Painting the car

 Looking at the blog dates, I noticed it has been one year and one day since my last entry.  No excuse other than being busy with other stuff and that it is more enjoyable working on old cars than WRITING about them!

Anyway, after I got my "paint booth" made, it was time to prime and paint the car.  Like when I painted our 1915 runabout, I was at this stage of restoration during the hottest part of the year.  Too cold or too hot can cause issues when it comes to painting.  

I primed the body parts using a two part direct to metal urethane primer.  Even with the reducer, it is still pretty thick; almost like spray "Bondo".  It wet sands nicely and provides a good foundation for the paint.

I used a single stage, two part urethane paint when I painted our runabout, and did the same for this car.  With a urethane paint job, you can do a single stage paint or base color coat with clear coat paint.  I prefer the single stage paint for painting Model Ts because I don't want to blow through the clear coat during the final sanding/buffing stage. 

One of the main advantages of using a urethane paint is that you can use progressively finer grades of wet sandpaper, followed by two stages of buffing compound that will result in a mirror smooth paint job when done.  I covered the process in more detail on a posting on the Model T Ford Club of America forum site after I painted our runabout, and those interested can read about that process here:

https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6764&p=51027#p51027

After about 40 hours of priming, painting, wet sanding and buffing, the job was done.  I was happy with how it turned out.  This would have been a very expensive paint job if I had it professionally done.  Here are a few pictures of the progress, along with the finished body with the firewall installed.  I used the original firewall, which was broken in multiple pieces, as a template to locate the Ford patent plate and the brass California Vehicle Registration tag where it was originally screwed on well over 100 years ago.

Priming the body

Primed various parts

Finished front fenders

Finished body with firewall installed

Firewall and coil box temporarily installed

California Vehicle Registration tag installed in same location as on original firewall

Poor man's paint booth

 I mentioned in my previous entry that I used a three sided tent paint booth for painting all the chassis bits and pieces.  I used that tent for painting fenders and splash boards on the 1915 runabout, but it was a bit cramped for that.  I decided that this time I would need to come up with a better plan.

What I came up with was making a paint booth using heavy plastic drop cloth from Lowes, with the framing being supplied by the 3rd bay garage door and its rails.  The pictures below show the resulting booth.  I also used a couple of heavier drop cloths from Harbor Freight for to cover the floor.  I used spring clamps to hold the pieces together, which can be seen in the first picture.

Overall, it worked very well.  HPLV  guns, by the nature of their design, are LOW pressure.  That helps keep the overspray down.  However, I still got some overspray on the floor in spots.  I figure that just adds character to the garage.  

I also put plastic drop cloth over our 1915 runabout, which was in the garage when I painted.  No overspray got on it, which I was certainly glad about.

Painting the bits and pieces

 Doing a complete restoration of a Model T requires paint A LOT of bits and pieces.  Fortunately, in most cases this means painting a lot of pieces black.  Like the first T that I restored, I used Eastwood's gloss Extreme Chassis primer and glass black paint.  It requires no mixing, sprays well and looks nice when done.

I used a three sided tent as my spray booth.  I first got it when I restored our 1915 runabout, and it works well for smaller parts.  The picture below show the booth in the 3rd bay of our garage, along with some of the parts after painting.  My least favorite chassis parts to paint are the wheels.  

The second picture shows some of the many parts drying on a temporary "clothes line" that I installed under our deck.  I used a smaller HPLV gun to paint all the chassis parts, and it was good practice for painting the fenders and body, which was next on the to do list.  

Some of the many chassis parts painted

Parts drying under our deck

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Prepping the body for paint

 As I mentioned in a previous post, this Model T spent the first 110 years of its existence in Southern California.  That made the restoration of the body much easier.  A prior post mentioned that I had to repair some rusted areas on the fender flanges where they attach underneath the running boards.  Thankfully, that was the only sheet metal restorative work that I needed to do.

The car's documentation indicated that it had been painted by the 2nd owner in 1949 when he completed a cosmetic restoration of the car.  It is possible that the car had been painted once before, as the pictures of the original owner with the car from 1923 do not appear to have any pinstriping on the body, which apparently was standard when the car was made.  Either way, the car body needed to be taken down to bare metal for paint prepping.

The wood framework for the body was in excellent shape.  The only repair work needed for it were on the wooden door sills.  Although they had thin, brass step plates installed, they really were not a great place to step.  The edges were worn and a bit damaged due to people stepping on them over the years.  They were repaired and strengthened with a layer of fiberglass, followed by some body putty to fill the weave.  The following pictures show the body after the paint had been removed.

Body after paint was removed and door sills repaired

There were a few dents in the thin sheet metal that were removed as much as possible, followed by some body putty.  That can be seen in the second picture.  Removing paint is not the most enjoyable job, and any tools to help with the mechanical stripping makes the job go quicker. Two tools that worked for me were the Harbor Freight angle grinder with a wire brush attachment and an orbital sander shown below.  The grinder was particularly helpful, as it was also used to strip the paint off the chassis parts that I did not have blasted.  

Tools that made paint stripping go much easier!

