Waiting

Today, we are hopeful that the new camshaft will arrive.  Although with the arrival of Superstorm Sandy, or as some have named Frankenstorm Sandy, it may be delayed in coming.  But, as soon as it arrives at our parts distributor, we will drive it the 35 miles to the engine rebuilder, Mr. Paul Peacock, near Monetta/Ridge Springs.  We haven't heard any news from Mr. Peacock, so we are guessing that the magna fluxing went well and there were no cracks in the block.

Yesterday, John went back to the Temples shop to take care of cleaning the front end - with the wheels and tires attached.  The purpose was to get a fresh coat of black satin paint on it.  That engine had been throwing grease and oil all over everything under the hood!  I think that John came home with more grease and oil on his sneakers than I've ever seen.  Today, I think that the front end will be reinstalled.  I'm not sure about the fenders being put back on yet.  Then the plan is to roll it out of the shop, put it under a shelter, cover her up and wait for the engine to come back from Mr. Peacock.  I am hopeful that it won't take too long.

While waiting for the engine to come back, the steering box is being rebuilt.  But of course, because it is a right hand drive, we are waiting on a specially made part for that!  We have discovered lots of good and not too much bad with this engine removal.  The undercarriage of the car is very solid and sound, but some engine compartment parts are in need of a rebuild.  All in all, not too bad for an 81 year old car!

Stay tuned for more updates . . . . .

All the problems!

Well, Miz B is in pieces all over the Temple's shop!  They decided to lift the body, while the fenders were off, to see if they could find a frame number.  Many Canadian manufactured cars were not stamped on the frames, but there was hope that it had been.  No such luck!  No number on either side of the frame, but definitely a Canadian frame.

The engine was delivered to Mr. Peacock's shop on Tuesday afternoon.  After a thorough inspection and measurements were taken, it was concluded that the engine was also definitely Canadian and the cylinders had been sleeved.

At this point, we are waiting on the magnafluxing to make certain there are no cracks in the cast iron.  If all is fine, then  we are going to need an oversized camshaft.  It has been ordered - positive thinking at work here!  The journals and the block show signs of wear and this is the best way to fix the problem, eliminating lower engine noise from the camshaft.

Today, John has gone to the shop to put in the welting that was discovered missing between the body and the frame.  That should eliminate a few squeaks as we ride down the road in the future.  The Temples are installing the new front cross member, adding greater stability to the frame.  The rest of frame was found to be in wonderful shape with no signs of rust or deterioration!  Once this is installed and painted, then the front wheel assembly can be reinstalled, along with the fenders.

At this point, it will be a waiting game until Mr. Peacock finishes the engine.  In the mean time, the steering gear will be rebuilt, cleaned and reinstalled in the engine bay.  Keeping in mind that Miz B is a right hand drive car, the absolute opposite of most of the other cars on the road in the US!

I wonder how long it will be before she is back home and ready to ride down the road?

Tour to Newberry - In the Sedan

Saturday morning dawned crisp and very cool!  Of course, Miz B is still in the repair shop.  It is good that we have another A in the barn.  So, Miz Olive came out for an early morning run!  You've not met Miz Olive.  We have had her for about 6 years.  She is a beautiful olive green Town Sedan, has a very comfortable dark olive mohair interior, four doors, and roll up windows!  Her back seat is most comfortable with its center and side arm rests and roll down window shades.  She has no rumble seat or trunk, so all of our necessities go into her back seat area.  All of which are easily accessible as we ride down the road.  The other great thing about Miz Olive is that I get to be the passenger on our trips in her.

We had a brief meeting to attend with the Palmetto A's, then it was going to be off to Newberry.  Newberry is about 50 miles from Columbia and a very nice drive.  We left the meeting place and headed for the gas pumps to fuel up the cars.  While there, it was a great opportunity to add a little fuel to the humans, as well.  Great coffee and biscuit breakfasts!  

