The "A" Story

Weave enough thin strands together and you can make a rope strong enough to bind. Threads of memory, filaments of  old family stories, strings of feeling stemming from the need to bring something good from the shadows of my childhood into the light of present day and from the desire to please my father and have something of his put away for the time when he's passed on,.. All these strands do indeed weave together to tie me tightly to my Model A's.

When I was a little bugger Dad had a '28 pickup that was just sort of a running rust bucket. I have a memory of one winter morning seeing him fill the radiator with hot water before he drove it through the snow to work. Our Jeep Wagoneer must have been broke down again. In another image I can see my brother hanging his feet out the tailgate of that truck as I stand in the back looking down through the topless cab past the open floor and watching the pavement rushing under Dad's feet as we drive down a hill near our house in Incline Village Lake Tahoe. As long as I lived at home that pickup lurked about, but never running. We played in it, abused it, revered it as some strangely valuable possession.

When I left Carson City for college the truck was under a tarp in the garage of the "McAmis house".

Dad had paid my tuition in college so when I'd married, had a son and finally rented a place with a garage I offered to repay him by restoring his Model A.

"You're not getting your hands on my Model A," was his curt response.

I assured him the car would be his, undriven, from the day I finished it until the day I drove him to the cemetery in it, but he wasn't biting. Yet, within a year he called and asked, "What do you want the title to read on this Model A I've got?"

"Same thing it's always read," I replied. "I don't want your car, I just want to .."

"No, this is a different one I got for you," he cut me off.

And a couple of months later he trailered down my '29 Special Coupe. It's a driver, with a shiny black spray job covering an original body and chassis. An absolute treasure. I've been driving the car for 23 years now. I've kept it running using an old book, phone calls to my dad, and trial and error. I love the look of the cowl through the windshield, the sound (of course), and the smell. I feel the car is mine in a very personal and intimate way. I know every nut and bolt and its every rattle and mannerism. I've never wanted to share it with anyone. Didn't want to be made to feel bad by a bunch of wealthy restorers who may subject it and me to snide snipes. Probably a very unfair prejudice, I know. I've been private and protective about the car just like I have been about our childhood.
Dad bought my brother a '31 pickup at about the same time he gave me the coupe. I guess he thought we'd all share them together, but mostly it was just me and Dad. My brother really likes stuff that goes fast. Just this past October my brother sold me his pickup. Because of Dad's old '28 I've always loved Model A pickups. So now I have a '28 and a pickup. Dad is working on his Model A a little bit in his shop. Mostly, I think, he's tearing it down. I don't know if he'll get it all back together, but it's an original and a family heirloom now.
I wouldn't qualify as a restorer, just a loving driver. It's not my hobby it's my lifestyle. Mayhap I'll pass that on to a younger one too.

Seeing the Ight

To my mind there is nothing simpler, more straightforward than a Model A. Working on these cars gives me the opportunity to practice the most basic logic. Take last night (and this morning)as an example. After replacing an ill-fitting four-bladed fan for a two-bladed version I took my wife along on my test drive. The old fan made an irritating creaking noise that made the whole truck sound like a pile of junk. So upon eliminating the bothersome noise a long leisurely test-ride was called for.
Lana and I made our way out of town and along the unlit stretch south of Lake Matthews. What a pleasure to be able to relax about the car and just tool along together talking about other stuff. While driving I was enjoying the easy steering and smooth shifting that were the fruits of some work I'd done over the past couple of weeks. It was also the first time I'd had the opportunity to see my headlights in action since I'd installed the alternator. The lights worked splendidly, but, of course, I wanted to adjust them just a little when we got home. They seemed a bit cross-eyed to me. However, I couldn't re-aim the acorn even after loosening the nut on the bottom of the headlight mounting bar. I gave the bolt a tap with a hammer and the lights went out on that side.
"Must've broken the filament," I thought. And even though it was nine o'clock at night, I really wanted to have everything working when I put the caar away. But replacing the bulb didn't solve the problem. After scratching my head for a while I decided to leave it for today.