Ford used several companies to make the bodies for the Model T until the early 1920s.  One of the companies was Baudette, who made the body for this car.  Like the other body makers, they originally made horse drawn carriages.  Baudette made over 2 million bodies for the Model T from 1910 through 1922, and each had a serial number on it.  Initially they stamped the number on the wood seat frame, as shown below.  Later they attached a stamped metal plate on the wood frame.  These tended to come off over time, as is the case with our 1915 Model T runabout.  The only way that I know that the body was a Baudette for that car is that it has a "B" stamped on the sheet metal piece below the seat frame.

Baudette Body Serial Number

While the body frame woodwork was very solid, there were two wooden components that I needed to replace.  The first were the removable front floor boards.  The originals were just falling apart after years of use.  The second area was the floor of the storage area under the rear seat.  This is where the previous owner had the battery located that was used to energize the engine coils to make hand starting easier.  Unfortunately, the battery had leaked some acid and rotted some of the boards.  The front floorboards are made and sold by Snyders, and really well made.  The baggage floor was made by me using Poplar wood.  Both are shown below.

New Front Floorboards

New Baggage Floorboard

A long day at Mike Bender's shop

 In a previous blog entry I mentioned that the engine block needed some repairs that required brazing.  Properly doing that required the block to be preheated in an oven, which unfortunately melted the crankshaft bearings in the block.  

Normally we think of bearings being made up of a series of steel balls or cylinders that allow a shaft to rotate freely.  However, the Model T crankshaft, and many cars during the first few decades of automobiles, did not use a traditional bearing.  Instead the bearing was a metal called Babbitt, made up of an alloy of mostly tin, copper and antimony.  This material lined the surface of the block and bearing caps that come in contact with the three crankshaft journals of the Model T engine.  

Putting new Babbitt bearings into a Model T block requires molds and the ability to carefully line bore the resulting bearings to ensure that the three bearings are in a straight line, and have a clearance of 0.002" with the crankshaft.  0.002" is a really small clearance; 1/500 of an inch!

There are only a few places in the U.S. that have the equipment and experience to do the job.  Mike Bender in Tulsa, OK is one of those experts.  Mike rebuilt the engine for our 1915 Model T runabout in 2019, and offered to repour and drill the bearings for the engine block for our 1911 car.  

So in June of 2022, I made the three hour drive to Mike's shop to "help" Mike do the Babbitt work on the engine block.  It was an enjoyable, but long day as Mike poured the new oversized crankshaft journals and then carefully line bored the journals for the desired clearance.  The bearing journals were fine tuned by using a material called "Timesaver", which is an abrasive paste that is applied between the crankshaft and journals that finely cuts the Babbitt until there is a clearance of 0.002".  Pretty cool stuff, and much quicker than the original method of scraping the bearings with a special knife to remove small amounts of material.

We finished up around dinner time, and drove home after a long but productive day.  The block was now ready to go to a machine shop to have the cylinders bored for some oversized pistons and to have the valve seats reworked.

Mike pouring the #1 crankshaft bearing

Line boring the new Babbitt journals to the proper diameter

Frame finishing

 The early cars, like the Model T, used a frame that supported the axles, engine and body.  Eventually car designs adopted a uni-body construction.  As I did with our 1915 Runabout restoration, I decided to have the frame powder coated instead of painting it.  The main reason was to have a much more durable coating than paint.  For the same reason, I had the running boards powder coated because they are stepped on every time someone gets in or out of the car.

I took the frame and the running boards to the same company in Wichita, LORAC, that I used when I restored our Runabout.  I've been told that the strange name is just "Carol" spelled backwards, and is apparently named for the owner.  I brought parts to them last May and after about a week or so, I was able to pick them up.  What was a grimy frame now looked sparkling new!

Working on the body

Restoring a car that spent 110 years in southern California is wonderful.  No rust and no wood rot.  Many people may not know that the Model T bodies were all wood for the first couple years of production, and continued to use for the body frame throughout its production.  1911 was the first year that the bodies had steel skins that were nailed onto the wood frame.  These bodies were not initially made by Ford, but by former carriage companies that he subcontracted the work to.  This particular body was made by Baudette, which also made the body for our 1915 runabout.  Eventually Baudette was purchased by Fisher body, which eventually was purchased by General Motors and made car bodies for GM until it was dissolved by GM in 1984.

The body styling was one of the many changes that Ford incorporated into the car during the 1911 and 1912 model year. 1911 was the only year that Ford made the "step side" style of body with steel skins.  The step side body, used since the car went into production in late 1908, is characterized by having the door sills and the front and rear seat compartments overhanging the narrower bottom of the body.  These features were deleted during the 1912 model year resulting in a more "streamlined" looking body.  This car was one of the last of the step side Model T's before the new bodies were serialized into the production line in early 1912.

