As often happens on the first day of the month, I spent the morning paying bills then sorting, recording, and filing receipts for the past month. Overnight rain continuing into the morning, about .4", made it a good morning to take care of those indoor chores. One of our recent discussions on the Model T forum got off into hills in Kansas, so when I went to the water district office this afternoon to pay the bill I took along a camera and made a little video of Horseshoe Hill.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Today's main chore was gathering together some of the items that should be carried in a Model T when touring. Some of them should be in any car, and some are for the T in particular. The list runs from baling wire, breaker bar, and brush for washing parts, to tire tools, Vise Grips, and water. Some of them are easy to get or already on hand, and some will take some work. One that will take work is extra fuel. I have to make brackets and a carrier for running board gas cans. In the afternoon I went to town for some list items (Gorilla tape, hand wipes, a lighter), to put a check in the bank and buy celery, and to stop at the post office and put a hold on the mail while I'm off to Hershey next week.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Auction in Oklahoma City. I spent less than $100 and came home with the trunk crammed full and more stuff stacked in the back seat. A lot of it will go online for sale, but first a lot of small stuff that's all mixed together will have to be sorted. The day must have been more strenuous than I thought. Coming home I could barely stay awake.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Today's project was just unloading and putting away (trying to decide where to put) yesterday's auction haul, and getting ready to head for Hershey in the mornng. It seems the threat of a rainout is always present in Pennsylvania this time of year, but at this point the forecast looks pretty good.
Monday, October 5, 2015
On the road to Hershey. I drove all day and slept in the I-70 Mile 65 rest area in western Indiana. Next: On to Pennsylvania.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Back on the road at 6 AM eastern time, I drove through Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and arrived here in the Hershey area twelve hours later. Tomorrow is the first day of old car parts searching, and the weather forecast looks good.
Wednesdy, Thursday, Friday
October 7, 8, 9, 2015
All three days I put in a full day of walking, shopping, buying, walking, looking, and more walking. Pictures are here.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
I did a little shopping, although most of the vendors were gone or going, then went to the car show. My main purpose there was to get detailed pictures of the same Model T's I have, with the idea that they would be good guides to follow in making my cars correct. But it turned out that all the 1915 Fords I saw had enough incorrect items that I don't trust them for guidance. I heard the owner of this 1915 touring tell the judge he knew there were several incorrect things about the car, but that's the way Dad did it and that's the way it was going to stay. The girl with the red roadster, Olivia, is twelve and did much of her own work on her car, including the painting. She did a beautiful job of it, but again, I spotted enough "incorrect" details that I don't trust it as a guide. I got pictures of several other cars, mostly T's, but my camera batteries gave out and I called it a day and headed for New York.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
I visited with Tony and Marisol Ventrice in Staten Island, where they had their 1923 touring in a local car show. They and their friend Dave dressed for the occasion. The touring's spark lever wouldn't go all the way up to retard the spark, so I went to work on it. I couldn't find any reason for the lever to be sticking, but when I took off the timer and the linkage and reinstalled them, that "fixed" the problem. I still don't know why. Late in the afternoon I went on to Long Island and spent the evening with Bob Coiro and his 1915 touring. Bob had me drive the car when we went to dinner. All T's are different, so my driving of this one wasn't wonderfully smooth, but I was impressed with how well it ran. Bob is a retired advertising man, and an excellent writer. That's why I have his work on my website.
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Monday, October 12, 2015
I spent the afternoon in Central Park, walking from the south end (59th street) to the north end (110th Street) and back again. With all the twists and turns of the paths in the park, I think I covered between six and seven miles. In the evening I checked an item on my bucket list by going to The Iguana to hear Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. I had a great time listenning to one of my favorite bands.
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Tuesday, October 13, Wednesday, October 14, & Thursday, October 15, 2015
These were travel, unloading, and catching-up days, with the usual chores of putting things away, starting up the mail, and grocery shopping.
 On
the road home: Interstate 80 in eastern Pennsylvania
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 My Hershey haul: early 1911 radiator; ten Model T coils; spare 30 x 3 inner tube; 50 bungees; NOS spark plug cores; three Champion X spark plugs; two ammeters; 96 pages of Model T accessories from teens issues of MoToR; two rear hub pullers; gas cap; three petcocks; 1914-1915 oil filler cap; two Phillips bits; six shop clamps; four tire irons; NOS differential case; coil box insulators & hardware; six hood clamps; two Holley Model G carburetor bodies with intake manifold; sediment bulbs & parts to make a couple of good ones; five 3" x 6" sheets of brass cloth for screens; two emergency work lights; a box of miscellaneous nuts, bolts, and other old hardware ($1). |
Friday, October 16, 2015
After a morning of catching up some office work, today's automotive project was fixing a dripping radiator petcock on the roadster. Later I drove the roadster into town for a couple errands, and stopped at one of the parts stores to get a new fuel line for the touring. I intend to install it going under the exhaust pipe, not over it like the present one. I've never had a vapor lock problem, but I want to reduce the possibility of it happening.
