The Free Model "T"

The Scoot Rides Again!

Sat, 06 Apr 2019 13:56:00 GMT

Hello rust lovers, welcome to the Free Model T! This week the garbage garage was updated with a new roof and 48 gleaming solar panels; their energy burning away the chains of electrical oppression that the utilities have shackles upon Southern California! I’m truly one step closer to being a crazy self reliant prepper, hunkered away in his mountain compound fixing all that is broken.

“So what?!” You ask, “That’s not what we’re here for!” You indignantly pull a pitchfork from behind your person and begin to yell “We’re here to see what happens IN the garage!”. Worry not, I’ve got you covered. That garage that was packed to the rafters after I moved in? Here it is now:

Clean and empty and- wait! What’s that there at the back? A lift! That’s right rustlovers, my very own drive-on lift. Looks like the garbage garage has become the gorgeous garage. But what good is a garage if it’s not used? What is it for? I’m glad you asked.

I’ve been spending most of my time focused on 2 main projects. My new ’99 Jeep XJ “Harambe” and my 1962 Scout 80 “The Scoot” . The latter has garnered a lot of interest but has been a much bigger project than you would expect from something that only took a few hours of work to drive out of the woods.

Next up was the fuel pump. The fuel lines and vacuum lines had been eaten by rats and I actually found mouse poop inside of the vacuum pump. Oh, did I not mention the fuel pump is also a vacuum pump to run the wipers?

After much soaking and scrubbing the fuel pump looks good and works well. So what about those vacuum wipers? Seized. I had to get some gaskets online then clean the dried crust that used to be grease out of the motors. Yes plural, the driver’s and passenger’s are separate. Ive never worked on vacuum wipers before and know most people hate them but I think they are one of the neatest things I’ve ever fixed! Literally every source I found said to use a different kind of lubricant in the motors but I talked to the most knowledgeable old man around and he said vasoline so that’s what it has.

I changed the hoses and vacuum lines and fixed a few wires and started using it around the property but still had no lights and 2 wires hanging under the dash to start it. Oh yeah, no charging system either!

I converted the old generator/regulator to my favorite GM 3 wire alternator and started digging into the literal rat’s nest of wires that were all green. I don’t mean the copper was exposed and corroded… well that too. I mean from the factory they used only green wires! On purpose!!! I ended up having to fabricate an entire harness from tip to tail.

Once everything was wired and working it was time to change some oils:

I ran some oil system cleaner through engine and changed the oil and filter, then popped the cover off of the Dana 27 rear axle. The oil didn’t look the worst but the pin in the carrier was sloppy. Boo. I went down to border parts and grabbed a new carrier, seal set, bearing set and shim packs.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of working on a D27 please know that the pinion depth is set with shims. Shims pressed on behind a bearing race. Sigh. Then the preload is set with shims. THEN the gear lash is set with shims PRESSED ONTO THE CARRIER BEHIND THE BEARINGS.

It took an axle novice like me about 8 solid hours to get it perfect (out of the car on the work bench) and then I had to set the axle end play with- you guessed it- SHIMS!!! Shims that I had to make out of shim stock. What I didn’t say was that I had already spent about 90 hours scraping, cleaning, degreasing, pressure washing, wire brushing, sandblasting, welding, drilling, customizing, priming and painting the axle housing, brake backing plates, drums, mounting brackets and basically every tiny piece that wasn’t a bolt. I replaced all the bolts. It was all perfect. It was beautiful.

Pics:

Now she’s on the road. After a dead smooth trip to the gas station in the rain with the top off and the windshield down I drove it to the trueline car show 15 miles away. It was good. It also leaked from pretty much everywhere but the rear axle after a real drive. On the way home the Dana 20 twin stick transfer case started making some noise so I guess I’ll work my way forward restoring the undercarriage.

Watch out for it in the future of The Free Model T or see my day to day dealings on Instagram

Playing catch-up

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 04:57:00 GMT

I’ve done it! I’ve successfully remodeled 3 houses in a year! Now I’m a landlord and have the garage space to fix all the rusty junk in the world. Hello Rustlovers and welcome to my Garbage Garage.

Over the last twelve months whilst my efforts were redirected I hadn’t time to work on cars much but did buy (mostly running) and sell (mostly non-running) several. I even sold the ’68 c-20 to a guy in England! The good news is now I’m playing catch-up!

The vehicles onto which I focused my efforts when opportunity allowed were the War Rig and a friends war rig clone. I’ve teased a post and even have one partially written but this truck really is a near and dear project so I keep catching myself waxing poetic about minutia. Boring! So here’s a quick list of the big stuff: new cylinder head (old one had 11 cracks!), ARP head studs, FAST transmission coolers, autometer gauges, upped the boost, bigger injectors, new front suspension components with synergy track bar, all new a/c, wheels and tires, 4.10 gears, front locker, rear LSD, a front driveshaft rebuild, and a camper. Also I checked the KDP but it had already been done.

All the cracks!

Trans coolers!

One thing that I did that I have to mention is my custom install of the locker. In the front axle I used an e-locker from Eaton that is turned on with a dash switch. I powered the switch using a relay that is energized by the same ground signal from the body control module that turns on the 4×4 light so in effect the unit can’t be locked intentionally or accidentally until the truck is already fully engaged in 4×4. This prevents the dreaded “gearsplosion” that occurs when you lock your axle on the freeway at 70 mph.

I should also note that Castrol syntorq gl-4 manual transmission oil has been discontinued and I had to hit every dealership in town and pay $330 for enough fluid for 2 changes. The newer GL-5 fluids eat up the carbon fiber friction material on the steel syncros in the NV-4500 transmissions and Mopar engineering is now recommending the use of ATF +4 (this is not a joke and they gave me a print out, fight me) but I just couldn’t stomach using such thin fluid for such a heavy duty application. After I pull the trans apart and put brass syncros in, yeah but I’d rather horde the proper gear oil whilst I can get my hands on it.

I am so close to done on so many projects and I’m excited to do a bunch of rapid fire posts:

The geo needs some top end work, the Yamaha 80cc bike needs a petcock, the Scout needs an alternator, the mustang needs a distributor (YES, AGAIN!!) and I already have all the parts for all of those jobs.

Responsibility dictates I finish my friend’s cummins build first but I’ll probably sprinkle some other projects in too

Moving 18+ vehicles, a garage full of tools, and a huge collection of engines on stands was a huge feat and I’ve been discovering that organizing it all into a new space had been equally as difficult but I’ve reached a point where I can at least find most of my tools. I have all but 4 of my cars running and I have them all Tetris-ed into their new homes as well as a 40 foot storage container.

The cummins cadillac has its Chevy 1 ton front suspension all but installed including the firestone airbags which are to handle the weight of the cummins but… also allow it to go low. Low low. I’ve never been into low riders but wow.

On top of all of the fun I have planned, a friend of mine wants my help excavating a Dodge Dart. Literally. Excavating. He found a Dodge Dart GT buried on his property and we’re going to try to dig it up… and get it running??

Until next time Rustlovers, Can you dig it?

The Wagonator

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 01:30:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers! Welcome to th- BWWWHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

The WAGONATOR!!!!

Excuse me. Welcome to the Free model T.

Today in my garbage garage I have a new thing! A couple of weeks ago my friend Stephan from BWC customs texted me a picture of this monster and asked if I wanted it. He was there next to it with his truck and trailer and decided he didn’t want it. He also didn’t want to waste time and diesel so he said a number and I agreed.

When I got home from work it was already there, delivered right to my orchard: a 1963 Pontiac Catalina Safari wagon monster truck on 38″ super swampers. It’s sitting on a shortened suburban 2500 frame with a Dana 44 axle up front and a GM 14 bolt in the rear. Beef-tastic. The trans and transfer case are there, it just needed an engi- BWWWHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Small block Chevy!!!!!

Certainly the most popular hot rod motor in history but a first on the Free model T. I used to buy and sell these things for $50. One time I tied one with a little ridge to my bumper and used it to plow my back field for some grass then sold it for $100. I’ve been out of the chevy game for a while and it seems that now the LS reigns supreme and the small block 350 is a precious commodity.

After sifting through a bunch of greasy short blocks on Craigslist in the $1200 range, I came up on this “hear it run before we pull it out” small block that someone needed gone for $600. It ran well and came with everything. All the accessories, an Edelbrock intake, Holley carb, HEI, even a clutch and bellhousing. It was a steal.

I picked up the car for $400, the engine for $600, paid $410 in back registration fees and paid $30 for a heavy duty flywheel to bolt up to the existing turbo 350. So with $1440 into the vehicle I want to kick off my “Building a budget 4×4” series! Yes I’ll still be posting on “Fatty Patty the Cummins Caddy” as she progresses (spoiler alert, I bought tires yesterday) but I’ve wanted to do a short series on budget builds that are still cool for a long time.

Also I bought a geo.

Thanks for stopping by Rustlovers!

The Wall of Shame

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 17:55:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers and welcome to the Free Model T! Now that I’m all settled into my new top secret multigarage mountain compound it’s almost time to set up my new lift and start working on weird, terrible and generally well… rusty vehicles. Just as soon as I fix up the house I moved out of.

While fixing up 3 houses and moving hasn’t completely precluded my proclivities for automotive activities things have definitely slowed down. But moving has also forced me to write a post I’ve been pondering for a while now; The Wall of Shame.

For the last 10 plus years I have saved the very best of the very worst parts I’ve pulled from cars but moving necessitated the disposal of the whole lot. Although gone now, I took pictures of some of my very favorites and will now finally share them with the world!

I honestly have no idea which engine this accel spark plug escaped from but i know it wasn’t a race motor and was not mine. I found this exceptionally fascinating because Accel historically makes some high quality products.

This rod bearing came out of a crate SBC 350 that belonged to the man himself: Mean Dean. My father. After he died his 1970 hugger orange GMC 3/4 ton pickup when to my brother Big Ben. No GM doesn’t make oval shaped cam journals, this bearing overlapped itself. When the piston started slapping the head Ben let me help him with the teardown then keep this gem.

This is just a standard no/nc relay that’s a bit melty. What I liked about it is that it was still functional in a car even though it looked like this.

This freezeplug is a monument to poor cooling system maintenance. Just because your coolant is still full and the right color doesn’t mean it hasn’t started eating away your freezeplugs and gaskets from the inside. This specimen was famously changed out of the Nokeyssan .

This brake rotor was only a few days old. Admittedly this one doesn’t quite fit in as completely shameful as he did have his brakes changed but when they wouldn’t release on that side because of a bad brake hose he REALLY should have stopped driving.

A more recent addition to the Wall of Shame is the passenger head gasket from The Midlife Crisis. As pictured, the fire rings are all completely shot and the gasket is badly blown between 2 cylinders.

Catalytic convertor gore. These hunks of hot ceramic honeycomb catalyzed some raw fuel from some hung up injectors on Boomer the boom truck. I miss that truck. My new house as a veritable arboretum and a boom truck would be worth its weight in overhanging tree limbs.

A trio of timing gears. The middle picture is the cam gear from the 472 that came out of the Cummins Cadillac . It’s a real iron gear just worn down a comical amount. Although the teeth have been worn down into razor nubs this car was still doing sweet burnouts despite the cam timing being completely retarded. The chain was so loose that I was able to lift it right off of the gear and remove it by hand.

The other 2 are those genius aluminum timing gears that are supposed to be quieter or something? One is out of a ’90 Jeep Wrangler I picked up for $1000 because the timing chain slipped and the other is out of The Gamble which I picked up for $600… because the timing chain slipped. Stupid aluminum gears.

I just found this crank sprocket in a box after writing this article and decided to add it. It may also be from The Gamble.

The water pump. This pump came off of my friend Brent’s ford ranger 4.0. This poor truck went through a coolant death spiral. Bad coolant led to leaks, led to adding water daily, which in turn led to more leaks. At the time this picture was taken the motor was removed to change the cylinder heads and freeze plugs and this pump was still within it’s 1 year warranty. With no impeller left on it. Amazing.

Well Rustlovers, I hope you liked all these shameful bits and pieces as much as I did.

I would love to see pictures of your carnage. Want to share?

Comment, email me or share on my Instagram !

Gambling in the Mohave Desert

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 07:35:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers!

I must say that although I started writing this as a fun way to show my projects to friends and family, my readership numbers have been improving steadily, all thanks to you! As such I want to offer my genuine gratitude. Thanks Rustlovers!

So about that gambler! The Gambler 500 SoCal 2017 took place the second week of November and my friends and I participated! Based on chatter from the facebook page I expected a bunch of rowdy crazies scattered across the desert in broken cars and I was not disappointed but there was so much more. It really was a split mix of crazies, seasoned off roaders in it for the fun and total novices in way over their heads who could neither drive off-road nor get their rig home when it broke down. It was amazing. The levels of help to which people were willing to go was truly inspirational.

At my house in Santee we had drawn straws to determine driver/passenger positions in the cars and Mr. Doctor had the misfortune of driving the postal Jeep which was already having steering problems. I rode with him.

As we got close to Cafe 247 we started to see other gamblers on the road and on trailers and the excitement was rising fast. We were honking and yelling at each other out of questionable car windows. These were my people. After parking we set up camp and mingled with the other drivers and checked out the other cars. Wow. Homemade convertibles with plumbing pipe roll cages, lifted BMWs, wooden lift blocks held on by grade 3 carriage bolts. A replica of the mutt cuts van from Dumb and Dumber. I have now truest seen it all.

One of the fun aspects of the gambler is that you don’t get to know the route in advance. The cars queued at the starting line and were let through in 60 second increments and the drivers were handed a list of day 1 coordinates as they crossed. And off we went!

2 of the craziest crazies around.

