Resto: Diff centre cover removed

After dinner tonight I went to remove the 10 bolts from the diff centre cover and then the diff cover itself was slowly removed and once again the old original gasket was very brittle which is what I am finding with all these 83yr old gaskets but I will remove and clean that all up after I leave the whole thing drip out for a few days as once again it contained the thickest, stickiest chocolate brown coloured oil just like the gearbox had
I have ordered various new gaskets, wheel bearings and seals from the USA so I have about 2 weeks to give the chassis, brakes and diff a very good clean and polish then all the new goodies can be installed back on the car..

Just another thing to tick off the long list of must do jobs.

Resto: Front brakes removed today

Just a quick update on my brakes progress for this weekend, today I got into the shed early and removed the two front wheels and also the brake pads, then I got stuck into cleaning the housings up and BTW the 2 x pads on both wheels looked to have about 4mm thick of wear left on each one which is quite good but soon all the four wheels will have new brakes and wheel bearings to suit.

Resto: Rear brakes removed today

Friday night Ray arrived with his special 1928 "wheel puller" to remove the rear wheels from the axles due to them being on there very tight and we both think that they have never been off the car before.
There was no slop or unwanted movement in the axles and the keyways on the axle ends were like new also, one brake seal showed a leak, that other was fine so I will need to replace some parts on the rear brakes over the next few weeks.

This is what we found when we removed the rear wheels

This is after I removed the outer and inner asbestos brake bands and cleaned the housings all up but theres still alot more polishing to do.

I like this photo, another day done and closing the shed!! 

Resto: The gearbox was opened for inspection!

With Monty now all stripped of body panels I can start to make my way along the chassis to inspect this and that and as the motor runs very well and only serviced 6 months ago the next best thing to do is the little 3 speed gearbox. 

I opened the top of the gearbox for the first time and had a look inside, thick chocolate brown sticky oil which is most likely the orginal 600w oil covering everything is what I found up to the correct level mark on the filler thread located on the side of the gearbox.
I am no mechanic but they certainly look nice and square with plenty of life left on them, no chips or chunks of metal out of them either from what I could see anywhere and also the gearstick has always felt solid, slots into gear firmly and the lever does not slop around when driving down the road so all looks good and remember with the low milage on the car it should be all good.

Here is a picture after I cleaned, brushed and flushed out the box with turps a few times before I refilled it with new Penrite gear oil which is suited to yellow metals. 



Diff, axle, rear wheels and brakes are next on the list so we'll just see what surprises are in store for us soon.

Ray is coming up Friday night with his a special 1928 chevy "wheel puller" as the rear wheels are very tight to remove from the axle, this special tool does the job very easily without damaging any threads in the process, so we can look at the old asbestos brake linings while we are at it but we both think that they are toast!!.

Resto: Bloody hell there's nothing left!

It's Sunday morning just nudging 7.45am and my mate Ray from Melbourne strolls down the driveway and into the shed "Morning all, how are we" after a bit of chat we are quick to throw on our overalls, reach for the box of spanners and start on the days project of removing the timber framed body from Monty....
Starting at the front of the car we had the bonnet off quickly and then all of the connections and wires to the various levers and switches under the dash and in the engine bay were undone and after about 2 hours of head down and bum up the old front cowling was lifted off the body

By now we are setting a great pace according to Ray who BTW is an old hand at this and so now it was onto the removal of the body and if you are wondering why we didn't lift the cowling off with the body in one complete section it is very simple, the timber rail on the drivers side had rotted right through, so the separate removal was the way to go to save as much as we could in one peice to then use for a template when making the new timbers in the near future.
It had just pushed 11am when the body was lifted off and placed on the purpose built wheelable table and there under the carport monty sat all bare and very naked looking ready for us to go to work on him with some wire brush attachments on the end of our angle grinders, so in just under 3 hours he had it removed and were both ready for a coffee to wash down some of the dust.

Feeling a little refreshed and ready to jump into the project some more we removed the petrol tank at the rear and then got stuck into the cleaning of the steel chassis and all the areas we could get to with the wire brush and bloody hell the attachments in the grinders make the going easy.
After a lovely bbq steak lunch and also another hour of dusty chassis cleaning we then decided to tow the chev around to dads factory where the big hot water pressure cleaner is located, so with me sitting on a timber plank across the chassis in the drivers position Ray towed me the 1km trip up the road.
The hot wash was great and removed all the layers of grease and 80 yrs of grime from all parts of the chassis, cleaned it up a treat.
So now we are back home and the stripped chev is parked up in the shed for the next part of this project to begin.....The chassis retoration.

Once again Ray thanks heaps for your help today and also the guidance with this whole project as it is starting to take off in a big way and there is no turning back now at all.

Tuesday 14th June 2011 - one year

It has been a rather surreal past couple of weeks leading up to this day Tuesday 14th June 2011, which marks one year since dad peacefully passed away surrounded by us all at 5.26pm.

"We smile now dad, but the tears still fall".

