The
Saturday, July 31, 2004. Charlie & Anita Owen came to our house
(Frank & Carole Fenton) to pick up their prize.
Here’s Charlie, Frank, Sheryl Stier, Pres, MTFCI and Anita.
Our dog Toby had to get in on the
action….
Richard…or is that Ryan… gets Carole’s
car out of the way.
Ryan…or is that Richard…moves the
speedster around..
Looks like he’s gonna
just keep on going….
Frank hands the title to Charlie
& Anita….
The boys give Anita a driving lesson….
Duane & Cathy drive it onto
Charlie’s trailer….
Here’s part of the
On Thursday evening, July 22 at the
Youth Auction of the Annual MTFCI Tour in
I called Charlie and told him he was
the winner. He couldn’t believe it……
Sunday afternoon, July 18, a group
gathered at the MTFCI Annual Tour to do some final “adjustments” to the car.
Let’s shim out that squeaky wheel…..
Final tweak of the front shackles…..
Get it to go into high better…
Shim is in, hub is back on….
New cotter pins installed….
Better tighten the bands a bit….
Done, get the tools put away and let’s
drive it…..
Friday, July 16, we held the drawing
for the speedster at the American Legion Hall in Rockton, IL. Sheriff Dick Meyers, Winnebago
County, IL drew the winning ticket.
I, Frank Fenton, brought the
speedster to the event, and Sheryl Stier, President
of MTFCI with Don Krull, Vice President and Tony Cimorelli, Board Member & Web Master, also attended
Here is MTFCI President, Sheryl Stier and Sheriff Meyers.
Sheriff Meyers draws the ticket….
Got it…
But it’s a secret until the Youth
Auction on July 22…..
On Sunday, July 11, Chuck and Lylia Stull led the
A great picnic…..
Lots of food….
Then the car games.
Duane & Cathy in the Speedster…
Drive it blindfolded???
Tell him, Cathy…..
The crowd enjoyed every minute of it…..
Wayne & Phyllis did well…..
Fun was had by all. We topped it all off with a stop at our
favorite ice cream store in
Friday, July 9 was the last day to
buy a ticket, and we had many coming in that day.
On Sunday, July 4, the
Duane & Cathy Bunton and grand child took the speedster….
Daughter Jen and I drove the
Roadside Service Truck..
Here’s a view thru the windshield…
A great parade, and a great day in a
Model T.
On Saturday, July 3, we had our last
work day on the speedster to finish up some things:
Duane worked on raising the seat in
front …….
and getting the battery box cover looking good…
Daughter Jennifer, visiting for the weekend, got in on cleaning and polishing the car……
Frank & Tim made a bracket to
hold the choke rod and starter switch…. Just reach up under the dash, pull the
choke and push the button.
Meanwhile,
Tim welded the exhaust whistle from
Steve Tanck on Vern Campbell’s stainless tailpipe…
and cut a hole for the cutout, also….
Here it is…ready to install…
Duane and Ryan…or is that Richard take it for a spin…..
The car is ready for Duane to drive
it in the July 4th parade in
On Saturday, June 5, the
The car was quickly dis-assembled by one crew…here are Al, Tom and Duane.
Tim and son Mike planned the step
plate brackets…..
Another crew worked on “dressing”
the new engine….
Thanks to:
Ron’s Machine Shop for the engine
work
Snyder’s for many of the internal
parts,
Dan McEachern
for the timing gears
Rocky Mt Machine for the Kevlar
Bands
Total Recoil for the Mag Coil
Bill Stipe
for the 280
RV Anderson for the transmission
work
And to many others for parts and
services
Dean screws the oiler
in that Coilman generator… Thanks, Ron Patterson…
The generator is mounted with the
Fun Projects regulator…thanks, John Regan….
Gotta cut some throttle rod holes in these beautiful aluminum cover plates….
Thanks to Townsend Automotive…
Let’s get the trans
cover plate on….pretty sharp looking….
Meanwhile, the dis-assembly
crew is working hard….
Gene, Wayne and Al have the radiator
off, working on the coil box removal…..
Yep, that’s Tom inside…
Meanwhile, the step plate bracket
crew is working hard…..
It will fit over the frame with the
curved strap on top…..
The engine crew is tireless….
Got the Coilman
starter on…. Thanks, Ron Patterson.
Gotta move that cover band so the screw is at the top…..
Check out the outside oil line that
Ron Miller & Co installed….
Here’s the other side. Check out
the new exhaust manifold…thanks, Steve Tanck,
the new high volume intake manifold….thanks, Chaffin’s,
the straight thru carb, thanks, Russ Potter
And that aluminum plate, thanks,
Townsend Automotive.
Looks sharp.
Get that throttle rod bent just
right to go thru those plates…..
