Progress on the model T

fixerupper

Well-known Member
I'm sitting here resting a bit so I thought I would show you the progress on the 1925 T coupe. This is what the roof wood looked like after I removed the canvas top and bows.
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The top of the driver's side door post didn't look so good so I cut off the top 8" and made new top wood, doweling it into place.
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After hours of removing old rotted wood and fitting new wood from a kit the owner bought this is where it sits now. The doors now close perfect where before they hit the door frame when they were shut because of the rotted roof structure. I'm VERY happy about the way they fit. The wood is partly screwed on and partly clamped together ready to be screwed together.
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To back up a ways, all of the bottom wood was rotted, all the way from the back of the trunk to the front of the floor board. I removed it all and made new wood. It was a real guessing game as to how long some of the pieces were supposed to be because sections had fallen out.
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This is not a very good picture but the shiny black wood outside of the frame and against the body panels is new wood I made.
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These old cars with wooden body frames use plenty of wood screws. So far I have sourced #14X 1", 1 1/4", 1 1/2", #12X 1", 1 1/2", 2 1/2", 3", and 31/2" wood screws. There are a bunch of smaller #6X1/2" and 3/4" screws I'm trying to save and reuse because of the rounded top on the heads.
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Anyway, there is a long ways to go yet, he has a new trunk floor ordered if it ever shows up and the interior kit has to be installed but at least now the body is solid again. With the wood gone it was just floppy tin ready to collapse. I have a very helpful and talented neighbor helping me with the assembly as it is a real puzzle without a blueprint and dimensions to go by. The body has sagged over the last 93 years and it's reluctant to be brought back up to where it should be. Anyway, we've been making progress.

Oh, I should note, the owner is 80 years young and this is the first car he owned. He bought it in 1951 when he was 14 years old. He drove it to college and dated his wife in it, among a few others. It holds lots of memories. How many of us have the first car we owned and can still drive it? Not me.
 
Looking good -- the work will pay off with the satisfaction that you did it one piece at a time -- I did the same thing on a 29 model A --
have fun! Roy
 
got the first one for me , we keep it in a barn , hasn't been run since 66 . 52 crosley bought for 2 hundred in 56 when I was 11 .
 
I see it has a Ruxtel (SP?) axle. I thought they just put them in trucks, like the one we had.

Looks about like the T coupe my grandfather had.
 
That truly is an amazing project requiring amazing talent. I do still have my first car, a 1937 Chevy Master Deluxe coupe I got in 1964 at age 16 for the huge sum of $75. It ran and drove but was tired. I put a 283 V8 in it in the late '60s but not very well. Now, it sits in my machine shed, waiting for whatever happens to it next.
 
Very nice! I'll bet that is a puzzle piece to assemble. We're pretty spoiled with the service manuals for the tractors!
 
fixerupper,

What a neat project to work on... and what a great background story. I'll bet that man will be so thrilled to take it for a cruise when it's done.
 
Is there a story to go with the Peter Mickelsen name on the wall? Maybe he's the 80 year old you mentioned? Really fanstatic work you are doing.

I have a 1949 Chevy 3/4 ton truck I was doing partial restore to, but no longer have a heated work space so had to quit. And I'm as old as the owner of this one you're working on so my energy has evaporaated.
 
Looks like a great project. I doubt a lot of us, me included couldn't just get in a Model T, and start driving, without a little instruction. Two peddles fine, but the third one? Stan
 
(quoted from post at 18:26:57 04/15/18) Is there a story to go with the Peter Mickelsen name on the wall? Maybe he's the 80 year old you mentioned? Really fanstatic work you are doing.

I have a 1949 Chevy 3/4 ton truck I was doing partial restore to, but no longer have a heated work space so had to quit. And I'm as old as the owner of this one you're working on so my energy has evaporaated.

Ron, Peter Mikkelsen was my great granddad. He came over from Denmark in the early 1890’s. The name was on the Coppola of a barn he built. When the barn went down the Coppola wasn’t worth saving so I cut out the part with the name on it. It is supposed to be Mikkelsen but evidently the cupola manufacturer misspelled it.
 
(quoted from post at 18:35:54 04/15/18) Looks like a great project. I doubt a lot of us, me included couldn't just get in a Model T, and start driving, without a little instruction. Two peddles fine, but the third one? Stan

To be honest I’ve never driven a T. The transmission was a two speed planetary. Left pedal down was low, left pedal up was high and midway was neutral. Middle pedal was reverse, I think. Left pedal in neutral and middle pedal down sent the car backward. Right pedal is the brake. The brake is in the transmission. The drums in the wheels are the parking brake. Then there is the spark advance lever and throttle on the steering wheel.
 