One of a couple “tank cars”.

A typical example of a gambler car. Note the age, number of doors, weight saving measures, and custom paint.

Count DrAcura and The Dispatcher.

Following the Dispatcher up a steep trail.

The terrible traffic jam started when a diesel F-350 ripped out the vacuum lines that engage the 4×4 and got stuck. The heavy truck sank deep and turned 40 feet of semi hard pack gravel into quicksand. After being helped out by the use of a tow rope and some maxtrax the eager crowd surged forward 1 car length and without momentum each 2 wheel drive took turns getting stuck. Yes the Ford has manual hubs too but those were somehow overlooked.

Try as we might we couldn’t hold the line long enough to create a runway for some momentum. To make matters worse every car that got stuck made the road softer and harder to navigate. As far as I saw, only two 4×2 vehicles made it and the dispatcher was one of them. Even count DrAcura got stuck.

A couple of heroes in 4×4’s kept going back and pulling out car after gloriously terrible car while the back of the line had dissolved as people turned around and gave up. Eventually every car made it out of the area but by then the day was half gone. As we trundled on at speeds unsafe for any of the cars involved the steering on the jeep got progressively worse. As we crossed the 15 freeway and headed to the next waypoint we came across a large group that was debating heading up the freeway to camp or carrying on. We duct taped over some holes in the cars to save ourselves from some even more dust and continued off-road.

With no other gamblers in sight we traversed a lot of awesome desert trails that ascended for a long while then widened and smoothed out into a massive dirt road that serviced a quarry or mine nearby. We flew along as it wound back down out of the hills until it dumped us out onto the historic Route 66! As big of a car nut as I am this was actually the first time that I had ever driven on route 66. We bombed north in the waning daylight, stopped for fuel for both the cars and our stomachs, then were back off the road in the dark until we made it to camp where a radiator hose promptly blew on the postal jeep.

Apparently the Jeep’s newly discovered cooling system pressure after changing the cap and heater core were just too much for the poor old hose that was possibly compromised when Mr. Pipe and I rolled it onto its side 6 years ago. Luckily we were able to slice it back and reconnect it.

Day 2 was a lot more movement and a lot less getting stuck. We headed northeast from camp toward the Mohave preserve where the plotted route paralleled the 15 freeway for a long time. We decided we would be better off taking our own huge circuit through the Mohave preserve which was a fun and stunning drive. In the middle of the dry lake we found this strange stone monument with a geo cache, a flag, memorial notes, and the funniest plaque.

This was by far my favorite part of the trip. When we got back to the 15 freeway we stopped and looked over the vehicles and discovered the right front shock was broken on the jeep. As there are leaf springs in the front with no anti sway bar, the shocks are the only thing keeping the jeep driving in a straight line. We pulled off the offending shock and headed north.

The steering was bad. Worse in the wind. We crossed the state line into Nevada and pulled into Whiskey Pete’s to call around to some parts stores but the closest shocks were 2 hours south in Victorville. There were a lot of other gamblers broken down there and we did what we could to help but we weren’t in great shape ourselves so we decided to cash out. We gambled. We lost.

I ran into the casino to get myself a birthday margarita which you pay for by gambling?? One of my friends showed me which buttons to hit on the video poker machine built into the bar and and a few minutes later I walked away with twice as much money and a margarita. Weird. Anyway the Bonnie and Clyde car was there!

Soooooooo many bullet holes. To quote John Mulaney “What, were bullets free back then???”

We headed south, stopping briefly in Victorville to throw some shocks on the jeep but the steering was still so bad and continued to deteriorate until we finally arrived safely at home.

Even being dead tired from a 6 month home repair/remodel marathon I still had a blast on the trip and will never forget it. I can’t wait until I get to ride out again with that big group of mixed nuts, only next time I’ll be in The Scoot ! Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to nickname the scout but it just sort of happened. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Count DrAcura again because I sold her to some aspiring gamblers after the race… for $500

Until next time Rustlovers remember:

Crappy Car: $500

2 days gambling with lunatics: priceless.

Getting ready to gamble

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:28:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers!

Just a quick update on the impending gambler 500. Team Gon’ Postal is officially a seven man team with 2 rally cars and 2 chase cars.

Car #1: The Lifted Legend

I got the legend for free a couple of months ago and here’s what we’ve done so far:

Formulated a plan.

Austin and I took a hard look at the suspension and sketched up some spacers.

Austin welded up some chromoly coil spring spacers and Competitive Metals cut us some full suspension spacers for the rear. We also had to relocate and shim the rear upper control arms and pull the bumpers for clearance.

With the 2″ hybrid body/suspension lift installed, the Legend actually has more ground clearance than the Jeep.

We got the sponsor stickers and the roof rack installed and changed the oil changed, smog check passed and registration paid.

It’s getting some mud terrains today. Then it just needs a front skid plate and some off road lights.

Car #2: The postal jeep.

Got some SERIOUS off road lights.

Sponsor stickers.

The new paint job is coming along thanks to Rage. Now it just needs tires, a heater core and to fix that pesky headlight gremlin.

Although I have yet to monetize this blog I do want to give a quick shout out to:

-Innovative Cold Storage Enterprises Inc. for sponsoring team Gon’ Postal and our trail cleanup effort. Their dedication to environmental stewardship is inspiring.

-Express tire and service center in Santee for hooking us up with a discount and nitrogen in he tires.

-Competitive Metals in El Cajon for cutting out chromoly

-Gest Gibby and Stephanie Nelson, organizers of the Gambler500 socal

-You, the readers for allowing me to also sponsor these 2 cars through the freemodelt brand and Siko Jeeps.

Thanks, Rustlovers! ABG

The gambler 500

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 19:28:00 GMT

Rust and the highest concentration of like minded Rustlovers on earth! This is NOT The Free Model T. THIS is the gambler 500!

Gambling is something I’ve done for most of my life, most notably when I bought 3 totaled vehicles and committed to take them 5 hours into Baja after only 3 months. These were, of course “ The Gamble “, “ The Summer Project ” (now known as the Zombie Jeep), and an old 2 stroke YZ125 that was only mentioned in passing. I’ve been in love with pushing beaters beyond the breaking point forever but over the last few years an entire community of people as evolved with an identical passion.

So what is the Gambler 500 ? Well it’s not a race, let’s make that clear. It is a 500 mile off-road navigation challenge for garbage cars. My kind of thing, right?!? Originally out of Portland Oregon, the gambler in a few short years has spread across the country. What is the appeal? Well, I think it’s just good, cheap, silly fun! And I haven’t done it. Yet.

The gambler 500 SoCal is coming up in November and some friends and I are prepping an ’89 Acura Legend and the Postal Jeep for the trip. No, I haven’t gambled with this group yet but just joining the online community I can tell that this will be epic! I plan on doing a series of short video clips of the entire event and hopefully interviewing the organizers so stay tuned!

“The Legend” getting a 2 inch lift.

Until next time Rustlovers, Always Be Gambling.

Scouts in the Woods

Wed, 12 Jul 2017 13:41:00 GMT

Hello RustLovers and welcome to the Free Model T!

Today I’m thinking back to my youth. I’m not really one for nostalgia but this day I wistfully recall my days in troop 383. Proudly earning merit badges, learning orienteering, how to build bird houses, relationships, and community. Carrying my pocket knife to school as part of my uniform every Tuesday and being taunted endlessly for said uniform. Ah Scouts, what a fun time! This week I acquired a new project, one so cool AND with such a fitting name that no special project code-name is required! A 1961(ish) International Harvester Scout 80 which I have lovingly named “The Scout”! Creative, no?

The other day I got a very excited call from Nate the Great (who gave me the Volkswagen bus ) saying he had just acquired a few old 4×4’s as part of a property deal. One was a 1985 Toyota 4×4 with a 22r and a 5 speed transmission just like the one in back to the future. “Check out that 4×4” -Marty Mcfly. Nate had put a battery in it and driven it out of its home deep in the woods.

Down the dirt road, through a locked gate, over the peaks and through the valleys we pushed into the woods until we got to the Scout. Nestled between a couple of trees down a small slope surrounded by generous bouquets of poison oak lay the Scout enjoying its long slumber.

As expected the plug wires and most of all the others had been eaten away by rats as was the lower radiator hose. To find any of that out though, we had to excivate the motor. Luckily Nate brought a leaf blower!

After turning the motor by hand, changing the plug wires, checking all the fluids, installing a battery, and hot wiring the coil, I touched a wire from the battery to the starter solenoid and it cranked beautifully. After spraying some starting fluid into the carburetor and having the engine fail to fire off, I checked and had spark from the coil but no spark to the wires. I cleaned the cap, rotor, and points, re-gapped the points and it fired right off.

Not wanting to fiddle with a crusty old fuel system, we gravity rigged the gas can on top of the hood, unhooked the fuel line from the pump and ran a hose down to it. Once the fuel was siphoning we closed the hood onto a 2×4 so as not to pinch the hose and attempted to drive out.

Did I say anything about the brakes? No? Well I did add fluid and I did pump up the brakes but they didn’t really… work. It barely idled and kept dying so I ran “ignition wires” to the passenger seat so Nate could start it when it inevitably stalled. After three failed attempts to drive up out of the steep valley we decided to test the 4×4. I locked the hubs and found 4-Lo and we made it out in second gear. We then proceeded to drive it 3 miles back to Nate’s house with no signals, almost no brakes, and no registration in 4-Lo.

That’s it! I had an awesome adventure with a great friend and somehow got a Scout too. I’m really looking forward to helping Nate with his back to the future 4×4 and having some fun off-road adventures.

Until next time Rustlovers, what have you dragged out of the woods?

It’s a jeep thing

Sun, 25 Jun 2017 03:43:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers and welcome to The Free Model T!

To answer some FAQ, yes, I could have shortened the oil filler. Yes I could have re-routed the heater lines and cut a smaller hole. No, I’m not going to add any sort of scoop or cover. I LOVE the result. It is exactly what I had imagined and I’ve always wanted a car with the motor sticking out of the hood! The fact that it defiantly displays “DODGE RAM CUMMINS TURBO DIESEL” also tickles me several shades of pink.

There’s one more question a lot of people have asked: “Why?”. I don’t have a single reason why. The cadillac used to be my daily driver and I adore it. I’m recently Cummins obsessed. The car can handle the motor. I already had the motor. The 472 ci. V8 that came in it got 6 mpg and the first gen 12 valve will get 18. I’m simply in it for the love. It’s the car I want with the motor I want and that is “why” enough for me.

Onto other things. The death wobbly jeep. I hate the cringeworthy “It’s a jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand” attitude almost as much as I love jeeps. I’m sitting at the window of my favorite coffee house right now (where most of this silly blog gets written) and I can’t help but glance out at the jeep over and over. There’s something magnetic about jeeps. They have personality! Maybe that’s why they always seem to find a “parking buddy”.

Unfortunately the factory trackbar is connected to the frame with a criminally small ball joint no bigger than that on a tie rod end. Ths ball joint can’t handle the side to side force of the weight of the entire front end of the vehicle. These side to side forces are only multiplied when the vehicle is lifted and if the TB is not adjustable then the higher you go the farther it will pull your axle toward the driver’s side.

The solution is simple! A beefy aftermarket adjustable TB with a bracket to convert the ball joint to a bushing or heim joint.

New trackbar left. Stock trackbar right.

The differences are obvious. Even thought the stock trackbar had been recently replaced it was completely loose at the ball joint allowing enough play for my death wobble.

Now I have one more car that I can drive to my new house instead of towing! Hooray!

Until next time Rustlovers, be safe and build something!!

Diesel World

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 14:48:00 GMT

Anyone that knows me knows that there’s gasoline running through my veins. I love cars, I live cars, if I’m being honest with myself maybe they’re even a little bit of an idol in my life. Early in my marriage I found a 1964 Cadillac 75 series presidential limousine on craigslist for $800. It was 11:00 PM but the add had just been posted so I called. Somehow I convinced him to pull the add and 7 hours later I was far from home at his house with cash and a trailer.

This story is relevant today because I have once again been spending all my free time (not all my family time) working on a Cadillac. As teased I have been putting a Cummins turbo diesel into a 1970 Sixty Special. But I have GASOLINE in my veins! Why a diesel?? Much like Thomas the Tank Engine I’ve never liked diesels. The fuel smells bad, the exhaust smells bad, they’re loud, they smoke, the whine of the turbo gives me a headache, they’re grimy, and they’re expensive! But dat fuel mileage tho… I frequently go on long trips towing a trailer and I wanted all the power so I built a 600 horsepower 428 super cobra jet FE ford for my F-250. It got 7 MPG and cost $252 to fill up both tanks. Ouch. After some soul searching I realized diesel was my only option for power and economy so I literally started googling “best diesel engine”

Although there’s lots of support for Ford’s Powerstroke, GM’s Duramax, and Dodge’s Cummins, the last seemed to be the clear winner for reliability and cheap power and a better option for the diesel beginner. But which one? I was reading all these terms “6BT, 4BT, 6BTA, 1st or 2nd generation, 12v, 24v, v-pump, p-pump, common rail etc.” and I had to sift through them one at a time. I won’t give you a full lesson on all the terms but the “12V” or “12 valve” seemed to be the one everyone wanted. So I bought one. I found a half finished Ford Cummins conversion project that had a lot of other parts I wanted and it was CHEAP.

The CL add.

Loading the project onto my hauler.

It was a 1st generation with the smaller and less preferred “v-pump” for injection but I figured I would just buy the bigger injection pump and switch them. Nope. Turns out without a core It would be cheaper to buy a whole truck. So I did. Thus began my slide down the diesel rabbit hole.

