Some spannering on the T

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
3 May 2004
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Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
Well this car hasn't moved for a while :D

I laid it up in November to carry out a few bits of work for the MOT. I really wanted to fiddle with the proportions but I didn't get around to it. I decided a few weeks ago that I'd just keep it simple and not turn it into another long term off the road project.

First thing I did was try and start it but it wouldn't fire. No fuel coming up, which was odd. Sucking on the hose by the carb all I got was a load of fumes, despite there being fuel in the tank. Working backwards I found the rubber hose at the back was perished:

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There was no way it was going to fire up like that! New hose and it was sorted, but I'm getting a bit fed up with rubber fuel hose perishing these days. It's time they sold some that can take modern fuel.

Next job on the list was to sort the exhausts. I bought some Fenton block-hugger headers at great expense so I could route the exhaust under the car. Unfortunately there's no way they'll fit because they clash with the steering, starter motor AND the chassis, so it would be major mods to do this. I decided to repair and make good what was on there. Basically very rusted and full of holes:

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"Silencers" out:

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Here are some holes after cleaning them up with the knot wheel:

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That whole section really needed chopping out and replacing so to keep them in shape I bolted the pair together:

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A couple of years ago I swapped a chap on Retro Rides a bottle of gin for his pipe bender and this was the first time I decided to give it a go:

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It did a fantastic job of mashing up and denting a couple of bits of prize tube I've been stashing, so I wasn't best pleased. Having used mandrels in the past I have relegated this to the 'not very good tools' pile. I think it probably works quite well with thicker walled tube and if you pack it with sand first to stop it collapsing.

So instead I worked with a straight section cut and angled:

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And then I forgot to take any more pics, but I rinsed and repeated on the other side, gave it a thick coat of EHT paint and fitted them back up to the car:

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I did also weld up the baffles a bit to try and reduce the amount of noise, but it looks like I need to do a bit more because it made absolutely no difference :D

I've also got the steering box off the car and a local place is rebuilding it. I'd normally try and tackle this sort of thing myself but it was completely shot inside, so there was no hope in hell of that happening!
 
Got any pictures of the whole car? Looks awesome:)

What engine is in it?

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As said, it's a late 4 litre flathead Ford V8 with a 5-speed box.

To tack this question onto a quite a suitable thread, a long time ago a friend told me about the craze of making these old flat head engines 'run backwards' swapping the carbs onto the exhaust and vice versa, how does that work? Just for fun or any other reasons?
It was a fad but there's some sense behind it. The exhaust is the bottleneck on the flathead because of the strange route it takes through the block and into the siamesed port. It also passes next to the bores which has a significant heating effect next to the combustion area. If you switch the intakes and exhausts with a reversed cam you overcome a lot of these problems, but you swap it for problems on the intake side instead, so neither way is ideal. It was also a cunning way on circuit racers (like early Indie cars) to get the weight and the profile down lower iirc.
 
One reconditioned steering box now devoid of play :)

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I liked my invoice - labour £xxx, parts £0. They had to make stuff to fix it, which is most satisfying. I'm just waiting for a new column support bearing from eBay for the princely sum of £4.50 and I'll be ready to refit :)
 
Nice productive morning :)

Got the steering box back in no problem and it's nice to have no play. As an added bonus, while I had the column off the dash I re-drilled the mounting a bit higher up. This has moved the steering wheel up a few inches into a much better position and given me a lot more clearance for my legs.

Can't really see it in the picture though :D

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Most components on this car are over 60 years old, some are over 80 and weren't designed for todays distances or speeds. You have to continually monitor and maintain them. You can't just stick oil in it and forget about it.
 
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