This morning I spent an hour with a test light tracing the juice through the harness and that damn little connector at the base of the light acorn. Everything seemed to be working properly, yet the bulb still wouldn't light. It finally occurred to me to check the ground. As soon as I moved my test lamp from the frame to the acorn itself, the test lamp failed to light.
How simple! When I'd tapped the bolt the night before, I'd broken the ground connection to the rest of the car. As soon as I retightened the nut the lights worked perfectly again.
You see? That's how trouble-shooting on these cars always goes. It's a straight shot with no computers or sensors that one can't easily check.
So today, after replacing a tie rod end and tightening the pitman arm I enjoyed another satisfying test drive. Happily, the lights work, the fan remains silent and, as an added bonus the slop in the steering and the wobble are gone. Makes me want to take 'er out again tonight just to see the light.

Spotting an "A" Owner

I've been spotted. There's no sense in trying to stay off the radar now. Just check the driveway. No, it's not the cars parked there that will give it away. It's the oil spots on the concrete. It's like putting out a sign that says, "Model A Parked Here."

I've always put a drip pan under my coupe and it drips more water than oil anyway, so it has been possible to keep the garage floor and the driveway fairly free of oil spots.  Not now that I have the pickup. It produces the spot that broke the camel's back.

Why do I care if there are oil spots on the concrete anyway?

Uhh, truthfully a handful of things come to mind. Mostly, I use my garage. I mean really use it. I've got two Harley's and now two Model A's. Thus, it's likely I'll be  laying on my back on that floor or in that driveway. It would be nice if I weren't wallowing in grease and oil. Also, I often find myself dropping little parts while squeezed under a car and then having to sweep around with my hand to find them. Not pleasant when the floor is oily.

Further, I've always admired a neat shop. It says, "This guy is careful and skillful." My garage has never actually been in that high class category. It pretty much says, "This guy is a shade-tree mechanic and may not know what he is doing." Oily spots all around just add injury to the insult. What if one of these guys slips and breaks his .. beer bottle. Not cool when friends come over and hang out in the garage.

Besides, if there are spots on your driveway and garage floor it means your vehicles are not well-maintained. So even if all my vehicles are crap and leak oil like crazy, I want it to appear that they are tight and clean running machines.

Finally, I subscribe to the "spot that problem" school of vehicle maintenance. All my vehicles are old and have a lot of miles on them. If a new spot appears I need to be able to see it in order to know some new problem has developed. If there are spots everywhere then you can't very well head off trouble. Can you?

Pickup Punch List

I was hanging out, or maybe hiding out,  in the motorcycle shop yesterday knocking back shots of Jack and catching up with the guys. Ed, whose bike is undergoing some extensive and really cool modifications was expressing his impatience. "It's alway just one part away from complete," he groaned.

I agreed and realized that's how I feel about my pickup right now. While I really do feel relieved that the car is registered, when I got home from the DMV I just backed it into the garage and shut the door. I even have a day off which usually means I'm going to be in the garage all day sipping home brew working on my bikes or Model A's. But when I look at that truck right now all I see is a long punch list of things to do with no parts, no money and no end in sight. So today I just shut the door hopped on my Harley and rode away.

Perhaps I just need a break. Here's what I've done since I brought the car home in the first week of September. My brother warned me that the car needed some things and he thought the paint was in relatively poor shape. So after getting it here and taking a few test drives around the block I could see there were indeed some things I'd need to take care of in order to make this a reliable ride to work.

Here were my initial priorities:

1. Assess the condition of the Paint and Body, and general condition of the drivetrain.
2. Get the Engine Running Reliably
3. Troubleshoot the Electrical System
4. Fix the Hard Steering

So here are some of the things I've been doing these last three months.

• Clean the car inside and out. 