Saturday, October 17, 2015
None of the auction ads mentioned anything to entice me away from home today, so I spent most of the morning getting caught up on filing receipts. About noon I got to the outside work. First I cut a white plastic bag into strips and went around tying them to dead trees so that after all the leaves fall I'll know which ones to cut up for firewood. Then I did the same for more than a dozen redbuds I want to dig up and transplant after they go to sleep until spring. The next order of business was a pile of branches that's been stacked in front of the garage since June. Some of the cousins who believe in being kind to old people showed up a few days early for the family reunion and did some much-appreciated yard work. The branches they cut have been sitting there since, and with possible rain in the forecast for next week, I decided today would be a good time to fire up the chain saw and turn all those branches into firewood. I got them all cut up and will stack them inside the garage tomorrow. I ended the day with enchiladas supremas at La Fiesta, and a movie. I found The Martian very entertaining. It's no surprise that Matt Damon is very believable, but when the whole cast is excellent too I credit the director. Ridley Scott keeps things moving from start to finish, and keeps the folks in their seats even into the credits.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
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| Monday, October 19, 2015 This morning's main job was stacking all that cut and split firewood in the garage out of the weather. I've almost finished stacking the first row against the wall, but there's still room for another foot or two on top. When that's done I'll start a second row where I'm standing in this picture. If I can get two full stacks laid in, that should last a good long time. In the afternoon I went for a nice drive. In the almost eight years since I got serously into Model T Fords, I've spent a lot more time working on them than driving them. I intend to fix that. So today I drove to the county seat, Winfield, about ten miles north. I went to the bank, to the post office, and to do some shopping. But the main reason for the trip was the bridge. Yesterday I read that the Fourteenth Avenue bridge across the Walnut River, built in 1928, is to be replaced. So I wanted to get a picture of it while it's still there. The self-timer on my camera is good for only ten seconds, so I stopped a passing motorist to push the button as I drove across the bridge. I stopped at Kora's Asian market to buy a couple of jars of kimchi, and headed home. About halfway between Winfield and Arkansas City my twenty dollar bike speedometer quit working. It turned out that the magnet attached to the wheel to activate the sensor had fallen off somewhere on the road. When I install a new magnet, I'll make sure it's not going to come off. In Arkansas City I bought a couple of feet of new hose for my tire pump, and some spade connectors to hook up the new battery I'm going to put in the roadster. Those sound like a couple of easy jobs that should take a few minutes, so they'll probably take most of a day. |
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015
I guessed right. Doing two jobs on the roadster used up most of the day. The first project was making a new bracket to attach a magnet to the wheel to activate the sensor for the speedometer. Once I got that made, painted, and drying in the oven, I got to the main project of the day. That was the battery. The full size battery I've been using took up way too much of my scarce cargo space, so I bought a much smaller sealed battery that will ride under the car. I dug through my big can of springs and
found
three extension springs just right
for the job. Each spring holds a piece of plumber's tape wrapped around
the battery to hold it in the frame rail. Why three? So that if one
fails the battery still won't fall out. The battery is used only to
buzz the coils for starting. If I'm running on magneto as I do most of
the time and the battery falls out on the road, I won't find out
about it until the next time I try to start on battery. So I want it to
stay put. Only one small part of that job remains. That will be
shrinking some rubber insulation on the terminals, which should take
just a few minutes. I think the next job after that will be getting the
tire pump in working condition.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015Today's main project was sandblasting and painting a tire pump. When I go to town for groceries tomorrow I'll stop at the saddle shop and pick up some scraps to make new pump leathers. Between coats of paint on the pump, I installed the new speedometer magnet on the roadster. I made sure I staked the nut holding it on, so maybe this one won't end up decorating County Road 27.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
This morning I took the masking tape off the tire pump parts I painted yesterday, and put them in the oven to bake. When I went to town for groceries I picked up a scrap at the saddle shop to make a new pump leather, and a fender washer to hold it on the shaft. I may put the pump together tomorrow morning if I have time.
