Rear radius rods

[Ed H]

Are they the same for all 31 four doors?
Mine is a three window early 31, I jacked the car up on one, not a good thing to do. I am learning tho..........

[DaWizard]

Ed, you need to make up your mind. In the speedo post you said it was slant window, that is late '31, and at that time, I believe all the radius rods in the rear were the same.

[Ed H]

Ed, you need to make up your mind. In the speedo post you said it was slant window, that is late '31, and at that time, I believe all the radius rods in the rear were the same.

Check out my pics on "what did you do to your Model A today". I was told it was an early 31 as it did not have the indented fire wall. The car came with windshield hinges and locking slides to hold it open. Although no windshield came with the car.
Thanks for you ifno.

[DaWizard]

Yes, that is early '31, and the same response applies in the speedo post, just a small difference which part applies.

[Mitch]

Ed here are the differences from the JS

A1A68118-D504-45D6-BA42-B4C2B8E1DD31L0001.jpg

[Ed H]

I will have to take a closer look at it. Did not really pay a lot of attention to detail.
Thank you

[Mitch]

I have seen people lift these cars on a twin post lift by all 4 radius rods.

[tbirdtbird]

Shame!

[Ed H]

Maybe this one was weak, I did put a bend in it. Dont dare try to straighten it out. Will replace it.

[tbirdtbird]

they are hollow

[Mitch]

Ed just to clarify!!
When i said i see people lifting them by the radius rods i was not recommending it. That should never be done!! That is why i had the YIKES face posted after the sentence

[Ed H]

I agree Mitch, was wrong to assume the radius rod would hold the weight of the car. Need to jack on the frame for sure.

[Tom Wesenberg]

If it doesn't have a dent or kink, it might be worth trying to straighten it.
When I worked at the junk yard, the moron running the loader always put the fork under the driveshaft and bent it. I bought a Ford cube truck from the yard, and of course it had the usual 2"bent driveshaft with a dent in the tube. It shook like crazy driving it 30 MPH for the 10 miles to my house. I couldn't find another good shaft in the yard, so I used a hydraulic jack and 2 x 4 to push the driveshaft as straight as I could get it. It drove fine at 55 MPH for the 250 miles I had to drive it to the old farmhouse.

[Mitch]

So Ed what is your plan on this car?

[Ed H]

So Ed what is your plan on this car?

Mitch, I put MMO in the eng, from what I can see the cyc walls look good, still shiny. One ex valve is really black on one edge, I am sure it is burned.
I am going to pull the body off and do the mechanical work, then start on the body. Originally I was going to replace the firewall, I have one looks like new. Thinking I would like to keep this car as orig as possible I will work with the firewall that is on the car.

I am going to drop the pan, when I drained the old oil out sludge came out in blobs. Clean pan, make sure oil pumps spins, try to fire it up.
I have a 60 gallon air compressor in my garage, will run a line out to the barn and start working. Should have done this a long time ago, but life tends to get in the way of projects as we all know.

[Mitch]

Sounds great.. keep an ongoing build thread going that you can keep adding to if you want. They are great for documenting things and looking back on!

I did the Lucy thread but all at once on the VFF, so there was not much member input along the way. When i built her i had a nice one going on the darkside but all those pics disappeared from photo bucket plus that was another era. Try to upload your pics directly to the forum without an outside hosting service. If you need help doing that just ask

[Mitch]

Ed PM sent

[Tom Wesenberg]

You mentioned running an air line out to the car being worked on. I'm wondering how cold it gets, because as soon as it drops below freezing, I can't use my air hose outside, due to the condensation freezing the line shut. Remember, as the air leaves the tank, the pressure drops, and the line air can be even colder than the outside air.

[Ed H]

You mentioned running an air line out to the car being worked on. I'm wondering how cold it gets, because as soon as it drops below freezing, I can't use my air hose outside, due to the condensation freezing the line shut. Remember, as the air leaves the tank, the pressure drops, and the line air can be even colder than the outside air.

Tom, I plan on using 1/2 galvanized pipe buried under ground. Maybe 12" or so. I drain my air tank every month, hoping the moisture will not freeze. If it does than I am SOL until spring. I do have a small compressor, would run an air wrench but no way a sand blaster.
Thanks for the thought.

[tbirdtbird]

consider schedule 80 3/4" PVC, it won't rust.
Galvanized is not as rust resistant as people think.
PVC might even be cheaper

[Ed H]

Do you think that PVC will hold up to 150 lbs of pressure? Is the regular glue strong enough?
Thanks.

[Mitch]

The airlines in my whole shop are PVC.. That's the way to go and remember to face your nipple outlets straight up, this helps with water and junk.

tbird is on the money

[Mitch]

I used 80 inside the shop

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

My shop was plumbed with schedule 80. All common fittings ARE schedule 80. NEVER had a BLOWOUT! Had 10 outlets around & used shorter hoses, so I didn't TRIP on one!
Dad Blowhard

[tbirdtbird]

I knew the schedule 40 would hold the pressure but I suggested schedule 80 because of you going underground, it is more rugged and could withstand friction from stones, frost, etc better.
The city workers and licensed irrigators here (remember in Texas there are sprinkler systems everywhere you turn) swear by Christi's Red Hot glue. I would use no other. The pre cleaner you use matters not. The Red Hot is actually blue in color, but is nearly indestructible. Either Lowes or Home D have it i forget which. The other glues are a joke, library paste would work better

[Dennis]

I always use primer before Red HoT Glue. I worked in a shop years ago that had PVC lines overhead and down next to the doors. It never freezes there so that wasn't a problem. There were sections where they didn't use primer before they glued, yes all was glued with Red Hot Glue, and you might know a joint blew apart above me one day. A jagged piece of the pvc came down right on the top of my head. No stitches but I told the service manager this time I'm doing the air line repair, not you or anybody else.

[Ed H]

Thanks guys, always used black iron. I will certainly look into schedule 80. Would seem to much better to work with.

[Mitch]

The only negative i heard about using PVC is while it's under pressure if something hit and fractured the pipe it can shatter and shoot shards. This has never stopped me from using it, but it's something to be aware of.

[Dennis]

Exactly what happened to me. But it was a case of poor glue joints done by inexperienced labor. It was overhead and never hit by anything.