SitkaMachine
Junior Member
Wanted to introduce myself and get acquainted with the site.
I'm a commercial fisherman and machinist in a small island community in Alaska. As a kid in Washington, my grandfather and I collected and restored antique gas engines - we had about 50 total, and took around 20 to the local fair to display every year. My great uncle had a Model A that I rode around in as a whippersnapper, but sadly he passed before I could really remember the car. It was sold as my grandfather wasn't that into the cars - just the old hit and miss engines.
Fast forward about 40 years, and I was just presented with what I think is a very unique opportunity. A good friend (fellow commercial fisherman and boat builder in the lower 48, retired) has decided he's not going to get to his family's old Model A project. I have seen it once, but it was fleeting and I can't remember much. A 1928 5 window coupe.
The fascinating part of the story is the car was parked up in 1964 in a very dry climate. In the early 90's it was trailered to his home on the coast, but kept in a garage this whole time. I'll be taking it into the sunlight for the first time in about 30 years, and just the second time in 60 years.
Another friend and I are putting a plan together to meet in Washington, pull out the old girl, get it running just enough to drive up the ramp and onto the Alaska Marine Highway, where I'll ride with it to my home in Sitka and put it in my shop to work on it.
I'll use it in the summer months here (or whatever qualifies as summers that we get, anyway). Our roads only go up to 45 mph, most are 25-35mph, and we only have a few miles of them anyway - it seems like a perfect place for an old Model A to live out it's 2nd life riding me between my home and the shop.
I'm looking for any suggestions to hone in the efforts we will have to get it running. Our time working on it is very limited - if it just will not run, I'll have to figure that out on the fly. But the plan is to get it on the ferry under it's own power. Once it's up in AK, I can fix just about anything.
I'll be searching the forum intensely in the next few weeks, but I'll ask here and now - is there a checklist of sorts of things we can work on that are known Model A issues after a car has sat that long?
Thanks,
Chris
I'm a commercial fisherman and machinist in a small island community in Alaska. As a kid in Washington, my grandfather and I collected and restored antique gas engines - we had about 50 total, and took around 20 to the local fair to display every year. My great uncle had a Model A that I rode around in as a whippersnapper, but sadly he passed before I could really remember the car. It was sold as my grandfather wasn't that into the cars - just the old hit and miss engines.
Fast forward about 40 years, and I was just presented with what I think is a very unique opportunity. A good friend (fellow commercial fisherman and boat builder in the lower 48, retired) has decided he's not going to get to his family's old Model A project. I have seen it once, but it was fleeting and I can't remember much. A 1928 5 window coupe.
The fascinating part of the story is the car was parked up in 1964 in a very dry climate. In the early 90's it was trailered to his home on the coast, but kept in a garage this whole time. I'll be taking it into the sunlight for the first time in about 30 years, and just the second time in 60 years.
Another friend and I are putting a plan together to meet in Washington, pull out the old girl, get it running just enough to drive up the ramp and onto the Alaska Marine Highway, where I'll ride with it to my home in Sitka and put it in my shop to work on it.
I'll use it in the summer months here (or whatever qualifies as summers that we get, anyway). Our roads only go up to 45 mph, most are 25-35mph, and we only have a few miles of them anyway - it seems like a perfect place for an old Model A to live out it's 2nd life riding me between my home and the shop.
I'm looking for any suggestions to hone in the efforts we will have to get it running. Our time working on it is very limited - if it just will not run, I'll have to figure that out on the fly. But the plan is to get it on the ferry under it's own power. Once it's up in AK, I can fix just about anything.
I'll be searching the forum intensely in the next few weeks, but I'll ask here and now - is there a checklist of sorts of things we can work on that are known Model A issues after a car has sat that long?
Thanks,
Chris