After cutting up the organ donor ford and stuffing the Cummins onto the covered patio I picked up a ’98 ram 2500 with a 12 valve p-pump for an astonishing $2500. It had a problem where the ignition switch would do nothing sometimes. Randomly. After testing the ignition switch and neutral/park safety switch I discovered a defunct alarm system that was killing ignition power. Randomly. I fixed it, the a/c and some other stuff and had a nice beat up p-pump truck. But it was 2 wheel drive with an automatic transmission. I figured I would convert it to 4×4 and a manual trans but it turned out it would be cheaper and easier to buy one that already had that stuff. So I did. Sliiiiiiide…

So I have some diesel in my veins now. Stinky, slimy diesel. I actually carry gloves in my truck because the diesel pumps at the gas station are nasty. But what of this Cadillac???

Read back or remember that in January I got the v-pump motor running just sitting there on the back patio. That was a big achievement for me. I also pulled the Cadillac out of the weeds. Well the 2 have become one in a marriage of cool and awesome! Here’s a break down of what I’ve been able to get done:

-Three weekends ago Mr. Doctor, Mr. Coffee and I used the Zombie Jeep to pull Fatty Patty the Cadi out onto the street, then into the driveway. We pressure washed off 8 years of grime (and the Postal Jeep) and I spray painted all the wheels black and covered her with a cheap-o car cover because my municipality will fine me for having a non running car in my driveway (even registered and insured).

Free car wash!

Cut a slit and fed the lic. plate through to appease the authorities.

-Two weekends ago Mr. Doctor, Mr. Rage and I cut the core support and shoehorned the Cummins and torqueflite trans into place. It fit well. When I cut the steel tube mounting the motor into the Ford I had no idea I was cutting in the exact place that would be needed to mount the engine into an old Cadillac. Amazing!

Death-wheel on a 90° angle grinder: not recommended.

Mr. Dr. Guiding the 1200ish lb. load into place.

That’s a BIG engine.

Probably should have used a steeper angle of attack.

Almost there.

Not straight yet but resting in place.

Final resting place. And the hood ALMOST closes!

-Last weekend Mr. Doctor and I spent 12 hours fabricating an awesome transmission crossmember on Saturday then on Sunday Mr. Rage and I pulled the motor and trans back out. Next I fabricated 3/8″ steel plate mounts and drilled them and the crossmember to match then bolted them on with 7/16″ grade 8 hardware.

Crossmember with the ends cut off and the new plates welded and drilled for the Ram truck trans mount.

My safe welding footwear. Don’t be dumb like me. End plates welded to attach to frame.

Had to move the crossmember forward about 8″ and mount it between the frame rails instead of on top.

Outside weld.

Inside weld.

Both mounts scribed and center punched for drilling.

Clamped in place to mark frame for holes.

Both mounts bolted in place. Nuts inside of crossmember to be welded in place.

-Monday Mr. Doctor and I put the engine and trans back in and tack welded the tube mounts to the new plates.

-Yesterday I fished my welder inside of the crossmember and welded all the motor mount nuts to the frame so I could remove and install them easily by myself. I then pulled the fully designed mounts back out, welded them solid and reinstalled. I had the front of the motor supported by an engine hoist which I finally dropped into place for the last time before the car will move under it’s own power. I tightened all the mounts down then gave the motor a good rock back and forth. Only the car moved. They are one.

Bigger and beefier than they look.

After the car is up and driving I’m going to pull the motor, re-gasket it, add gussets to the motor mounts and paint everything.

-Today I’m going to cut the hole in the hood so it will close.

So I have a diesel Cadillac now!!! It’s ready to go! I just need to finish some minor details like a driveshaft, wiring, steering, a charging system, air conditioning, gauges, transmission linkages, a fuel system, a cooling system and a hundred other things. The goal is to have it totally ready by February for… an event.

Until next time rustlovers, Roll Coal!

(But really, don’t do that. It’s gross, it pollutes, it makes you look like an idiot and black smoke is horsepower lost out through the exhaust instead of being used by the engine)

The Zombie Jeep

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 13:18:00 GMT

Good day rustlovers! Welcome to the farm… er.. the car thing that I write. THE FREE MODEL T! I’ve been gone so long that some of you my have assumed that I bought the farm… Well I did! Patient wife and I have been looking for more privacy, less crowding and more room FOR CARS! We recently stumbled across a spot in East San Diego that’s eight times bigger than our current digs and is fully fenced, has trees and droolworthy garage space.

One of the reasons I love Jeeps is because no matter how beat up they become, you aren’t judged for driving junk. In fact it’s quite the opposite. If you’re spotted cruising in your unscathed JK on 37’s and faux bead lock wheels with a billet light bar, your mall cruiser will most likely be heavily judged by anyone who has ever actually seen dirt. These proud Jeep posers will in all likelihood espouse the “Jeep Wave” as being for wrangler types only and snub anyone in a beat up XJ. Rant Over.

A typical mall cruiser pictured in the roughest terrain it will ever see.

Summer Project

Once safely off of the trailer at home I dug in. Front airbags changed, front bumper cut off, wheels and tires changed. I figured my bent steel wheels and notched up off road tires were the main cause of the death wobble whenever I tried to drive it on the road and I had a nice set of 17″ alloys with new cooper tires off of my ’02 so I tried to install those. Tried. It would seem that a ’95 Grand Cherokee and an ’02 don’t share the same lug pattern. No problem. The local 4 Wheel Parts actually stocked wheel spacer/adapters that both corrected the bolt pattern AND spaced the wheels out properly. Joy. She was looking good but dirty and had seen some nasty mud and some salt in Baja so I hit the car wash and had her cleaned top to bottom. I popped on the freeway aaaaaaand death wobble.

So shiny…

A few weeks back I threw a fuel pump into my 1973 Jeep DJ-5 and got it running to sell it. When some buyers were on their way I pulled it out onto the street and did a little trip around the neighborhood and knew I couldn’t sell it. Luckily it was running badly. Really badly. It wouldn’t idle, was puffing black smoke and was really loud and shaky. So the perspective buyer walked away and I fixed her up. It wound up having a blown exhaust manifold gasket which it shares with the intake manifold so it was basically sucking exhaust in through a giant vacuum leak. Bad.

-Compression tested -all good

-Plugs and wires, cap and rotor changed

-Pertronix installed to eliminate the points

-Converted to internally regulated GM 3 wire alternator (more on that)

-Changed leaky oil pressure gauge

-Valve cover gasket and air filter changed

The alternator was a fun and necessary project. The AMC externally regulated alternator would slowly drain the battery and wouldn’t kick in and start working until it had hit about 4000 rpm. I had tried changing it AND the regulator but it was exactly the same AND the alternator tested “bad” on the bench right out of the box. The alternator didn’t bolt right up but you can get a GM clocked however you wish so all the holes and the pulley lined up. All my pulleys are spaced out 1/4′” to accommodate the only balancer I was able to buy and my alternator bracket couldn’t take the extra strain so it had started to bend. I reinforced it.

Finished bracket on the alternator.

3/8 plate steel cut to reinforce the alternator bracket.

Flimsy.

Beefy.

Another pic of the finished product.

Who killed the cat?

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 06:22:00 GMT

Ah the rain! I love the rain. Bringing a nasty drought to an end and helping to oxidize virgin steel into lumps of beautifully jagged metal so that I can get it for free. Welcome once again rustlovers to The Free Model T.

Here in San Diego we have been absolutely battered by storms for the last few weeks leaving many a floorboard soggy due to old weatherstripping and even causing a leak in my garage. No good! This time I did not let the rain slow me down.

My car hauling trailer has been neglected for many years and needed some serious love. The driver’s side fender is removable for easy exit after driving onto the trailer but on the last desert trip it actually broke off.

Inspecting the trailer I found many cracked welds and other things in need of attention and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never checked the brakes or packed the bearings. So I did. I also welded all the areas in need of attention, welded on a new tongue jack that has a pin lock so I can swing it out of the way, changed the brake shoes and the trailer break away kit and installed all new lights. The trailer is good to go and I did all of the welding outdoors in the rain.

Now that the trailer is roadworthy I had to smog my ’95 Jeep ZJ “The Summer Project”. Since the distributor has just been changed and I have only 400 miles on a fresh engine, emission testing should be a breeze. Except it FAILED!

I took the ZJ (I like to think that it stands for “Zombie Jeep” since I brought it back from the dead) down to my favorite smog shop and it failed on high NOx. I plugged my stats into an online lambda calculator and found my catalytic converter to only be functioning at 36%. This was shocking to me because I’ve already gone through this with THIS JEEP!

Flashback to 2 years ago. Jeep fails on high NOx, well OBVIOUSLY! When I got it it had a bad oxygen sensor, a massively cracked exhaust manifold and was overheating AND misfiring. Of course the catalyst was bad! I installed a premium Magnaflow catalytic converter and a new oxygen sensor. I was and still am a HUGE fan of their products and they are the only aftermarket cat manufacturer that I will install.

Flash forward to the present. What went wrong? Who killed the cat? In short; I don’t know. But I will. The two most common cat killing culprits are a misfire sending raw fuel ito the exhaust system (which would have shown up in the smog results as high hydrocarbons) or a rich fuel mixture (which would have caused high CO numbers). Both would have caused the catalytic converter to turn blue from excessive heat but it didn’t and my numbers all looked good.

A third but less likely cat killer would be a lean fuel mixture which would also cause high combustion temperatures. One way to test for this is to hook a volt meter to your oxygen sensor that you can read while driving. The output voltage will tell you your air fuel mixture. I’m not going to do this yet because I have another thoery. The engine was just rebuilt. Maybe a condition existed in the 18 months between installing the cat and rebuilding the engine that caused it’s death. Something that was subsequently fixed during the rebuild.

I’m working with Magniflow and my smog shop to figure it out and will keep you posted.

Until next time rustlovers,

Don’t kill the cat.

Maiden voyage blues.

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 04:43:00 GMT

Last time on The Free Model T we were left on a bit of a cliffhanger. The Midlife crisis was on flatbed tow truck headed home. Read back and remember that the last 2 cars I’ve done major engine overhauls on both came back to my house on tow trucks. Maybe I’m losing my touch, it sure was discouraging. Or maybe forces outside of my control conspired to to keep me off of the road. Perhaps I’ve been haunted by engine Spectres, or more precisely Spectras.

So what’s the big reveal? What happened to the mustang so many months ago? The brand new condenser in the brand new Spectra Premium distributor failed. It lasted exactly one trip. Yes it indeed failed after 20 whole minutes of driving. I had intended on installing a points eliminating kit anyway but didn’t want to mess with the ignition system until I already had the carburetor tuned nicely.

You may wonder why I’m calling out Spectra Premium by name. Doesn’t it seem a little unreasonable considering I had planned to eliminate the part that failed anyway? No BECAUSE IT WAS A SPECTRA DISTRIBUTOR IN THE JEEP TOO! That’s right rustlovers! I had 2 vehicles in a row break down on their respective maiden voyages because of Spectra distributors. Shame.

Everything else has been running pretty well for the last couple of months. Except for the coolant leak on the War Rig. And the #8 piston on one of my other Jeeps kissing the cylinder head. And Patient Wife’s Jeep springing a leak. Those aren’t running very well at all.

Why don’t I just do a quick update on all the projects:

I recently pulled my old postal Jeep out of mothballs and have been driving it a bit but it’s not burning all its fuel so that’s a project! I put in a pertronix points eliminator and a fuel pump to get it running but it at least needs an intake gasket and tune up. At most maybe a carburetor.

Patient Wife’s ’93 Jeep Cherokee sprouted a coolant leak out of the brandnewish radiator which spiraled out of control into a head gasket job. Even though the entire cooling system was less than 2 years old I believe there was electrolysis caused by a bad motor ground cable. The cooling system turned very quickly into a rusty mess so I decided to pull off the manifolds and pop out the freeze plugs to clean it all out which is when 2 studs snapped off in the head. Since I just posted about a jeep 4.0 overhaul I decided it would be too boring to read twice and didn’t do a write up on it.

New 2 ga. ground cable I made for Patient Wife. I used the tiny old cable to make the body ground.

I have been on a huge diesel kick lately and wish I could put a Cummins in everything. I can’t but I can put a Cummins in some things! Like a Cadillac! Yeah, I know, Roadkill already did it but I’ve had a 12 valve sitting on the patio for years that I’ve fully intended to put in my 1970 Fleetwood. Well the motor runs now and Rage helped me pull the caddy out of the corner today! I must say Roadkill really inspired me to get on this project. Here are some pictures and videos of the motor and the extraction.

It’s alive! This Cummins kicked my butt for 2 months before finally firing off.

Extraction!

This thing used to be my daily driver… 7 years ago.

Paint is still good.

Engine bay sans 472.

Thug Life.

Until next time rustlovers build something cool. And watch Roadkill, it’s awesome.

The midlife crisis.

Sun, 14 Aug 2016 05:55:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers!

In today’s edition of “The Free Model T” we break the seal on old engine that’s never been cracked open before AND it’s powering a new project! The perfect car to feel the wind blow through my waning auburn locks as they fly away one by one: The Midlife Crisis!

This 65 Ford Mustang has spent the last 30+ years of its life in the basement of a hardware store in Ohio being driven only on the odd Sunday. Perhaps in some parades? I like to imagine so. She is powered by a bone stock 289 2 BBL backed up by a Cruise-O-Matic C4 transmission. When I say bone stock I mean the plug wires say “Ford” on them.

When my dad and I were originally shopping for my first project when I was 14 years old all I wanted was a Mustang. What I ended up with was a 65 Ford Ranchero which essentially shares the same underpinnings as this mustang so I am definitely operating in my wheelhouse right now. I know my 60’s Fords.