Friday, October 23, 2015
I did take time to reassemble the pump this morning, but I'll have to wait until I get home to really test it. I spent the day driving to Yankton for an auction tomorrow. I'm typing this in a McDonald's with no outlets (!), so I need to do it quick and save my battery.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
This morning I went to visit a bit with the Model T guy who told me about this auction, then I went to the auction. By the time it was over I was kicking myself for not driving the gas hog Suburban and bringing a trailer. There was a lot of stuff, and a lot of it was selling cheap, but I didn't bid on much of it because I had no way to take it home. But although the trunk of the Camry limited what I could fetch, I still came away with some good stuff. The thing that made the trip well worth going was the static balancer. I paid $90 for it, and I was afraid that may have been too much. Then I went online and found out that the same thing new would cost over a thousand, so I guess I did OK on that deal.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
This was largely a travel day. I arrived home a little before noon, and before I ended the afternoon with grocery shopping I had my auction plunder out of the car and laid out in the driveway posing for pictures.
 Tommy the cat has to inspect my haul. The Muncie transmission may have been a great buy, or it may turn out to be $20 wasted. I'll find out when I get into it and see what's inside. |
 There's
no doubt that the static balancer was a great buy.
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Monday, October 26, 2015
Today's first main chore was putting away the auction stuff I unloaded yesterday. I sorted some of the big items as I put them away, but the scramble of little items will go into my winter sorting project. We haven't had a freeze yet, but the nights are getting chilly and freezing weather will be here soon enough. So my other job of the day was getting the kitchen stove ready for another wood-burning season. I took down the pipe and removed the old wire that was holding it in place, installed new wire, and put it back up. I also stuffed fiberglass insulation in around the pipe where it enters the wall, hoping to prevent the smoke leaks that happened a couple of times last year. I vacuumed the stove and the area around it, and laid in a load of wood. It's a little early, and not terribly cold yet, but tonight I had the first fire of the season to remove the slight chill. The stove is a good heater, and raised the room temperature from 60º to 75º in a few minutes.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
I spent a big part of the morning editing and posting the last of this year's Hershey photos on the MTFCA forum. I used my last pair of clean socks this morning, so this afternoon I did laundry, then stopped at the post office to pick up the mail they held while I was off to the auction. And that was my exciting day.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Another morning at the computer found me reluctantly shopping. The object of my search was a digital projector. I'm not reluctant about having the projector, but the price tag for a good one made it hard for me to click Checkout. But the deed is done. I've been asked to do some presentations on photography and history, and this will be a useful tool for that. In the afternoon I drove the roadster into town for a grocery errand, and found myself fighting the speedometer problem that's been giving me fits lately. The bike speedometer I'm using on the car has a magnet attached to the wheel, and each rotation of the magnet activates a stationary sensor wired to the computer. The first problem was the magnet falling off last week. Since I installed a new magnet, the problem has been the sensor failing to stay put within five millimeters of the passing magnet, as required for the thing to work properly. So this afternoon I remounted the sensor in a different way. I hope it will stay where it belongs until I can get my new wheels painted and on the car, and then install the original 1915 speedometer that operates off the left wheel.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
At 5:20 PM I lit the fire in the kitchen stove and fed the cats. I usually quit work at five, but today's project ran overtime. I was finishing installation of the south windows in my bedroom. That involved taking the windows out of the frames, then cutting, fitting, and installing the outside trim, and finally putting the windows back in. It took a lot longer to do it than it does to tell it. I want to get all this window installing done before winter hits. I still have four more pairs of windows to do. What I did today will improve conditions inside considerably, as there were gaps that let the wind blow lots of leaves into the room. After the rain that's predicted for tomorrow, we're supposed to have several dry days when I can get more windows done. After the windows are in I still need to shingle the south wall, then everything upstairs will be finished except the north wall. At this point it looks like work on that north wall may drag on into the new year.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Light sprinkles all day kept me indoors. I spent most of the day at the computer, and I devoted a lot of that time to researching what parts on a 1915 Ford should be brass or brass plated. There's concensus on some items, and a lot of disagreemnet or uncertainty about others. For the doubtful parts I'll go with factory photos and other period pictures. Where I can't find pictures, I'll have to rely on Bruce McCalley's Model T Encylopedia and a couple of other books that seem reliable. I've found that on this subject the most knowledgeable people are wrong about some things. One example is the steering wheel nut. One person I consider quite expert on many things says it should be steel painted black. But the old photos, and other sources, clearly show it polished brass.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
After a nice overnight rain left .73" inches in the gauge, the clouds stuck around and then cleared as I got back to work on the house. I'm working on installing the west pair of windows in my bedroom. I hope I can get the frames in place and the windows installed in them tomorrow.
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