Some more pictures before restauration

C'est la dernier modele de pont arriere?

Bonjour,

En effet , cette voiture de base est bien un cabriolet fin 1925 Début 1926. Même le tableau de bord a été modifié, par contre bien équipé en Jaeger.

Le renfort pour recevoir la carrosserie est intéressante a voir .

Allez bon courage,

Jean Pierre

Oui et en dessous il y a une support pour le roue de secours.

Dear fellow enthusiasts,

first of all a big apology for keeping quiet for such a long time since my initial posts. As you know, my French is not as good as most of you, but I have been trying to read all your interesting posts and understand them as much as possible. Unfortunately, issues in my professional work and a lot of travel around Europe and the rest of the world have slowed down the progress of my restauration project considerably. And I have not really been able to reply to some of the interesting issues raised on this forum.

What have I been doing since my last posts some 9 months ago?

First I have been dismantling the entire car bit by bit. Examining and categorizing all the different parts and making an inventory of the current state of especially chassis and engine. This has taken me about 5 months. It turned out that the car must have had a frontal collision at the right side somewhere during it's life (>40 years ago), and although the repairs made were sufficient to continue using the car, it gave me some extra work at the start of the rebuilding process. The chassis was still bent a little bit, causing the crank shaft not to align with the axis of the motor, and despite multiple filling rings on the engine fixation on the chassis the engine was probably out of line in regard to the center line of the chassis. The local blacksmith made quite an effort to align the relevant parts after extensive heating of this part of the frame. Also part of the fixation of the footboard was severely bend and needed additional work. After the return of the frame to my garage I inspected and replaced broken bolts, and also did some major work on removing dirt and rust.

I the meantime I also derusted as much as possible of parts of the engine, the axles and the breaking shoes by means of chemical electrolysis. Although the process is slow, the result is very rewarding in my opinion.

After dismantling most of the engine and inspecting it I decided to ask the opinion of a professional in engine restauration. In May they further completed the cleaning process by using ultrasonic baths and sanded relevant parts were needed. We found out that while most of the parts were indeed in a good condition, some did show signs of wear and needed replacement. For instance the bearings on the oil pump at the front side of the engine showed slack by some 2-3 mm(!) and one of the piston rods (connecting to the crank shaft) seemed to be excentric and twisted. This might by attributable to the previous crash incident, but it might also be present from the production process already (see also some remarks in the excellent blog by Andre).
We also found that unfortunately the signs of 40 years of abandoning were visible on the inside of the cilinders. There are some ringlike erosions visible that need drilling of the cilinders and installing oversize pistons. After the summer holidays this will be the work to done for the next few months.

In the meantime all the parts from the chassis were sanded and painted again. Frame, axles, mudguard supports, fuel tank and supports, steering wheel supports and suspension are now repainted and have been hardening and drying over the past 3 weeks. I decided to use a special anti-rust treatment for the wheels and the main part of the chassis, in combination with special 2-component paint for all the black parts. Regarding the suspension I also had some additional work: probably also because of the previous collision it turned out that the front suspension blades were not equal left and right. And again the local blacksmith helped out by re-adjusting and adding even one new blade (taken from a 1910 horse carriage!) to provide equal strength and elasticity on both sides.

And that is the current status. I am now looking for the necessary spare parts (anyone who can help is welcomed to reply), and most important looking for the right bolts and nuts to mount all the parts back together. The aim is to have a driving frame of the car with functioning angine by the end of the year, but I am worried about the amount of time available (as probably most of you). The next year I would then spend on reconstructing the wooden frame and plating of the coach.

Kind regards, Marco
(again apologies for writing in English, if needed I will try to translate this message in French)

Hello Marco...........The project is looking good.

All your hard work will be worth it when you finally start up and get running on the road.

regards

Clive & Stella   

Bravo, bonne continuation.....
Amicalement
Thierry