Resto - Timber spoke wheels getting a makeover, Part 2

Just a quick post and 2 x pix showing a front and rear wheel which have been lightly sanded around the centre section where the brake drums when installed bolts up tight against the timber spokes.
The timber is very tight, smooth and looks great now that I have removed a layer or two of old crud and stain that you can see was embedded in them as shown in the previous posts photos.
So with no arrival of the "Chair-Loc" product from the USA yet, but hopefully it should come in the mail this week. I will just keep working away on gettting them a little more smoother....Thanks.

Front Wheel

Rear Wheel

Resto - Timber spoke wheels getting a makeover

So now we are onto the timber spoke wheels of the old Chev and after our little fun "test drive" on the weekend I decided to remove the wheels from the car and get the four of them ready for the "Chair-Loc" product when it arrives from the States.
I unbolted the front and rear brake drums from the wheels and to my surprise all of the original 6 bolts on each wheel are still like new with no rust at all on them and it also took a bit of heavy hitting with the hammer and punch to knock each one of them out, which is a good sign that the timber is nice and tight and it looks like it is to, so with a little sanding they will look great.

I then turned over each wheel and lightly but carefully tapped with a hammer onto a small block of wood so not to dint the timber, each of the spokes evenly as I went around in a circle a few times until the spokes came away from the steel hub by about 10mm and you don't want to go to far as to disturb the join between each spoke, this is so that I can sand in between the hub and timbers a little and then also brush in the "Chair-Loc" to make a nice and secure job of it, but just by looking at the wheels now I think I am pretty bloody lucky to have timbers in this condition considering it sat outside in the weather under a tree on a farm for a good few years before dad stumbled across it.....

More info and pictures will follow soon over the next couple of weeks after I sand, fill and lacquer up the timber.
Thanks for looking in from time to time, Grant :)

Resto - Rear axle pivots cleaned and regreased.

Today the 4 x u-bolts that hold the rear axle in place to the springs were removed and dismantled so that the "Axle Saddles" could be pulled apart, clean, regreased and then all re-assemebled again like new and yes they were rather dirty and gummed up inside, but not anymore.
I had the assistance of Ray once more who showed up today around lunchtime for a quick visit with a few spare parts from his "man cave" that came in very handy, cheers Ray.
We also rigged up the speedo temporally with the cordless drill and a couple of long wood screws onto the make shift timber dash after giving it a little TLC and so then I through Ray the "keys" to Monty for a lap of honour up and down the street and yes Ray jumped at the chance for the ride of his life....One very brave man!

Here is that video taken today

Also today after Ray left to go back to Melbounre I removed the 4 x brake drums from the wooden spoke wheels as now the chev is sitting back up on jacks stands in the shed wheel-less looking all bare again and undriveable :(
The timber spokes that are located in behind the brakes drums are rock solid and extremely tight which is great, I will give this area a good clean and light sanding while I am waiting for the "Chair-Loc" product to arrive from the USA and also while I am at it I will clean, prep and then paint black the outer facing sides of the brake drums which will clean up the look of the finished timber spokes when all re-assembled and completed..

Cheers once again and thanks heaps...Grant

Resto: Sanded back the timber spoked wheels

I suddenly got the urge to give the timber spokes a good sanding  to see how they would come up, this overpowering rush of enthusiasm was brought on by the sudden appearance of 4 x brand new timber spoke wheels and metal rims on Ebay to suit a 1928 chev for a good few hundred dollars but they were located up in far north Queensland and the postage would of been a killer, but bloody hell new timber spokes on ole Monty, how flash would of that looked?
So for quite a lot less money I could buy a pile of sandpaper and still have a jam jar full of coins to buy my new exhaust with so I quickly calmed down and got to work on my old wooden spokes, I was curious as to how they would turn out as I have never laid any sandpaper on them before, only a light pressure wash when I first rolled Monty out of the shed covered in dust and then a few months back I brushed them with kerosine as they are a few borer holes in some of the spokes.


After about an hour of light sanding on each of the wheels I was bloody surprised at how good they looked, yes there are a few borer holes here and there and the slightest bit of wood rot in a couple of spokes I think they will look fantastic when given the final coat of lacquer when that time comes.

I will now get some good wood filler to treat the pin holes and I also have a product coming from the USA called "Chair-Loc" it is a clear liquid that you brush on, it soaks into the timber and the timber swells up inside to make the joins super tight and strong again.
My chief of staff/director/technical advisor in the mechanical division of this resto, "Ray" used this product years ago on his Chevy spokes which had began to loosen and was extremely surprised with the results and how quickly the timber returned to a strong tight hold in all the joins, so once again I shall give it a go, not that I can see or hear any loose spokes when I give each of them a gentle hit with the hammer but while I am at it I will do the job right.
 

