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Post by miwi on Feb 25, 2020 16:18:59 GMT -5
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Post by spex84 on Feb 25, 2020 20:01:33 GMT -5
Beautiful! I love the white rubber tires and patina. It looks like someone found a "survivor" T and decided it would be fun to run it at TROG instead of going the full restoration route. The green leather seat is a striking touch...and it's entertaining to see straight pipes on a car this old. Very nicely done. Thanks for sharing!
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Post by skip on Feb 26, 2020 0:16:20 GMT -5
Interesting take, I really like what you’ve done here it’s a nice Model T Soup Job that would fit right in during the time period. Yours follows many of the “gow jobs” and “soup jobs” that I’ve studied, so you must have done some homework before starting.
The fun part about replicating this kind of cars is both discovering the needed knowledge and new building techniques by doing the research to find exactly how they were doing things. Like Z-ing and gas welding frames on cars that exist today and still hold together today, not too bad for some backyard mechanics. Guys who would later be called “Hot Rodders”, ( A term used with much derision, Hot Rodders as far back as the late thirties was never a complimentary term, when it referred to almost any “street racer” modified car or not. Kinda like Ricers, or “”Boy Racer” is pretty unflattering today.)
The front ends on most Speedsters and souped up model T’s were lowered either with a home made or “store bought” drop bracket, which in most cases were a piece of flat iron 3/8” to 1/2” thick X 2-1/2 to 3” wide, heated and twisted so it had a flat side down to mount the axle spring then bent to follow the frame horns from tip to end 12 - 18” then bolted to the sides of the frame. At the spring, there could either be two u-bolts which went over the drop bracket, spring then a plate at the bottom which would be tightened together by the nuts at the bottom. Another common variation to this theme would be to weld a flat bracket the same size as the bottom plate then use bolts versus u-bolts to hold everything together. Either type bracket can be replicated using brass strips epoxied to the frame and spring.
Look up Model T Speedsters, they were the guys who developed many of the early frame and axle modifications that the next generation of guys souping up the same Model T’s of all vintages. The other thing that many of the guys souping up the Model T’s did was first get rid of the fragile (when power is added to the mix) wood spoke wheels and find a set of 21” wire wheels from the ‘26 - ‘27 T’s, better yet the 18” wire wheels off of the ‘30 - ‘32 Chrysler (which had the same bolt pattern as the Model T did. So with the combination of Z-‘d Frame, drop brackets for six inches and 3 more inches with the Chrysler wires and you’ve lowered the car by 8 almost 9 inches when the springs settled in, now you’ve got a Gow Job!
Another interesting tidbit that I just came across a couple of weeks ago was that Ford shipped the Model T’s with the fenders wrapped up in oiled kraft paper stored inside the car. I found pictures a couple months earlier of a bunch of mid-twenties Model T’s being delivered to the dealer in Aberdeen Washington, they hooked them together with brackets and towed them from the freight depot to the dealer with a Fordson tractor, like 8 or 10 at a time. I did some inquiring around and found this was a common practice. Probably because the Ford dealer also sold the Fordson tractors too. Like I said, almost half the fun in building these old “Soup Jobs” and even Speedsters is the things you learn doing the research!
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Post by Mr409 on Feb 26, 2020 3:52:27 GMT -5
Really nicely done! These TROG inspired models make me want to go and see one of these events because they look like fun. You did an excellent job with this Model T. Especially the patina is very well done. As Chris said earlier, it looks like an old survivor that was just hopped up for the racing purposes. Nice work!
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Post by Dennis on Feb 26, 2020 10:49:09 GMT -5
Excellent! Love the weathering, big white tires and the green leather. I can picture this blasting down the Jersey shore for sure, the driver sporting a leather helmet and goggles. And I use the term "blasting" loosely, LOL!
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