Resto: New windscreen is fitted

Gidday,

With the arrival of my new 6volt Bosch coil the other day, I quickly had it installed onto Monty and once again when I hit the startor botton with my foot it fired into life straightaway and sat there ticking over lovely....
The next day I also made a trip back to the auto glass business and picked up my newly installed  laminated windscreen which had been fitted up into the old frame and now has been mounted back up onto the cowl on the car and oh how clear the view is from the drivers seat..

 

I have also just brought 4 x small Hella indicators, a flasher can unit, a Holden FX indicator switch, bulbs and a roll of 4mm wire for the installation of the blinkers which will happen over the next coming weeks and when it happens I will post up some photos......

Resto: Rims Now Painted.......

Gidday,

Things are happening rather slow lately with this restoration and it is not through lack of enthusiasm on my behalf also the cold weather does not help my cause, cold weather and tin sheds are not a good combination, but I am waiting on some parts to show up from various stores and tradies....
My windscreen is still at the glazier not finished, I am waiting on a new 6volt coil from the local Supercheap Autos store who said it would be a 3 weeks wait and that time is now up, also I am waiting on 4 x new Hella indicators, a flasher can and 6 volt globes from the local auto electrician which should be here soon and also some timber sections for the seat corners that I had trouble reproducing are to arrive soon from a well respected tradie..... So as you can see it is a waiting game!!

Anyway I have managed to get the 4 x rims rubbed back, cleaned up and painted in a good primer for when I install new tubes, rust bands and finally new Firestone 4.50 x 21" tyres.... NICE!!
I also tracked down another rim in good condition which now gives me 5 rims in total so I will now be able to have a fully operational and reliable spare tyre hanging off the back tub of Monty if the need ever arises to use one, hopefully not and fingers crossed that it will never be needed.

As shown previously, rims straight off the car and tyres removed.

Rims all cleaned and getting "the warm treatment"  before primer is added and also noticed the concentration on my apprentice having a nap on the seat as winter time in our signshop with the wood fire glowing is the place to be...

One of the original rims on the right in black primer, still like new after 84years, very smooth and no rust

All 5 rims painted and ready after 2 coats of Cold Gal paint..... Lovely 

So that's about it for now and no doubt when items arrive they will be put to good use quickly as the middle of the year is here in a couple of days, which means I have 6 months to get this done......... It will happen :)

Thanks for looking in from time to time..... I appreciate it and it means a lot to me. Cheers Grant.

Retso: Rims and Tyres Come Apart

G'day,

Today I put Monty up on "the blocks" again? why you ask, well I have to removed the split rims which house the tyres from the timber spoke wheel, and once removed then the tyres have to come off the split rims.
This was only done quickly 18months ago when I originally got the chevy started and rolled it out of dads shed for the first time and back then only two of the tyres had punctures and would not hold air so the local tyre service quickly installed only 2 thin 21" motorcycle tubes to get me rolling which is all they had at the time, and they have held and worked ok and done the job

 The trick now once the rims and tyres were apart was to see just what condition the inside of the rims were in, I have been told that you can get alot of rust build up inside there and that is why you must use and run with a "rust band" which protects the tube from getting a hole in it when it presses against the wall of the metal rim... Well again my findings once they were all apart was that there was very little rust at all on the rims with only the slightest amount of light surface rust showing.... A good buffing up with the wire wheel, some etch primer and then a coat or two of black kill rust and all should be good for many more years to come..
Also one of the tyres a "Dunlop Balloon" is still in very good condition and will be used as a spare on the rear of the car when the time comes.

To my surprise one of the tyres once I pulled it apart revealed a red tube inside, I have never seen a red inner tube before in my life so I wonder just how old it actually is? and stamped on it was "DUNLOP PERDRIAU"

This will look good up on my collection of original parts on the wall in my shed along with the four old tyres

Just another step closer to that day.................... Cheers

UPDATE: Last night I had a reply for a Chev forum member who said : "Natural rubber tubes were often red. They are highly sought after by some of the collectors and purists. Apparently they have superior air holding properties compared with period synthetic rubber tubes. I have one that is obviously decades old and still supple."  ........ Thanks Chipper

Resto: What A great Day Working On The Chev

G'day,

Out of all the Sundays over the past 10 months that Ray and I have been working on the restoration of my old Chev, today would have to have been the most rewarding by far in terms of visual appeal, Monty today looked like a car again with the installation of the side running boards and valances, plus the front and rear guards and after 9 hours of solid work we both agreed that it was a great day and fantastic to see it like this again for years to come....