The old dream of finding a low mileage antique car that grandma only drove to church on Sundays is alive and well to this day but those cars have serious disadvantages that we are about to explore together. Namely: sludge.

Last month a coworker let me know that he was having the Mustang shipped from his uncle in Ohio. Once he had it he decided it deserved more care than he was able to put into it right now. He told me he was thinking about selling it so I drove up to his house to take a look at it for him… With cash. I drove it home that day.

The engine ran pretty well on the freeway but didn’t have the power it should have and idled pretty rough. I assumed it was running on 7 cylinders. As it turned out, it was running on 6.

My plan had been to drive the car as-is, so how did I even get to the point where I pulled the head off? Well, a small job kind of spiraled out of control. After driving it 3 or 4 times it suddenly refused to start. Much cranking and starter fluid-ing later I got it to run but it was only firing on every other cylinder. As I pulled the plug wires off of the distributor one at a time, one would cause the motor to bog almost to death and the next would make no difference indicating that the associated cylinder was not firing. Back and fourth through the firing order; good, dead, good, dead, good, dead, good dead.

It was such a weird problem that I probably would’ve been baffled if the SAME EXACT thing hadn’t happened on my ’67 Camaro 13 years ago. Yep, I knew what it was immediately. One bank of the carburetor was not fueling correctly. Weird, right? See, when the marvelous engineers in Detroit designed this and other motors, they chose to supply air/ fuel mixture from each side of the carburetor to alternating cylinders in the firing order. Set up as such the engines not only run smoother and breathe easier but also if one side of the carburetor develops a fault, the engine can still run somewhat.

The carburetor had recently been rebuilt but the driver’s side was pouring fuel down cylinders 2, 4, 6, and 7. I decided the best course of action was to install an Edelbrock intake manifold and 500 CFM carburetor for ease of repairs and reliability. Don’t worry, I kept and catalogued all the original parts.

The first thing I did was drain the coolant and pull the upper hose.

Pulled the thermostat housing and- oh no!

The coolant in the intake was all milky. Oil in the coolant!

Nasty.

Looks like this carb spacer had never been removed. The gasket was nothing but one big crusty vacuum leak.

Then the intake manifold came off.

Nasty.

After using my shop-vac to suck most of the sludge out of the valley I scrubbed it with degreaser and a rag. Not bad.

I attempted to refurbish the old lifters but when I got to the third one I discovered that the little piston inside was hopelessly seized. After trying in vain for some time to remove it I gave up and bought new lifters. Remember that you can change lifters without changing the cam but you can never use old lifters on a new cam.

Pictured below are the lifters with a high pressure zinc/moly assembly lube on the cam following surface only; during break-in it is vital for lifters to spin so only use motor oil on the sides and be sure to check that they travel and spin freely in the bore.

Shiny reman heads installed.

Gaskets set in place (I didn’t actually use the cork bits in the front and back but used a bead of gasket sealer as per Edelbrock’s instructions.)

Intake on. Thanks for your help Dr. K.

Aaaaaaaand intake off. Whilst torquing the bolts to 18 ft.lbs. one suddenly spun with a loud *click*. I thought the bolt had snapped of but much to my horror it came out intact. I removed the intake (ruining my shiny new gaskets) and found this dismal sight.

My freshly machined head was broken. You can see the copper colored antiseize and the beautifully tapped theads. I had done everything right.

Luckily the boss that had snapped off had another 1/2″ of surviving meat that was tapped almost all of the way through. I went ahead and retapped all 10 bolt holes all the way out the bottom and bought 10 more new bolts all 1/2″ longer than the originals. Honestly the bolts were only 1/4″ short of a length that I would consider proper but I didn’t want the one bolt in the broken boss to be longer than the rest. Yes, I’m crazy.

I stole a passenger side exhaust manifold off of my Fairlane but the studs were mismatched in length and thread pitch so after soaking them with penetrating oil for a week I extracted them. It took me SIX HOURS on a 103 degree day to successfully extract the four studs without damaging the threads in the manifolds. Here is a picture of a still-glowing nut that I welded to one of the studs to have something to grab onto. Also I’m showing you how not to wear protective footwear and yes, I did step on a piece of hot welding slag and yes, I did have to dig it out of my heel. Don’t be stupid like me.

Intake and carburetor on.

Temp sender and heater elbow on.

New distributor installed.

Stopped over at Mr. boss man’s house to cut me a spacer for the alternator.

If you look closely at the “before” pictures of the motor you can see that the alternator is loose on its bolt with the spacer missing and several lock washers stacked up in front of the ever bending bracket. Needless to say the alternator was very crooked and the belt was slinging rubber shavings all over the engine compartment.

And it’s Miller time! (Really, I just liked the way the colors went together.)

My ziptie game was strong on these wires. As per my usual method they do not touch each other or ground or any other wiring. What was unusual was my extra effort this time to make them pretty as well.

Vacuum lines, throttle linkage and fuel lines in. (Not pictured but I did run the PCV valve to the front port on the carburetor as required.)

Air cleaner on and after seting the timing and adjusting the carburetor it’s ready to take Patient Wife out to dinner and a movie!

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Not again!

Until next time Rustlovers, get a AAA membership. Seriously.

Fuelish persuits.

Thu, 21 Jul 2016 05:12:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers, Welcome to the Free Model T. Today I present to you a mostly pictorial guide to test and recondition fuel injectors. Please wear any and all necessary safety gear and exercise caution when working with pressurized air/liquids.

First of all, what the heck is a fuel injector anyway? The answer is absurdly simple: it is a tiny spray nozzle with a tiny electric switch on it. On an electronically fuel injected system (EFI) the fuel pump provides fuel pressure to the top of the injector and the computer sends a 12 volt pulse to the electromagnetic switch when it wants some fuel for that cylinder. When the injector gets its pulse, it opens, spraying fuel out of the bottom of the injector into the intake port.

Three other types of fuel injection are:

Step 1: grab a fuel injector.

Step 2: Ohm check it across the terminals both ways, the readings should be the same. If they are repeatably different by more than 100 milliohms the injector should be replaced.

Every good injector I’ve ever checked had between 12 and 19 ohms. All injectors should be within a few decimal places of exactly the same ohm value. If one injector reads wildly different than the others it is bad.

Step 3: Clean the injectors. Look how nasty these are! I lightly wire-wheeled the metal bits and sprayed the plastic parts with solvent.

Step 4: stick a #8 sheet metal screw in your vice.

Step 5: spin the fuel rail side of the injector onto the screw and give it a tug, the filter basket should stay on the screw.

Step 6: connect a pressure regulator to some fuel injection hose with fuel injection hose clamps.

Step 7: carefully fill the fuel line with your favorite “fuel system safe” “non flamible” solvent. Attach injector.

Step 8: slowly pressurize only to the appropriate pressure for your fuel system. Check injector tips for drips or moisture around the spray nozzle. If there are any signs of moisture the injector is bad.

Step 10: place the new filter basket into the injector and give it a couple of firm taps on a clean block of wood. You don’t have new filters???? See step 11

The one part I left out is a flow test and it’s because I don’t care and will only be using these as emergency spares. Basically it can be done with similar components but you would need a larger volume of pressurized fluid (I would use an automotive paint gun for this), a stopwatch, and a collection container with measuring lines.

Injectors are rated by how many lbs. of fuel per hour (I’m in the U.S.) they can deliver at proper pressure assuming they are unrestricted and open the whole time. Therefore you can flow the injector for 1 minute and should get 1/60 that capacity. As my injectors are 19 lbs, after 1 minute I should have about 5.07 oz. by weight NOT volume.

Are you confused yet because here’s where it gets slightly tricky. The solvent coming out of the injectors doesn’t necessarily weigh the same as gasoline so you can’t tell by weight if it’s accurate or not. Most solvents WILL be similar in viscosity to gasoline so you SHOULD be able to tell by volume. Since 1 fluid oz. of pump gasoline weighs exactly .75 oz. by weight, my injectors should have put out almost exactly 6.75 fluid oz. in 60 seconds.

For my Rustlovers in any of the other 40 countries that I have readers in, you’re in luck. Your injectors are rated by volume in cc’s per minute so you don’t need to do any of these stupid conversions. Also I’m in luck because I don’t feel obligated to do them for you.

Until next time Rustlovers, use the metric system. It’s just better.

The Diagnosis

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 06:10:00 GMT

Ah my sweet sweet summer project, what a project you have become. Today I change, test and re-test everything. Maybe this post should be called “The do-over” because I put so many of the old “known good” parts back on trying to track down an unusual problem. As an old painter I know once said:”You know we did it right ’cause we had to do it twice”. This is the Free Model T.

The symptoms: a high rev bog and a long crank time to start. The jeep idled great and revved and drove well but the exact instant I hit 3500 RPM it would bog all the way down to idle. The idle was fine but it stalled if I touched the throttle. If I turned off and restarted it, the Jeep would run great- until I hit 3500 rpm again.

The first thing I did was check for flash codes by quickly cycling the key on-off-on-off-on (as a 1995 model this jeep is OBD 1). The only code was for the front 3 fuel injectors. Easy! I had already reconditioned and tested the old injectors so I checked for proper fuel pressure and installed the old injectors.

Nope. Same problem.

I suspected I may have messed up the idle air control motor so I checked that and the manifold absolute pressure sensor next by swapping for the good ones on Patient Wife’s jeep. Thanks wife.

Nope.
Maybe it was a clogged catalytic converter, ruined o2 sensor or fouled plugs from burning off the assembly lube. I checked exhaust pressure at the o2 bung (only .5 psi) and looked at the plugs. I ran it with the o2 sensor unplugged in case it was shorted.

Nope

Shorted air temp sensor? Coolant temp sensor? Bad coil? Messed up crank position sensor? Cam sensor?

No, no, no, no, no.

Timing? Hmmmm.

This distributor has an allignment hole through the rotor and into the body.

Look how the splines line up differently with each side of the roll pin.

I took my already-clearcoated part back home, pressed out the roll pin, spun the gear and put everything back together. The allignment hole was now PERFECT. I reinstalled all the new parts that I had removed during the testing and hit the freeway where my hapless herp-a-derp-Jerp promptly bucked a couple times and died. Praise God for AAA.

My first tow in YEARS. The next day I shot some starting fluid down the intake and cranked it. Nothing. If it was a fuel issue the engine would have started momentarily. I tested for spark and had none. I assumed the crank sensor had bitten the dust because they’re a common failure item on these and I had loaned it to a friend to help diagnose HIS jeep. Also I had to notch it slightly to get it installed because my resin filled motor mount mad the engine sit slightly higher.

Until next time Rustlovers: have a bumpy ride.

Another Summer Project

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 19:32:00 GMT

What is it about summer in Southern California that tempts me out of my comfortably climate controlled cave and out into the glaring brightness and unbearable heat of the East San Diego hills to bake in the sun? Is it the thrilling speed of a Ford GT? Nope. The sexy curves of a ’59 Porsche? Nah. The desperate necessity for reliable transportation? Not today! Today I’m fixing a nasty salvaged jeep. Again.

It doesn’t make sense, I admit it. Is this a sickness? A disorder? The futile functions of a delusional mind? No. This is The Free Model T.

Happy Independence Day Rustlovers. There will be rust.

As previously hinted I’ve been doing some work on The Summer Project . While originally satisfying the call for a cheap 4×4 this jeep has revived in me a passion for Jeeps and a deep love of inline 6 cylinder motors. I even had some stickers made:

Over the last few months I pulled the tired 200,000 mile engine out of the jeep and tore it apart. I tested cleaned, painted, rebuilt, or replaced every part on it. I had the head machined and rebuilt professionally at Action Cylinderhead in Santee, Ca. I liked their work so much I had them bore the engine .030″ over, install the freeze plugs, cam bearings and press the new Pistons.

Assembling the motor I got silly and put silicone gasket sealer between every mounting surface of every bracket and component to keep water intrusion from corroding bolts. Every plugin and connector received a generous application of dielectric grease. All the aluminum components were clear-coated. Why all the absurd overkill? I do the unthinkable with this jeep and drive it in salt water and despite all the work I’ve done I plan on continuing this appalling practice.

“Baja nights” photo credit Matt Jones

MSD coil

Accel wires

Iridium spark plugs

Cloyes timing set

Mobile 1 synthetic oil

4 pintle 19 lb fuel injectors

Stant thermostat and cap

Chromoly rings

Hypereutectic pistons

Lifetime warranty water pump, alternator, fuel pump, oil pump, balancer, starter, distributor power steering pump and box, idler pulley etc!

Boom! Now I have a jeep that’s worth FAR les than the sum of its parts. Here are some pix of the build:

Pretty nasty. Lots of burnt oil on every surface. Lots of external rust.

Added a helicoil to fix this stripped exhaust manifold hole.

Engine primer.

I stamped my cereal # onto this boss on the block.

Shiny Pistons at TDC

Timing chain.

I degreased and pressure washed most of the external components.

You can see the RTV silicon squirting out from under the bolt heads.

After paint I sanded and clear coated the timing marks for visibility.

Intake was too nasty from salt to clear coat so I painted it for future protection.

I used the old distributor with the drive gear removed and a drill to prime the oil system until oil came out of all the push rods.

A little oil…

A lot of oil!!!

Installing components.

I broke in the engine by running it with high zinc oil for 25 minutes at 2200 rpm then drained the oil and added a pint of Lucas ZDDP additive and 6 quarts of mobile 1 10w30 oil as well as a WIX XP synthetic oil filter. Now. It runs like crap. Darn. It’s hard to be discouraged though when I just picked up this gem:

Boomer the BOOM truck.