It was quickly discovered that one in our group had lost an electronic device in the parking lot of the meeting place and went back to retrieve it.  Just a short delay, but gave us time to chat and enjoy each others company.

Soon, we were off to Newberry and traveling the rolling hills of central South Carolina.  The leaves were just beautiful.

It looks like the colors are just starting to pop!

We drove on into the town of Newberry to meet our friends from the Old 96 District and the Queen City Model A Clubs.  We had a great showing of cars on the town square and in front of the Newberry Opera House.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Flying Pie and shopped the quaint shops and antique stores; but soon it was time to pack up and head for home.  We had a wonderful day with friends, traveling the back roads of rural South Carolina and enjoying the fall colors which nature had to offer!

Life without Miz B

Miz B remains in the repair shop.  From the firewall forward, it is quite empty.  It feels as if she is undergoing open heart surgery.  The fenders have been removed, also her radiator, her lights and horn, her starter, and of course, her engine!  She looks pretty sad right now.  But, I am beginning to see some very good progress.  

She needed to have her front cross member replaced.  It had long cracks on both sides, where the horseshoe shaped front motor mount is attached to the frame.  We had known about one, but were surprised to find the other!  We found an NOS (new old stock) replacement and it is being installed.  Not too bad to have lasted 81 years.  Who knows what kind of conditions the roads in South Africa were in, the first 60 years of her life.  She has only been driving on the roads of the US since 1993, when she was imported and arrived in the state of Virginia.  

We also discovered that her engine had been rebuilt once and repaired one other time.  The engine is completely apart and definitely shows signs of wear.  The camshaft has a lot of play.  This explains the low thump we would hear when the car was running.  The center journal is the most worn, but both end journals also show a good bit of wear, as well.  Looks like it will be one fix - a new camshaft, or another fix - to bush and bore the block, to take out the slack between the journals and the block.  The gears show signs of wear and will be replaced, as will the flywheel.  The condition of the flywheel explains the reason that the starter would lock up periodically.  The valves are worn and will be replaced with stainless steel ones, along with new springs.  The pistons showed signs of wear, and the rings were not sealing the oil out of the head.  There were very large gaps, therefore another indication of a great deal of wear in the cylinders.  Another source of noise in the block.  The pistons were not gliding smoothly, they had enough side to side movement to make a clatter as the engine was running.

When all is said and done, this is going to be a very quiet running engine!  She aught to run and sound just like she did the day she rolled off the assembly line in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in April, 1931!

Back to the shop!

Today Miz B was driven to the shop by John.  She barely made the trip.  Had to drive her all the way with the spark almost completely retarded, but still she sputtered and popped all the way!

John, JP, and Mark took off all the head bolts, then lifted the head.  Expecting to find water from the radiator through a blown head gasket was not the case.  Instead, three of the pistons were covered with engine oil!  Bad news - meaning that the engine really needed to be rebuilt.  

JP and Mark don't do any of the machining, so we got the name of the man that does the machining and off we went to Monetta, SC in the modern truck.  We spent about an hour with Mr. Peacock and were very impressed with his knowledge and familiarity with the Model A engine.

We ended our day with a trip back to Mark's to finalize the deal for having the engine rebuilt.  At the same time, the front cross member of the frame is going to be replaced.  It was discovered to have a stress crack and needs attention.  So, we are on the hunt for a cross member.

Miz B will be off the road until about the middle of November.  By then, so much of her will have been attended to, that she will be in great shape for the tours we have planned in 2013!

More to come . . . .

Tour to Flat Rock, NC

The alarm went off at 4:15!  We had to leave the house by 5:30 to pick up Liz and Jacob and travel to Lexington to meet up with the group touring from the Columbia area to Greenwood.  In Greenwood, we met up with 5 more A's from the Old 96 District Model A Club.  We were headed for Sky Top Orchard in Zirconia, NC, then over to Flat Rock for lunch at Hubba Hubba BBQ.