Waxed the whole car to investigate the condition of the paint and body. This was fun and rewarding. I found that under all that oxidation was a pretty nice coat of paint. And, while there are many scratches and chips along with a few dents and dull spots, I like the way the truck looks and I may not ever repaint it. There was a family of mice living happily under the seat, but since they weren't paying rent and left a mess, I had to evict them.

After the truck was shined up, I took all the wheels off and inspected the bearings and brakes. One wheel drum needs to be replaced, but I was pleased to find good bearing and brakes on every wheel.

• Completely rewire the car.

There was short in the electrical system somewhere, and the lights and horn didn't work. Many years ago I remember my brother and I poking around trying to locate the short. Doesn't appear that we were successful. I guess as quick fix he had later installed a kill switch. This worked, but I wanted to find the real trouble and eliminate the switch. While I really don't like electrical trouble shooting and repair, there are so few parts to the wire looms, I just replaced them all. It was pretty cheap and gave me the chance to clear out all the splices and quick-fixes on the car and get the lights working.

•  Replace the generator with an alternator.

Even after removing the generator and adjusting the brushes, I could never get the generator to gen properly. It wouldn't produce the 7 amps I wanted. Once my wife, grandson and I got stranded at the store because using the headlights had drained the battery. I've been very pleased with the alternator on my '28, so I put one on the pickup. I'll likely rebuild the generator some day and put it back on. Just doesn't look right to have the new alternator under the hood.

• Replace the points, cap and rotor

I read once that 90% of the engine troubles with the Model A are tied to ignition. Since the engine barely ran I started investigating the ignition system. One cylinder was consistently misfiring and I figured out, after some time, that the cap and rotor weren't centered. The rotor was closer to the contacts on one side of the cap than on the other. One gap was just too wide for the spark to jump. Even replacing both the cap and rotor didn't fix the trouble immediately. I spent quite a while getting the cap to fit properly on the distributor housing and also tweeking the rotor blade to get a consistent gap at all points.

• Replace the entire exhaust system

One day when I had driven the truck to work the exhaust gasket blew out. That afternoon I popped and banged my way back home. I figured this was a sign to tackle the exhaust system next. So I ordered a gasket set, a new manifold and muffler. The truck had a waffle iron manifold and a rusty rattly heater assembly on it. Someday I'll clean all that up so I'll have them for winter use, but for now I want things simple and quiet. When I was replacing the muffler I could see that a non-stock muffler had been welded in at some point. It actually sounded good, but fell apart in my hands as soon as I unbolted the flange.

• Rebuild the carburetor, replace the fuel line and tighten up the leaky petcock.

Even after messing around with the ignition the car wasn't running well and was getting only 9 mpg. I decided to take a look at the carburetor. After all, the car had rarely been started over the last 20 years. The instructions that came with the rebuild kit pretty much said, "take out the old pieces and put the new ones in the same holes." I did this, but gas poured out of the air intake and through the overflow as soon as I opened the petcock. I monkeyed around with the needle valve and float without much success. Finally I just put an extra washer on the needle valve to lower the float level. Now, the gas only  drips out when the tank is full and the engine is off. However, it does this with the carburetor I pulled swapped out from the '28 as well. It's like there is too much fuel pressure for either float. So I haven't completely fixed this yet. Currently everything works fine as long as I remember to turn off the gas when I shut off the car. Anyway, I've got the idle and mixture set where the car seems to  run best and am satisfied for now. I got 12.5 mpg on my last tank, and the engine runs and idles smoothly with good power.

• Replace the pitman arm and drag link along with the inner workings of all the ball joints, and the balls on the steering arms.

This car steers so hard that it takes all my strength the make a turn. And there is 25 + degrees of play at the steering wheel. After inspecting the ball joints at the steering arms, drag link and pitman arm, I decided to rebuild the whole thing. I rejoiced to discover that the ball on the pitman arm was worn nearly flat. I figured this was the trouble for sure.

Yet after replacing all the parts the truck still steers like a WW I tank. So, now I'll have to look into the steering box.

• Flushed and refilled the transmission and differential.