By 8.30am Ray and I were keen to start and by that we first had to jack up the timber body off the metal chassis to install the webbing material down both top sides of the chassis, this stops the squeaks from the two surfaces rubbing together over time.
With that thought in mind all week prior I also thought of dad and of all the years that we watched and helped him shift and relocate buildings all over the countryside, and I thought the best way to jack up the car body nice and smoothly was with a couple of house jacks, some chocks and good header boards on each side, so I called by dads factory and grabbed some gear to do the job, to easy and see photo below.

   
With the body up off the chassis we installed the webbing, lined the 6 x bolt holes back up again and then lowered the body back down into place..... SIMPLE!.
Next a valance on each side (long black panel above the running board) was slid in under the body and bolted into place loosely.. Ray's Rule: Bolt everything together finger tight first to allow for movement and then come back later when all panels are installed and tighten them up :)

 Valance panel installation

 The old original running boards were next on cards to go on and after a bit re shaping out of some dents along the bolted edge and with many thanks to my grandfathers old bloody heavy blacksmithing anvil they both came up looking great and we had them installed in no time..

 The front guards and front headlights went on next and up to this point every existing hole, nut and bolt lined up perfectly, there was nothing out of line and it was becoming a bit of a joke between us both as we went along throughout the day, it was all perfect considing we had rebuilt all the timbers as well, that makes you feel very rewarded that a great job was being done..

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The two rear guards were next, on they went and bolted up to the tub and along the back edge of the running boards, this was the only spot that needed a little tweaking but all in all, again it went together well and it was at this point that you could stand back and see Monty all togther again.... I smiled, I loved it, I has been bloody worth it!!..... Dad would be smiling also :)

With all this completed we now had to re-bolt and postion up all the things that I had undone throughout the week so that the body could be raised:
The steering coloum under the dash, the fuel lines, the dash guages, the front floor boards and throttle linkage, the oil filter lines, some wiring harness locations, the hood bows and then all the newly installed nuts and bolts were tightened up...

We would of liked to have installed the windscreen but it was now pushing 4pm and a drive around the block was looking like more fun to end what was a great day, and considering that I had a new windscreen cut out of laminated auto glass earlier on in the week and Ray had brought up from Melbourne some new windscreen rubbers, we decide that leave that job for me myself to do through the week and I backed Monty out of the driveway and pointed him down the street for a lap or two and I can tell you that it feels very solid and sturdy on the road..

 Thanks Ray for all your help today, we killed it :)

Resto: Windscreen Comes Off Again

G'day,

With the thought of one day driving this old banger on the road looming closer and closer it was mentioned that the old windscreen glass come out of the frame and off to the auto glass man we head asap with the 2 x old pieces in hand to get some modern safety auto glass cut to the exact size which will then be reassembled back together and installed onto the car so with that plan in mind I quickly set about and completely pulled apart the old windscreen frame...
There was little rust in the glass channels of the frame, the old glass come out easily and is still intact but all in all and after a good clean up the frame is in very good condition, apart from a couple of small caps that were rusted through, which I will try and track down some others to replace them..

Monty now windscreenless and looking like a dirt track racer

The windscreen frame is on the bench here somewhere dismantelled along with some rear tub brackets, rear spare tyre holder and front headlights which are all getting some TLC

The rear tub is now sitting on the car nice and solid as I installed to 2 x heavy interior "Y" brackets to the side timbers and floor just behind the rear door opening, also now the 2 x rear doors can now be closed securely due to the "Y" brackets being install which is good to see and do.
I only have a couple of smaller jobs on the rear tub to finish and then the complete timber frame of the car will be lifted up off the chassis to install some webbing which will sit between the chassis and the timber frame which will stop any squeaks from the contact.

As I mentioned today I have removed the spare tyre holder from the rear of the car so that when we lift the frame up from the chassis it will be easier and give us more room to then nail the lower underside of the rear tub to the new timber frame also it will give me a chance to try and straighten the holder up a little, yes that was wonky also just like the rest of Monty......

