Yesterday was an exciting day as I got to take the finished rolling chassis for a test drive. 

After some adjustments to the carburetor and fluid and brake checks, we were on the road. 

Please see the attached link for a video of its first drive. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oTqHcleW_o
 
Spring is finally here and this past weekend marked the beginning of the Model A season for myself. 

We cleared some of the shop up and got the chassis out so that we could install my new muffler and get the motor running. 
I ordered some new gaskets and a strainer for the Zenith carburetor and cleaned/painted it so that it would be ready for the weekend.
After having a ground issue with the wiring, (I did grind to bare metal for the ground cable to bolt to, but it proved not to be sufficient), and eventually attaching the ground wire to the transmission, the motor fired up. 
Click this link to watch a video of the motor running. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qopcKryziQ8
A great start to the season!
 
Christmas of 2013 has come and gone, and along with it was a nice haul of Model A parts for the Coupe. 

Pictured below is a muffler, a fan blade with belt, water pump and brake springs. I also got new brake rods. 


 
This is Riley, our Model A Mascot - She overlooks all the progress and loves to go for rides in the 28 Sedan
 
Yesterday we were fortunate to borrow a engine hoist from a family friend and got the motor in the chassis. The hoist made the job much easier and we managed to get it in fairly stress free. 
Unfortunately as I sat down to look at my motor I realized that the water outlet on top of the motor has a crack where the bolt and stud go through. My girlfriend's grandfather had an extra 30/31 pipe to use so I will be taking the wire brush to it soon and putting it in the broken pipe's place. 
 
I got the engine taken apart last week and began inspecting and cleaning. I knew that my motor had been rebuilt at some point, and it was quite obvious after I had it taken apart. Very clean and in great shape. I have decided that I am just going to leave as is and see how it runs when I drop it back into the chassis and not do a rebuild right now. 

After a lot of varsol and cleaning under the head with a razor, it was clean and ready for paint!

Justin was up for the weekend and brought it his engine stand and attachment needed for the Model A motor. 

The oil pump was quite dirty and the screen was covered in thick sludge, so we put it in varsol over night to clean it. Justin disassembled and put it back together for me. 

The only problem that we ran into was a little bit of up and down movement on the #2 piston on the crankshaft. We took it off and removed one shim on each side to help tighten it up to the crankshaft. Once we re-torqued it to 45 lbs it still had a bit of play, but better then before. It is our understanding that the only thing that I may run into is a bit of a knocking noise when the moto
 
I wanted to throw up a few pictures before I head out for the weekend. I just finished the transmission this morning. I took it all apart, inspected all of the gears and internals and cleaned it up, and put on 2 coats of Antique Ford Green paint on. Looks great!
 
Well the chassis has finally been completed. The hardest part was getting the hubs on with the new brake linings, which turned out to be an easy fix and did not need to be as difficult as I made it out to be. 

I have graduated onto the motor disassemnly 
 
I received my order of parts and was able to start piecing things together on the front end. I started by putting the front spring on and swapping the original grease fittings with the new modern style fittings throughout the front end. 

After the spring was on we attached the spindles and put the king pins on. They were a bit difficult because the felt washed that goes on the bottom of the spindle made it a very tight fit, so we had to place them in a vice to compress them to a point where we could slide them in. After they were put on we attached the tie rod and drag link and greased everything up! It was a relief finding out that there was no play in the king pins and that the self done reaming worked out. 
I bought a brake lining tool to apply the new linings with rivets. This tool is very useful, I couldn't imagine doing it without it. 
 

I managed to apply the gloss paint to the rear end this past weekend despite the heat, and it turned out great.

The rear hubs were sandblasted, primered and painted aswell and clear coat will be going on everything tonight or tomorrow.

I put the old lug nuts on so that I didn't end up painting the bolts aswell.

    Author

    I am 23 years old from Parry Sound, Ontario. I have been around Model A's for the last few years and got the bug last year after graduating college. I decided that I wanted my own project to work on, and set out to find a my favourite style of Model A, 1930 Coupe. 

    In November of 2012 I purchased my coupe. My own Model A journey had begun! 

    I am very fortunate to have a group of experienced people in my family who have five Model A's, four of which were restored by themselves. Help like this gives me the knowledge needed to get my car finished. 

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