Tue, 24 May 2016 21:00:00 GMT

Good day rustlovers! As you remember from the last chapter of The Free Model T, I have a scattered pile of projects that I have teased:

What fun! Well let’s start with the easy one. When I sold my 98 Ram Cummins to a friend it went with a warning: “The transmission is good now but the bands are at the very end of their adjustment so it will need a rebuild”. Well 30,000 miles later it started to slip badly so we pulled it out! It’s not very blogworthy because we didn’t actually fix it, just dropped it of at M&M transmission in Lemon Grove Ca. who I highly recommend. 2 days later we put it back in.

If you’ve never installed an automatic transmission, there are 2 splined shafts on the transmission that have to line up in the torque converter. The torque converter also has a coupler that slides into the trans to spin the pump which is the tricky part: it can only be installed in 2 positions. I highly recommend seating the torque converter into the trans, rotating it so the notches that drive the pump are vertical, then marking the torque converter accordingly with a sharpie.

Once the torque converter is bolted to the motor, rotate the motor so the torque converter is oriented the same way you had it in the trans and everything should slide together nicely. Always pour a quart or 2 into the torque converter before you install it!!!

Although I can’t wait to talk about the motor for the summer project I think that needs to be it’s own post as does the work on Big Black so let’s dive into the free cars! That’s right carS, plural!

You may remember the dismembered 2002 grand Cherokee that needed a radiator from the end of a post a few months ago:

For a car with almost 200,000 miles it’s in good shape but has myriad problems. The check engine light is on, seatbelt light, airbag light, overheats, Trans grinds/groans going into gear, various bulbs out and a ghost is haunting the electrical system! Spoooooky!!!!

Also I got a BOOM truck!

This is my very first boom truck but I am more than familiar with 454’s and hot hydraulic hoist hardware so I knew it would be a breeze… until after I fixed it and it actually failed it’s smog check… spectacularly. Comically even.

When I picked it up the truck was hard starting and rough running but I didn’t see anything a little hard work couldn’t fix. I tore apart the dash, installed a check engine light (there was none!) and ran through the pile of codes.

When there are this many codes I usually clear them all and see what comes back but with 2 codes on one O2 sensor I chanced that it was bad and changed it. Parts darts! After I changed it, I reset the codes and drove the truck performing the drive cycle until all but the o2 heater monitor were clear. Yay, no engine light! I tried a few times to start the truck cold with a big draw on the batteries to run that monitor but had no luck. The alternator is oversized and BOOMER has 2 shiny new interstate batteries, also it has no working a/c and no defroster so that’s probably why the monitor hasn’t run yet.

Because of its vintage I am allowed any one monitor to be incomplete so I went down to AAA smog and the tragic comedy unfolded. I’ve never seen the words “GROSS POLUTER” appear in red instead of pass or fail. In fact I’ve rarely seen “fail”. More work would be required.

With a hydrocarbon level that high I knew I had unmetered air or raw fuel going into the cylinders. Based on the codes I had seen initially it could have been either. As it turned out, it was both. And more!

I started by buying the regular tune up components but when I started pulling the spark plugs they were dripping wet with fuel. The injectors were obviously leaking by badly.

Once the injectors were visible I turned the key on and off 2 or 3 times to build fuel pressure and found 6 of 8 injectors were leaking, 2 were stuck almost totally open.

So, what to do with a now nicely running boom truck… Trim my ugly palm tree!!!

What would YOU do with a boom truck? Tell me in the comments!

The Nokeyssan is gone!

Tue, 10 May 2016 01:56:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers,

I’m happy to report that I was able to fix, smog, and sell the Nissan, it just took 3 months. The engine was much easier to repair out of the car but no less rife with problems. Here are the highlights:

I finally got the two timing chains aligned only to have the idler sprocket bolt strip out in the head. Helicoil went well.

Drove over 700 miles trying to run all the monitors but the EGR monitor never ran. I taped a vacuum gauge to the windshield and tee’d it into various vacuum lines then drove around watching when I had vacuum to various EGR components. I discovered I had a bad back pressure transducer. It’s the little disc with the 2 vacuum lines in the following pic.

Went to smog it and they couldn’t because the check engine light bulb was burned out. That took a while to change.

If you ever need to pull the oil pan off of one of these keep in mind there are two additional bolts BEHIND the clutch inspection cover!

Once the engine was back together I wanted to make sure to get all of the water out of the oil so I ran the engine until warm, allowed it to cool, put in a bottle of motor flush, ran it again for 5 minutes then changed the oil and filter again.

The oil looked so good that I could barely see it on the dipstick. I was right about it being fun to drive too, I drove it for 3 weeks trying to clear the stupid EGR monitor and it revved high and shifted quick. Not fun enough for me to not hate the car though.

Good riddance!

Now on to fun projects! Like having babys! That’s right rustlovers I’m a dad all over again! Patient wife and I take DIY seriously and decided to have our second daughter at home. We had done it at home before and were totally prepared but not prepared for how fast it happened. By the time the midwife got to the house P.W. and I had delivered a healthy baby girl without help.

Yay!

Until next time Rustlovers,

Do it yourself!

Nokeyssan part 2.4

Sat, 26 Mar 2016 03:36:00 GMT

‘Tis the season FOR RUST!

Happy Rainy February Rustlovers!

Here in Southern California the El Niño has brought us record rainfall and sweet relief from 2 years of brown lawns caused by a serious drought. I love it. More water=more rusty cars! We even had so much wind that trees took out power lines in my area so Patient Wife got to play with candles and I got to play with my generator!

Unfortunately all good times must end; the power came back on after about 3 hours. In honor of my past self I ran out and picked up some fresh gas and fuel stabilizer and packed up the generator with a full tank and an empty carburetor. I’m sure “future me” will be happy when he discovers what I’ve done.

One downside to all the rain was all of the postponed projects outside. I have been spending my Saturdays out in the hills helping a friend overhaul the entire drive train on a ’95 Dakoda 4×4. I have had very little time to actually work on the Nokeyssan or even maintain my regular fleet.

The Nissan has simply been a bucket of problems. What I should have done was pull the motor apart then upon realization of what a nightmare I was confronted with, light it on fire and roll it off of a cliff. But I had already spent money on a windshield and a key. Oops.

What could be so bad as to warrant such extreme measures of disposal? Everything. Everything was broken. Suspension, axles, freeze plugs, water pump, hardware, HARDWARE!

The main motor mount connects to the motor with 3 bolts. One was missing (the hole was stripped out), one was snapped off flush (don’t worry I found the other piece being ground up by the water pump pulley), and the third bolt (the only one holding up that side of the motor) was low-grade steel, 2 inches too long , and was not holding the 2 parts together tightly because it was tightened all the way to the shoulder despite the giant stack of washers used to space it up. Bear in mind this was ONE of the problems. There were so many missing bolts I can’t believe the thing ran.

I pulled the motor mount off, welded a nut to the snapped bolt and spun it out then put a helicoil into the stripped hole.

Before pulling the head I did a quick hydrocarbon test on the coolant to make sure the head gasket was out. It is a simple test that anyone can do. Just head down to your local parts store (O’reilly for me) and rent a “block tester”. Make sure to buy a bottle of the associated fluid while you’re there. With the engine running use the squeeze bulb to draw air from the radiator through the blue liquid in the tester. If it turns clear/yellow (see below) there are hydrocarbons from the exhaust leaking into your coolant. Easy! If you want to see what the change looks like, go to the end of your exhaust pipe and pull some exhaust through the tool.

The head came off pretty easily and I was feeling optimistic about the repairs but I noticed there was a rust film on the cams and wanted to make sure they weren’t ruined before I continued. After a few minutes of gentle wire wheeling there was some very light etching on a couple of lobes but most of the rust wiped right off. Here is a before and after:

I cleaned up all the parts, checked that the plane of the block and head then put the head back on. Then things took a bit of a left turn. There are 2 timing chains connected by an idler sprocket sort of like this one:

To properly pull the timing cover I had to pull the following parts:

The job just spiraled out of control until there were only about 4 wires, a clutch line and 1 bad CV axle still connecting the engine and trans to the car so I decided it would be much easier to just pull the darn thing out.

My assessment of this motor is that it was designed to run for a very long time and then simply be thrown away. I’m not trying to alienate Nissan lovers but this car is not easily serviceable and as a tinkerer I am not a fan.

Cooling system maintenance is vital on every car and this is a prime example why. Even if it appears perfect, coolant becomes metallic over time simply from being inside the engine. Once this occurs electrolysis begins to eat away the metal of your engine from the inside out. Water pumps, freeze plugs and gaskets are the first things to go. You end up chasing leaks endlessly and if you’re only using water because of the frequent leaks then the corrosion cycle accelerates.

I can confidently say that with proper maintenance this engine would still be running great. With a 2.4 DOHC and a stick shift I bet it’s a blast to drive too.

Tune in next week, Rustlovers, for part 3 in the Nissan saga and a look at what salt can do to brakes.

If you liked this post follow my BRAND NEW Instagram!

The Nokeyssan

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 16:31:00 GMT

Merry Christmas rustlovers! Yule love all the Christmas puns in today’s post!… Sorry.

Today on the Free Model T we start fresh with a new project. With the Shiftless Pontiac sold and my big overhaul of Big Black wrapping up I’m ready to start 2016 with something fresh, something new, a Nissan with no key. A “Nokeyssan”!

A friend had been having cooling problems with his ’01 Nissan Altima and then the hood had blown into the windshield on the freeway… then the key had snapped off in the trunk lock. Thanks Murphy!

The car was parked a few blocks from my house so I drove over, slimmed its jim, and popped the trunk. The lock cylinder was simply clipped in so I unhooked the wire and linkage, pulled the clip and took the cylinder home.

Now how would I make a key? It was Christmas Day and no locksmith would be open. Luckily I had thought ahead and bought a couple of key blanks.

First I tried to clamp the old key pieces to a blank and file it into shape. Too slow.

Next I tried the same thing with a Dremel. Not precise enough. I also tried a couple of times to lay it on a piece of paper and spray paint over it to get a nice stencil of the shape. This only resulted in a terrifying key face on a piece of paper.

Bleh. That thing gives me the jibblies.

I decided to build a jig and silver solder the pieces together.

Jig #1 was too flimsy:

Jig #2 was perfect:

I heated the area with MAPP gas and applied the flux and 56% silver solder. I do not recommend MAPP for silver soldering except on very intricate bits, so you should stick with oxygen/actylene to avoid under heating woes.

Now I took the key with a blob of joining media in the middle and carefully Dremmeled it at a low speed to remove the excess solder and silver and restore the long grooves.

I did have to cut the head off of the key first to avoid melting it and whatever chip might be in it and to make it fit easily in the jig.

I took my new key nub and walked to the car. Holding the key with some pliers I gently opened the door. Perfect. Of corse it was perfect, I had already tested it in the trunk lock cylinder at home. The real test was the ignition switch.

The key went in. The key turned. The engine started.

Victory.

Merry Christmas Rustlovers!

Promotional Consideration provided by Raphael U.

Ice in the Caribbean

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 15:47:00 GMT

Ahoy rustlubbers!

Today on the Free Model T my work and my hobby combine to fix a refrigerator… On a boat… On an island.

How did this happen? Why am I the one doing this? Can I even do it? These questions played over and over through my mind as I boarded my flight from the Tijuana international airport to Cancun Mexico.

Let me back up a little. In the last 4 years I have sourced 3 odd, obsolete, belt-driven refrigeration compressors for a 60 foot sailboat that has been anchored all over the Caribbean. Without ever seeing the boat I could only guess as to why the compressors kept failing. I made recommendations to change associated components but either the captain deemed the parts unnecessary or perhaps never even heard my suggestions. I had pleanty of ideas but they were no better than guesses without putting my hands on the system.

Recently the system had lost its charge and the tecnician (or guy with gauges willing to take a ferry to the island) who looked at it said that the shaft seal on the compressor was leaking. The new captain Charlie contacted the boat’s owners who added me to the discussion. After looking at a lot of pictures ant talking to the guy who pieced together this system in the first place I had some good ideas as to what needed to be done. The owners of the boat decided that I should be the one to do it. In a week.

The system on the boat is a custom built set up that is a nice blend of car air conditioner, custom boat parts, and a home hvac filter dryer thrown in for fun. All the parts were clamped to a board behind a panel below deck and I had a week to source, purchase, ship, and pack them all.

Thanks to the amazing help from the people at Mericle mechanical and at Seafrost I was able to get all the parts and tools that I would need packed into 2 large bags by the night before my flight. I was most worried about the sea-water cooled condenser but that turned out to be one of the easiest pieces to get. The hardest parts to get were the valved service ports that connected directly to the compressor. They were an afterthought but turned out to be vital.

Due to the weight of my bags it was cheaper to fly “Sky priority” for the unlimited bags and weight than to fly commuter class and pay baggage fees. Sky priority is Aeromexico’s version of first class and it was pretty sweet. Private lounges in the airport, free food, and of course seats that turn into beds with the push of a button.

Early the next morning (4 o’clock my time) I got up, had some coffee with Eric the owner of the hotel and marina then started tearing the system apart. I immediately discovered a few glaring issues. There was oily residue all over the valves and service ports: a clear sign of leakage. The low side service port had no schrader valve in it and the valve to close it off was open so a small plastic cap was holding in the entire charge or rather, it wasn’t.

The system was charged with an r-12 equivalent called iceon mo-49plus which is a mixed gas refrigerant therefore must be charged as a liquid. This was problematic because the low side service port is located directly on the compressor. What happens when you try to compress a liquid? Broken compressors. 3 of them. That explains why one of the compressors had failed immediately on start up.

Another problem was the oil. R-12 systems use mineral oil however the compressors I was sending were designed for and filled with PAG 100 oil. R-12 won’t move synthetic oil around the system so it will end up settling out in the low parts of the evaporators and starving the compressor for oil.

