Story and photos by Mark Wing

Larry held a work day at his garage on Saturday, June 8th. Projects on this day included Frank Lewark continuing work on his 1924 engine rebuild, Bob Ross and Phil Lance installing tires and inner tubes on sets of wire wheels, Bob Ross welding a fender for Scott Stewart, Kirk Peterson installing a newly rebuilt carburetor, and Mark Wing disassembling an early frame.

Visiting Larry’s garage for the first time was John Lorio, a fellow car collect specializing in Datsun sports cars and 1960’s BMW cars. John was given a tour of Larry’s collection and shop.

Frank and Leonard have been working on restoration of Frank’s 1924 engine for some time now and on this day they were working on cutting valves to length. The block had also had its babbitt milled to provide a oil pathway for the main bearings. The flywheel was also drilled to improve the balance and triple gear pins were tested for fit. Unfortunately, the holes for the pins are too large so more research is needed before a final decision is made about the usability of this flywheel.

Both Bob Ross and Phil Lance brought sets of wire wheels to have new inner tubes and tires installed. After a fair amount of struggling, they found out that Larry’s technique was to install the inner tube and tire simultaneously to prevent the inner tube from bunching up or getting pinched. Another trick was to use wide tire irons instead of narrow ones. Armed with this new knowledge, the task became easier.

Scott Stewart brought a well worn, but restorable passenger’s side front fender in need of some welding repairs. We are fortunate to have Bob Ross as a welding resource. In fact, Bob demonstrated his technical knowledge on two MTFCA DVDs about welding:

• 9-1 RESTORATION WELDING 101- Bob Ross shows the various welding equipment available and which ones are the right ones for restoration use.  Topics covered are types of welding, safety, proper storage of gas tanks, types of rods as well as an actual fender repair and a surface hole repair.
• 9-2 RESTORATION WELDING 102- Bob Ross reviews the types of metal you will encounter during the restoration process.  Which welding technique you should use for these metals as well as a demonstration of typical repairs encountered by the restorer.

Kirk Peterson’s 1925 coupe “Buster” had been running roughly so Kirk bought a newly rebuilt (by Russ Potter) Holley NH carburetor. At this work day, Kirk was installing and testing the new carb.

Mark Wing brought a circa 1912 frame to disassemble. This frame had the larger style cast iron body supports (with the lip), but without the holes for the body support brackets specific to the 1913 Model Ts. An extra later frame rail was brought as well to assess whether it could be used to repair the earlier frame. The current plan is to use other 1913 frame parts to repair the early frame brought to this work day.

Thanks Larry for an enjoyable work day at Larry’s Garage!