What did you do with your T today ?

My T has not been running well, but it has not kept me from
squeezing as many days of driving out of it as I can before winter
takes it off the road for major work projects again. This year
the plans are rebuilding a Lincoln 3-speed aux. transmission,
having the wheels respoked and made pretty, and a long list of
little things like a period brake light and turn signals.

But right now we have a few remaining weeks of decent weather,
so the old dog was out at “the farm” doing what it was meant to do,
… work. After hauling a load of steel out there from town, the
guys and I have been fabricating and welding up gates to complete
the anti-deer perimeter fence.

The Farm is our model farm, part of the Vets on the Farm program,
run by the Spokane County Conservation District. After Afghanistan,
I wanted to work with Vets in some capacity and before I had settled
on something, was spotted by the SCCD Director (wearing my cover)
and asked to be part of the program. I have two vets working for me
as part of the mentorship program and we often do work on the farm
to help out. The truck is a perfect part of the scene and situation.
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Looks like I am the only one who does anything with their T ???

Well here goes, anyway !

Been eyeballing an old sign here in town for a long time
and decided to pull the trigger and negotiate a purchase.
This led to another T adventure, as the only proper vehicle
to go pick an old sign with is, of course, the old TT, right ?

Well, I went and got the truck and drove across town to
go get it. I pulled up out front of the place and went inside
to discuss taking it down and loading it up. Next thing I know,
I have a trio of lightly clad young women asking if they could
use the truck for a photo shoot. How could I say no ? After
all, promoting the hobby is always a priority and takes many
forms.


Testerday was not a warm day by any stretch of the imagination,
but style and looking good overrule a lot of discomfort for some
of the ladies and that appeared to be the case here. They told
me they were dressed this way on account of “homecoming”. I
was unable to relate. Homecoming when I was that age involved
a football game and an outdoor keg party, and no one was dressed
like that ! But they were all smiles and laughs and did not destroy
the truck, so all is good. :smiley:

About this time the wifeperson calls and asks me to pick up
something at the grocery store on my way home. I took a
long route home to enjoy the weather (cold but not raining)
and made the stop. Upon returning to the truck, there was
no buzz at the coils. There was also a crowd of people all
around it, all queued up for a Q&A session. Again, wanting
to promote the hobby, I fielded their questions as best I could
while I checked wires and connections. All looked good. I was
running out of ideas. I had no test leads with me, so I called
Hutch to run it past him. He agreed that it was probably at the
timer, so I pulled it off looking for an issue and found the cap
was full of fine brass shavings and carbon-like fluff. Got a rag,
wiped it out, put it back together, and we were cleared for
takeoff. It fired right up and as the conversation with the
assembled group had turned to reliability of these machines,
and I was explaining that while they ARE reliable, they DO
require a level of mental commitment to the old tech and
a lot of fussing type maintenance, compared to new cars,
they got to witness firsthand the subject we were discussing

Back at home, I backed the old dog into the shop and took a
photo of the sign.
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Great posts Raoul!
Hmmm, yep, a keg party is what I did once for prom or something!
Yesterday, I ran my TT out of gas. Again.
It’s sitting nose up, waiting to be parked in a new spot.
It sat since last fall and it’s been fun getting to know it again.
So it’s off to the gas station after a bit for some more.

No photos, … it never happened ! :laughing:

I have a bad habit of running out of gas. Spring before last, on my first
run of the spring, I got 1/2 mile from the house and ran it dry. I parked it
with a full tank the previous fall ! Easy enough fix, but annoying.
Just a couple weeks ago, I was heading home from the Tuesday night “shop
night” at The Ranch and the thought crossed my mind to fill up before I
headed up Altamont Hill (the steepest hill I typically tackle). With visions
of the old stories of backing up hills because they were low on fuel, I tossed
the idea of stopping several times before deciding to just attack the hill,
remembering I had put gas in it earlier that week. I made it 1.5 blocks past
the gas station and shur-nuff ! … sputter-sputter, gasp-gasp. I gave the
bed a quick scan and discovered there was no suitable vessel to move fuel,
but the Gunny in me said “that 5 gallon bucket will work just fine”, so I wiped
it clean and gave it the old Ooh-rah ! Made a funnel out of a newspaper,
and we were on our way in about 20 minutes time.

==========================================

Today it was decided to give the engine its 3rd oil change since last winter’s
rebuild. The oil looked nice and clean and the hedgehog wrapped around the
screen magnet was half the size it was at the last oil change. Things are breaking
in nicely.
Adjusted the brake and hi/lo bands a little while I had the top end open.
Will give it a test drive tomorrow.

Thank goodness! I hardly ever think to bring the camera… :wink:
Haha! A very wet and stinky funnel! I get the gunny bit tho. Gotta go! Think outside the box and get it done.
Oh! You reminded me of something! I have an oil screen and gaskets for the TT up in the shed!
I need to get that installed and try to run out of gas again!
4 gallons in the tank and it won’t take too long but since re-parking, the angle is a little better.
Thank heavens it only takes a bowl of gas to get up this hill on the driveway with the other two clunkers…
Thanks B!
Du

I don’t do a lot of work with a T other than drive it, but I did haul the sprayer down the road with the runabout recently when I attacked the weeds. As for running out of gas, that’s why I carry running board cans. They’re not just for decoration. They’ve saved me from unscheduled long walks a couple of times.


