The Excitement is Mounting!

So the car has finally made it into Dad's garage. Grandpa and Jim (the gentleman we are doing the other 2 cars for) was kind enough to venture down from the frigid North to the beautiful weather of the South. They made it Wednesday afternoon, but because of work and school (yay) I could not make it until Thursday. But as all of you have probably figured out I didn't really sleep much in anticipation of getting to see it and work on it, In fact I was up at 5am and went out to my garage and sanded. For anyone that knows me they know that I must have been really excited of I was sanding. So on to the fun!

Let's first talk about the doors. Dad had gotten these done prior to this adventure starting but I have to throw it in because it is part of the progression. here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure...

I meant to do a progression of me putting the trim on but I got caught up in the work. As part of the excitement I will also throw in a fun video for you to enjoy...

As part of the doors there is a little rain gutter that goes on the top of the door. I know some of you are thinking "what is the point of a rain gutter when the car is completely open?" It is about as pointless as putting a lock on it (some of you will find this funnier than others). But needless to say Ford put it in and so shall we. Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what it looks like...

Because I know some of you reading this post like the technical side. The first step of the process we laid the door flat and cut the depth of it on the table saw. Then we took the router with the bowl nose bit to cut the groove. Then we 1/4 inch rounded the top portion and then I sanded the inside groove to be rounded since you can't get a bit into that small of an area. So now rain will never get on us ever again. Until it rains...

Stay tuned for more on our exciting weekend.

Trimming

Life brings us a lot of trimming. We trim the turkey. We trim the Christmas tree. We try to trim ourselves down. We trim the bushes and the hedges. Some of us will even trim our hair. But I have bet you have never trimmed a 1929 Station Wagon!

Sorry this post is a little out of order. Because the trim is our first finished piece. The tailgate wins for the first completed assembly. On the Station Wagon there is actually two sizes of trim. There is one that they so adequately call large trim. And one that they affectionately call small trim. As you can see Ford simplified everything including the names. The large trim goes horizontally across the car. The small trim is vertical. Both are routed with the same curves. The large trim is 1" by 7/8". And the small trim is 7/8" by 5/8". So it gives you a nice subtle difference.

Again because of doing three cars next to the slats this has the second most pieces that need sanding. I know between me and a little help from my wife we will have sanded at least all of the small trim and probably all of the large trim. Because I don't get out to work with Dad a lot I bring home parts to sand. So I am sure the large trim will end up at my house.

Because some of you have been asking about how many bags of sawdust we have so far. Sorry no hints you just have to read the blog. You can add 2 more bags of sawdust to your total. And if everything goes well this weekend we should be able to put together the front doors and hopefully many other things. So look forward to many posts in the future.

Anyone for Tailgating?

I'm really excited because now I can finally really tailgate! I guess maybe not quite yet. I guess you newed the car too not just the tailgate? For all you followers out there this is our first piece that is completely put together. I thought I would show this one in a little bit of a progression. So there will be lots of pictures for those who like pictures. And if you don't like pictures just wait for the next post.

Sometimes my dad is just too fast. So this is the first picture we have of any of the tailgate.

Because of the way the trim goes on it has to be done in pieces. One at a time. The two little pieces off to the left hand side of the trim are there for spacing and are not really a part of the trim.This just helps to keep it straight and hold it where I wanted it.

And the next step...

And the next...

And Boom Baby! This is what the tailgate looks like with all of the wood done! There are three metal straps that go vertically on the posts and also angle iron that goes on the top and the bottom. Which I will post pictures of in the future. And you can add 2 more bags of sawdust to your total.

Just a Post...

So I thought that I would just add some good information for all of you followers out there.  I have lots of pictures and progress to show but not sure where to begin so I' just going to tell you a few things about the station wagon.
The station wagon was first made by Ford in 1928 there were I think 4 or 5 produced (Although they are not sure if there were more produced).  The differneces between 28 and 29 are minumimal and you really have to know what you are looking at to tell.  But the 29 and 30-31's are really easy to tell.  So in hopes to tell you a little bit about both here it goes.

1930-1931

1929 (White walls were not original but they look awesome!)

First of all the biggest difference is in the trim that is at the top of the door right where you would rest your arm.  For the 29 it was just a staight plain board nothing fancy.  By the time that 30's came out they increased the size and added what I would call flare.

