Last January I volunteered to chair the 2012 Christmas show committee...little did I know that I would be the committee. I did get some wonderful help from Verla Covey and Pat Richardson that is much appreciated but next year I'll suggest an actual committee. The show is tomorrow and I'll be glad when it's over. Merry Christmas everyone!

Finishing the upholstery

Seat back and cushion fits well. Now for the door panels.

I used all the original springs and wood frames. Everything was still in pretty good condition considering the 41 years it's been since I first installed them!

LaBaron Bonney's instructions leave a lot to be desired. I'll bet they have not upgraded in decades. The paper looks to be type written and photocopied. And nothing is very clear. For $1,200 plus I would have expected more!

Installing Dynomat for noise reduction

After discussing it with my son, Markus, we purchased a case of Dynomat soundproofing material. I've installed it on each side of the car including front side cowl, doors and rear side panels. I've also installed some on the rumbleseat floor.

Studies show that only a 25% area needs to be covered to significantly reduce noise. One side is covered with an aluminum shield for heat reduction while the opposite side is covered with a tar like substance that adheres to all sorts of surfaces. Easy to install!

We'll see how well it works but it already sounds better just sitting in the garage. lol

Upholstery panels installed

Here are some photos of the final install of the side panels and headliner. You'll notice that there is some puckering in the headliner but I was assured from a fellow Model A enthusiast that there is a way to get rid of this. Rudy Perez has suggested that, after parking the car in full sunlight, I take a spray bottle of water and lightly spray the affected area and let it dry. The material is supposed to shrink up when drying and tighten the wrinkles out. I'll try it as soon as the weather is appropriate.

So now on to the seat upholstery...This could be interesting!

A portable hairdryer came in handy

I used a small portable hairdryer to heat and soften the material so that I could peal it back and trim the backing board appropriately. This would have saved me about 3 hours of work if LeBaron Bonney would have provided me with the right sized panels to begin with. (And they should for the $1,230 they charged for the kit!)

I Finally get started on installing upholstery

I finally received my upholstery kit from LeBaron Bonney, two weeks before I expected it, after their latest delay. So it took a total of 9 weeks to get it. (Their website states 2 weeks) Everything looked good until I started installation. The headliner was a lot of work and took me 9 hours on Friday June 15th. I could have done a better job if I would have read the instructions before I started (like they suggest)

But then a Snafu in installation: the rear window quartet panels didn't fit properly. They were found to be each5/8" too wide and needed to be trimmed. (This photo shows how it overlaps the rear window instead of slipping underneath the lip like it's supposed to) I contacted Doug at LeBaron Bonney and he suggested I could do it myself by using a heat gun to loosen contact cement then peel upholstery back and trim the card board backing. Material would then be trimmed accordingly and reinstalled so that it fits properly. Now it butts up against lower and upper rear window pieces! (You'll see in my next photo set how it all finished up)

Still waiting for my upholstery kit from LaBaron Bonney

Ok, so I order my upholstery kit from LaBaron & Bonney 7 weeks ago and figured to have it in a few weeks to be ready for the Steve McQueen Car Show on June 2nd. But when I called to see where it is in process three weeks ago they tell me they don't have it even scheduled for manufacture until June 22....Ahhh, Really? What ever happened to the 'Two Weeks' as advertised on their website? Now I won't even have it for the July Fourth parade in LaVerne!

Well, now I can say that my car is 'Award Winning' as it won 'Best Model A or T' in the Friends of Steve McQueen Car show at Boys Republic this past weekend. Here's a photo. I've also added a photo of the frame as it looked during dismantle...

After some minor? effort, I got the Model A registered and insured this past week and got it out on the road. It performed well. (other than running out of gas Thursday on the way back from lunch...see Andreas' FB post... luckily, I had Markus and Dre to push me to the gas station!)

I do have some issues with loose front wheels. They wobble off and on, mostly when starting off and at slow speeds. I'll have to remove them and see what the issue is. They seem to wobble both top to bottom and front to back so it might be a few things.

 In my haste, I decided not to rebuild the front end and just clean and paint it. That is proving to be a mistake and so now I'm rethinking that...I'll just tighten up what I can for now and then pull the front end off and go through it more efficiently after the Fourth of July parade in La Verne. We'll post photos after the parade and before we go to Europe with the girls. (Kat and Abi, our 'Enkelkinder!)

 Here's a photo of me in front of the Ace Hardware...a great old building in Old Town San Dimas.

See you in the Funny Papers!

Fenders are mounted

Fenders have been added along with radiator shell. I needed to take some photos for the insurance company so even though it's not quite complete, I shot them to send off tomorrow. Because in order to register the car it must be insured. (Too bad I'm not an illegal alien, then that rule doesn't apply...LOL) Next, it's off to the body shop again to do some final touch up work.

The upholstery has been ordered and should be here in a few weeks so that puts me on track to have it finished by June 2 and the Steve McQueen Car Show in Chino...Yahoo!

A lot of progress over the weekend

First off, I got my tires mounted on newly powder-coated wheels: Tacoma Cream. They look great!

Secondly: started the motor up on Friday and again Saturday...had some issues with running verly long. Sounds like a fuel flow issue. Took my newly rebuilt Zenith carberator to A Bone in Alta Loma and had Ray test it out for me...no problems; it ran great and so that aleviated one potential problem.