Disassembling the body was messy, but uneventful.  LOTS of dirt accumulated in the various corners of the body and under the upholstery.  The original leather upholstery was in pretty bad shape, so it will be replaced with new upholstery from Classtique Upholstery.  It was interesting removing the upholstery and being able to see evidences of original paint.  The ugly green that was on the car when I bought it was painted in 1947 by the second owner.  The evidences of paint that I found under the car showed that the car was black originally, or what appears as black now.  It was also interesting to see some chalk marks on one of the seat backs that apparently one of the Baudette workers did back in 1911.

Doing a "frame up" restoration of course means getting it off the frame!  It is very helpful to have some sort of dolly that the body can be attached to for moving it around while working on the body and painting it.  I basically used two 2x4's that rested on some paint cans and furniture dollies when I restored the 1915 runabout.  I was not going to make that mistake again.  This time I built up a "rickshaw" shown in the second picture.  It worked much better, and it allowed me to move the body around as needed.

The body before removing the upholstery and paint

Dolly used for moving and working on the body

I'm cheating in this area

The Model T Ford mechanical and electrical system remained largely unchanged during its production run from late 1908 through 1927.  There were good improvements the ignition system during that time, the most important, in my opinion was the change to the standardized "KW style" ignition coil in 1913.  

The Model T ignition coil box, contains four coils that "buzz" and the electrical spark to each cylinder.  Ford bought these coil box assemblies from several suppliers before 1913, including Heinze, Kingston, Jacobson-Brandaw and K-W.  Each company's ignition box contained their own particular coil design, which were not interchangeable with the other's.  Lacking interchangeability is a manufacturer's and customer's nightmare.  

For those who have never seen a Model T coil, it is probably the best example of "steam punk" technology on the car.  It is a wood box filled crude looking electrical parts all encased in tar.  They take the low voltage alternating current from the car's built in magneto and converts it into a high voltage spark. The figure below shows the mysterious inner workings of the Model T coil box.  When operating, they each make a buzzing sound as the point open and close quickly.  These coils are enclosed in a box on the firewall and it sounds like a thousand angry bees trapped inside.

K-W coil used on all Model T's from 1913 and on

The pre 1913 coils tended to be finicky, making the car more difficult to run properly.  The big improvement was made by the K-W company with there new coil design, when they incorporated a "cushion spring" on the points mounted on the top of the coils.  The improvement was dramatic enough that Ford switched to this style of coil for the rest of the car's production.  A secondary, but important, benefit was that the cars now had a common size ignition coil that the customer could easily replace with a new one from Ford.  Eventually Ford even built these coils inhouse under license from K-W.

The 1911 Model T that I am restoring was originally equipped with the early style coil box.  Which is lost to history, because the first or second owner replaced it with a later year coil box that used the K-W coils.  Smart move.  The previous owner decided to correct this and found a used Heinze coil box that was correct for the car.  It must have worked well enough for him, because it was still on the car when I got it.

Heinze coils that came with the car

I was concerned about using the original style coils for the reasons given.  I like how the later K-W coils work, and I have experience rebuilding and tuning them.  There was only one guy in the USA who worked on the old style coils, and he unfortunately passed away a few months ago do to an apparent complication with the Covid booster.  He gave me some tips on how to check to see if the coils were good, and the Ohmmeter test that he suggested showed that all of the coils had a short in the windings, indicating that major surgery would be required to make those coils functional again.

I decided that this was one area that I was going to cheat on the restoration.  The Model T parts suppliers sell replica coil boxes that look like the early style ones, but are sized to accept the "modern" K-W ignition coils.  I got one of those boxes along with a new switch box that allows the driver to run the car on the engine's magneto or the standby battery.  Normally the battery is just used to energize the coils when starting the car.  Otherwise the driver needs to turn the crank at sufficient speed to generate the 4 1/2 volts needed.  This is really not a problem if the magneto system in the car is functioning well.  I almost always start our 1915 Runabout with the switch set to magneto.  The cars did not even come with the optional battery from the factory.  

The picture below shows the completed box with four early brass topped coils that I restored.  These coils were graciously given to me by Erik Larson, a Model T coil rebuilder in Idaho that rebuilt the coils for our Runabout a few years ago.  Since that time I have learned how to rebuild and tune them myself.

Replica Heinze coil box sized to accept K-W coils

The last picture shows a comparison of replica versus original Heinze coil box.  You can see that replica box is slightly larger.  The ignition wire attach locations are dimensionally the same, so no change is required for the firewall.  You may have noticed that the stain color is different.  I used Laurel Mountain Forge cherry stain, which is the most recommended stain by T restorers to match the original stain used by Ford.  My observation is that it does match really well the stain found on the original firewall that came with the car.  The original Heinze box may have been re-stained at some point.  Either way, my new coil box is going to work better and match the firewall!  

So, yes, I am cheating on the ignition system for this restoration and I am glad that I am!

Comparison of the original and replica Heinze coil boxes

Restoring the fenders

Scientists tell us that there are 118 elements in the periodic table.  I'll take their word for it, but for those of us who grew up in the Great Lakes area, we all know that there is an additional element; RUST.  I've mentioned before that this car spent 110 years of its existence in southern California, so that meant that there is not much of that dreaded 119th element included on this car.  The one area that I did find rust that needed repairing was on the fender flanges that attach to the bottom side of the running boards.  So why did they rust in these locations on a car located in sunny California?  The best that I can tell, the design is a natural trap for mud or water, which over time allowed them to rust.