Any of these problems along with particulate from failed compressors would be more than enough to cause constant failure. Luckily I brought all the parts to convert the system to r-134a.

R-134a is compatible with PAG oil, can be charged as a gas and is easy to buy anywhere. Not only would this make the system reliable, it should make it idiot proof.

After tearing the system apart and compiling a list of items I still needed, Charlie and I hit the ferry to the mainland to go shopping. Buying the parts required taking a taxi in a giant loop around the city of Cancun so we made about a dozen stops looking for parts not at their most likely location but rather at every possible location in linear order. This method was effective but did take quite a long time. We had the new hoses made at a Parker store, bought some 1/4″ copper tubing at Home Depot, bought the refrigerant oil and neoprene o-rings at an Autozone and bought tacos at a market. The only thing we didn’t get at a normal USA branded chain store was the actual refrigerant which we bought at a generic air conditioning store.

After amassing what we assumed to be everything we could possibly need we headed back to the island and started piecing the system back together. The new larger receiver/dryer with 134a compatible desiccant has straight fittings while the old one had 90 degree angle fittings. All I had to do was bend up some new lines and I had brought pleanty of copper with me. Copper that wouldn’t bend. Oops. Oh well, I could get some flexible copper later and do that last. Let’s hook up the condenser. Oh no the water inlet threads are melted. Poo.

These hiccups were easy enough to overcome but every minute was precious: Captain Charlie wanted to pull anchor and head for the Caymans and I wanted to try to get home a day early. We were able to run a brass pipe into the plastic condenser and straighten out the threads which leaked a little on first installation but after a much more liberal dose of Teflon tape sealed up.

Sorry for the blurry pics, I didn’t have my sea legs!

After a day and a half of fitting and fiddling, all the carefully sourced parts seemed to be turning into a sweet little refrigerator. I decided it was time to put a vacuum on the system.

After vacuuming all the air out of the system and fiddling with the valves I sucked a charge of oil into the low side port and rotated the compressor by hand to roll the oil through. I re-vacuumed the system for an hour then cracked my low side valve to see if there were any leaks. No leaks! At this point I was confident that there was no moisture or air in the system so after fiddling with the valves I got the refrigerant flowing into the low side port.

I charged the system slowly watching the pressures and taking temperature measurements. Everything seemed to be working very well except the low side pressure was VERY low. Lower than anything I’ve seen. I had frost in all the right places. Hm. It was getting late so I wasn’t getting out early after all.

I walked downtown past a parade.

I found a nice looking restaurant and are lobster and drank piña coladas for breakfast.

Overall I’m grateful for the experience that I gained from doing this job and I did have quite a bit of fun taking on such a unique challenge. Cancun and Isla Mujeres in particular are beautiful and maybe next time I’ll be there strictly for pleasure.

Until next time ye scurvy rustlubbers, stay cool.

The Shiftless Pontiac

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:31:00 GMT

Hello rustlovers and welcome to The Free model T!

Today we delve into the world of obsolete cars. That’s right, I got my first Pontiac!

Recently an old friend of mine Mr. Bulldog got a fantastic job with the athletics department at Alabama State and celebrated by, you know, moving there. For some reason he and his wife decided not to make the drive in their 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix that hadn’t run in a few months. It had in fact not shifted in a few months. No, I don’t mean it hadn’t moved … well that too, I mean the shift selector was actually broken out of the car.

It really was an unusual problem with an unusual cause. You see, the key was stuck in the ignition so thinking the car was not going fully into park, the shift handle would get some… lets call them love taps. After enough tapping it finally broke off. The actual cause of the problem was a Honda sized battery that was struggling to run this cars many electrical systems including the anti-theft system. As the battery failed the car would still crank but it wouldn’t let the key out.

The first thing I did was put in the correct battery (I actually HAD one so that was a nice freebie) and drive the car home. What? How? Well the shift handle just pulls a cable so that’s what I did.

$500 is always a deal for a running driving car that’s currently registered AND passes emissions testing but Pontiac is no longer in business and they don’t sell well in southern California so I would have to proceed with caution: no dealer parts and no big spending.

After checking out the car I had a list of things that were wrong:

-low coolant light on

-stickers all over the windows

-shift selector

-rear windows don’t go down

-cruise control doesn’t work

-long cranking time

-traction control light on

-Driver’s seat caved in

Easy! I’ll just buy a new shifter at the dealer! Oh, wait the dealer is boarded up. I’ll just fix it!

The first thing I did was order a pair of rear window regulators on eBay then I pulled out the center console and took out the shifter. Now the shifter in this car is a hollow metal tube that contains a pin and spring to disengage the park lock. The pin actually goes into a big plastic electronic box that locks the shifter while the key is out (shift lock solenoid) and the whole assembly hinges on a 3/8″ thick steel pin that’s peened into place. The whole thing is then wrapped in rrrich corrrinthian leather, er, I mean vinyl and plastic.
Since the shifter was broken at the welds right by the plastic electronics I pulled the entire assembly out of the car and dremeled off the heads of the pins. Once removed I was left with nothing but steel. I straightened the bent parts as well as I could then clamped them in place and welded them back together. Unable to reinstall the ground off pins or find hardware that fight tightly enough to prevent a floppy shifter I tapped GIANT cotter pins through the appropriate components then bent them into place and cut off the excess. Nice. Tight. Not going anywhere.

The cruise control was easy as the plastic cable end was simply broken where it connects to the throttle. It was 2/3 intact so I melted 2 tiny holes into it with a paper clip, installed it, then cinched down the paper clip through the holes and twisted it off. Permanent fix.

Now I don’t know much about traction control but I know that it utilizes wheel speed sensors to monitor traction and corrects power if it senses a wheel turning the wrong speed. Sort of like antilock brakes but in reverse. I would normally immediately suspect a front wheel speed sensor but the ABS light would be on too. On a hunch I peeked under the car and sure enough, the wires were dangling. I flipped the key on and off a couple of times and the ABS light never illuminated. It was burned out.

After fixing the wires I took the car for a little drive but the traction control was still not working. I looked carefully under the other side of the car and the wires were sheared off right at the hub assembly. I decided to let this slide too. (Oops, accidental pun, sorry) It shouldn’t be too hard to sell such a nice car with no traction control.

Feeling pretty discouraged I pulled the drivers seat out. This I know I can fix. The bottom structure of the seat was foam supported by a bunch of tiny metal wires stretched between 2 metal rods that were held up by springs. One of these rods was in pieces and the foam pad was ripped and hanging.

I used 3m spray glue to connect the foam back together, then for added strength I glued a rag to the foam. I straightened and welded together the pieces of broken rod and reassembled the seat and reinstalled.

As for the long crank time, I didn’t find a cause until a perspective buyer test drover the car only to have the fuel pressure regulator start spraying fuel all over the engine when we parked. Boo. I bought one and changed it.

This Pontiac is a classic example of the car that was let go. As cheap, easy, little things broke they slowly piled into a car that was viewed as worthless. Please note that I only actually spent $110 on parts. Yes I could spend another $160 on hub assemblies and I would if it were my car. My point is that if you keep up with the little things as they break your car will stay nice and you will have a good feeling about it for a LONG time. This car runs great, it drives great and the body is perfect. The problems really were all minor

This car reminds me of the Purple Monster. My friend called me one day and said he had had enough of his purple Chrysler Concorde. I’ll never forget the phone call: “First the windows quit, then the seat broke, and now the transmission broke! The icing on the cake? The speedometer quit at the same time!” I told him not to worry, he just needed a $17 dollar speed sensor and I could fix it for him in 5 minutes. “Fix it for yourself!” he replied “I just bought a Hummer.”

This is how I get free cars.

Until next time Rustlovers, sweat the small stuff!

Any Detroit readers want to buy a California Pontiac? Great shape. No Rust. Could use hub assemblies.

The 12 hour cafe.

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 03:48:00 GMT

Guten tag rustlovers!
Today on the free model T we do it on 2 wheels for the first time. Yup! A German motorcycle. Although my true passion is cars I have also owned quite a few motorcycles. My dad had dozens of old Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, Hodakas and even a CZ. At one point I owned about a dozen bikes but they mostly just sat so I got rid of them. What can I say? I like climate control and hate getting stung in the face by bees. OK I’m a wuss, my brother Big Ben on the other hand races dirt bikes and even has is own race team: Sikora Racing.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had picked up an old BMW motorbike from my dear friend Mr. Naughty, since then I’ve tinkered with it off and on. I cleaned out the fuel system, put in a new pump, lines and filter. I got all the sand out of the tank (yes there was sand in the tank) then fixed all of the lights and went through the salvage process.

It was in very rough shape as it had died on the road then sat under an oak tree in valley center for 6 years but after some serious love it was running and driving but UGLY!

I did all of that in 7 hours on Sunday.

Monday after work I welded some frame scraps together and welded them back onto the bike as the new rear portion of the frame.

No, it’s not painted and polished, no, it’s not done, but at this point it is cool looking, reliable and sellable . Cafe racers are hot right now and although this bike will never exemplify the style, I think it is truer to the history of cafe racers than most.

Originally cafe bikes were built by novices at home; stripping them down to make them as light as possible to win on race day. This bike is as much of a home hack job as any, ready to be abused, not some polished museum piece or trailer queen.

I ordered some clubman handlebars and will “cafe out” the front end when they come. I want to paint the bike brown and cream colored. The theme I’m going for is “Rootbeer Float” but c’mon how often do I actually paint a vehicle before I sell it? Never!

This is not one of those crazy deals that I’ve been working on for years. Anyone can get one of hundreds of dilapidated motorcycles for cheap or free on the webs and do this. Maybe not as fast as me but you can! All you need is a little creativity and a couple hundred bucks. Don’t know how? Learn by doing, heck ask me for advice, I’ll answer. Also find a friend who can weld, hoseclamping a frame together is to be highly discouraged.

Until next time rustlovers,

Build a bike!

Big trucks for big places

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 05:07:00 GMT

Howdy rustlovers! Today for the first time ever we take the free model T on the road!

I used to drive around a ’91 Ford Bronco police entercepter. It had the full police package with 4×4, a lift, a high output 351 and an absolutely gigantic brush guard bumper equipped with a 9,000 lb. warn winch.

Although the bronco is 12 years gone, I kept that awesome bumper on the side of my house for all these years hoping to put it onto something one day. Well rustlovers that day is… never going to happen. My good friend Mr. Smith wanted that winch for his 2001 Ford F-250 so he traded me his emaculate front bumper for it but first, it needed some love.

The penetrating oil turned out to be useless as most of the nuts snapped immediately but the new parts came with new hardware so it wasn’t an issue. I cleaned all the connections, installed the new solenoids and the winch ran like a dream!

That’s right y’all! My old friend Ruckus in Texas wanted it so after some negotiating I hit the road!

This was my first trip to the great state of Texas and it was beautiful. The buttes and mesas of west Texas were breathtaking. My assumption was that it would be flat, dry and desolate like in the westerns I watched as a kid. Nope! Green and gorgeous! Of my 24 hours of driving over half rolled onto the odometer with true Texas turf under my 4 wheels! One of those miles was noteworthy:

I left my house at 5:30 AM on Thursday (San Diego time) and by 9:30 PM (Texas time) I rolled into Fort Stockton. I spent the night in a motel with breakfast:

I had fully intended to get an early start for Houston on Friday but the 17 hours on the road had taken a toll. Also the room was dark and cold and had a very comfortable king sized bed. All of these factors conspired diabolically to extend my stay a few hours.

By 9:00 I was back on the road. By late afternoon I was in Houston. Two blocks from my destination I drove over a rise in the road and slammed into a giant pothole. I pulled to a stop and could immediately tell there was a problem. I muted the stereo and could hear the engine running. The only problem was that before the pothole I COULDN’T here it running. The idle seemed normal so I revved the engine slightly and it was very loud but smooth. On a hunch I got out and peeked at the exhaust which was split between the catalytic converter and the muffler. Ok, no big deal.

I drove another block and there was a big dead tree blocking the road. The ONLY ROAD.

I manuvered the log off of the road then was on my way once more.

With the vehicle delivered I spent the next day hanging out with old friends, sampling the local craft beers and looking at the MASSIVE Texas trucks:

The Big and The Small.

Sun, 28 Jun 2015 05:43:00 GMT

Hello rustlovers! Welcome back to The Free Model T.

In today’s serial drama we delve into the ups and the downs, the bigs and the smalls of the automotive world. The bigs? Is that even a real word? It is today because BAM!:

My amazing brother Big Ben did the body work and straightened the frame in trade for my 1985 Honda 250r quad. The frame was straightened on a computerized rack within 1mm of perfect which actually exceeds OEM specifications. B.B. Stuck a magic laser box under the truck that bounced beams of amplified light off of magnetic reflectors placed strategically all over the frame to tell the computer how straight the frame was.

I’ve been doing a ton of work on other peoples cars lately but today I was finally able to cut open my garage full of eBay boxes and installed the new header panel, headlights, marker lights, grill, etc. I still have a list of important things to do before I can sell this thing but now at least I can DRIVE it.

Well, there’s your update on “the big” but before I move on to “the small”, allow me a moment to whimsically mock Internet how-to instructions:

How to change an early 2000’s jeep radiator in 3 easy steps:

-Step one: take the car apart

-Step two: change the radiator

-Step three: reassemble

Confused? Good, me too. I own 4 jeeps and fix jeeps for friends pretty much weekly but my love affair is with the 4.0 L6 motor. This modern beast with its infamous “7” series motor was a formidable opponent. All of those parts actually HAD TO come off in order to change the radiator. Want a real tutorial? Tell me in the comments and I’ll write one but although I’m envious of this thing’s horsepower I won’t be owning a newer jeep any time soon.

