Ford Model T - Overlander

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modernbeat

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I clicked on this thread purely because of the perceved absurdity...
Absurd is the right description for it.

Just want to know when "we" Leaving? lol
We wanted to leave in late May or June of this year. But the winter was so wet that we knew that the mountain passes in Colorado wouldn't be open by then. And from late June to September we have other events going on. So we slacked off a bit on the build with the thought we'd be going in October.

We're finishing the top skeleton right now. We still have to mount it to the bed, paint the skeleton, upholster the top, build some armrests, build the canvas sides for the bed and build the canvas tenting and poles that convert the bed similar to a pop-up trailer camper.

I'll update the build thread with a synopsis of the trip when we're done. I'll be posting to Instagram and Facebook during the trip. And I'll likely put up some Youtube videos of some of the hairy sections of the trails.
 

Hipster

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Absurd is the right description for it.


We wanted to leave in late May or June of this year. But the winter was so wet that we knew that the mountain passes in Colorado wouldn't be open by then. And from late June to September we have other events going on. So we slacked off a bit on the build with the thought we'd be going in October.

We're finishing the top skeleton right now. We still have to mount it to the bed, paint the skeleton, upholster the top, build some armrests, build the canvas sides for the bed and build the canvas tenting and poles that convert the bed similar to a pop-up trailer camper.

I'll update the build thread with a synopsis of the trip when we're done. I'll be posting to Instagram and Facebook during the trip. And I'll likely put up some Youtube videos of some of the hairy sections of the trails.
I think you misunderstood, no worries, I'll bring my own supplies and chip in on fuel. lol Sounds like a hella fun adventure.
 

modernbeat

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Back to the build up of the T! We hit another milestone last month, so I'll update the thread to there.

After a few more test drives we found that the valve cover (aka side plate) was still leaking. Because of it's proximity to the manifold and that it has to slip behind the alternator, I couldn't use the rigid cast aluminum plate. And, we couldn't use a thick gasket. So, we tried a thin rubber gasket. Then a thin closed cell foam gasket. Then a cork gasket glued to the block. All of those failed. So, I admitted defeat and glued both sides of the cork gasket. Now the side cover is glued on and doesn't leak. I bought a half dozen spares to use when the valves are adjusted.

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Now, we're starting on the roof.

Back when we were about halfway done with the engine I cut some feet and backing plates on the CNC plasma cutter and welded the feet to some 1.5" x 1/8" angle iron. These would be the uprights for the canopy. Though I had worked out most of the truck in CAD, I fudged on the height of these uprights. We wanted to have the bottom of the body done so we could judge how high we could get the roof and still make it into the garage. We had to make the uprights high enough to clear the windshield, but then the planned curved roof would hit the garage door opening. After some measurements we found that we'd have to thin the roof by shortening the side boards and lowering the curved crown. Planning done, it was time to cut the uprights to the correct length.

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We bolted them into the corners of the bed.

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And added backing plates to the underside of the bed. Square nuts are a requirement.

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All four uprights on the Model-T.

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We bought some lumber to make the roof frame. Started by drawing out the lateral crown of the different sections of the roof. This was done with extreme precision. :rolleyes:

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modernbeat

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Mocked up the side pieces of the roof frame.

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And mocked up the wood spacers that would be applied to the uprights. These were done because we needed a filler piece here for canvas sides, they will have a step in the top to help support the roof frame, and the step can be a shim that helps square up the roof.

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I chiseled out notches in the side boards to locate the narrow curved lateral rib between the two full height boards.

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We tapered the front of the side boards and mocked up the layout.

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I used this tapered router bit to pie-cut the side boards where we wanted to bend them inwards.

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The pie-cut section.

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We hoisted the assembly onto a suitable work surface, drilled the holes for the pegs and glued it up. Held it tight with straps.

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Once the square part was dry, we steamed and bent the pie-cuts and used straps to pull them in.
That's a plain old clothes steamer Jeff is using to soften the bend.

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Trying to get the bends right.

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After the bends were set we trimmed the angles on the front of the header and brow and pegged them into place.

