On this cold Saturday, Tin Lizzie members continued the wide-range of restoration and machining projects that have been underway for some time at Larry’s garage.

Kirk Peterson came from Santa Fe to work on his “barn fresh” 1925 coupe “Buster”.  Kirk has been working on installing safety glass in the car and was focusing his attention on the rear quarter windows and trim.

Marilyn Duncan has been restoring two sets of cowl lights for a 1918 pickup and her 1920 touring car.  Marilyn had purchase unrestored lights and had disassembled and media blasted them.  She’s found them to be very rusty and, in the case of the top cap, in need of new threads as the originals were too rusty and wobbly to be usable.  On this day, she and Larry cut off the old cap threads, drilled a hole in the cap and inserted a new screw.  After brazing the screws in place, cutting off the screw head, and grinding, the parts will be ready for a little body work and painting.

Bruce Daniel has been adapting a set of Model A wire wheels for use on his 1926 roadster.  Bruce and Larry had already made new wheel adaptors.  A stock spare tire carrier hole pattern was also different than that for a Model A wheel.  Bruce and Larry drilled new, slightly offset holes in the bracket to account for the difference.

Zack and Phil Lance continued working on Zack’s 1941 Mercury engine that he bought from Larry.  The heads had been removed at an earlier work party, but in the process, several of the head bolts had broken off in the block.  Larry used a bushing as a guide that, using the holes in the head, keeps a drill bit at the correct angle to drill out the broken bolt threads. This process worked well and they had several of these broken bolts to contend with as well as a couple stuck valves that will also need to come out.

“Buster” Kirk and Susan Peterson’s 1925 “barn fresh” coupe Lorna and Kirk in the barn Kirk working on his quarter window trim Larry and Marilyn discussing the cowl lamp restoration Larry drilling a hole in the top of the cowl lamp top cap Drilling the top cap Marilyn tapping the top cap for a new screw Bruce’s spare tire carrier bracket Larry positioning the spare tire on the carrier bracket Larry, describing his plan to drill out broken off bolts Larry using a guide to drill out the bolt Mark’s touring car pistons and caps Nick using a mill to enlarge the valve stem holes Nick lapping in the valves on his 1926 Tudor engine Lorna, Bruce, and “Frodo” Art working on his flywheel and transmission parts

Nick Serna bored oversized holes in his engine block for his new valves.  Later, he worked on lapping the new valves to their seats.  Nick’s engine is coming along nicely!

Art Gebeau has turned his attention to his transmission.  The triple gear pins were still usable so Art was reaming new bronze bushings to fit the pins.

Mark Wing and Larry had installed rings to the new stock diameter aluminum pistons and attached the rods at the previous work party.  The rods had been babbitted and the rod caps were now ready for drilling an oil lubrication hole.  After the holes were done, a Dremel tool was used to grind a shallow “X” shape in the babbitt to facilitate even oil distribution in the cap.

Luke, Lorna and Larry’s son-in-law was working out the ripples in his home-made hood for his 1920 speedster project.  He and Larry used an English wheel to develop the curvature, and now Luke used a hammer and dolly to coax the metal into a smooth curvature.

It was a great work party – thanks Larry!