Well Rustlovers, I went and got myself yet another project today. And this one was actually free. I’m calling her “The small”. I was perusing my favorite online resale group last night when I stumbled across an early 70’s VW bug husk. The first thing I noticed was my own name in the comments. A friend had tagged me in the post to make sure I’d see it. I have good friends.

I made arrangements and set off this morning with Rage and the Doctor to pick up my prize:

So what to do with a husk. My friend Mr. Pipe and I have long discussed building a class 11 desert race car and this seems like a good candidate. Or I’ll sell it. Or rod it out, who knows? This is the free model T and I’m a madman!

Until next time rustlovers,

“Rust conquers all, let us too yield to rust.”

Promotional consideration provided by Ryley P.

Kia: SOLD. Onto bigger and bigger things.

Tue, 09 Jun 2015 07:04:00 GMT

Hello Rustlovers!

Welcome back to another chapter in the automotive saga known as the free model T. I have something delightfully new in store for you dear readers, something refreshing and fun. The end of a story!

Often times I set off to write the tale of breathing life into an old wreck. I dutifully take pictures and write a few posts until the car is finally on the road and you never get to hear about it again! Why not? Because I’ve already moved on to bigger and better things. Not this time, today I will tell you about selling the Kia and starting on the next project. I will also commit to going back through some old posts so I can give “where are they now?” style updates on a few projects that I let fall off of the blog.

So! The story of selling a car is not generally interesting to me and not the focus of my writing but selling the Kia did involve a little drama. I decided to slash the price because my postings had not generated much interest. I dropped it dramatically and immediately started fielding calls. After speaking to an interested party we agreed to meet at a mall half way between us because he lived about an hour away.

I gassed up and headed out.

I pulled up to the mall and idled in the parking lot with the A/C running at temperatures that would make glaciers jealous and texted my perspective buyer. He was stuck in traffic and I was starting… to smell something… OH NO COOLANT!

I proceeded to fling open the hood and could see coolant all over the front of the engine.

I peeked around until I found a loose hose clamp. Here at “The free model T” I try to be educational and entertaining. Airing my own shortcomings, mistakes, and disasters seems to offer a healthy serving of both.

The clamp was my fault. I had loosened it but couldn’t get the hose off so I had just pulled off the other end and kept working. Upon reassembly I failed to notice that the thermostat housing I was installing had a loose hose. My bad.

So there I was 20 minutes from home with NO tools and a buyer showing up any minute and nothing around me but a GIANT MALL WITH A SEARS! To the screwdriver aisle! I bought a set of 6 Stanley screwdrivers because it was about a buck cheaper than the cheapest individual Craftsman flat blade. Normally I insist on high quality tools but I am already well stocked in the screwdriver department and planned on sending these off with the Kia. In this situation I just wanted to save some money and the best tool in the world is the one that you need!

The buyer showed up just after I finished pouring 22 0z. of pricey mall water down the radiator’s thirsty throat. He was a marine combat instructor and he had his wife and 2 year old son in tow. They waited in their Jeep whilst he and I went for a test drive.

The car was what he needed and the price was right! Paperwork and cash counting ensued. I thanked him for his service and wished him long and faithful service from the Kia. My friend Dr. Paul picked me up and we made beers happen. The End!

So what’s next?!

A bunch of stuff: the radiator blew out on the diesel truck, the “summer project” needs the front driveshaft rebuilt, friends cars keep breaking all around me, and as far as moving onto bigger and better things is concerned how about bigger and bigger things? Like pulling the frame on an ’01 excursion.

Until next time rustlovers,

Semper Fidelis!

The Free Kia: the last of parts.

Thu, 14 May 2015 22:13:00 GMT

Hello rustlovers!

So, this Kia… this kia has been a pain.

While researching what these cars sell for (on Craigslist) I kept finding them in great condition with a bad head gasket or other straight forward problem at ridiculously low prices. I even found a few that were 4 wheel drive in the 700-800 dollar range. I thought they might make a great niche market to flip. Yeah, that was before I actually worked on this thing. If someone wanted me to fix their Kia’s head gasket today I would laugh. No wonder they were so cheap! I would charge more to do a head gasket on this car than its worth.

Anyway, we live and learn. Although tricky and time consuming, in the end I’m still making money.

Over the past week I have accumulated the needed parts and have been putting humpty dumpty back together again. The valves came a bit earlier than I expected so the first thing I did was get busy rebuilding the head. I pulled out my trusty valve spring compressor and realized… It wouldn’t work! As a dual over head cam engine the cams push down on “cam followers” which push directly down onto the top of the valves. This means that not only do the valve springs NOT stick up out of the head, they are down in little holes!

In order to compress the valves and still access the keepers I went out and bought an oxygen sensor socket; a deep socket with one side cut out.

you can clearly see the valve keepers

One of the intake valves was sticking open almost 1/8 of an inch and was actually sticking out 1/8″ higher than the other intake valve for that cylinder in all positions! What the heck? Did they send me a valve that was too long? I took that cam back off of the head and reinspected all the parts. All normal. In fact with the cam off the valve seated perfectly. I knew exactly what to do! To the Internet!!! I almost immediately discovered that the cam followers were hydraulic which meant they would pump up with oil to maintain proper contact pressure between the cam and the valves. As soon as I read it, it made perfect sense. Not only had there been no valve adjustment, there were oil ports in the followers and their seats. Look rustlovers, we’re learning together!

I put the cam in and waited an hour and, sure enough, the cam followers had all bled down and the valves were seated.

I reinstalled the head, torqued it down, put on the intake manifold, then the exhaust, the new water pump, new NGK spark plugs, new timing belt with idler and tensioner pulleys. New, new, new. This will be a nice reliable car for the buyer.

As of right now I’m down to the last of parts. Belts, hoses, radiator, fluids. I’ll give a brief update when I’m done on how long it took, how much it cost and hopefully very soon how much I sold it for. Yes, the title of this post was misleading but I like to make myself feel clever.

Get out there and fix something!

The free kia part 2: lets go for it!

Sun, 10 May 2015 06:46:00 GMT

Happy Saturday rustlovers!

So I decided to go for it, I would fix the Kia. When people give me cars they often do it with the expectation that I will fix it to a reliable state and sell it pretty cheaply to someone who really needs it. Although this is not a promise I make to anybody and I am a firm believer that once given, a gift belongs to the receiver to do with as they please, it IS something that I often do, hence the expectation.

I just have this nagging urge to fix everything to the best of my ability. Did I break a plastic clip? I must replace it! Did I spend 4 hours taking off a useless factory bracket? I must spend 5 hours putting it back on! Is a Kia valve making a slight ping? I must replace the valves. ALL THE VALVES!!!

First the head had to come off. On many small engines it is easier to pull the head off with the intake and exhaust manifold still attached to it. This was not one of those engines. I unhooked the exhaust manifold then struggled in vain to unhook various wiring harnesses, fuel and vacuum lines, brackets etc. from the intake manifold. I ended up splitting the two halves of the intake to expose the tangled web of wires and lines beneath. I unhooked what I could but ultimately ended up leaving the intake in the engine compartment and pulling the head off of it.

The Pistons looked good and the valves didn’t look bad either until upon closer inspection when I could see that several were just slightly open.

Only one valve seemed to be bent though, or at least had any visible damage.

Stay dirty my friends!

The Free Kia

Sat, 02 May 2015 02:25:00 GMT

Happy Friday rustlovers! Today we delve into the depths of the dual overhead cam piece of Korea’s finest engineering known as the Kia 2 litre!

Yesterday after work I decided to dig into the Kia and see if I could get it running. This being my first Korean car, I wasn’t familiar with its exact construction but was familiar with its symptoms: all signs point to timing belt. I popped the hood and was immediately put at ease by the longitudinal engine facing me properly and not slighting me by facing to the right or left. Everything seemed to be in about the right place, “this will be easy” I thought.

The first thing to do anytime you suspect a timing issue is to look up if you have an interference engine or not. If you don’t know, having an interference engine means that if your timing mechanism (belt, chain, or gears) fails and the pistons and valves are both left to spin freely at their own pace, the valves will hit the pistons and, at the very least, bend your valves up. The worst case is catastrophic engine failure or what I like to call “engine over, broken equals very yes”.

Although the Kia Sportage 2.0 was officially listed as an enterference engine there were fierce battles raging on various forums claiming that the pistons were relief cut so that the valves wouldn’t actually hit. Many claimed to have broken their timing belt and simply installed a new one without issue. Nobody on any forum actually mentioned bending their valves so I decided the best course of action would be to stick a new timing belt on and try to start the engine without putting it back together. If the car cranked without starting I would know that the pistons had become pin-cushions for valves: engine over. If it started and made horrific pinging and clanking sounds I would know a couple of valves were slightly bent. If it started and ran fine I would reassemble it and flip it like superman making pancakes! It’s like “The Gamble all over again! Let’s hope the odds are in our favor this time.

Digging into the engine I was simultaneously annoyed and impressed at the way all of the parts were integrated. It made for a well designed and compact package but I had to take off more parts than I wanted to; everything seemed to be connected to something else.

I pulled the fan and shroud (the fan clutch was bad), pulled the water outlet/thermostat housing, took off the belts (badly cracked) and got the timing cover off to find THIS:

I have seen timing belts lose their teeth, I’ve seen them unravel, I’ve seen them break, I’ve seen them shred but I’ve never seen one delaminate and snap like this. I continued pulling off parts but had a hard time breaking loose the big bolt on the front of the crankshaft. Normally I use an impact driver but I had no clearance. There was also no harmonic balancer to wrap a strap wrench around so I left the accessory pulleys on and pulled with my breaker bar and strap wrench until my strap broke. Great. The next thing I did was pull the radiator and A/C condenser to put my trusty impact on that bolt. It was out instantly so I went ahead and pulled the accessory pulleys to discover that there was no reason for me to pull the bolt out. Yep, I had just wasted an hour of my life, all the bolt held on was the timing gear. Anyway it was time to get that belt on and try to start it.

On this engine the water pump is driven by the timing belt and it is HIGHLY recommended to change the pump, belt and pulleys at the same time. I didn’t want to spend that kind of money until I knew the engine was actually not a boat anchor in disguise so I just bought he new timing belt for about $19 at the O’reilly. I lined up the timing marks on the crankshaft gear and each camshaft gear (“I” on the intake side and “E” on the exhaust side) then put on the belt and tensioned it. The tensioner tightens the passenger side of the belt so once it was tight I could see that it had pulled both cam pulleys exactly 1 tooth out of adjustment. I loosened the tensioner and fiddled them into place then re tightened.

Even though the timing marks lined up just right the second time around I always like to use a ratchet on the crank bolt to spin the motor around by hand a few times to feel that everything is right and make sure the timing marks still line up. This is particularly vital if you have variable valve timing which can make the timing marks appear to be correct when they’re actually way off.

I put all the crank pulleys back on (they keep the timing belt in place), sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key. With no alternator, A/C, power steering pump, cooling fan, radiator or timing cover the engine started immediately. It ran smoothly and revved nicely but unfortunately made a sound that I recognized as a bent valve. It was minor but unmistakable.

Until next time rustlovers, fix some cars and earn some scars!
Promotional consideration provided by Luke Van N

ALLTHECARS

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:40:00 GMT

Welcome back rustlovers! Ah how the time flies. So many cars bought, sold, broken and fixed!

The Honda? Gone. The escort? Gone! The summer project? A daily driver. The Gamble? Traded it for a 58 fc-150.

I bought a Ram 2500 diesel to tow stuff around. I bought a Jeep Wrangler with a bad timing chain for $1000, fixed it over thanksgiving and sold it for $3500. I sold my 64 Cadillac limousine and bought and sold a 29 model A husk (but not before getting it running and street legal).

At this point I have no clue how many cars I even own but I’m hoping to get a few sold over the summer to help “fuel” my newfound diesel addiction. Also I’m hoping to build something fun to take to Mad Max at the drive-in. Rat rod? Sidecar for the BMW? At this point my plans are stil fluid. Like diesel… Sweet, sweet diesel….mmmmmmmm…

Until next time rustlovers, bust some knuckles!

A MORE serious deadline!

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 04:38:00 GMT

As the September deadline looms everything seems to be falling into place with both trucks. The suburban is driving , I’ve found the rest of the parts it needs for bargain prices either at scrap yards or on the eBay. The jeep has a recently straightened frame and, thanks to my brother’s amazing skills on the frame rack, it drives down the road in a straight line. The doors and rear hatch even open, close and seal now. Here is a shot of B.B. heating the frame:

It’s alive!!!

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 04:51:00 GMT

So many pieces! Hello rustlovers today on the free model T is a day of completions and new beginnings! I am focused and have goals and deadlines and a new method to meet the challenges. Here is what’s going on. I just changed the head on my wife’s escort, bought a cheap Honda civic with a blown head gasket, got the suburban running and decided to build a model T. Also I finished that ranchero transmission a long time ago and never wrote about it.
So much. Much of it too boring to write about so let’s leave out the escort for now. Yes, I got another car, no I haven’t sold any, yes I have reached critical mass. I now have fifteen cars which is WAY too many and a tie for the most I’ve ever had. My happy number is 7 cars and trucks, preferably 1975 and older. The Honda was not free but it is a cute red car that I can make a quick buck on.
Ok now that I have that off of my chest lets talk about the fun stuff! I actually finished cars!!!! You may remember the 62 ranchero that came to me with a noisy partially functioning transmission. I changed the bearings and syncros. It failed. It came back in a box and I was unable to do a proper postmortem so I pieced it back together and… It failed. Third try’s the charm! Mr. Pipe and I made quick work of pulling the trans out again and I scoured the manual with an old man friend and we found the culprit was a missing snap ring. The best part? it had never been there from day 1! I bought $20 in syncros gaskets and snap rings and had it humming down the road the next day. Then my friend sold it and moved to Wisconsin, the end!
Ah the Gamble. She runs! She drives! She overheats. No big deal! Here is a picture of the motor!

