[Fot] Old Cars

[Larry Young]

My dad was a Ford guy. He tried to brainwash me on Fords too, but I 
rebelled and got a TR250 rather than a Mustang (good move right?). 
Anyway, he had a 1926 Model T which he got when I was about 8 years old 
and I inherited it when he stopped driving. I naturally gravitated to 
the performance end of the Model T hobby. Most people our age think 
sports cars and hotrodding started after WWII, but the same thing 
happened when the doughboys came back fror WWI. They wanted cars like 
they had seen in Europe. The Model T was the natural platform, since 
they were so abundant. I call my other one my "Poor Man's Bugatti" (see 
photo). It was built in 1922 on a junked 1914 roadster chassis. It was 
fitted with a mail order boattail body. It has several performance 
upgrades which were available in the period, e.g. full pressure oiling, 
RAJO overhead valve conversion, 2 speed rear axle (also a J-type 
overdrive not available in '22). I plan to build another speedster. I've 
got another speedster body and a Model T motor with a SOC head. There 
were a lot of speed parts available for those cars.

I wouldn't put to much weight on what the manual says for lubrication. 
Most lubricants today are better than anything available then. I run 
straight 30w or 10w-30 in the '26 which is still running with splash 
oiling. You want the oil to be fairly thin to get into the bearings. The 
Model T manual calls for 600w oil in the rearend, but there is some 
debate about how oils were designated back then (before SAE standards). 
I use the same Sta-lube GL4 90w that I use in my Triumph. Penrite makes 
a heavy steering box lube that I use in one car. I don't know how it 
compares to cornhead grease. I am surprised about how slow GM was to 
adopt more modern technology. Ford went to tapered roller wheel bearings 
around 1920 and pressure oiling about 1932. They got away from babbitted 
bearing in 1936 and started using oil filters about the same time. 
However, it was a bypass system, not full flow oil filtration. It is all 
eventually filtered (after it flow around enough times).
  - Larry Young
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