The fenders and splash boards before the ugly green paint was removed

The first step in restoring the fenders was removing the paint completely.  The fenders are REALLY thin on these early Model Ts.  My dial calipers show that they are about 0.032" thick, or looking at it another way, 30 fenders stacked together would only be 1" thick.  What makes matters worse is that these early fenders did not have much 3D contours like later fenders, which mean that they are even easier to dent.  Instead of spending way too much time with an angle grinder equipped with a wire brush to remove the paint, I cheated and took them to Kansas Dry Stripping in Derby, Kansas that specializes in low pressure media blasting to remove the paint.  Traditional "sandblasting" would likely result in warping the fenders during the process.  I used this company to strip the paint on the 1915 Model T runabout that I restored a few years ago, and knew that they did great work.

I decided that the fenders were too thin to attempt to have the flanges repaired with brazing or welding.  Instead, I repaired them by structurally bonding steel doublers of the same thickness as the fenders and then encapsulated them with fiberglass for further reinforcement.  The fender repairs were cosmetically finished with body filler, resulting in stronger then new flanges.  

There were a few localized areas that also needed body filler to bring them back to original contour.  The front fenders also needed work to removed denting in the areas where the attach flanges mount on the front fenders.  I wondered how they could have been dented like this, and then I remembered the pictures of the 2nd owner letting different ladies to sit on the fenders to pose for pictures... The fenders are now done and waiting for priming and painting.

Fenders after being repaired and ready for priming and painting

Speedometer Restoration

 While I am planning on doing most of the restoration myself, there are a few items that I have decided that those with the specialized skill and tools are going to do instead.  Those include pouring and line drilling the crankshaft Babbitt, the cylinder and valve machine shop work, and the speedometer restoration.

Early Model Ts came equipped with a speedometer/odometer as standard equipment.  Eventually these became optional items during Ford's never ending quest to reduce the car's purchase price.  The 1911 Model T came equipped with a Stewart Model 26 speedometer; a completely mechanical device consisting of a long, flexible cable that connects the gearbox assembly attached to the right front wheel spindle.  Its little gear engages a bigger gear on the wheel, which turns the shaft that snakes its way up to the speedometer head attached to the firewall.  The following two pictures show the installation before it was removed from the car:

Stewart 26 Speedometer Installed on the firewall

Speedometer gearbox and cable installation

The Ford service manual does not have any maintenance information include for working on the speedometer. The Model T Ford Club of America publishes a series of booklets for working on various areas of the car, including one on restoring the speedometer.  It was on my Christmas list and I read it quickly thereafter.  It was then that I realized that it was going to be like working on a fine watch, and I figured that doing it myself would result in a shiny, but useless piece of brass attached to my firewall.

Fortunately the author of the booklet, Rust Furstnow, also restores these speedometers.  I soon contacted him and before long the speedometer assembly made its way to Arizona and back.  Wow, does Russ do nice work!  There were some parts that needed replacing, and the speedometer cable was from a Model T a couple of years newer.  He said that this was not surprising, as the 1911 cables tended to break.  The cable was too long resulting in it hanging rather close to the road, so he shortened it to the correct length.  I suspect that the cable broke fairly early on, as the pictures of the car with the original owner appear to show this too long of cable installed.  

Here are some pictures of the speedometer head and gearbox after I received them back.  They, along with the restored cable, are tucked away until they will be installed when the car is put back together.

Restored speedometer head

Restored speedometer gearbox

Diffusing a bomb

Restoring a Model T is not an inherently dangerous activity.  Sure, you should take the usual precautions like wearing safety glasses if grinding, wearing respirator if painting, using jack stands etc.  However, you reallllly need to do be careful when disassembling the leaf springs.  

Modern cars often use a combination of a coil spring and a shock absorber attached to each wheel to soak up the jolt you would otherwise get when driving over a pothole.  The Model T, and other early cars, instead used a "leaf spring" consisting of several steel rectangular pieces stacked together.  Basically it was a carryover from the horse wagons and buggies used before the car was invented.  It is no surprise that the bodies for the early Fords and other auto makers came from buggy manufacturers.  

If you ever had to take a physics class, you probably learned about springs.  How much a spring deflects under a certain amount of load depends on the physical dimensions of the spring, and the spring material's physical characteristics.  Leaf springs are sometimes preloaded and formed into an arch in order to provide the desired characteristics such as how high the car sits off the ground and how it handles while turning a corner.  

The Model T springs uses a lot of preload and curvature; a lot.  Not so much in the front axle spring as the rear.  Restoring the springs requires taking them apart to strip and repaint the individual pieces.  Taking them apart is like diffusing a bomb; something done with great care so that pieces don't go flying everywhere and hitting or hurting whatever is in its way.