A serious deadline

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:27:00 GMT

Hi all! Ready for action, excitement and more ironoxide than an ocean of lube could penetrate? You’ve come to the right place! Welcome to the Free Model T! Lets jump in with both feet today. I have a lot of cars and I work on them at my own pace. I take my time. I […]

The gamble part 2

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 19:53:00 GMT

Hello rustlovers! At the end of the last post we were left with a half disassembled Suburban and hints about a motorcycle project. Well lets take a closer look at the ‘burb’ and problems you will encounter with cars of any vintage.
Most projects turn out to be more work than you expect. The gamble has proven this twofold. First it turned out to be a blown top end instead of a timing chain and as I dug deeper into the motor I found both exhaust manifolds to be cracked.
Memorial Day was half price day at the local junk yard so my friend Rage and I put together a travel tool kit and went on a suburban safari. We found a nice organ donor with the whole front end off for convenient exhaust access. I went to work with the sawzall and cut the pipes behind the flange while Rage started yanking bolts. In about 30 minutes we had 2 nice manifolds and, on our way out, we spotted a Chevy 1 ton in great shape so we pulled a fender and front bumper off of that too.
Now I can just throw the motor together and go right? …right? Nah. Some of the exhaust studs had another plan. They decided to break off. Oh! The all-too-common lament of the broken bolt! The tragedy that turns the simple turn of a ratchet into hours of torching, drilling, welding, lubing, taping and on, IF you’re lucky enough to have access.
Screw extractors work fine if you snapped the head off of a clean bolt in a clean hole but otherwise they are quite useless. I have my own method.
Step 1: lube
Step 2: go to bed
Yeah, let that stuff soak. I don’t care what you use just give it time to do its job.
Next grab some spare allen wrenches and pick one just smaller than the bolt, on this one I used a 3/16″. Cut the small end off of the allen wrench and then drill a hole through the bolt the same diameter as the allen wrench size (3/16″). The result is a hole just smaller than your new piece of hex stock
Now pound that hex piece into the hole with a hammer!

Still love rusty cars? To actually get that busted bolt out requires patience and finesse. I used a map gas torch to heat it then lube to cool it about 6 times before I got it to budge. The best part of the hextractor is that (unlike a conventional extractor) it will twist before it snaps or strips!

The gamble

Wed, 15 May 2013 03:20:00 GMT

Hello rustlovers!
What a gloriously hot summer this spring is turning out to be. Here in the hills east of San Diego the days are getting longer and so are the hours of my garage. I recently purchased some wheels on Craigslist for the jeep. They are 2″ wider and the back spacing is 1 1/2″ inches less than stock so with some nice 30″ off road tires they fill out the wheel wells nicely with minimal rubbing.

The next step is to straighten the frame then build the roll cage. For some reason my brother ‘B.B.’ decided to go to Hawaii with his family instead of helping me with his frame rack so the jeep will have to wait.

So, on this momentous occasion, I introduce to you; The Gamble.
About a year ago, Understanding Wife spotted a $600 suburban on Craigslist. Although it didn’t run, it cranked but the distributor rotor turned in little bursts so I knew the timing sprocket was missing some teeth. It could just be the timing set and I would make a quick thousand bucks or it could have chunks of valve bristling out of the pistons; it was a gamble.

Woah, another project??? Does this guy ever finish ANYTHING??? How many wrecks does he have???
I know, this blog has A.D.D. And I have lots of wrecks but as the true rust addict knows; one does not simply finish a project car.

As you can guess by the long timespan that I’ve had the car, it wasn’t just the timing set. The first week I had the truck I changed the timing set and the water pump then cranked over the huge 454 only to hear it spin effortlessly with absolutely zero compression. So it sat. And sat. And I bought and sold myriad cars. And it sat. And Understanding Wife delivered our first child (my greatest creation to date!) And so something had to be done.
Sunday was 105 degrees outside and I ventured forth to conquer the beast. In breathtaking heat I pulled the intake and the drivers side head then today the passenger head. All of the intake valves are bent and one of the cylinders is slightly scored but I’m gonna run it! I ordered some new valves and a gasket set, so when they’re delivered I’ll be lapping the valves and jamming the heads back in.

Will this project run? Will Jeff switch to another project again? Tune in and find out, after all, there is always another car… Or motorcycle…

Ranchero Portero

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:27:00 GMT

As my driveway is shiny and new I cannot drive on it, so even though it is “Jeep: day 5” I have yet to dislodge the gas tank from the rear end (insert childish giggle here). Despite my anxious yearnings to slice and dice the newest member of the fleet I had to find a garage project to work on. My friend Rob drives a 62 Ranchero that we had done a transmission overhaul on a few months ago but it lost 3rd gear again later that day. He had pulled it back out and it was sitting in the corner of my garage so I removed a few retainers and dumped the gears out onto a piece of cardboard.

The problem was obvious: the third gear syncro had welded itself onto the input shaft. The cause was less obvious. We had used wheel bearing grease to install the needle bearings, perhaps the oil hole was plugged with grease? As my first 2 cars were rancheros of that era I’ve rebuilt these 3 speeds before without any problems so I didn’t think that was it. We rebuilt the transmission the first time because of a lost 3rd gear but that syncro (and the input bearing) were broken, not hot. In the end I blame the pilot bushing which we had not changed. Upon close inspection it was hogged out significantly enough to seal the case in my mind.

I collected new parts from various local suppliers and laid it all out on a towel. DARN IT! HOW DID I LOSE A NEEDLE BEARING?!?!?!?!?!?! This seems to happen to me every time. There are 53 needle bearings of 2 different sizes and somehow I ended up with 52. So much for getting this thing back together tonight.

Here is a very steam punky picture of the parts all laid out.

Summer project

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 04:33:00 GMT

With a baby on the way I have only neglected this blog because I have strayed from its contents; fixing cars. Lately my time has been consumed with fixing house which is actually the subject of patient wife’s blog. As part of the repairs, my house got a very special new feature… A driveway!!!!!!! Oh to work on concrete instead of gravel! The ability to ROLL my floor jack! This is going to be awesome.

My White Whale

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:43:00 GMT

I have loved many cars, most of them I no longer own. When I was in highschool I had pictures of 60’s Camaro’s all over my bedroom walls. Later in life I was restoring classics for a living and it seemed like I was restoring the same 10 cars over and over. Camaros, mustangs, chevelles, corvettes and so on. My love began to fade as they became routine and even cliche. Every Chevy I worked on had an “SS” on it and every owner thought it was the only one left on the planet! Every once in a while, however, someone would bring in something exciting and new, something truly unique; a ford starliner on a police interceptor chassis or a custom GMC fire truck. Thus my tastes evolved, I became obsessed with the odd car, the Studebaker, the La Salle, the Borgward! I forsook the value of 2 doors for the luxury of 4. I became enamored with the in line 6 and the straight 8. Now I sell cars that I love to buy cars that I have never heard of.

This is not merely a glimpse into my history, but an explanation into why you will most likely stop hearing about a promising project right when it starts getting good. Indeed it is an explanation as to why there will be no further mention of the 66 Chevy truck or the 71 VW campmobile. They’re gone. You see, there is always a better car out there and I found it.

My Jeep and I in Ocotillo

I have never been loyal to any make or mark of car but in recent years have become enamored with Cadillacs. I once got a free lincoln town car, traded it for a ’73 postal jeep, traded the jeep for a 1970 Cadillac fleetwood, then traded a (free) chrysler concorde for the jeep again. I started with 2 free crappy late model sedans and ended up with 2 unique older cars both of which I still own. I just couldn’t bring myself to part with the Cadillac. A few months ago I was scrolling through Craigslist and happened across a 1964 Cadillac presidential limousine, it’s now my daily driver. The point is, lots of cars come and go but the Cadillacs have remained.

The Limousine

I recently happened upon a car that was valuable, precious and available. I immediately sold the volkswagen and chevy so I could get it. You see sometimes members of the fleet must be sacrificed in pursuit of the white whale. I would have loved to offer you the big reveal of putting a cadillac V8 into the VW but instead I will be putting a Cadillac V8 into the new flagship of my fleet: a 1941 Cadillac 60 special fleetwood. OK the metaphor was mixed, how can it be a ship and a whale? Anyway the thing is SWEET!

The 1941 60s Fleetwood

I hope you walk with me through process of restoring it from the ground up and seeing it turn from a hunk of metal sitting behind a garage since 1966, into a beautiful piece of old fashioned craftsmanship back on the road where it belongs. Step 1: get to work on my ford fairlane. Wait, what? That’s right, there’s a 64 fairlane in my garage that will need to be finished before the Cadillac can be properly taken care of, so if you’re excited to read about the Cadillac you’ll have to wait! Haha! Bait and switch! The fairlane is completely de-trimmed; a rolling body. The whole thing has been sand blasted inside, outside, top and bottom. The car sits in primer with the bodywork partially completed.

Time to get to work!

All right rustlovers, time to get off of the computer and into the Garage!

A Change of Gears

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:39:00 GMT

As anyone with a pile of old cars can tell you, sometimes a project ends up on the back burner. Well I have still been working on the VW but I ordered a bunch of parts on eBay and have to wait for them. I got the new master cylinder, brake lines and hoses and I turned the rotors but I can’t rebuild the calipers ’till the kits come in so I decided it was time to change gears.

Maiden Voyage

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:58:00 GMT

Never before have I seen a VW campmobile with power disc brakes. The problem with disc brakes is that they don’t age well like drums. The disc brake calipers on the front of the VW were frozen in place, gently squeezing the rotors causing the car to drag a bit. I revved the engine and […]

The Beast Runs

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:52:00 GMT

No matter how buried in sensors, wires, and emission control devices your engine may be, under it all is a giant block of metal with pistons in it. It is still an internal combustion engine and therefore requires five basic things to make it go vroom: air, fuel, spark, compression, and timing. Let’s explore these five important aspects of automotive theory for a moment.
I like to diagnose and repair all manner of automotive puzzles but I specialize in “It ran when I parked it”. If a car has been sitting and won’t run the timing and compression are most likely fine. In my vast experience I have only seen the air blocked off once, by a large magnet, but that’s another story for another day. This leaves us with spark and fuel, both of which are easy to diagnose.
Once I had the tiny fuel lines hooked up on the VW I cranked the motor but it wouldn’t start. I knew the pump was good because the clear plastic filter I had installed was full of fuel but this didn’t rule out a fuel issue. Maybe the float in the carburetor was stuck up and not letting in any fuel. Just to be sure it was not a fuel issue I sprayed some starting fluid down the carburetor and cranked the motor again. No love.
On to spark. Instead of testing spark at at a plug wire, I got to the heart of it and checked it at the coil; nothing.

Another Free Car

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 07:10:00 GMT

This Summer has been a record-setting whirlwind of receiving, fixing, and selling cars.

I always have several automotive projects going on simultaneously and in August was able to finish a few and sell three cars in a single week; a 2001 Ford Taurus that I had overhauled for my mother in law, a 1950 Chevy truck I sold for a lady at my church and a 1994 Toyota Paseo I had gotten for free in June.

It had been sitting in a driveway under a tree for at least 10 years and judging from the vintage of the cassette tapes and various scraps of paper inside, hadn’t been driven regularly since the late 80’s.

Today I dove in; scraping off a thick blanket of leaves, cleaning the engine compartment, vacuuming the interior and filling my refuse bin with someone else’s abandoned and outdated clothing. I ran a new main wiring harness from the dash to the motor, added a battery, and cranked the motor until the oil light turned off.

My homemade wiring harness

The motor has to be removed to check the gas tank so that will have to wait. I ran a fuel line to a gas can in the rear compartment and cranked the motor but it did not start. Bad fuel pump? No, in fact fuel seemed to be leaking from both ends of every line. It was 11:00 PM and still 95 degrees outside so I gave up for the night and will get it running tomorrow.

Zen and cars and scars

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:13:00 GMT

“Cars are the only thing on earth that will beat you, break you, make you bleed, make you cry, spend all your money, spend all your time, not work and not care that you will love more, the more they abuse you.” -Anonymous

I am Jeff and I get cars for free. Yes, I pay for cars too. Sometimes I pay more for the free ones than for the ones that I buy. Free car? Needs a transmission? Thanks craigslist/friend/neighbor/random stranger! After changing the transmission and fixing myriad minor issues I sometimes could have simply bought a nice running car instead.

Once you start getting free cars it snowballs quickly. You tell someone that you got a Studebaker for a dollar and then they mention their uncle’s old Ford that’s been on the side of his house under a tarp serving as low income housing for drug addicted rodents since the Carter administration, and yes, he’ll ask about it for you. Does it pan out? No! The car was sold last week for almost nothing to some jerk or it is worth more than gold bricks to the guy, or he’s “going to fix it someday…”.

Then, every once in a while it does pan out! You are the jerk that gets the car for little or nothing! Get enough people asking their cousin about that crusty El Camino hiding in the weeds and soon you will have your own collection of rust and broken glass. People will come to YOU asking for free cars!

But before you follow me down this tortuous path I must offer one C aveat Auto-Grata: if you are not careful they will consume you. Your time, your money, your property, and your blood. I could open my own blood bank with all of the blood I’ve spilled into the engine compartments of old cars. But if you have a passion, some tools and a 10 by 20 foot space, let’s build something!