity drove me indoors, I did a little more small tree removal west of the shop and then a little mowing. The main project of the day was studying how I'm going to add tail lights and turn signals to the runabout. That included researching LED's and sending an email to an LED dealer with some questions. Saturday treat night was dinner and a movie. Dinner was the buffet at Pizza Ranch and the movie was The Green Knight. What a gorgeous piece of cinema! It seems that every shot is an artistic composition. I marveled at the production. I didn't fully understand the story. I think I'll see it again, and maybe better understand what I'm seeing.

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