And finally got the vinyl top installed (took four hours). Had to do it Saturday morning as the sun was shining and warmed the material up just right. You'll notice tools of the trade. I found a set of dividers very useful to maintain distance between nails. I didn't replace the wood underframe so some of the tacks didn't take hold very well. But she'll hold.

Progress with motor install

Now that the motor's in, the real work of setting things up begins. Wedging the engine in between the motor mounts wasn't easy... And after a $650 investment, the transmission is looking great. I just hope it runs that way!

Installed Power Plant

Well, Ok...maybe it's not a Power Plant but it is an engine. 205 cubic inches and only 40 HP but oh, the torque! Last Saturday, Markus helped me install the motor without scratching the firewall in the process. And after purchasing a new 6V battery (and giving it a charge) we got the motor to spin. Albeit, without spark plugs... I'm not sure there will be enough umf to get the motor to start it's soooo tight! Stephen Salazar did an amazing job putting it together.

Patriotic barbershop concert

As many of you know. I've been singing barbershop for many years and currently sing with the Inland Empire Harmony Carousel Chorus. We're gearing up for our annual spring show and this year it will be a tribute to military. Several songs by the chorus with a number of chapter quartets singing period songs from WWI and WWII. Don't miss it. Call me for tickets: (909) 573-2125 Check out the accompanying flyer.

Model A Body and doors to be finished soon

Gongora's Auto Body is working non stop to finish up my car body. David says it should be ready by the weekend but I think more like next week sometime. I love the color contrast...this thing is going to look saweet!

Transmission rebuild

After opening and inspecting the Model A transmission, I decided to replace everything but the main drive shaft and reverse idler gear. You can see in these photos that the main cluster gears were in bad shape with a lot of scarring and chipped teeth. The bearings were also worn and loose and needed to be replaced.

Confession: The Follies of Youth

OK, I'll admit it now after 40 years. When I was first driving my Model A to high school in 1973-74; I used to have a lot of fun manually backfiring my motor. This used to cause people to 'duck and cover' and my buddies and I would get a good laugh.

What I would do is manually advance the spark and then turn off the key when the engine reached high rpm. The unburnt fuel would then build up until I turned the ignition switch back on. The spark would then ignite all the unspent fuel (gathered in the cylinders and manifold) and cause a HUGE explosion. It sounded amazingly like a gunshot...Dirty Harry style!

One time in particular, (Spring 1974) several friends had joined me for a cruise around town and as we passed a CHP safety checkpoint, I decided it would be the perfect time to show everyone just how loud my 'Chitty' could 'Bang'! The officers standing around didn't think it was so amusing though!...When they heard the bang they all grabbed their pistols and dove for cover. (They never knew what hit them as we sputtered down the road with the exhaust going 'potato, potato) Meanwhile, we were laughing so hard I could hardly see the road through my tears of joy!

And now for the reason of bringing this up so many years later: In the accompanying photo you'll see how my exhaust manifold has a crack that only showed up after sandblasting. (It was hidden from view by the intake manifold) I could never quite locate that exhaust leak!

This could also be the reason two of the three exhaust valve seats were cracked and needed repair... Now my tears aren't tears of joy!

Oh, the follies of youth!

BD&G Sandblasting...Quick turn around!

Well the guys at BD&G Sand Blasting were good at their word...they told me they'd have the body bead blasted by the following day, and they were good at their word. I got a call at 7:30 the next morning saying it was ready for pick up! It's now at Gongora's Auto Body.

Some body rot was found after sand blasting (see photos) but should not be a problem.



Now to decide on the color combo I want to have. There are 5 standard Ford color
schemes for 1931:
Upper body/Lower body/Stripe & Wheels
Thorne Brown/Thorne Brown/Straw
Lombard Blue/Black/Hesian Blue
Chicle Drab/Copra Drab/Straw or Tacoma Cream
Kewanee Green/Elkpointe Green/Apple Green
Black/Black/Apple Green.

I've been leaning toward Chicle Drab/Copra Drab but we also like Kewanee Green with Straw wheels. Chicle/Copra seems to have had many different variations over the years with shades from greenish to brownish to grayish. The greenish is our favorite and I don't like the gray but the brown is Ok.

Input anyone?

Block repaired very quickly

So I took my block to H & H Antique Ford in La Canada per advise from Art Moore four days before Christmas and they had it done two days after Christmas...Wow... Monika and I made the drive out the same day we planned on leaving for Tennessee. I do have to wait for them to send me a cam shaft that was out being ground but otherwise I'm very happy with their turn around service. I spoke with Max Jr. this morning and the camshaft is on it's way. Here's a picture of the head repair. (I just installed the head bolts) Now it's ready for the Model A Proctologist...Stephen Salazar!

Body is off to the sand blasters

It's been about one month since I got the fenders back from Gongora's Auto Body & Paint now it's time to get the body going. I'm taking it (25 pcs actually) to BD&G Sandblasting to get them ready for the body shop. They asked me what kind of schedule I'm on and I said I've got a March 17th deadline...they told me they'll have everything ready to pick up tomorrow...Wow! So I'll post again tomorrow, if that comes to fruition. Here's a shot of all the body, parts and brackets. :)