Won't be long now and I will have to get the seat framework which has been hanging down from the shed roof along with the guards/fenders and give the 4 x sections the once over before the auto interior man to so his thing and make it all a little more comfy........

Many thanks for checking in on me from time to time, some weeks feel very productive and others seem like nothing has happen at all, I wouldn't say unproductive just slow and then there are the small fiddley hidden jobs that take quite sometime to complete but are unnoticeable to the eye when you stand back and look so I understand that sometimes you can look in on the blog and see that nothing has changed, "old Monty looks the bloody same" I hear you say but I can assure you that it is constantly being tweaked and slowly being moulded into the lovely old vintage car that dad would be so proud of to see driving about the streets of his home town, Trafalgar....  We are getting closer :)

Resto: 1928 Chevrolet timbers nearly completed

G'day,

Well I have had a couple of really productive seasions out in the resto shed on ole Monty, the rear tub timbers with everything expect the corners are now cut to shape, sanded and sitting in place nicely just waiting to the screwed together and then nailed to the tub.....

So basically all the bigger timber items that I had to make up myself are now finished, yes there are alot of little things to now go back over and re-check but when I stand back and have a good look at all that has been acheived I am extremely happy with the outcome..... So I will let the photos below to some more talking for me.

This little machine below is just the best unit, its's a Ryobi thicknesser.... I love it......

Thank you all for talking an interest and looking in on my progress from time to time and in saying that the next thing to do over the coming weeks is:

• Raise the body off the chassis again to install some webbing between the chassis and mail timber rails.
• Install the 2 x valances and side steps.
• Install the front and rear guards.
• Install the front headlights and mounting beam
• Complete the wiring to the lights.

That will do it for now as the list is just to long, but it is getting shorter by the day  :)

Resto - What A Day That Was...

G'day.

Tonight I am tired? and stuff you daylight savings!!.... well I woke at 4.30am because of the daylight savings switching back which I normally start to stir around 5.30am, but yes 4.30am is a little early, so by 6.30 I was out and up and about the kitchen making a cuppa coffee and throwing some breaky together while the others had a sleep in and anyways Ray was coming out from Melbourne at half 8 to help me again with the rear tub install on ole Monty, and I had a few another things to do before he arrived like, check ebay, facebook, etc :)

To be honest I thought today was going to be a straight forward one in the shed..... lift tub on, tub off, tub on, tub off.... you get the picture, do this a few times and we will be all done by midday.. HOW BLOODY WRONG WAS I :(
It all started well, anticipation was running on overdrive and we were both fired up to get this done, and make Monty look like a vintage car again and then over the course of the next hour things started to turn a little pear shaped and one wrong thing lead to another, I would of thrown in the towel quickly to tell you the truth as I could see that alot of my work over the past few months was not "up to it" as I had thought it was but with Ray there leading the way and having all the ideas to sort everything out, we eventually got it done around 4pm..... but there were some trying hours in between of WTF are we doing here.

Basically today we removed all the 4 x doors and the centre post on the drivers side and half the front seat and we had to adjust and re-align everything, brackets, hinges, re-screw and re-drill holes... Why you ask?? because without the tub installed on the car when I hung the doors and centre posts months ago I was not able to follow the correct "line" where the rear tub would be going, and along the hood, cowl, doors, panels and tub there is a raised moulded 3/4" trim line that goes right around the car and this has to line up exactly to look correct......I was a little out, but all is fixed now,  thanks Ray great job done.

You can see in this photo the moulded line just above the door handles, well now it runs very true, they all line up spot on and it follows the body lines lovely... but earlier this morning it quickly came to our attention that it was not the case and needed a full days work of tweaking this and that...

And to my surprise when we had finished, cleaned up and packed away a few things, I realised that I didn't take one photo of the works while they were in progress, my mind was in another place all day and buzzing with how to fix it up...... Anyway to ease the stress of today and just before Ray was to head back to Melbourne, we opened the house gates, jumped in the front seat and pointed Monty towards to wide open road for a good drive around the block at a reliable 35mph, we completed 4 laps, 3.5miles in total and it ran just as expected, lovely and that soon put everything back into perspective as to why we are doing this..