This is the second time that I've taken T springs apart, so I was less nervous this time.  I start with the front spring because they have less preload.  The procedure for either spring is the same.  I start by using at least two parallel clamps to hold the spring together.  I then remove the pin holding the U shaped brackets toward each end that help the keep the leaf spring pieces stacked up correctly.  Then I loosen the nut on the bolt at the center of the spring assembly and carefully loosen the parallel clamps until the loosened center bolt is under load again.  I repeat the process until all the preload is removed.  The picture below show the process, including how much preloading the spring was under.  That was a lot of stored energy!

After painting but prior to reassembly, the individual pieces have a coat of "slip paint" applied to improve the sliding characteristics between the individual spring pieces.  The process is reversed for assembling the springs.  Reassembly is also less nerve wracking!

Model T rear leaf spring as removed

Starting to disassemble the rear leaf spring

Rear leaf spring disassembled

Disassembling the rear axle

The engine and rear axle of the Model T are the most mechanically complex assemblies that need to be taken apart for the restoration.  Like removing the engine, it is good to have some help getting the axle removed from the car.  Fortunately helper Alec was once again avialable.

The basic design of an automotive rear drive axle/rear axle engineer brother.  I'll take his word for it.  I kind of fog over when trying to understand how the Model T planetary transmission and differential in the rear axle work.  Anyway, here is a cutaway picture of what the Model T rear axle looks like for those interested.

Model T Rear Axle/Driveshaft assembly

This cutaway does not clearly show the two diagonal radius rods that attach from the front of the driveshaft to each end of the rear axle.  This can be seen in the picture below.  Engineers love triangles because they make a very stable structure.  These radius rods allow the driveshaft to stay properly oriented to the rear axle when the frame of the car is twisting as it goes over rough terrain.  The Model T was really the first successful SUV, because there were very few paved roads when it was introduced.  

Disassembling the rear axle/driveshaft

Following the handy Model T Service Manual made disassembly pretty uneventful.  My only problem was not covered in the manual; which was how to get the stuck driveshaft out of the rear axle "pumpkin".  It was supposed to come right out, but this one would not.  I finally hung it up like a deer hunter would do after a successful day out in the woods, and the driveshaft finally came free.  The problem was caused by a previous mechanic using sealer along the attach flange to keep it from leaking.

The Model T rear axle was pretty reliable, but had one design issue that every T owner should know about.  There are thrust washers installed on each axle shaft near the differential assembly.  These washers were originally made of a babbitt, a soft alloy used as the bearing surface for the engine crankshaft and piston connecting rods.  While it was (and is) a good solution for the engine, it was not a good thrust washer material.  Bad things can happen when a T driver least expects it if the babbitt washers disintegrate while driving.  Unfortunately, the only way to determine if these thrust washers have been replaced with more durable ones made of bronze is by removing and disassembling the rear axle.   Sort of like having to kill your pet to find out if it has rabies... 

I was planning on rebuilding this rear axle no matter what, so the difference would only be if I had to buy bronze thrust washers.  The good news was that the offending babbitt washers had been replaced sometime in its past.  One of the bronze washers can be seen on the axle shaft on the right side of the picture below.  

I should point out that the actual turning portion of the driveshaft and axles are enclosed in  cylindrical housings.  You can see how skinny the axle shafts are in the picture, compared to the robust axle housings.  The driveshaft is similarly skinny.  I went over to one of the local Model T guys to use some specialty tools that he had that make it easier to disassemble the driveshaft.  One of the parts that was supposed to be pressed on the the shaft just fell off.  Well that was not good.  The driveshaft bushing was pressed into the driveshaft housing and his special tool was very helpful in getting that out.  After that, the parts were all cleaned and the housings stripped of there paint.  The axle will be painted and reassembled later.  The only part that needed replacing was the driveshaft due to some cracking around the keyway at where the drive gear attaches.  The original driveshafts were forged(!) and only machined where they needed to by round.  The modern replacements are machined from a round steel rod and result in smoother ride.  If you have ever ridden in a Model T, you know that anything to make is smoother is a good thing.

Rear axle disassembled

Disassembling the engine

Taking apart an old car is like restoring an old house.  You  always are going to find something unexpected.  Rarely is that unexpected item good.  Taking apart a Model T engine is pretty easy if following the Model T Service Manual, but there are three points along the way that can really give a person headaches.  

The first is when you remove the top of the engine.  The early Ford cars had "flathead" engines where the top of the engine is a cast iron piece that is domed for the top of each of the four piston's combustion chambers.  The top has no moving parts; just four threaded spark plug holes and holes for the bolts to hold it to the engine block.  It is also hollow to allow the engine coolant to circulate and cool it.  

It is the long bolts that hold on the head that can cause a headache if they snap off, requiring care to drill out and remove the broken bolt.  I watched a YouTube video of a guy disassembling a T engine and was using a powered wrench to remove the bolts.  No, no, no!  It was not surprising that he snapped one or two of the bolts.  I did what I could to prevent the problem by spraying liquid wrench on the bolt heads weeks before removal, along with carefully tapping on the bolt heads with a peen end of a hammer to break any rust in the threads.  Fortunately all 15 bolts came out without breaking, so I could proceed to the next hurdles.