(quoted from post at 18:17:29 04/15/18) fixerupper,

What a neat project to work on... and what a great background story. I'll bet that man will be so thrilled to take it for a cruise when it's done.

Sweetfeet, he will be very thrilled. He told me this car Won’t be for sale for any price forever. It will be passed down in the family.
 
(quoted from post at 17:05:59 04/15/18) That truly is an amazing project requiring amazing talent. I do still have my first car, a 1937 Chevy Master Deluxe coupe I got in 1964 at age 16 for the huge sum of $75. It ran and drove but was tired. I put a 283 V8 in it in the late '60s but not very well. Now, it sits in my machine shed, waiting for whatever happens to it next.

Rossow, I assume you are from Minnesota? This car originated in Southeast Minnesota. He paid $50 for it. Had to ride his bike to the seller’s residence to make the deal.
 
wow fixerupper now that's a project!! how are you going to tackle the sagging floor? I wish I was close enough to help you with that, keep the pics coming, that is a tricky rebuild working with metal and wood.
 
Hey Fixerupper. I stumbled on to this after reading your post. There is and auction not that far from you with a model T. I dont know if you need any parts but just forwarding the info. Its like 40 miles from you i believe.
Model T for auction
 
(quoted from post at 04:55:11 04/16/18) Hey Fixerupper. I stumbled on to this after reading your post. There is and auction not that far from you with a model T. I dont know if you need any parts but just forwarding the info. Its like 40 miles from you i believe.
Model T for auction

Looks like the sale is about 25 miles from me. I didn’t know about it thanks for alerting me.
 
(quoted from post at 21:11:23 04/15/18) wow fixerupper now that's a project!! how are you going to tackle the sagging floor? I wish I was close enough to help you with that, keep the pics coming, that is a tricky rebuild working with metal and wood.

The saggy body is a tough one. The center of the body is settling down like the way the outside walls of a building settle and the floor ends up high in the center. The middle of the body is supported by two 1 1/4” thick boards going across the frame and out to the sidewalls of the body. You can see one of them in the pic looking down on the floor from above showing the new wood. The wood body superstructure helps too and I hope the new roof wood will shore things up a bit. The old rotted roof wood had allowed the gap between the top of the windshield and the top of the back window to come closer together, putting more down load on the center of the body.
 
fixerupper i'm thinking (going to throw this idea out there for you) using a hydraulic jack on each side with either a thick board or a piece of square tubing jack up each side back to level, measuring from the top of the front window to the back window, and then add about 1/8" or so shims in there to take up just a bit more. leave all that in there as you install the roof and floor. then when all the floor and roof structure is in releasing the jacks, measuring before you release the jacks and after the distance to the floor?? my thinking on lifting it a bit above the level point and then finishing the wood work it should settle down to level when you release the jacks? and maybe add your 1/8" shims about a foot long at the center of the sag before you jack it up with the square tubing or thick block.
 
And you go roaring down the super hiway at about 35mph. My dads friend
had one. When you get your coordination tuned up they are actually a
hoot to drive but if your brain skips a beat you really can get in
trouble. Also realize... That reverse pedal can actually be used as a
power brake. That throttle leaver is the first cruise control ya know.
 
(quoted from post at 08:00:03 04/16/18) And you go roaring down the super hiway at about 35mph. My dads friend
had one. When you get your coordination tuned up they are actually a
hoot to drive but if your brain skips a beat you really can get in
trouble. Also realize... That reverse pedal can actually be used as a
power brake. That throttle leaver is the first cruise control ya know.

Ya, the T was made before the Nader days. If he would have been around back then it would have been called "unsafe at any speed".
 
Nice job, can't really rush something like this. Nice that the owner has a lot of history with the car, pretty rare these days.

I won't show the pics to my '21 T Touring sitting in the garage. Fires up, but needs a lot of work. Fortunately I belong to a Model T club here and they provide a lot of expertise and know-how.
 
(quoted from post at 14:29:52 04/16/18) Nice job, can't really rush something like this. Nice that the owner has a lot of history with the car, pretty rare these days.

I won't show the pics to my '21 T Touring sitting in the garage. Fires up, but needs a lot of work. Fortunately I belong to a Model T club here and they provide a lot of expertise and know-how.
ok red DON'T tease us like that, we want pics now! you got us all intreaged now so we need to see some pics.
 
I won't show the pics to my '21 T Touring sitting in the garage. Fires up, but needs a lot of work. Fortunately I belong to a Model T club here and they provide a lot of expertise and know-how.[/quote]

Ok, will do. You talked me into it lol. I'll start a new thread in tales when I get the pics out of my hard drive. The car's a bit buried right now but trust me it looks the same as back when it came home :). I'll add details in the post for any T-lovers out there.
 

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