Previous Page Next Page Zoom


Ford Model A Pickup Restoration September 2005

My September report comes a little earlier than usual. The reason is my first run of the Ford engine. On the 17th of September I could start the engine without any problems. I had to push the starter for only 2 s until it ran for the first time since 33 years. There are no vibrations and the compression is equal on all 4 cylinders.

Therefore I will show you the first Video (wmv file 7 MB). The size is 7 MB but I wanted to provide it in good quality. In the video see the start of the engine for all of you who don t know how a Model A sounds like. If you have problems to play the video, first install an actual version of the Windows Media Player.

Although the engine is running, I will show you what happened during the last month.
First I had to modify my exhaust system since the car has a longer wheelbase than the original Model A. Then I had to bend a stainless steel tube and how I do this without any tools you will see soon on my Tips & Tricks site: Tips & Tricks . Then the tube was welded to the original exhaust tube with a Henrob 2000 ).

After welding, some grinding and polishing is necessary.

The exhaust system is finished for mounting it into the car. I know, the original exhaust system was not stainless but I don t want to see any rust under the car and this version is too nice for painting with black color. That s the reason why I leave it as it is.

This is the old one, repaired 35 years ago in a professional way …

As next the water tubes were mounted.

The cutout was fixed onto the generator and both attached to the engine.

The cabin is not ready yet and therefore I have made a tube construction to mount parts as the gas tank and ignition coil.

On the left hand side you can see the ignition coil, in the middle the ignition switch and on the right my small 1/4 liter gas tank.

The next task is to setup the ignition. Therefore the crankshaft must be in the right position first and then the timing can be made.

This are newly made original 3X Champion spark plugs. They are not cheap but look very nice.

The final task is to fill up all operating materials like oil, water and gas.

The motor oil was filled through the opening of the removed distributor. this way the valve chamber and bearings get enough oil from the beginning when I start the engine until the oil pump can provide every corner of the engine with oil.

At last the battery will be connected to the starter switch and the frame (positive ground) and I can start the engine (video on top of the site).

September was a very successful month and soon I will be able to try a first run with the car.