After painting under the bonnet/hood I took a look at the underside.
I must admit I’ve been putting this task off because it’s not the most pleasant.
I’ve added a few old pictures from a few years back to show the difference!
Looks a bit better now, but will need a few more coats as it’s sucking up the paint.
Doing a little bit of under hood/bonnet painting before the weather gets too cold to get outside. Not exactly concours but looks a bit better. Much more left to do, but as you can see we’ve come quite a way!
The front bumper on the Model A had been bent since I got the car so we decided to have a try and straightening the bar and see how it looks.
As you see after a bit of a wood issue the bumper is now pretty straight.
Once we got the wood situation sorted out we got the bumper back in pretty good shape,
There has been a recirculating grinding type noise coming from the Model A on hard left hand locks since we changed the brake back plates.
Simon and I set off on a road test to pinpoint the noise and Simon nailed it!
The noise was coming from the right hand rear wheel.
After removing the wheel and hub/drum assembly we found a couple of issues.
The brake shoe issue was alleviated by grinding the metal edge off the brake shoes
Once this was achieved the drum was placed in the lathe and a small amount of material removed to ensure that the drum and back plate were no longer in contact.
A final road test confirmed that the diagnosis was correct and the treatment had been a success!
Here’s some photos of the work carried out
When I first imported the Model A over three years ago I promised my Aunt Noreen a ride in the car and finally today I delivered on the promise 🙂
Joe Jagersberger came to the USA from Austria and began working for Case Corporation in Racine Wisconsin to assist in developing a race car programme.
Whilst working for Case Jagersberger was a regular race competitor including racing at the Indianapolis 500. He continued to race until 1911 eventually becoming victim to a career ending crash after which he spent several months in hospital and resulted in an amputation of his right leg.
Despite his injuries he continued to work at Case as a consultant. He continued to design cylinder heads and other peripherals eventually starting his own company under the famous Rajo brand. The name of the brand was formed from the RA of Racine and the JO from his first name.
Rajo started off by producing spark plugs and various other items. They then moved into producing performance cylinder heads for Ford Model T and Model A cars.
The first design was the Model 30 which had 4 exhaust ports and one intake port all on the right side of the head. The Model 31 had two intakes on the right and four exhaust on the left. The Model 35C, first known as the “Improved Rajo Valve-in-Head” and later as the Model C had two intakes and three exhausts on the right. The Model A used the stock intake ports on the block. It had two exhaust ports on the right. His Model B two intakes on the right and four exhausts on the left. It came in three versions. The BB featured a higher compression ratio and the BB-R also included two spark plugs per cylinder.
He also offered a modification to the 1941-52 Chevrolet “stovebolt” L6 OHV 15 bolt head, which added another set of 3 intake ports above the 3 originals, to permit adding (an) extra carburetor(s) on a separate manifold.
Jagersberger died in 1952. The company closed in 1980.
Rajo equipment is still very much sought after and command very high prices amongst the traditional hot rod community
Here on Hemmings are some great examples of period Rajo powered racers
There are also some interesting Rajo ephemera items to be found on sites such as eBay
Sources Wikipedia, Hemmings, trackforum.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajo_Motor_and_Manufacturing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Jagersberger
I’ve been meaning to sort out the perished windows channels on the Model A, so I headed over to John Cochran’s for some expert assistance.
Once we had removed the door trims it was very interesting to find the details from the trim manufacturer from 20 years ago! I may research the detail to see if I can get a bead on who owned the car back then. I’ve tried writing to the owner listed on the title but sadly got no reply.
It was great to drive home with slightly less rattles thanks to John!
Gave the A a bit of a wash and brush up after the indignity of the recovery truck a few weeks back.
Shiny, Shiny Model A
Wash and dry, Zymol Wax Prep, Meguiars Wax and Autoglym Fast Glass
After the breakdown on the way to Wheels Day 2017 and some diagnosis the Pertronix module was the culprit (well the symptom anyway :))
This is the second module failure, so it’s back to points which as least can be fixed on the road. I’ve gone for the “modern points” setup by Nu-Rex, “modern” is pretty amusing as the new plate contains the 1957 onward Ford V8 points as opposed to the original 1929 setup.
Before I began I set the timing to TDC via the timing pin as per usual on the Model A I then started to remove the Pertronix system
During removal I found that the lower distributor plate had been deleted, a bit annoying as I’d ordered the upper plate from O’Neills. Luckily John Cochran had a used item I could use (thanks John :))
I’d also ordered the recommended longer pigtail for the lower plate, this is recommended to alleviate the stress on the original which is a little short and often fails due to fatigue. So after desoldering and drilling the old pigtail was removed. Then it was a matter of a little cleaning and soldering to get the new item fitted. As my car has no pop out ignition switch I further modified the plate to securely fix the hot cable to the plate by drilling the dimple which was designed to contact the original pop out switch.
Once all the modifications were completed I installed the plate into the distributor.
Lower plate installed
The pigtail was connected to the points contact ensuring that the connector was not able to accidentally ground to the distributor housing.
Also checked that the timing advance lever was in the fully retarded setting at this point
Next the upper plate was installed taking care to wrap the pigtail around the cam spring whilst making sure not to pinch the cable.
The upper plate will only install one way into the tabs and groove and should turn freely.
Nu-Rex Modern Points Upper Plate Installed
See the next episode for rewiring, points adjustment, timing and hopefully an engine start.
Here’s some dash cam video of the A, on a local jaunt 🙂
