'24 Touring Barn Car

[rustyfords]

Hi....my name's Don and I bought my first Model T a few weeks ago.

I've been posting questions on the MTFCA forum and it's a great/active forum with a bunch of great folks but the forum setup is not conducive to a Build Thread, so I'm going to do that here.

In November 2016, a local Model T'er named John Mays, pulled the car out of a barn near Comanche, TX where it had been sitting since around 1969.

 

[rustyfords]

John rebuilt the starter, installed a new set of plug wires, plugs, a used set of tires, and a battery and did get the engine to turn over, but not much other than that.

I bought the car from him a few weeks ago. I've wanted a pre-26 Touring car in "weathered " condition for quite a while. I pulled up next to John in my 54 Ford at a local gas station where he was filling up his 1914 T (he calls it Otis) and found out that he had exactly what I wanted in his garage and that he was willing to sell it. We arranged a deal and it came home with me a few weeks later.

Here's the car sitting in John's garage next to his '14.

 

[rustyfords]

Some more photos of the car as it sat in John's garage.

The second photo shows a bicycle tire that had been used to make a fan belt.

 

[rustyfords]

Got the T home and tucked it in next to my '54 Mainline. My wife and daughter insist that it's a girl and named it Daisy...much to the chagrin of my two sons. But "Daisy" stuck....so Daisy it is.

Daylight was running out on homecoming day and I wanted to do something to it....even it if was small and of little consequence, so I installed a pair of headlight lenses.

 

[rustyfords]

Next I wanted to see if it would run...if only for a few seconds.

I pulled the carburetor off and rebuilt it, messed with the timer a little bit, jacked up one of the rear wheels and viola!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGc5bVJTqJo&t=1s

After it fired up, I quickly shut it down and started the process of more thoroughly checking out all the major mechanical systems.

 

[rustyfords]

The goal for this car is to keep the farm look about it. There's no fake patina here. From the fender brace, to the worn (but most likely original) paint, this is genuine Texas farm life on display and other than cleaning it up, adding missing pieces and installing an interior and glass, this car will retain what I consider to be a beautiful look....something that you would've seen putting into town on a Saturday during The Great Depression.

Mechanically, I'll go through the car bit by bit and make it a reliable cruiser.

Stage one will be to go through the vital systems and make sure nothing's going to destroy itself or cause an accident. At this stage, I'll restrict its use to putting slowly around the neighborhood.

Stage two will probably involve pulling the engine/transmission, installing rings, adjusting bearings, inspecting the transmission and replacing anything worn, and going through the rear axle.

 

[rustyfords]

Like I mentioned above....I think the paint on this car is original.

Based on the license plate and registration, the car was put in the barn in 1969, and the paint is pretty worn...so if this is a repaint, it would've had to have been done many years before 1969 and the car would've necessarily been worked hard after the repaint for it to look like this.

So there's no way to prove it, but I think what's left was applied by Ford in '24 and was worn like this when it was tucked away.

The nearly 50 year barn stint has left it filthy, so I washed it by hand with soap and water. Then I started the process of wiping it down with some stuff called Penetrol. My method is to rub in a very small amount of Penetrol and then immediately wipe it thoroughly dry. This brings out the black paint, stops the rust and leaves a nice dry, dull shine with no wetness or oily residue.

I DON'T want the shiny shellac look that you see on antiques in restaurants, but I do want to bring out the old paint a bit and stop whatever surface rust is present.

You can see the Before and After in these two photos. In the first one, it's the splash apron vs. the body and the second photo shows half of the cowl treated and the other half not.

 

[15max]

Great car. Great pictures. That is my favorite color.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dodge]

Wonderful car. I have a friend that bought one just like it. I went to a local upholstery
guy that did a lot of Model T work. That guy saved him old upholstery that came out of
several cars and they put it in his.
It made a great looking original car and gets more looks at the car shows and tours
than the restored ones.

 

[Mike V. Florida]

Sounds like a sound and well thought out plan. Best of luck!!!

 

[rustyfords]

Thanks for the compliments...I'm having a blast with this simple little car.

I quickly shut down the engine after it ran briefly to conduct my "Stage 1" assessment as I describe above. Miss Daisy was leaking oil out of every conceivable surface around the hogshead so I figured the gasket was shot.

She left quite the oil stain on my driveway for such a short time running.

So, some mild disassembly was in order to examine the front of the engine, the transmission and the bottom end.

 

[rustyfords]

Pulled the hogshead and found the following:

- Lone Star Beer box (circa 1940's) used as the hogshead gasket.

- cotton work shirt used as the gasket at the front of the hogshead

- actual cotton from the field jammed into the transmission mounts.

All farm items...maintaining the car with what what was on hand.
Just makes me love this old car more. I'm going to put all this stuff in a shadow box.

 

[rustyfords]

The bands were in pretty bad shape. One of them had come loose and was catching on the drum...making the engine hard to turn in places. Once they were removed, the engine turned freely.

Here's a short video of the transmission spinning with the hogshead and bands removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ctBMAQGp0

The hogshead is filthy. I'll get it cleaned up and install some new parts to replace some worn out items. I have a new set of bands on the way. I'll get those installed and will reinstall the hogshead with a new gasket set.

I think I'll conduct an amateur test on the strength of the magnets, and if necessary charge them, while the hogshead is off.

 

[mhsprecher]

Great story.

 

[rustyfords]

The head that came with this car had a hairline crack in the water outlet area (in the first photo below it's roughly where the old wrench is laying).

When the radiator was filled up, water would very slowly weep through the crack.

I think in the future at some point, I may want to run a higher compression head, but for now, another high head was going to do the trick. So...I put the word out on the MTFCA forum that I was looking for a stock head and had multiple people volunteer to give one to me.

Here's my 11 year old torquing down the head bolts on the replacement head.

 

[rustyfords]

Miss Daisy came with only the upper windshield glass...and it was an original piece of plate glass.

While that's kind of neat that a piece of plate glass has survived this long, it's a big no-no for a car that'll actually be driven. My great-grandfather died while driving a Model A. He had a relatively minor accident, but the plate glass shattered and severed a major artery in his neck.

So...Daisy gets new laminated safety glass.

 

[Tinker]

Pulled the hogshead and found the following:

- Lone Star Beer box (circa 1940's) used as the hogshead gasket.

- cotton work shirt used as the gasket at the front of the hogshead

- actual cotton from the field jammed into the transmission mounts.

All farm items...maintaining the car with what what was on hand.
Just makes me love this old car more. I'm going to put all this stuff in a shadow box.

Wall hangers I guess.. nice

 

[rustyfords]

This weekend's project is to clean up, paint and make any needed repairs to the hogshead.

It's absolutely filthy and has some worn out notches. I have the replacements on hand as well as an external oiling kit from Texas T Parts.

 

[Jeff P. / MN]

Good story, nice writing and pictures! Looking forward to following your posts. Good Luck!

 

[rustyfords]

Thanks Jeff....more to come!