Steve, that stick holding your trunk lid open, it isn’t supported by a rubber tie down is it?
Like an automatic, spring loaded trunk lid holder upper?
If so, That’s really cool. :slight_smile:

Great photo there, Weedkiller Jelf ! I suppose most anyone who drove by in your rural setting knows you and your vehicles, so it isn’t a real neck-jerker sight as it might be to those who did not know better and thought they just peered into a time warp. I get a real kick out of those times when people go by with their jaw on the ground, disbelieving what they just saw. To many, such a sight is as alien as a space ship landing. They are just too young and disconnected from things so old. The way many will ask questions and respond, … I might as well be an alien ! I have had nothing but old cars my entire life, but nothing so old as these. And nothing as fun to drive and make peoples’ day with as my truck. It really brings a bubbly joy to many.

It has been raining now for 3 days, so the T has stayed indoors. I hope to drive it a little bit more before shutting down ops for the season.

“…supported by a rubber tie down…?”

Yep, after having the thing fall down and bonk my noggin a couple of times I resorted to the lath and bungee.That works.

Spent yesterday cutting low hanging tree limbs and de-mossing a roof
for a client. Returned today when the rain stopped to load out the
debris.
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During the engine rebuild, a Z-head was installed, Bored and tapped
for metric spark plugs, I was stuck with modern looking terminal and
wire ends. I tried to locate knurled nuts with an M4 thread, but to no
avail. In the search I found some outstanding bronze wing nuts that
look entirely “Farmer Brown”, and today a little package arrived to
allow me to lose those modern wire ends. The camera was not available.
Photo later. Not much, but I did something with the T !

Actually, I did something much larger. I bought an old crank coil tester.
It will take a bunch of time and relay effort to get it here.

I was actually going to say “It looks wet there, did you roll up the windows?”
Then I actually turned my brain on and thought. Oh. Did you pull up the windows?
:slight_smile:
Oh! I dumped the water on two of them a couple days ago! Getting cold here. One more to go. More nice weather coming tho.
Sheesh, why don’t I spend some moldy money on anti-freeze… The 29 IH speedster has had anti-freeze for 15 years and now 4 sets of rusted up/stuck brake shoes.
Such a contrarion.

The weather is getting cold, but late mornings and afternoons
are quite sunny and nice. Been driving the old dog all week.
Today I was hauling pallets of shingles and other roofing supplies
out to a job. The loader said a pallet weighed 4000lbs. I am
skeptical, but we did have to move them forward to keep from
lifting the front wheels off the ground ! Mid-day I met the wife-
person to go look at a 1950’s vintage stove with the intention of
hauling it home, but she decided to got look at another one she
has found before buying.

Had a niggling problem with loss of coil buzz when trying to
start it. I cleaned out the timer of fine brass bits and dust, and
it would fire right up. Next stop, ot would do it again. on the
3rd stop, I sanded the cover contacts and pulled the brush, taking
a sharp tool to the edges of the slide housing to eliminate any
burr hangups. That seemed to fix it. We’ll see tomorrow …

Little stuff. Wire brushed and painted the timer control rod for the touring car, then made a Masonite template for bending the brass channel for my new roadster windshield. There’s always something to do.

Photo of the wing nuts:

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While not stock, neither is the Z-head or a lot of other little detail
items. I am not a purist. I like the “Farmer Brown” approach … more
period correct or appearing than dead stock. As fixed out on the farm.

Been too busy to drive the truck the last few days, and winter is
supposed to start dumping on us this coming weekend. But autumn
has been spectacular to us this year and I made my own fall colors
tour just to get it in photos.
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I’ll post more later …

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Beautiful pics Raoul!

Some more fall colors. A week later and they are all gone.
Winter grey is here.

The morning started out foggy. This is one of my favorite
spots in the road around these parts. The old trolley tracks
to Cheney crossed the road here. The abandoned ROW looks
like you could put rails right back down and run trains.
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A little farther along, these cottonwoods were showing off
some pretty good yellow tones.
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After work, I continued to loop in a more southerly direction.
This little grove lingers longer than most for holding its leaves
and turning a peculiar orange after turning yellow. I was a
little early to catch the orange.
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The shadows were getting pretty long, so the lighting in this
rocky area wasn’t the greatest, but it shows off one of the reasons
I moved to this area.


With the express gears and a well balanced driveline, I can
actually get the old dog out on the freeway if I have to. A
short stretch on the way home is simply impossible to avoid
it coming this way.
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Back in town, this bright yellow maple was glowing in the
sun.

Catching these colors while I can. A week later they are
all gone.

Weather permitting, I hope to drive mine some this afternoon, after church. :sunglasses:

Welcome aboard Thom!