Story and photos by Mark Wing

On this first Saturday in August, the projects at Larry’s garage ranged from engine disassembly, babbitting, rear differential rebuilding, inner tube replacement, and body part sanding.

Kirk Peterson is very excited about the prospect of entering a car in the 2020 Montana 500, an annual Model T endurance run. “Buster”, Kirk’s 1925 “barn fresh” coupe will be the entrant but how to modify the coupe for the rigors of the race? Kirk and Larry had been giving it some thought and decided to rebuild a spare 1926/27 engine that Kirk had on hand. Larry also had a set of Pasco wire wheels for the race that should be much safer than the stock wood wheels.

http://www.antiqueautoranch.com/montana500/indexnonrefresh.html

Phil Lance was rounding up the parts to rebuild a drive line/rear differential. Many of these parts had been purchased previously, but had been in storage at Larry’s garage for some time – long enough to lose track what parts he already had. Thankfully, Phil’s inventory included the most expensive parts like the ring and pinion gears.

Frank Lewark continued work on his 1924 engine by babbitting the rods and caps. He started by cleaning the parts in a blast cabinet before the babbitting process.

Mark Dominguez had to replace an inner tube on the family’s 1923 runabout “Samantha”. The old tube had failed near the stem.

Mark Wing brought along a painted hood and front fender for his 1925 touring. The task at this work party was to sand out orange peel or areas that had been reworked due to paint defects. The base coat/clear coat paint job is turning out well, but it does involve a lot of preparation and painting of many individual parts. The body and various parts are almost ready for buffing and polishing.

Another great work day at Larry’s Garage in Corrales, NM. Thanks Larry!