These hurdles occur when taking apart the transmission, where the mechanic needs to remove parts that have been pressed onto a shaft.  The first is the "clutch drum", which is like a small open cylinder where the clutch plates are located.  A very strong, specialized puller is needed to remove it.  Sometimes they are stuck on so bad that heat, otherwise know as a "fire wrench" is needed.  Ford sold a special puller for removing it, but it is flimsier than an aftermarket puller made back in the day by the Stevens company.  The Stevens pullers are being reproduced today and I used one to successfully pull off the clutch drum.

The last hurdle was removing the transmission drive gear from the transmission shaft.  This time I used an original Ford puller specifically designed for the job.  This 100 year old puller worked flawlessly.  Whew, all hurdles cleared and now I could now finish the job.

The rest of the engine disassembly was uneventful, but it was at this stage that I found the unexpected surprises.  The first was some scoring on a couple of the cylinder walls caused by debris getting caught between the piston rings and cylinder walls.  A Model T does not have an oil filter systems like modern cars, so any contaminants in the oil will happily go where ever the oil is flung and will do what it can to cause damage.  One of must have aftermarket items developed during the T era was a screen trough with a magnet at the bottom that is installed just below the access panel on top of the transmission.  Because the Model T engine and transmission share the same oil, the oil flung by the spinning transmission drums ends up going through the screen trough.  Any metallic debris or other pieces of crud get caught by it.  The magnet attracts any of those iron based particles to prevent them from escaping the trough.  

Every T owner should have one of these low cost transmission screens installed to protect their engines.  For some reason, this engine didn't have one installed.  The scoring looked worse than it the actual depth of the grooves, but it would still need to be removed.  That meant honing or likely boring out for an oversized piston.  Speaking of pistons, the ones in the engine were original style cast iron pistons.  Why aluminum pistons were not installed at the last rebuild in 1971 is unknown.  I planned on replacing them with lighter aluminum pistons, which most people use now when rebuilding a T engine.  Their main benefit is less wear and tear on the engine due to their lower mass.  The best news was that the crankshaft measured out to "standard" dimensions, meaning that it does not need to be ground down to a smaller set diameter, usually .010, 0.020 or more inches below standard diameter.

The scored cylinders and crud on some of the exhaust valve seats explained the very low compression that I measured before removing the engine.  The valves seats will be reworked at the same time that the cylinders are bored out.  No big deal, and I pretty much expected that I would need to do the cylinders and valves anyway.  The real unexpected surprise was found on the engine block.  The engine block has three thick webs that hold the crankshaft while it rotates.  Two of the web flanges had a piece missing that looked like something took a "bite" out of them.  This appeared to have happened long ago, as there was no cast iron debris was found in the oil or oil pan when it was removed.  

I consulted with a couple of expert Model T engine rebuilders to get there thoughts on what to do.  Neither was concerned about the missing flange pieces, as the web on the left next to the engine flywheel and has the highest load.  One of the experts did notice a slight crack in that web when looking at the picture.  He had a good eye, as I did not see the crack until looking at the block more closely.  The crack was different than what occurred in other two flanges, but could have been caused by a change in overall block stiffness due to the missing flange pieces.  It is impossible to know if it was caused by that, but the block needed to be fixed.

After further discussion with them and another shop about possibly mechanically "stitching" the web crack, the best course of action was to have the block brazed by a professional.  This required heating the block in an oven, brazing the repair, and slowly letting the block cool.  Several weeks later I was able to get the block properly repaired.  The brazer was also able to build up the web flanges so that the original stiffness of these webs would be restored. The only drawback was that the oven temperature melted the babbitt material that formed the bearing surface for the crankshaft.  This was known going into the repair, but was necessary in order to properly repair the block.  The plan is to have this babbitt poured and line drilled to the proper diameter for the crankshaft in June.

Model T engine 

Removing the engine

Working on Model T's is not a hobby for those who don't like to get dirty.  Just like emptying the cat litter or cleaning up after a dog, getting dirty often goes along with something that is worth having or doing.  Henry Ford once supposedly said about a Model T's penchant for leaking that "if it is not leaking, then it is out of oil".  I've even seen ancient pictures of Ford Model T dealerships with oil pans located under cars on the showroom floor.  So, a reasonable amount of oil dripping can be expected if you own a Model T.  What is reasonable depends on the condition of the car.  

Therefore, it was no surprise that taking a Model T apart to restore was going to be a messy proposition.  So it was in mid March when I started disassembling the car.  It had not been driven since at least 2003 (the last date on the license plate) and the engine had been rebuilt in 1971, so the engine and chassis were pretty well covered with at least 50 year old oil and dirt. 

Dirt and grime aside, taking apart a Model T is pretty easy.  Ford published a Model T Service Manual in 1925 that every T mechanic uses.  I am not sure what T mechanics used before then, although the "owner's manual" actually has a fair amount of maintenance instructions in it.  Another T owner once referred to it as the "first tool a Model T owner should buy".  Amen to that brother.  These manuals are available as reprints and are also found in pdf format online.  They have good pictures, are simple to follow with step by step instructions.  