The engine is on the hoist…
Meanwhile, the body crew has the body
off… and safely on saw horses out of the way…
They certainly did take it apart…..
About that time, Carole drove around
with her 21 open express truck with lunch…. Mike
helped out…
We took a short break….
Then back to work…. The engine is in
place…. Let’s bolt it down..
The drive shaft bolts are a bit
stubborn…..
Looking good….
Meanwhile, Tim and Mike have been
busy on the step plate brackets…. Mike drills the holes in the frame…
Looks great…. The body bottom panels
will be sandwiched between these brackets and the steps….
Time to put the body back on….
Dean and Gene have the radiator
& lights back on and are hooking up the external choke wire.
Al and Tom got the body and side
panels fastened down….
Tim gets ready to mount those step
plates….
Tim and Al fasten them down…..
Mike tests them….
Tom has to try them, too…. Mike
watches….
Those brackets are strong….thanks,
Tim for the brackets,
Thanks Bob Scherzer,
and Just in Time Restorations for the Faultless Step Plates.
We’re
almost done…. Mike takes a break and maybe is dreaming of driving the car….
Done. It’s
Tim,
Mike and Dean did the finishing touches and adjustments…..
Perfect,
since Duane Bunton, President of the
On Friday, June 4, I took the car to
the
I had the car parked out front about
an hour before the meeting so everyone could see it. I picked up the steering column that the
Here’s a pix of President Rich Jones
(right) presenting me, Frank Fenton (left) the beautifully restored steering
column.
Here are the guys that did it: Dave Szumowski,
John Regan and Scott Stier
On Memorial Day,
Here is the
We had rain before and after, but
sunshine during the parade….
Here is one of our top ticket
sellers, Ryan…or is that Richard?
Ready to ride along in the parade.
On Tuesday, May 25, I drove over to
the
Here’s Pete checking out the packaging….
Ron got the hoist…..
And safely into my truck it sits…..
We let the paint dry over the
weekend, then on Monday, May 10, final assembly began…
We set the body onto the chassis
with steel firewall in place…
We bolted the plywood firewall of
the body to the steel firewall. We did
not forget to install the radiator support rod this time.
Carl came along to provide adult
supervision…..
Ray bolted the body to the frame…….
We made sure that battery box was in
place before we mounted the body………….
Getting the side panels, radiator
shroud and radiator apron aligned and bolted was a chore. Roger is still smiling……
Mary and Lyle came with the
upholstery…. Ready to install…..
Mary got one side……
Lyle got the other…..
Looks like it all fits……….
Beautiful job on the seats…..
Mary, the master, at work…….
Phyllis stopped by to help……..
Here are the
finished side and back fasteners……
Then we had to get the steering
column in there….. With that special wedge from Townsend…
Then we had to trim the floorboards
for the column…. Yep, we decided to trim the low pedal to avoid pinching a shoe
between the column and pedal……..
Gas tank in and fuel line
connected…..
Those rusty old headlights turned
out pretty good, thanks to some nice prep, paint, rims and assembly by Al….
I made some brackets for the
headlights …. Didn’t want to destroy a set of fender irons…. I moved the
headlights out about a half inch so they wouldn’t touch the radiator shroud……
Lookin good……
Duane buffed out the paint….nice and
smooth and shiny now….
Fun Projects sent a horn…..
Mounted the horn….
Better get on the wiring…here’s the
terminal strip…..
Wires to the switch…..
Here you can see a switch hanging
over the dash support. We put on a
solenoid as the foot starter switch was in the way with the normal
installation. Not sure where we’ll mount
it yet….
Got that beautiful dash installed
and the switch wired…..
Just a few more turns of the screw……
Wiring done…. Lookin’
good….
Then the McLaren
wheels came…….
We set those new Universal tires out
in the sun to get warm…. And then Frank and Wayne with lots of help from Lyle
got those tires mounted…… We used some pieces of old inner tube to cushion the
tire irons…didn’t chip the paint….
Tom came over and mounted the wheels
with those new bearings from Mac’s….
Frank had to check it out…..
Let’s see if she starts…….
Out we go……
Let’s head around front for some
pictures……
Here’s the finished product…..
From the front…..
From the front……
On Saturday, May 15, we went to the
Little Hershey Swap Meet
Had a front row place and sold some
tickets….
Here is our crack salesman Ryan…or
is that Richard?
The ice cream stand across the road
helped, too…..
Paul Larson made a nice sign for
us…..
Here’s a salesman at his desk…
They mastered crank starting the car
on mag the second day and attracted a crowd every
time…..
Next, we must tear it down to put in
the correct engine… Ron has it done, I just have to
pick it up. Also, the correct steering
column should be done soon. Tail lights
have to be installed and a few other things.
We’re looking for car shows and swap
meets to show it at…… any ideas?????
