Reviving/renewing old cork gaskets. I was finishing putting together the motor and some of my gaskets had shrunk. Given the gaskets are cork and 80 plus years old they are brittle. I looked online and found one listing on how to revive cork not much else so I asked several older mechanics and found out several ways to do it. Some of the ways I was reluctant to try. One way to revive the gasket was to soak it in marvel mystery oil that had been warmed. MMO is flammable so I wanted to try something a bit less hazardous so I had also been told to soak them in room temp water for a couple days, this seamed more safe. So I tried with one of my extra gaskets and it didn't do much. So on to what worked and quick! I was told hot almost boiling water was what works the best. So I first cleaned out a old parts wash tub to hold my gaskets. I boiled a large pot of water. I carried the pot out to the wash tub and carefully poured it in. I laid the gaskets in the HOT! water and used some tongs to turn and sink the cork into the HOT! water. I saw a immediate change to the gaskets as soon as they touched HOT! water. The gaskets sat in the HOT! water for almost two minutes and was back to normal.       

I got really tired of working on the floor, so I built a engine stand for the motor. Why build a engine stand? The block it self weighs close to two hundred pounds and with ever thing on it, it pushes the limits of my store bought stand. and I was a little worried it would break. So I had a little scrap metal laying around and why not!. So now I have the block, head and most every thing on the engine painted. I put the head on and torqued down. I mocked up most every thing to make sure that I have all the bolts I need and every thing is going to go back together properly. So far I like the way it looks.

Well I got my pistons in the block. Took the generator to Choate Electric in Springfield Mo. and had it completely rebuilt. and it looks good. So I put some blocks in the lifter cylinders so when I primed the block paint wouldn't get in to clog things up. I didn't get them sealed up enough so I had to clean a little paint out of there with a hone. This made me nervous, but I was told how to do it and had a little help from a machinist friend. I got the paint cleaned out and lifters in and crank and rods all done! I primed and painted the head and other parts that I needed to get done. So far so good!

I had taken the block to the machine shop and three weeks later they called my telling me that there was something wrong with my caps on the block. So I went to look at the block they had three of the main caps turned backwards. Luck have it we saw the problem bad thing they didn't want to finish the block. So off to find a new machine shop to so after some looking and talking to others. I was referred to Eagle machine in Buffalo Mo. I called them up and they actually new what engine I had and was excited to work on it. They asked me to bring the crank and the bearing to do it all by spec. I took it in on Friday and they called me Wednesday to tell me it was done! I went to pick it up and every looked awesome. The engine is ready finally! I have every thing in order to put the engine back together. Now if I can get a nice low humidity day to primer the head, water pump and hogs head. Now I need to get it done so I can start on the frame. I gave my self a goal at the beginning of this project to complete the engine by one year June 1st 2015. I am coming down to the wire! I want to have the chassis done at the two year mark. Then start on the body work that I haven't set a finish date yet.

Fixing a pot metal carburetor.

The carb top is fixed. I talked with a older gentleman that told me a way to fix the warped top on the carb. He told me it is a slow and tedious process and a lot of patience. I was a bit reluctant to try this one but I did it. First I had Hoods machine shop make me a piece of flat plate steel to put it on. They had to cut a hole in the bottom to let the carb top sit flat. Then I had to measure the gaps with a set of feeler gauges. Then here comes the hard and stressful part slowly using C-clamps clamp out .003 thousands of a inch then put the carb top in the oven at 275 F place it in a cold oven and let the whole thing warm up slowly. I gauged out each part of the carb and clamped out each part separately. I started out with .016 on the right side then clamped it down to .013 if you clamp out to much it will snap and brake the pot metal. So once it heated up to 275 F I let it set in the oven for ten minutes then pulled the whole thing out and let it cool slowly. When it got cool enough to touch I clamped out another .003 thousands of a inch. then put it back in the oven turned it back on to 275 F and did it all over again and again till it was flat. It took several clamps in several places and a lot of patience and a whole day to complete. but it looks like it worked. I couldn't get the .0015 thousands of a inch feeler gauge under any point. I let it cool over night before I removed the clamps and plate.

I found another 1933 B-3 International

Another truck! I had a friend send me a email about a 1929 International on Ebay that looked a lot like my 1933. I took a look and sure enough it was a B-3 and it had a lot of parts I needed. (mostly fenders, hood and grille.) It also had another complete engine. So a couple bids on Ebay and I was the proud owner of a second truck.  So my Father, Son and I went to Texas to pick it up. A gentleman named Andrew had the truck. He had saved the truck from being scraped and wanted to try to restore it, but would have needed to have another truck to restore his. Lucky for me I saw it. The passenger side fender is almost perfect, it has a whole hood! and all the steering linkage I need to replace on mine. So a big thanks to Andrew for saving the truck from the scrap yard. It is going to a good home and going to be put to good use. And save me a lot of time and money. It is guy's  like Andrew that look at these old trucks thinking that it is not just scrap and save them from being a memory. You can't save them all but when parts are this scares, I am so glad he did! My luck on this rebuild is unbelievable Granddaddy must be watching over it. From the beginning it has been spectacular! The day before we left to get the truck in June I met Tom Underwood that had all my engine parts. The weeks  after any thing that broke, caused me trouble has been a easily fixed. I have talked with many people and met many others that have Internationals that have helped me with knowledge of the trucks. I couldn't be doing this with out the people helping me on this project. So thank you! And a big nod to Granddaddy who started this all.

Head done! New distributor!

I took the block to the O'Reilly machine shop to have the mains line honed. So hope fully soon I can get it back and get some red paint on it and get to putting it back together. I also found a new distributor on line. I finally got all of my head studs and new nuts in.

This before and after is where Dave fixed the crack in my head.