The next thing that it different is that the 29 has a staight roof while the 30-31 curves down to the front of the car.  The 29 was just a box on wheels.  It was one of the first produced so they start simple and then add as they go.  For some they say that the first one is always the best but others like the add-ons.  For me i like them both they all have a uniquness that was only Ford.  So now if you see any out there on the road you will know a little bit more about which year your looking at.

Dad's Progression

Unfortunately my time has been seriously occupied with school. So my Dad has primarily worked on everything in this blog post. He has been working on cutting the tenon joints for all of the doors. When he made the Traveler he rigged up some elaborate concoction that only Engineers would understand. This time because he had to make so many cuts he decided to buy a machine that would help him out. 

He loves his new machine, just FYI.

So although this made the process easier, it still took some time to get it all set up with the right depths and cuts. It took him a few days but this is what he produced...

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasures. I would like to be able to explain what part of the car these go to but I really only know where the middle one goes. The middle picture is the bottom piece of the front doors. The way that you know this is that the bottom of the doors have the trim curve on it. Which you can see right above my thumb. I guess I did have a part in this process because I did cut the trim. And made another bag of sawdust.

So our progress is moving along nicely. Still not sure when this will all be finished, but the best part is that it is starting to look like pieces of a car. And pretty much anyone can say "oh that's to this" or "oh that's to that."

The Pretty Bows

Loop it swoop it and pull it through baby! Or is it something about a bunny going around a tree and getting caught in a hole? Or something like that? So if you have no clue what I am talking about...we are talking about bows!

The station wagon bows are in some sense much simpler than trying to learn how to tie your shoe. But it sure takes a lot more time to make it. The bows are on the roof and they go side to side. In the station wagon there was 9 of them including one of which butts up against the piece in the rear that is visible when looking at the back.

To start the process we cut the wood to a certain length and then cut it to the width of an inch and a quarter. This was to allow us to be able to make the curve to follow the curve of the roof. After we had it all cut my Dad set up what he calls affectionately "The Bow Making Machine."

First we had to make a pattern and that is the large board on top. We cut and sanded this to match the curve that we wanted. Then we marked each bow and to save from routing and causing major issues we first trimmed it with the bandsaw. Then we finished with the router.

This is them up to that point. And then we used that curve to make the bottom curve. And how we did that was that we stuck it into the plainer. And planed it down to 7/8 in which is the height of the bows. This produced a whole other bag of sawdust.

This is what they look like finished! Of course this is all of them stacked together they really aren't that big.

Now for those of you who don't know anything about a Model A or who have never been in one before this would be the width of the car. Back in the day they said they could put three people in that amount of space. To give you a reference point that is a weight bench underneath them. Not very big is it? My Dad and I were joking about this when we were looking at it. When you look at it this way you just don't think your fat butt is going to fit in their. But haven driven a Model A I know it will as long as I don't eat too many Twinkies.

We Hit the Floor!

I wanted to start with a famous young person song. But because most of you wont understand it...we will skip it. Dad and I started on the floor. For the station wagon the floor is pieced together similar to how a hardwood floor would be.

Many pieces and components are involved. The most elaborate piece of this jigsaw puzzle is the piece that runs on the outside of the floor that encompasses both doors and up under the cowl. Because this piece is quite large we had some trouble trying to figure out how to cut it out without wasting large amounts of wood. This created one bag of sawdust. For all you technical people out there the width was over 7 inches and the length is more than 50. It has many elaborate angles and cutouts. So we figured a pattern would be in order. See attached picture:

I know the picture is not wonderful but we used this to draw onto the wood and then my poor Father spent 3 nights routing, cutting, and sanding to make it look like it was supposed to. I was just used for heavy lifting. The board was almost 12 feet long and weighed close to 30 to 50 pounds.Great job Dad!

I know the suspense is killing you so we will post a few finished product pictures. Well almost finished.

This picture is of the entire piece. The way that it is laying is the driver's side of the car.

This is a close up of the part that goes up under the cowl.

As mentioned above it is almost finished. The reason being is this bottom portion will be built up another 3/4 of an inch. Because you can't find wood that thick unless you cut it yourself. Henry Ford might of been into something back then having his own forest. If anyone know how to get me one I might consider doing more of these.