Monday, May 3 and
Monday, all parts were sprayed with
the white under coating of the DuPont Chroma One
System.
On Thursday, the parts were again
wet sanded with 600 grit paper, touched up with the white as needed, and
painted the final red color.
Duane took the day off, Tim decided
to work on the car rather than sleep,
Duane and Tim working on the B&B
body final wet sand:
Here are the headlights….
That Rootlieb
Hood……..
That’s Paul Larson’s Radiator
Cover……..
Then it was finally time for the
Red…….. Duane at work……..
Is that Red, or what?
Most are done now……..
Now we will give it a few days to
set up nicely. Assembly is scheduled for
Monday afternoon and evening, May 10. We
will have it done by May 12 and it will be on display at the Little Hershey Car
Show & Swap Meet in Belvedere, IL on May 15/16.
First, we set the body on the
chassis to check out the fit of all parts.
That hood needed a bit of adjustment per Tim and Ryan…or is that
Richard?
Yep, that’s better….
Then we marked the steel firewall
and Dean carefully cut out the steering column mounting section… We have to
lower the steering column and will use the aluminum wedges donated by Townsend Automotive
to align the lower support and steering column……..
Here is the section…..
It was moved lower and Tim welded it
back in place….with a bit of reinforcement………
Here’s a closer shot….
The angle grinder will dress that up
a bit, then re-paint that area.
Then Al Anglemire
came by with donuts, and all work stopped….
Then it was time to get the gas tank
mounted, and MTFCI President, Sheryl Stier arrived
just in time to help…..
Then the floorboards had to be
trimmed for the pedals and the firewall……….
Fits perfectly…….
Duane and Ryan (or was it Richard?)
un-bolted the battery carrier before we set the body back on so they could move
it forward a bit for access under the seat.
Thanks for Jerry Van’s photos of his car….
The cutout was made under the seat
with plenty of room for that new battery box that Larry Vader sent over…….
There it is…needs a bit more
trimming…
Then Steve Tanck
stopped by with the new dash panel. It
is made from a very dense African wood called Padauk
and has a beautiful Red color. Steve put
on a coat or two of clear varnish.
Looks great. Steve routed a groove in the
back that fits the contour of the body.
A very nice finished look up front also.
The cutout for the brake lever
required many cuts and trims with a wood rasp, and Ryan & Richard were the
“under car” guys for this job….
Then we removed the radiator and
fitted the hood shelves and side panels to the body…..
Then we loaded the body, lower
panels, hood and radiator shroud in our pickups and took them back to
Wednesday,
Here’s Tim ready to get started on
the body:
Here’s
Here’s Duane working on the other
half of the hood:
Duane later gave the body and hood another prime coat.
Monday,
Work Day 4/17 thru
We got started early with Tim and
sons Richard (or is it Ryan) working on the body.
Lots of sanding to make it just
right…..
Here’s Tim…
Tom put screws in the firewall…..
Meanwhile, Duane and Ryan (or is it
Richard?) are rebuilding the coil box.
Let’s get that coil box installed………
Put in some “Coilman”
coils………
All done..and we checked it out. All plugs fire when they should.
We need to tie up the timer wires
yet.
While they were “at it”, they
rebuilt the original coil box from Bud DeLong’s
chassis. Tim checked out the coils….all
is working. Wonder what that will bring
at the Youth Auction?
Then Dean and Tom decided the brake
lever on my 25 chassis looked better than the one we had for the speedster, so
they swapped…………
Tom marked the holes for the lower
front cover. Got them
just right.
A real professional job on the
body……. A few more hours of Tim’s magic touch…..
The day ended late, but not before
Richard and Ryan practiced driving Carole’s ’21 Open
Express around the property. They’re
good, careful drivers……..
The body will be painted the week of
April 25th, and we will have the next work day on May 1 starting at
We will be showing the car at the
Little Hershey Swap Meet and Car Show, Belvedere, IL, May 15/16, 2004.
Work Day
The goal for the day was to have a
rolling chassis completed and to get the body prep-ed for priming….and maybe
primed. So, as
Let’s get started on the front axle…
Bushings being pressed into springs
and shackles on the left, and the front axle being assembled on the right.
Let’s get that spring installed on
the front end……..
The spring leaves have been painted
with two coats of graphite paint…..
And tap in the oiler…..
Another crew started on the rear
end…new bushings in the perches and perches installed
New brake cams and bushings………
Let’s get that rear perch tight…..
We want this to be a rolling
chassis, so Gene is putting on some of Frank’s spares….
Let’s get the rear of this chassis
done…. Hold the spring cushion, Al………
Carl’s supervising Al tightening the
spring mounts………. The front axle is
mounted now, also.
You can see the body in the
background.
Dean’s mounting a front wheel….. this is one of Frank’s spares. The McLaren wheels wi