This is the wheel with the most borer holes in it, but nothing that cannot be fixed

Like I said with a bit more work with some sandpaper and time these will hopefully turn out fine...
Thank you looking in from time to time..

"Small steps, its all about the small steps".


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One Driving and One motor starting video

A couple of videos here, motor is just a little loud "straightout pipe" as I am waiting on a new exhaust system to be installed soon.
Had a few battery troubles last week but now with a new battery charger purchased all seems fine and strong cranking power has returned.

I have really got to love the old 3 speed gearbox with the double clutching of the pedal and the way 3rd gear just pulls away when the throttle given a slight nudge, it should all sound nice, quiet, and very vintage when the new exhaust gets fitted up.
BTW the brakes are just amazing, it pulls up quickly and dead straight and they haven't bedded in yet which will come when more miles are driven one day! also from the very short distances that I have driven Monty the steering now seems firm and responsive with no wandering at all, but like I said I have only driven it a few times up and down the street....

Thanks for looking in from time to time and bloody hell we are pushing 5000 views of this site, amazing!!
Talk to you soon :)

Resto: New shackle bushes all around and King-pins

Hello,
This is becoming a monthly tradition for Ray and myself, but another great Sunday was spent in the resto shed with a 8.30am start and straight away we both had the hammers and spanners swinging and banging like crazy, hope the neighbours didn't mind :) but it had to be done and we had our a days work all planned out right down to the last spare minute.

Firstly we had the front end to partially dismantle again as we were installing a new king-pin kit in each of the front hubs to correct that little bit of wear and movement so it was under the car with the trolley jack and up in the air ole Monty went once again.
By 11 o'clock we had both sides completed, so it was onto the next part which was installing new shackle bushes, nuts and bolts into all of the spring hangers so we started at the front end and made our way towards the rear shackle by shackle, the old wore bushes were cut and then knocked out, parts were polished and cleaned up as we went then the new bushes were pressed into place along with new bolts, nuts and split pins, grease nipples were put back on and then finally the grease gun was put to good use.

Mechanically Monty is just about completed, we have cleaned, fixed and replaced all of the main ticket items to do with the running gear with my next major purchase being a new stainless steel exhaust system which I have already been talking to Steve at Warragul Exhaust Centre about, "to easy" he says "When ya ready, bring it in", Oh and why stainless steel you ask, well Rays chev is living proof about the longevity of it, so thats enough proof for me, do it once and do it right.

Here is a quick video taken today in the shed...

Great day mate and many thanks once again...

Lovely Sunday morning quicky.....Around the block!!

With the timber work coming along as planned and this lovely sunny Sunday morning being an absolute beauty, the open road was calling for us to come out and have a play, now not being overly happy about the earlier comfort level of the other seating arrangments or plank, you can also ask Ray about that to for his opinion?, I have now opted for the more raised, cruisier, gentlemans positions which gives me alot clearly vision to see over the top of the bonnet if it was there, and also there is sturdiness in the seat which is screwed onto the plank and clamped down to the frame this also gives the ride a much higher "safety feel" about it, and when I am finished I can quickly dismount and easily store the whole accessory away in an upright position saving much needed space inside the resto shed for more serious work to completed.

Resto: Timber work is underway, but slowly

Hello,

Well is has taken me a few more days and some nights than expected but I have made some good progress with the timber work and yes I know a little slow, but please understand that I have not done anything with timber like this before in trying to reproduce this 80yrs old frame and the slowest thing when I started was wanting to dismantle the old timber frame apart from the metal body work but still keep it all intact so that I can copy and measure off it.
The first section I spent a few hours picking off the many old rusted tiny nails that hold the metal body work onto the timber, without any damage it was hard just to get the nail heads out a little but I succeeded and there had to be an easier way???
The second time I used a small old fine chisel and hammer and just knocked the nail heads off very quickly in about 15 minutes, dropped out the timber frame and then pulled out all the nails easily....."live and learn my friends".

With a good drop saw, a small bench rip saw, a mates bench mounted 300mm disc sander, some wood glue, screws, hammer, chisel and sand paper this is what I have achieved and like I said, slowly at first but after I completed one panel the other one just flew together fast as my confidence grew.
As you can see from the photos below the new timbers still need sanding off some more just to clean them up, I have not nailed the metal panels back on yet, that will be done when we assemble the body to the main timber rails so that adjustments to the doors can be made, but I am happy with the result and also I have made some of the timber a little thicker/taller like along the bottom where it will screw to the main timber rails after I recess it out just for extra strength, well thats the plan and i seemed like a good thing to do??

