Model T Ford Speedster Specials: Progress report

Saturday, 8 December 2018

Progress report

After a long.. very long time in storage both outside and now in the barn at our farm, the '26 T is slowly getting pulled apart cleaned up and put back together.

A big step forward in 2017 was the purchase of an original 1926 front half of a 4 door tour tub, which was shipped over from Model T Haven in Kansas ..

I loosely fitted it to the chassis, and bolted the cut down steering column in to see how it looked, my daughter Rosie trying it for size..

The original Pig n Ford racer had a cut down steering shaft and control rods, so after pulling it, and a replacement column apart and doing a lot of cleaning up I managed to make one straights column out of the parts .. i still have to make up a couple of column supports , one at dashboard level and one similar to the drawing to brace it and the firewall off the chassis

Next on the list of jobs was to free off what at first glance was a couple of sticky valves but I soon realised that the valves were very corroded in the port area so ordered a new set from Neil Tuckett.
In the meantime I pulled the front timer off and swapped in the neat little unit that came with the new Texas Truefire kit that will go on once the cylinder head is back on. The cylinder head had two rusted in spark plugs that snapped off when I tried to get them out. After a lot of heat, drilling, swearing and eventually cleaning up with a 1/2" NPT tap the head was ready for a new set of spark plugs.

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The Plan .....................

You've got to have a plan!

Started out looking for a Model A engine to fit into a 1927 Austin 10 rolling chassis that I had been offered, I wanted to build a VSCC eligible vintage sporting trials car with a bit of a lean towards a period hotrod. I got put in touch with Phil Wells thru Britchopper Magazine who in turn put me in touch with a guy called Nervous Bob, a deal was just about done then II happened on an ad for the ex Pig N Ford racer and the plan changed!!!
Another deal was done, some bikes n bits were traded and the T arrived on the driveway.
So, the plan is still to build a vintage sporting trials car, keeping as much of the character and patina of the existing '26 T racer, adding some minimal bodywork and making it road legal. Maybe i'll put a roadster pick up bed on the back but, for now I'm going to concentrate on making it run handle and stop!

Tuning a Model T

Cant remember where I found this but its all good stuff!

Just changing the body could add 10 to 15 miles an hour to the top speed.

Sometimes it was necessary to remove a leaf from each spring because of the lighter body, and you had to lower the steering column because the new sporty body sat lower.

If the hot-rodded Model T was to be used for race-track work only, the suspension could be lowered, and there were several ways of doing that. The best way was to have a new front axle made which effectively raised the axle spindles and lowered the front end. A cheaper method was riveting pieces of channel iron on the front of the frame, letting them stick out in front about 5 inches.

The back could be lowered by cutting off the side members in front of the rear axle and installing modified steel forgings.

Hotting up the engine was just as important as changing the body, and there was a lot you could do Ford's early four-banger.

Heavy cast-iron pistons didn't like to rev too high, so aluminum ones could be used. If you were financially challenged and brave as well, you could lighten the cast iron pistons by drilling holes in them! You could do the same to the con-rod, drilling holes in it and carefully dressing it with a file. (Don't try this on your car!)

Raising the compression wasn't hard. You could use an earlier cylinder head with shallower combustion chambers, or you could plane 1/8 inch of the existing cylinder head. You could even buy an after-market sixteen-valve high-compression head for the Model T.

The breathing could be improved by using larger valves, and there were several types of high-speed cams available. For racing, stronger valve springs were recommended but they were noisier and likely to break valves, though you could buy tungsten steel valves as well.

A larger carburetor "say of the 1 inch size" and a larger intake manifold were both par for the course to get more power.

For a free flow exhaust the muffler could be removed for racing, and for road use you could remove the baffles or drill extra holes in them. To get that racing car rumble from the four-cylinder Model T engine, you could run the exhaust pipe into a larger cylindrical amplifying chamber, with a metal cap in the end with several holes drilled in it.

It was good practice to add an auxiliary oiling system and better cooling because of the extra power and higher revs. Better brakes were a must as well. The rear brakes of the Model T weren't that good, so you were looking at around $16 a set for the best aftermarket brakes.

For a moderate price your Model T Speedster could most likely hit 70 mile per hour, and if you wanted to spend more money, you could pick up a few more mph.

So it seems our grandfathers and great-grandfathers weren't all that different to us when they were young. Nowadays young guys hot up engines, upgrade the running gear and change the bodies.

Nearly ninety years ago, when my granddad had returned from the war to end all wars, young guys were hotting up engines, upgrading running gear, and changing bodies. The Ford Model T and the new after-market industry gave them the opportunity.