Story and photos by Mark Wing

At this Tuesday work day at Larry’s garage Kirk Peterson and his son Kameron were continuing on preparations for the upcoming Montana 500 race, Paul Duncan continued on the rear differential for his 1918 pickup truck project, and Mark Wing worked on front hubs for his 1915 Coupelet restoration.

Kirk, Kameron, and Larry were focused on final preparations for “Buster”, Kirk’s 1925 coupe that will be entered in this year’s Montana 500 race. The deadline is nearing as contestants are due to arrive on Thursday, June 17th at the Hampton Inn in Kalispell, Montana. Larry made adjustments to the coils that had been rebuilt by Ron “the Coilman” Patterson. A VIN plate was mounted to the coupe’s firewall. Pieces of pipe insulating foam were cut to size and fitted to the top ribs to prevent the vinyl top from fluttering when driving over 50 mph. On a test drive, the foam tubes did the trick and the flapping on the top disappeared. Unfortunately, the magneto switch malfunctioned and the test drive had to be finished on battery. A few more tweaks and Buster should be ready for the race!

Paul Duncan continued work on his 1918 pickup truck rear differential assembly. This touring car to farm truck conversion was a Model T that Marilyn Duncan’s father bought in the 1950’s and, until recently, had been stored in the family barn in Kansas. The goal is to restore the car to sound mechanical shape for Marilyn’s brother who still lives in Kansas. The engine’s been rebuilt and the rear differential assembly has a lot of new components like new pinion and ring gears and two new tapered axles. On this day, Paul was dry fitting the parts in preparation for final assembly.

Mark Wing was disassembling and cleaning two front hubs for his 1915 Coupelet project. These hubs are the early style with the ball bearings. Both right and left have a shoulder for the speedometer gear to mount even though the gear would only be mounted to one of the sides.

Thank you Larry for an enjoyable and productive work day at your garage in Corrales, NM.