The drive began with the little car skipping a bit until she warmed up, then ran beautifully all the way to Greenwood.  Then it seemed that every time we stopped, the skipping on start up lasted a bit longer each time.  I was also experiencing difficulty starting the car.  But, we carried on and arrived at the orchard about noon.  The place was packed with folks!  Amazingly, we ran into John's two sisters, nephew and their girlfriends in the orchard!  It was a beautiful day on the mountain top.  Jacob even got Poppy to go way off into the orchard to find some apples to pick.  I, on the other hand, went into the market to buy apples - already picked and cider.  Liz stood in a very long line to purchase donuts.  Unfortunately, the donuts weren't worth the price, but we were so excited to find cider cake donuts, we had to try them.

We all met back up at 1:30 to travel about 2 miles to get to the barbecue place.  The trip down the mountain was a bit hairy for most.  I decided going up, that I was going to go down in 1st gear.  I'm sure the folks behind me weren't too happy to creep down at 5 mph, but I was determined not to burn out my new brakes!  John Cockerill thought his car was overheating, but realized his brakes were billowing smoking!  John, my husband, found that by the time he got to the bottom of the mountain, had no brakes left!  Another fellow had to use his emergency brake to stop his car!  Tough grade!  No accidents and we were off to Flat Rock and a great lunch.

We were just sitting down to lunch, when my cousin, Jeannette and her family arrived to say hello.  It was wonderful to be able to see them.  The girls are growing up so fast!

After letting Miz B sit for about 2 hours, she was very difficult to start and she didn't want to climb out of the parking lot.  It was straight up and she was skipping terribly!  We left Flat Rock about 4 pm for the drive back home.  We made a couple of stops for fuel and to say good bye to our friends and we arrived home at 8:30.  It had been a very long day in the Model A's.  We traveled about 300 miles, total, and were gone 15 hours. 

This morning, John decided to change out the condenser to see if the skipping issue is in the distributor.  He reset the points and I took her for a test drive.  Nothing different.  Tomorrow, we call the mechanic for an appointment on Tuesday, to take off the head.  We are thinking it's a blown head gasket.  This is a very big job and requires two people to get the head off. 

More to come later . . . . .

Getting ready to tour to Flat Rock, NC

Friday, October 12, started out like every Friday before a tour.  We checked the tires, oil, and water in the radiator.  The oil was good, the tires needed a couple of pounds each to get them up to 35 psi each, but the radiator was really in need of water.  This wasn't the first time I've added water to it lately.  It seems that about every couple of weeks I was adding water, maybe a cup or two.  But, this time was quite different.  I added about 3/4 of a gallon!  Well, we continued on with our check list, opening the hood to make sure the fan belt was tight, when I noticed that there was water dripping from the top of the radiator!  Well, it was about 12:30, so we decided to make a couple of phone calls to see if we might be able to get it fixed at the radiator shop and put back on the car to be ready to tour on Saturday.

After about an hour of work -  we drained the radiator, removed the hood, lights and unhooked the wiring, radiator cap, radiator guard, radiator shell, upper and lower radiator hoses, along with loosening the alternator and radiator support arms and unhooking the horn, we were able to remove the cotter pins, castle nuts, springs and bolts holding the radiator in and lifted the radiator off the frame!

Miz B was a sight, indeed!

Well, we took the radiator to the repair shop, and discovered not one leak, but three!  Two were at the top on either side and one was at the lower inlet pipe!  Amazing the radiator held any water at all!  No wonder we overheated in the mountains!

The radiator fix was pretty cheap - only $35 for two hours of work!  So, we headed home with a fixed radiator to begin reassembling the little car.

We finally got her back together and leakless at 8:30 pm!  That was a loooong day!  We are getting pretty good with putting on and taking off radiators on this car.  I hope we don't have to do this job again, ever!  But, we were ready to roll bright and early on Saturday morning!