What’s happening at 1929fordhotrod.com
Well here we are into November and the snow is flying in areas close to our home and shop. This past summer has been an interesting one for me. Everything started out right on track with the usual hot rod building distractions. It was decided early on that we would have our home, yard, ponds, and gardens, on the local garden tour, sponsored by the horticultural society. That was fine, since I normally just look after grass cutting and occasional hedge trimming. My wife maintains the vast number of gardens, on our 1 acre property with our Victorian home built in 1868. Unfortunately, I developed a serious problem with my shoulder in late spring that really limited my level of physical work. This also affected my work on the computer, as it was simply too painful to use the mouse and keyboard not to mention numerous sleepless nights. Oh well, I just needed to adapt like the Borg on Star Trek. I took on the task of wiring the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod and a few other very light tasks. That did not stress the shoulder at all. I did manage to get all of the instrumentation installed and connected along with the wiring for the lighting 1929 Ford hot rod. Of course, nothing is simple when you build a hot rod. I decided to convert the old original 1930 – 31 Model A Ford headlights to halogen lighting. This worked out very well. This will have a separate post later on complete with pictures and video showing the entire process of the headlight modification / conversion.
Now I needed to place the alternator on the motor as part of the wiring project. Again, this was not simple, as I wanted the alternator to be mounted low on the 350 cubic inch motor of the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod. I was not able to use conventional motor pulleys for this since the engine was very close to the radiator and I was also using an electric water pump. To solve the problem, I machined an aluminum v-belt pulley on my very old Logan metal lathe. The pulley turned out perfect and will be mounted to the front of the engine. Up to this point, power steering was not an option due to the space issue. Having machined an engine pulley for the alternator, I revisited idea of adding the power steering pump to the engine. Sometime ago I sold a power steering pump to my friend Jim another member of the Forest City Street Rods club. Jim wanted to use this on his 1937 Chevrolet street rod. Unfortunately Jim was not able to stop a leak on the oil reservoir and abandoned the GM type II power steering pump. I decided to give the pump another attempt, only this time I had an aluminum bracket and pulley for the power steering pump. The bracket for the power steering pump ended up getting a shave and trim and used for the alternator instead. I then fabricated another bracket using one inch aluminum blocks. To stop the reservoir leak problem, I machined on the lathe an aluminum press fit adapter to allow for a remote location of the reservoir tank for the power steering pump. Now that I was able to mount the power steering pump on the engine without any clearance problem, a second engine pulley was made. Having made one already, the second one was easy to make. During this process of making pulleys and brackets I realized that a milling machine would make life so much easier not to mention a metal lathe that was not worn out.
A few weeks after fabricating the new pulleys, mounts for the power steering pump and alternator that a friend provided me with a lead for some machine shop equipment. As a result of this lead, I am now the proud owner of a decent metal lathe and a Bridgeport style vertical knee milling machine. The old Logan lathe was sold and a new machine shop room was added to the workshop of 1929fordhotrod.com.
Finally, a number of weeks ago, 1929fordhotrod.com/johnsblog had an unfortunate accident and went down causing a service interruption. The process of restoring the website was a tedious one. Now that the site is back up, a few more tweaks need to be made and then more information about my build of the 1929 Ford Model A roadster hot rod will start rolling out again. No pun intended. There will be lots of information, from wiring a hot rod, fuel gauge calibration, gauges, halogen light conversion, machining parts, to general hot rod building ideas. Of course I will include many pictures, and video. It should be an exciting winter season in the shop of 1929fordhotrod.com.