Love always dad, stay safe and shine bright for us xxoo

 12-02-1939 / 14-06-2010

Resto: Guards were removed & "We won't make it all fancy"

Today being a Saturday I got home around 11am from the workshop after finishing off a sign which will be errected tomorrow, yes I know on a Sunday but someone has has to do it anyway after we had lunch I got out to the resto shed around 1pm, pushed Monty out into the sunshine, threw him up on some stands to make it a bit easier to work under and laid the tools out as the rear guards, running boards, headlights, headlight bracket and front guards were coming off today.
Once again I have to do this so that I can get to the 2 x timber rails that sit on top of the steel chassis rails as they are both rotted through so there is no easy "quick fix" way around it and to make a good job of the resto it has to be done but the thought of pulling the car to bits has sort of played on my mind for sometime as I very much want it to remain visually the same when it is restored, like dad said, "We won't make it all fancy"!!

I was to soon realize that the old rusted nuts and bolts were going to be a fair pain in the ass, the main ones that hold the rear guards on to the body came undone really easy without to much effort at all but all the smaller ones along the running boards and front guards I had know hope of moving so I just very carefully grinded off their heads with a small angle grinder and also a die grinder for the fiddly ones in funny hard to get to locations under the running boards and then tapped out the remaining bolt pieces with a hole punch and hammer, to easy and great progress was made along the left side first, then boots off and I flew inside for a hot cuppa, then with boots back on I repeated the process along the right side which was a lot quicker to dismantle as I knew this time what I was doing, well sort of anyway.

I had the both side done, parts labelled and stored, tools all packed away, the carport swept up clean and old Monty pushed back in the shed in 4 hours.... I had a great afternoon and achieved what I set out to do, oh I forgot and also my new "resto overalls" worked a treat, happy wife, happy life and less washing means a happy wife :)

In the next couple of weeks the timber framed body will be lifted off in one piece as best I can and placed on a large trolley in the shed beside the car, from then on well it will be, hell I don't know really, we'll wait and see I guess.

Thanks for looking in from time to time

A little more history??

Today my uncle Digger, dads older brother called by our signshop as planned, so I put down the paint brush, jumped in his ute and we were quickly both heading out the back of Trafalgar about 25kms to the tiny town of  "Hill End" to look for the original farm where he and dad found Monty sitting under a tree many years ago while relocating a house onto the property back in the 1960's.
It didn't take Digger long to accurately pinpoint the turnoff and then the old farmhouse sitting up on a small ridge behind a clump of trees just off the road, "That's the place right up in there I think, yep that's it", uncle said as we drove past it slowly both looking, then he done a u-turn and went back towards the driveway where the old unpainted letterbox was situated.
Up the bumpy unsealed driveway towards the house we went all the while I was scouting around the paddocks for an old hay shed but it was not to be seen but there were some cars parked at the house, good I thought someones home so we pulled up and i walked to the front door, gave it a good knock knock and called out then after a minute a lady poked her head around the corner, "Gidday" I said then I started to explain why I was there and the old Chev car etc.. "I'll get dad, he'll know" she replied.
An older bloke appeared then came out through the back door stumbling on a pile of old muddy work boots as he made his way towards me, he held out his hand "How-are-ya, Jimmies my name" we shook hands and I explained it all again, with one hand reaching for his cap to give it a rub and the other hitching up his jeans a little his eyes widen, I could tell he was taking it all in, his mind was ticking over and then he was right onto it, "Gemmel's they owned the property for years, my daughter has just brought it a few years ago and I have lived up the road all my life, Yep "Ivan Gemmel" was the owner of the property, his son lived here all his life but moved away when my daughter brought the property", while uncle and Jimmy keep talking about the "good ole days" his daughter returned from the house and hands me a piece of paper and says "here ya go, this is the son's name Roger Gemmel and his phone number", thank you and then after some more small talk uncle and myself are driving back down the bumpy driveway and soon we are pointed in the direction of Trafalgar about 20 minutes away.
Uncle dropped me back out front of my signshop, I thank him heaps for helping once again, some of his mannerisms and also his nature are very similar to dads which hit home from time to time when I am around him and for someone who is about it turn 80 yrs young he is an really inspiration, I jump out of his car, unlock the workshop and I am straight in on the phone dialing the phone number to contact the son, the phone rings and I hear a males voice, "hello Roger",  I then explain the story once more, but while i am talking I hear him laugh a little and then "You have that old bloody Chevy, I used to drive it all over the farm with my brothers in the back, shit you have the old car, go on!, bloody hell!".......
We talk for a while, he was a lovely fella, then he continues "yes dad brought the Chevrolet in 1958 from a elderly man in Newborough (30kms away) who had it in a garage up on blocks for years before that", I ask about old B&W photo's, "sorry but I can tell you now that there would be no photo's at all of it back then" and that was about it with the info and then right towards the end of our conversation he said "So you must be Chooka Fowler's son then", "yep, that was dad" and hearing those words on the other end of the phone, well, it just made my day....

So I have a little more history, I've gone back another 10 years to 1958, I have no further names or info apart from that it was owned by a man in Newborough around that time.... I'll keep looking , asking, putting the word out there as someone in the area will know something........

So these are the 2 earliest photos we have so far with my older brother Stuart and Dad in our front yard at Kitchener Street Trafalgar and I think it would be around the year 1968 - 69

Thanks for reading