So what's next I hear you asking??? well hopefully over this long weekend with it being Easter I will make a start on the new timber work that now has to be fitted around the inside of the tub but first I must carefully unpick all the old rusted nails and original timbers which I can then partially use as templates when measuring up the new pieces, slow but rewarding work.

Ray has more photos and also a detailed write-up of the bodywork on his blog
http://my28chev.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/monty-chev-gets-back-his-near-and-dear.html

We are getting closer to the day when I can drive it down the Princes Hwy towards the vehicle registration office..... Thanks and talk to you soon....

Resto: Rear Timber Floor Goes In....

Last night I got stuck into the rear floor area of the chevy and laid down some new timber which went down and fitted into position very well and what a difference it makes in apperance to the layout also this weekend the whole rear tub section will be fitted back up and installed in place if all goes as planned.. I'll keep this post nice and short.... Talk to you soon :)

Resto: The rear tub timber work is coming along nicely

Again for my Saturday morning I was out in the resto shed early laying out all the gear and power leads and by 8.30am I had the timber thicknesser cranked up as I was thinning down some timbers for the chev and once again neighbours, I'm sorry about the noise as considering the compact size of the thicknesser it pumps out a mighty loud sound.......very bloody loud infact!!

So today I wanted to get the lower back timber of the tub shaped up, sitting nice and attached to the 2 x side sections that I made last weekend and then also have the rear metal tray screwed and attached to all these 3 timber sections.... well, that I achieved after a couple of hours and was ready for an early lunch, the day was going great and I was happy with the result..

One rear timber shaped, checked out and completed.

 Below the 3 sections are screwed and attached to under seat metal tray

After lunch my son Codi came out and gave me a hand to lift the rear tub back onto the chassis to see if all this bloody work and effort was worth it and that it will all fit together soon and line up as planned..... YES it did,  "Good job dad", codi said, that made me grin !!
Anyway after running our eyes up and down the lines of the bodywork and admiring the chev again with the tub inplace we quickly lifted it back off again and placed  the tub back up on the bench as I now wanted to make the rear under seat "lattice" type frame..

And below is the end result of that which I had knocked up and completed by about 2pm...

So today with another very productive few hours of work completed and achieved, I feel my confidence growing all the time the more I work on ole Monty and we are getting there although slowly and I'm sorry if the blog must seem a little slow and boring to some but this sort of work is time consuming for the best of them and even more so for myself as I am a novice woodworker fumbling my way along as I tackle each piece at a time, but saying that this has to be the most rewarding, "outside the square" challenge that I have ever had a go at, when that door closes of a night. the hand reaches out for the light switch and the shed fall in darkness then I walk away from it all, my head is buzzing with pride on what and how this car resto is progressing...

Thanks for looking in from time to time and cheers

Resto: Rear Tub Section Progress

With the girls off shopping and Codi laying low after a late Saturday night with some of his mates I had a green light after lunch to get straight out in the shed and make some more progress on the rear tub timber work of the Chevy for a few hours and I didn't waste anytime in making a start.
As the photo shows below, first I placed the old "saved" timbers back up onto the chassis and roughly worked out what went where and how it will all bolt up to the new main timber rail.

So with a more clearer picture of it all now in my head, next it was off to the work bench I headed with a spring in my step and not before to long I had one side completed and was feeling very confident about the outcome..

With one side completed which seemed to fit very well I quickly had the other side built and with them both sitting side by side on the bench and looking good, this sunny Sunday afternoon was another one to smile about.
With that done I reached for the new metal tray section that I purchased from "Old Era Services" in NSW then sat that and the two newly built timber pieces on the chassis and clamped them all together and I can say that I am very happy with my 3 hours of work today.

After I cleaned up the shed, bloody sawdust!! and then packed away all my woodworking tools, the inlaws appeared out of nowhere and walked down the driveway for a cuppa and a chat...... 1 hour later and with goodbye's all done and dusted I rolled out the rear tub on the table, plugged in the angle grinder with the heavy duty wire wheel attachment and gave the insde of the tub the once over and combined with the "rustbuster" from yesterday it came up very nicely. I quickly brushed on another coat of "rustbuster" and will leave that for another day to work its magic.....Thanks for your interest, Cheers