The Service Manual even should how to completely disassemble the car (and how to reassemble it in a later chapter).  I recall following it closely when I first disassembled the 1915 runabout that I restored three years ago.  This time I just reviewed the procedure since I had been down this road before.

Removing the engine is one of the first steps in disassembling the car.  For an earlier Model T like this one, it is easier to remove the firewall assembly, which includes the steering column and windshield.  It also a good idea to remove the head and side lamps to keep from damaging them while removing the engine.  After removing those, along with the radiator, it is pretty easy to pull the engine.  It is good to have some help at that stage, which my son Alec did.  He helped do the same on the runabout project, so he was experienced and I could blame him if anything went wrong.  

Back to a Model T leaking oil.  This car leaked more oil than "usual".  Even with the oil drained, oil kept dripping out.  Like the Old Testament story of the widow whose jars kept producing olive oil during a famine, I wondered if this engine would continue to produce oil indefinitely...  Fortunately no, as I discovered when I tore the engine down that there was a crushed gasket and damaged retaining ring for the access panel on the bottom of the engine pan.  I had a new gasket, but what about the damaged retaining ring?  It was shortly after finding the damaged rating ring that I was able to find an undamaged one for this style of oil pan.  Who has a 110 year old Model T oil pan retaining ring??? Kim Dobbins.  Thank you Kim!

Removing the windshield, headlights and other parts in preparation for removing the engine.  Note how much oil is still dripping from the engine AFTER the oil had been drained.

Alec helping to pull the engine from the car.

Engine ready for teardown.

So long my little friend

 I am a cat person.  I admit it.  For many years we have had three indoor cats that have entertained and sometimes annoyed us.  Unofficially, we also had a fourth cat.  She supposedly belonged to a neighbor girl and was supposedly named "Biscuit", but we knew better.  My wife called her an "interloper" when she first started hanging around six years ago.  English was never my strong suit, so I did not know what that word meant, but I figured that it was not complimentary.  

She eventually won my wife over and one of my son's started calling her Graybles, and the name stuck.  Twice a day she would come over for a "snack" and for some attention.  Some times she came just for attention and to see what we were up to.  She was a smart cat; she knew my car and would start heading towards our house if she saw me coming down the street when I got home from work.

She regularly came over to watch me work while restoring the 1915 runabout three years ago, and I was looking forward to her "help" when I started restoring the 1911 T this past March.  However, that was not to be.  Right before I started the restoration, she was killed by the only natural predator that a cat has in this country, an automobile.  So long my little friend, I will miss you!

Dinner time yet?

Graybles checking out my paint booth tent

Graybles checking over the 1911 Model T before the restoration started

It was not uncommon to find her sleeping on our front porch chairs

Every T has a story

 The Ford Motor Company produced over 15 million Model T cars between October 1908 and May 1927.  Many of those cars were the first car that a person or family ever owned.  Often their previous vehicle was a horse.  There are many pictures taken during that era showing the happy new owner posing with the car; often with the whole family.  So every Model T has a story.  Unfortunately the vast majority of those stories have been lost to time.  Families may have some old photos showing their grandparents or great grandparents with their first Model T, but almost always that car no longer exists.  If it does exist, it has been sold many times over the years and the history has been lost.  

That is the case with our 1915 Model T runabout that I previously restored.  It was built, or more correctly the engine was assembled, on September 30th 1914.  The engine serial number can be used to determine its assembly date from the largely intact Ford records.  However, almost all the car's history has been lost.  The 89 year old gentleman that I bought it from bought it from an ailing cousin who was in a nursing home, but had no knowledge of its history.  

It was while I was looking for my next restoration project when this rare Model T came up for sale.  Rare because it was made in November 1911.  Unfortunately, the exact production date is unknown due to a 1970 Henry Ford Museum fire that resulted in the loss of records for that period.  It is even more rare because its complete ownership history was known.  History, especially paper documentation or physical photos, can be easily lost.  This was one of the reasons that I wanted to create this blog; to digitally preserve some of its known history.   

There have only been three prior owners of this car in the last 110 years, so here is some of the information known about them and the car through the years.

"Captain" William F. Markham

Our story begins with William F. Markham.  Born in 1851 in Plymouth, MI, in his early days he worked in some capacity on a Great Lakes shipping boat and that was when he started referring to himself as a "Captain" and wore a captain style hat for the rest of his life.  He started a manufacturing company that made wooden tanks and cisterns in the 1880s, but his fame and fortune came when he picked up the rights to a wooden air rifle design and created the Markham Air Rifle Company.  He improved the design and got a Patent for spring powered air rifle (like used on the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun).  His company was quite successful and it is not surprising that he became friends with another successful businessman in the area, Henry Ford.  Markham's company and Daisy were competitors during this era, with Daisy eventually purchasing Markham's controlling interest in his company.  So in the fall of 1911, Markham and his new wife decided that it was a good time to move to sunny California.  

It was shortly after they moved to California that Henry Ford gave Markham this Model T.  Henry was known for giving a Model T to his friends.  Some of his close friends like Thomas Edison would receive a new Model T every year.  Two of those are on display at different Edison museums; one in New Jersey and the other at his Florida winter residence.