I now have the windscreen removed from the cowl and the cowl is laying face down to made it easier to work on so that I can now reproduce the two upright timber peices on that.

Thanks

  

Resto: I sort of made a start......

An attempt to make a start on some timber work was made over the weekend but it was a little slow.
I have now had a good look at the 4 x door frames and their timbers and apart from the one piece that is completely stuffed on the back passenger door (see photo) the other bits on the doors are all very good, still very strong so I have decided that I will leave them in there, this might come back to haunt me in years to come but like I said, they are all in good condition with no flex or movement.

To make sure of any bugs or borers I made up a large flat tray, filled it with kerosene and a borer killer liquid then laid each door in the fluid and completely soaked them one at a time for about an hour each, I can only see any form of timber rot in that one peice still and the 2 x centre sections that go between the front and rear doors well they are actually really stuffed on the bottoms on each one so they will be completely re-timbered.

Friday afternoon I called by the local hardware and I located some really nice KD local ash timber in some very handy sizes and also the local cabinet maker has given me some very good commercial type timber glue..

Anyway it's is small start.... Thanks

Resto: I think I broke it's back!

Like my dad I do have a little bit of that "bull at a gate" mentality which can be a great and rewarding thing sometimes, it certainly served dad well in business, but it can also get you into a bit of trouble if you are just not prepared.
There have been certain times with this resto that I have just wanted to rip right into it blindly but I have also been told by a few car restorers to "take ya time, look, label and don't rush it, slowly pull it to pieces but not all at once, don't do it all at once,  ya don't wont to end up with a whole heaps of parts and panels sitting in the shed corner and ya don't have a clue where they go"  Good advice that and it has stuck with me - I think!!

Well I couldn't help myself today, I just had to have a good look at the 2 x main timber rails, so off came the centre 2 door posts, out came the front seat frame and also the rear under seat storage tray that was rusted to bits and a few other rotted sections of wood which I photographed and stored away and not in the corner either.

Now there has been a little bit of timber repair work performed on ole Monty before as you can see from the orange undercoat wood primer, not your standard issue 1928 wood preservative, so I think that this must of been by done by dad or even his father "Mont" who was a builder by trade, he could of given dad a hand at some stage many years ago and then well it must of become to much for them as it is all sort of patched up here and there, dad was no idiot and he would of known what was involved and also what was needed to get it on the road again once he got it home and gave it a good look over, like I said way back in the blog, dad was time poor with this type of thing, it was work, fishing, family!!.

One of the timber door frames (front passenger) is in surprisingly very good condition and also one of the centre post sections between the doors is in good condition which is a bonus for the novice timber workers of the world!
Also in the photo above, the bracket on the right side sticking up off the timber frame is a made up one out of a bit of metal strap, whereas the left side one looks original, it's more manufactured looking to me. (anyone got a spare your not using? - ya know where to send it - please!)

So there you go, that's the timber work or lack of it that now greets me every time I unlock and fling open the resto shed doors, its a little daunting I must admit and I certainly knew that this part of the job would be the hardest for myself to tackle and by no means the longest, most time consuming part.

Look in from time to time please, it might be slow going for quite a while from here on in but its all about the small steps and I know that it will not be to far away, well I can see light at the end of the tunnel anyway that ole Monty will be all roadworthy again and out there tripping around these country back roads and hopefully some Melbourne main ones also....... Thanks for the encouragement folks, it's been a buzz.

These words below were emailed from Ray tonight after he read this posting, I have put it up here to keep me focused on the big picture:

Howdy,

Well some ease into a project, others skirt around the edges for a few years, putting a toe in the water now and then. Then there are others who run in blindly one foot in front of the other.

Then there are those who don't just jump into it, they leap from a tall building belly first.

I doesn't matter which one you are, there are just 2 things to remember. 

Don't loose anything, don't throw out anything, take more pictures than you ever thought you may. Why you say, ask me how I know. 

And secondly, and probably does not apply because you have the motivation (I hope) you have now hit the wall and start the hardest and slowest part of the job.

Every thing you have done previously will be like cleaning down your work bench compared to what's ahead of you, yet it will be the most rewarding when its done. 

Its also the time when a lot of guys realize the enormity of what they have taken on, throw their hands in the air, pull the pin and walk away. Years ago there were plenty of restored chassis being sold with no bodies. I know that wont happen to you, but if its gets a bit daunting or over whelming, turn out the lights, lock the door, and go inside and watch telly with Lisa for a

couple of nights. 

You will soon be sucked back into it.

I know your dad is watching over your shoulder, but I hope he doesn't nod off.

Good luck thrill seeker, buckle up, and enjoy the ride

heh heh heh

Cheers

Ray