[Liberty Garage]

Although it's been quite awhile since the last post, progress has continued...slowly. Like a lot of you, often there are at least half a dozen projects competing for my time and the old doodlebug sits weeks at a time, waiting its turn. When my brother shows up, progress moves along a lot more quickly.

The most recent visit he brought along one of his grandsons, a budding young gear head named Whitman or "Whit" for short. Whitman is only 7, but seems much older. Very smart and loves all things mechanical. Before this trip, he had his mom print out diagrams of Model A's and studied them so he knew the names of many parts. He really dug in and got to work and showed a genuine aptitude for turning wrenches. Already looking forward to his next visit!

Whit also got to help his grandpa do a partial tear down of the original engine from the doodlebug, and much to our surprise it looked a lot better inside then expected. It looks like the pistons were pretty fresh when it was parked, there was hardly any carbon on them. This engine may one day run again. Old Henry and Edsel sure built a marvelous machine!

While Chuck and Whit were here, in addition to tearing down the old engine, we refurbished and installed a 1947 Wisconsin fuel tank and petcock and got the steering to about 95% completion.

The fuel tank is a semi temporary solution until such a time when we are ready to clean out the old tank. Another friend has a '29 hi-boy (mostly stock) and he uses a 2 gallon tank with fuel pump because his fuel tank was so far gone. This gave me the idea and I just changed it up a bit to remain gravity fed.

A few weeks back, I cut most of the steering out and started over. The steering now consists of a nice used stock Model A column, the original wheel that came on the doodlebug that sure looks like a Model T, refurbished the center spider, painted it the Ford green and installed a new rim from Mac's. Fit on the A column, just had to shave the key a bit. Also hooked up the hand throttle, one of the reasons for switching back to a stock column. Connecting the drag link to the left front required some creativity. Decided to fabricate a steering arm using some flat stock and a ball from Mac's. Turned out well but a bit too much flex, so will be adding additional triangulation.

During this same session, I used a combination of torch, recip saw and the wheel of death to remove the rear hitch bumper and cut the rear end loose from the frame, allowing everything to slide back so the transmission could eventually be installed.

This week will be taking the best two rear wheels to Les Schwabs so they can be powder coated and get new tires, also have another pair of front wheels that are much better than the rollers on the tractor now, will get them painted to match the rears and install some better front tires.

After getting the tires sorted will install the clutch and transmission, have also filled the two speed and rear end full of diesel to let them soak and then drained before working on them.

Mocked up the small bus seat and also a windshield frame just to see how it would all look. Lots of work left to do, but the finish line is at least in sight! Attaching photos that tell the rest of the story.