Markham became very wealthy from his real estate dealings around Hollywood after moving to California.  When he died in 1930, his estate was valued at around 2 million at the height of the depression, which would be over $30 million in 2022.  California DMV records from the early 20s show that he owned numerous cars at the time, including this Model T.  The story of the car being a gift from Henry Ford came from Markham's gardener Ed Jenkins and from his long time employee Ben Sprague, whose duties varied from being a chauffer to caretaker of his mansion.  Both meant a lot to Markham, as they were named in his will to receive a monthly stipend after his death.  In Sprague's case, it was for the rest of his life. 

It was from the widow of Ed Jenkins that several pictures of Markham and the 1911 Model T were preserved.  She also recalled that Ben Sprague drove the T from Michigan to California when he came out to join Markham there.  Ben continued to drive the T after Markham's death until it was sold in 1934.

Ed Jenkins, Ben Sprague and William Markham with the 1911 T on a coyote hunting trip in Mojave, CA

Basil Daniels

Markham's widow continued to live in their Glendale, CA mansion until her death in 1937.  Before her death, the Model T was sold in 1934 to Beverly Hills resident Basil Daniels.  He found the car in the show room of a used car dealer and bought it for $100.  Shortly after he bought it he got the history of the car from Ben Sprague who was still living at and taking care of the Markham mansion.  

Basil seemed to be very proud of the car and liked to show it off.  The documentation that came with the car includes a few newspaper articles from the mid 1930's about the car, which was very old even then.  He made at least one fairly long trip in it from Los Angeles to San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico in 1935.  As a couple of the pictures below show, guys have been trying to use cars to try to pick up girls for a long time.  Finding several pictures of girls sitting on the fenders solved the mystery of the denting around the attach brackets for the front fenders...

Living near Hollywood, Basil would rent the car to the movie studios when they needed an "old car".  The last movie that it was used for was a Red Skelton 1951 movie "Eat my Dust", where he got paid $50/day for the use of the car.

Basil worked for a Ford dealership in Hollywood during the late 40s and early 50s.  It was in 1949 was repainted the unauthentic green color that the car still had when I bought it.  After that it was displayed in the dealer's showroom for several years.  There are too many other pictures to include of Basil and others posing or traveling with the Model T.  They are fun to look at though, as he often dressed up as various characters when showing off the car.  Watching him age while going through his pictures is just another reminder that we really don't own anything, but are just caretakers of things for period of time.

Basil Daniels and friend driving the T in San Diego in 1935

Basil using the T to pick up some Tijuana girls in 1935

Some Beverly Hills girls taking their turn to sit on the car

Basil using the T to chauffer movie stars

Basil and other Ford mechanics after the T was repainted in 1949

The 1911 Model T on display at Coberly Ford in Hollywood

On the movie set of "Excuse my Dust"

"Excuse My Dust" scene with car.

Giving a tour around Hollywood.  I guess they were too old to sit on the fenders

Basil looking the T over during a 1975 visit

Chad Champlin

Chad Champlin was a 23 year old Cal Poly student when spotted the ad for a 1910 Model T for sale.  Basil Daniels referred to the car as a 1910 Model T for the 30 years that he owned it, even though the 1921 California DMV correctly had it labeled as a 1911 car.  Chad bought the car, and became its longest caretaker until he passed away in 2017. 

Chad spent a lot of time early on researching, and keeping notes, of what he could learn about the history of the car.  Basil Daniels gave him his numerous photos, newspaper clippings and letters to and from the Edison Institute (now the Henry Ford Museum) in 1938 relating the history of the car and seeing whether they wanted it for the museum.  It was in the correspondence with the Edison Institute that the earliest written history of the car as received from the then living Ben Sprague was captured.  Chad built on that history by tracking down the widow of Markham's gardener, who gave him the previously mentioned pictures of her husband with the car and the original owner.  

Chad also tracked down Markham's son and wrote to him asking if he knew any more about the car.  He had no knowledge of the car's origins, as he did not move out to California until some years later.  He did recall riding in the car and that as the car got older, his dad carried an axe under the rear seat and threatened to smash it to pieces if it broke down again!  

It was during that time that Chad also documented what was missing or not correct on the car when he bought it, and then replaced those with correct year items.  For example, the side and rear kerosene lamps were missing when Basil bought the car and he put ones on from another car.  Chad found correct lamps to replace them.  The only other major items that needed replacing with correct parts was the brass horn, acetylene generator tank, coil box and transmission cover.  

The car was now an authentic enough to be used as an example of a correct 1911 Model T in one of the first Model T reference books, "From Here to Obscurity" published in 1971 by Bruce McCalley.  Chad did not restore the car, which still had the original leather interior and convertible top that had been replaced when Markham owned it.  The only major work that he appeared to do to it was rebuild the engine in 1971.  Unfortunately I do not know much else about the car's history during this time other than he drove it on his honeymoon in 1974 when he married Janice.  It was from Janice that I bought the car last fall.

Chad giving some friends a ride in 1964