Model T Ford Speedster Specials

Monday, 11 November 2019

The Gin Runner comes to life...

Almost a year of short T breaks, 10 minutes here, 1/2 an hour there.. fitting new valves, cleaning up and freeing off all of the pedals and linkages and getting the radiator re-cored. Fitting a modified Model A manifold and the SU carb I used on my old Indian with a 90 degree adapter, fitting a Texas T distributer (kindly lent by my mate Shaun).
Four weeks ago I pulled the T out of the barn, jacked up the back wheel ( to let it spin and free the transmission off) pulled the choke on cranked the motor over twice to prime, switched on the ignition and second crank she fired and kept running :) A few adjustments here and there later I was driving around the paddock. The motor feels crisp and responsive and its driving in all 3 gears.
There's a still a bit to do tidying up the body tub and the emergency brakes to sort out but with the road wheels and tyres on it should be roadworthy in the new year. It needs some fettling, the SU and inlet manifold needs modified to clear the bonnet, the ignition feed cable tidied etc. but, it is finally a runner! :)

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.

Saturday, 29 June 2013

Getting the driving position worked out

Monday, 10 June 2013

90 miles apart

The T is parked up at my shop, so I get to do a bit at the weekends, last weekend I started to pull the steering apart and moved the firewall back 27" to make room for the second motor and a coupling.

Heading southeast to my day job, ive been working on the front engine, its cleaning up nicely, thanks to it being packed full of grease before it was put in storage.

with the motor and hogshead turned upside down I could mark the cut line for the rear of the sump. I will need to weld in a front face to the oil pan. The two motors will be braced together using two 8"x1/4" plates running either side of the two sumps.

Monday, 27 May 2013

A pallet load of T bits

Arrived from Tucketts today

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Saturday, 9 March 2013

Speed Secrets

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Inspired

Cutting off the excess

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Friday, 6 July 2012

Strathbran T

The T finally arrived in hillbilly country 8o)

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Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Pictures taken today

Friday, 30 December 2011

With Regret......

I have decided that I will have to sell the T Speedster project. I have limited time and storage space at the moment and think it unlikely tht I will have the funds to get it built the way I would like it in the near future.

What you get is a complete 1926 Model T Pig n Ford racer in ex track condition, was last running about 18 months ago and drove around the yard. Still fitted with its original 1926 T motor and 2speed transmission.. I have a dating letter from the Model T Register to verify its originality and make registration simpler.
Currently fitted with a pair of Model A wire wheels on the back which have been welded to the hubs. front wheels are 16" tractor type, I also have a pair of 21" T wire wheels for renovation (see post on blog)

Ignition is by total loss through the original T trembler coil setup, which works okay, I intended to fit a 4cyl type aircraft magneto which will be included in the sale along with the helical gear that I bought to drive it from the crankshaft.

Also included is a Warford 2speed Auxiliary transmission, which will need a repair to the selector lever but is otherwise all in serviceable order.

The T is currently stored near Inverness, delivery can be arranged to mainland UK addresses, or the shipper of your choice.

For more detail please contact me by email steveplowman@hotmail.co.uk

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Straightening spokes

On the 21" t wheels for the front, They are welded spokes ...... Some of them havw had a biit of a rough time!
Hubs need plated and the lug holes redrilled.

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Friday, 15 July 2011

Mag drive 2

Ive decided to drive the magneto off the timing gear using a crankshaft timing pinion gear to give 1:1 drive with the crank. I will need to machine an adapter bushing and then fabricate a new front timing cover incorporating a magneto support bearing with provision for advance and retard movement/adjustment.

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Saturday, 9 July 2011

Looking for more info on ths UK based T Bobtail

Just perfect!!!

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Mag drive

Been looking at the best way to drive the aero magneto. The camshaft exits the front of the motor at the front to turn the timer anti clockwuse, the mag could be driven clockwise using a pair of matched gears with the mag pointing forward or chain driven with matched sprockets if piinting to the rear

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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.