Having quieted the ruckus under the hood a bit I decided to assess the condition of the transmission and differential. While driving at anything above an idle the trany would growl so loudly that you couldn't hear anything else. So this past week I drained and flushed the transmission and replaced the oil in both the trans and the diff. I have to say this was satisfying. There was nearly no oil in the transmission in the first place though the rear end was full of some red oil that looked pretty clean. While I was under there I cleaned of a bit of the grim and saw good paint on everything south of the bell housing. Someone has worked on these before! On the test drive the truck was so quiet and smooth that I could now hear the other rattles I'd need to chase down.

• Attempted a repair of the fan which wobbles on the water pump shaft and makes noise.

One sound that has been vexing me comes from the wobbling fan and pulley assembly. I had it briefly fixed for a mere $.49 when I replaced the mashed up machine key. But the sound is back now. I think I'll just replace the fan and pulley when I get some money together. This  fan is a fairly heavy four-bladed one. It seems to me that every time the engine increases or decreases rmp it would put considerable torque on the fan assembly thus straining the key. We'll see. My '28 doesn't overheat even in SoCal and it has a two-bladed fan. So I'll swap it out and hope for the best.

The above represents only a partial list of the stuff I've worked on these past few months. So where to from here?

Briefly, here are the items still on the punch list:

• Solve the problem of hard steering. Rebuild the steering box and, if I have to, replace the king pins.
• Fix the oil leak that I suspect comes from the rear main seal. This leak is huge!
• Replace all the tires. They are so cracked that my neighbor won't ride in the car with me.
• Replace one badly grooved brake drum. And clean up each brake mechanism.
• Replace the fan.
• Replace the head light reflectors.
• Assess the condition of the distributor body.
• Properly mount the coil.
• Fix the bind in the passenger window that makes the otherwise well-working mechanism hard to operate.
• Refit the doors which latch so poorly that they potentially could fly open around any corner. Sure hope this can be done with shims. 
• Replace the leaf springs and shackles. The car tilts to the driver's side more than any Model A I've ever seen.
• Replace the wood in the bed and build a lumber rack so I can get my stuff home from Home Depot! I'm looking forward to this and will probably save it for "last" if there is such a thing.

Registered Outlaws

This is a little update on the quest to register the '31 in California.

Today I finally completed the process. I've gotten my plates, and registration stickers.
Here's what the steps were, in case someone else wants to learn by reading rather than doing.

If you are registering a Model A pickup in California from out of state:
You may get through easily if the VIN on the registration and title matches the engine number. If not, you will be referred to the CHP. A DMV inspector will look at the vehicle and your paperwork to determine if they match.

The CHP requires that you show up in person to make an appointment for a vehicle inspection. You must have a valid drivers license and the referral from the DMV with you, so there is apparently no way to skip the initial DMV visit. When you show up for the CHP vehicle inspection and to receive your new VIN the officer simply looks at the car, determines there is no existing VIN, and attaches a new number plate to the inside of the driver's side door frame. Pretty straight forward.

Since in California all pickups are commercial vehicles, you have to have a weigh certificate. I got mine at the dump. The guy at the dump looked for a VIN and matching number in my CHP paperwork. I got a receipt with the tare for the vehicle and that was enough for the DMV. I didn't have to go to a DMV approved weigh station.

At the final appointment with the DMV I had to have their initial paperwork, the CHP paperwork, and the weigh certificate. They then issued me my plates and numbers. I'd actually purchased special plates which I picked up on my initial visit. They did not ask about proof of insurance.

All in all it took several days, three trips to the DMV (though you could do it in two), two trips to the dump (only one was necessary) and two trips to the CHP.

One additional tidbit. While at the CHP I asked what the rules were for children riding in my Model A. The officer said that all the rules applied to my car. If it didn't have seat belts and thus couldn't accommodate a car seat or booster then the child could not ride in my car at all until they were 8 years old. So it looks like Noah and I will be outlaws until he turns eight.