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modernbeat

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Next we laid out some slats to see how they rested on the roof frame and what sort of angle we would need to put on the edge of the frame.

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And we built up an overhang on the rear of the roof.

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We rough cut the rear overhang and then fine tuned the curve with the sculpting tool, aka the belt sander.

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The first slat goes on, perfectly centered it will be the piece all the others are matched up to. These are glued and nailed with a brad or two per joint.

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We laid the slats out with a 50% coverage using another slat as a spacer between the fixed slats.

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All the slats are on.

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Then we cut a lot of small pieces to act as filler around the perimeter. Front, rear and tapered edges all needed filler pieces. All of these edges were rounded off with the belt sander.

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Then we test fit it and realized the taper was lopsided and the front header was shifted over about two inches. Ouch!

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So, we cut apart the offset corner, trimmed the header, bent in the side a little more, and reworked the slats on that corner.
High precision indeed!

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And test fit the corrected roof frame.

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modernbeat

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Since we wanted to sleep in the bed of this truck, we had to have supports for the side gates to keep them flat.
We added clevis eyes to the side gates and made up adjustable height legs that were attached to the gates with loose clevis pins.

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And, it was time for more paint. We painted the roof frame the same color as the body.

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We reinstalled the frame and drove it around for a while like this.

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Then we started on the roof.

First was a layer of 11.5oz cotton duck canvas.

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I wet down the canvas to stretch it and stapled it to the frame.

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I touched up all the staples with Super Glue to keep the canvas from pulling around the staples after it was trimmed.

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Both of us really liked the look of the natural canvas through the blue slats.

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Next we trimmed the edges of the first layer of canvas.

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And added the second layer, a sheet of heavy wool felt to pad the roof and help eliminate any bumps.

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We weren't quite happy with the loft of the wool felt, so added a second layer of padding using Quilt Polyester Batting Fleece applied with spray glue.

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The next layer was the guaranteed waterproof layer, a piece of plastic sheeting applied with spray glue.

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modernbeat

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Then the -final- layer, a piece of heavy #6 21oz canvas duck.

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This was wet down to smooth it out and we used a jig to get the staples the right depth from the roof.

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We scabbed together this little sample of the roof materials as a show-and-tell for the Model-T club.

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Next we masked off the painted roof frame and applied two coats of primer to the canvas. That canvas soaked up a lot of primer. We are rolling on Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer here.

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The second coat went on easier.

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Then we applied three coats of gloss black Rustoleum Professional using a foam roller to get a vintage vinyl texture.

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The gloss black turned out a little too glossy, so we added a final coat of Rustoleum flat black to reduce the shine.

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We mocked up the edge trim using push pins.

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It was a two man job to spread the trim open and staple it over the edge of the canvas, hiding all the ragged edges.

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And installed the roof onto the Model-T.

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modernbeat

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After driving it for a bit, we found the edge of the rubber mats needed to be secured.
I picked up a pair of 1919 thresholds and we added them to the truck.

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I didn't like how we had configured the shifters. The Warford was in the primary spot, but it was used like a transfer case. And the Ruckstell two-speed axle shifter was in the secondary spot, but it was used like a transmission. So I bought another Ruckstell shifter to replace the one we had bent and had Jeff's dad, Craig, bend the Warford shifter.

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We did a little maintenance while the shifters were out. Here we're tightening the bands after they took a set.

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By this time we felt the truck was reliable to actually do stuff with it, not just take it on random trips. So we dressed it up and stuck the kids in the back with a five gallon bucket of candy for the local 4th of July parade.

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The next step was to build the gussets for the roof.
I bought a cheap Harbor Freight tubing bender (for curving tubing, not bending tubing) and a set of small dies and some upgrade parts from Swag Offroad. This made it super easy to get the curve I wanted in the roof support gussets.

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Some torch work with a rosebud and the ends were bent.

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There were three different sized gussets. They were all bent to match the layout on the cardboard. Then tapped internally and a clevis eye added to the top.

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Hmmm, a couple of those need a touch-up.

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These were added to the uprights and roof frame to help keep it stable.

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