Story and photos by Mark Wing (unless otherwise noted)

Linda Riel, one of our senior club members, arranged for a Tin Lizzie car show at Rich Ford (Edgewood, NM) to help celebrate the dealership’s 18th anniversary.  Many of the participants met at a shopping center parking lot on the eastern side of Albuquerque, to caravan the approximate 30 miles to Rich Ford via old Route 66.  This scenic highway runs parallel to Interstate 40.  Twelve Model Ts were on display at Rich Ford on this Saturday as well as 24 club members in attendance.

This was the first time the club members had seen Paul Musgrave’s 1926/27 Model T roadster.  Paul lives in Edgewood and he had described his car, but no one had seen it previously.  It’s a great looking car, but it wasn’t running correctly so Larry Azevedo, our resident Model T electro-mechanical wizard took a look at it.  After listening to the engine and preforming some tests, Larry determined that the carburetor was adjusted too lean and one of coils wasn’t working.  Two other cylinders were experiencing shorted spark plug wires and one of the spark plugs was badly fouled.  After the carburetor adjustment, replacement of a spark plug and a coil, and some spark plug wire tweaking, the roadster sounded much better and rev’ed much more freely.  We hope that Paul is able to enjoy driving his T now that it’s running on all four cylinders.

Jeff Richards recently acquired a 1926 Model T touring car from fellow Tin Lizzie member, Tom Miles (a Rosenthal Award winner).  Some years ago, Tom had gotten the car from Bernice Young, wife of the late Roy Young, another legendary Tin Lizzie club member.  On this day, Jeff was very busy fixing a problem in his steering gear box and adjusting a front wheel tracking issue.  The first item was caused by galling due to a sharp piece of metal that had caused the steering wheel to freeze up!  Some filing and lubrication solved the problem.  The second issue was difficulty in keeping the touring car on the road as it wanted to drift.  The toe in was checked and it turned out that there was no allowance for toe in.   The front end tie rod had to be adjusted to allow for the toe in and they also discovered a loose front right wheel bearing while the front end was jacked up.

Other adjustments included Dave Ferro’s Rocky Mountain brakes and Ken Carpenter’s electrical system.  It turned out to be an impromptu and extremely productive work party for Larry!

The day was very enjoyable, until around 1PM when the overcast sky let loose with an impressive rain storm.  It rained for about an hour, with most of the club members huddled under a large tent that Linda had brought.  We usually stay at the dealership until 3PM, but everyone, including the local Model A club, disbanded earlier when there was a break in the storm around 2PM.

Thank you Rich Ford Edgewood, and Rich Ford’s president Dennis Snyder in particular, for inviting us to your anniversary celebration and to Linda for organizing the event!