Well, if they're set up right, they will start fairly easily.

I'm a little nervous to head up to Cobble Beach.

I've never been to a, you know, a show of this magnitude where, you know, they look at everything.

Every car has a story car (car races by) like the best thing ever.

For some, they end up here.

(metal crushing) These are just some of the stories about those who collect and restore vehicles, giving them a renewed lease on life so that their stories can be told right here on Radical Restoration.

(music) Closed captioning provided by Cre-Oil.

On line at Cre-Oil dot com.

Funding for Radical Restoration is provided by (Music) Rakabot sources sustainable materials to create boot racks that organize footwear that allows drippings to go in the bowl.

Models designed for home, work or recreational settings are available on line at Rakabot dot com Joe's Hand Cleaner Manufactured by Clean Products supports Radical Restoration With or without water Joe's Hand Cleaner cleanses to ingredients that are food or cosmetic grade A family business since 1948.

On line at Joe's Hand Cleaner dot com.

Tire tag.

Re Usable labelling to organize tire rotation and re-mounting.

Tire Tag.

(car honk ) On line at Tire dash Tag dot com Additional funding provided by Nutrafarms and Hagerty Insurance collecting and restoring classic cars, appeals to everyone of all ages.

In this episode, we visit the work done to keep a 1912 Model T Ford and a 1931 model A Ford on the road.

Then later, we look at how a 1936 Ford truck cab is transformed into an award winning hot rod at Cobble Beach.

My name is Stan Passfield, and the vehicle we're looking at here is a 1912 Model-T Ford.

I acquired the car at the end of 2011.

I found it in Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh.

It's a Canadian built car, and it was taken out of Muskoka in 1949, down to the Pittsburgh area.

And I repatriated it.

That's the coil, the initial coil box.

And there's the key.

And on that, a key is a war amp's key tag from 1949.

And the number license number on that tag is the same as a photograph I have of the car when it was still in Muskoka.

I've been working on old cars since the 1960s and I've had a quite a variety of different kinds of cars over those years, including a Stanley Steamer car and McLaughlin Buick and various others.

But in the mid eighties I got involved in the Model T Ford Hobby and Model T Fords as cars.

Early cars to be driven are among the best.

They're reliable.

They run well.

And it's easy to see when you owned them why there were so many made over so many years.

So this car essentially is completed.

But I had a problem with it.

I've just finished the restoration on it earlier this year.

I've given it a total of 70 miles, and when you take a car totally apart and rebuild it, there are always a few little things that didn't quite work right or have to be changed or improved.

And that was the case here.

And that's what I'm working on right now.

And with any luck at all, I'll be finished it this afternoon and I may be driving around the neighborhood.

(tapping) Everything you do on these cars takes longer than you think.

You never know what you're going to find when you get into something like this.

Now, a lot of these pictures don't really mean much to people looking at it.

These are parts of the car.

When it was under restoration.

But when we take pictures of some of the original upholstery that was in the car and the original wood frame, and you can see on the the original paint on the wood there, which is an indication as to overall how good this car was considering it was over 100 years old.

Now, that's some of the original upholstery that was still in the car when I got it.

And it looks great there.

But the problem is the leather was quite dry.

And if you had tried to use that in a few years, that would crack and begin to look pretty shabby.

So I opted to replace the original leather with fresh upholstery which is identical.

The upholstery used us to duplicate what's in the car.

(music) That's.

That was the engine when I was starting to take the the car apart and it had been damaged.

There was collision damage to the front of the car.

And the serial numbers on these two cars are fairly close.

This car in here is actually a 1911 model open the door.

And the serial number on this one is 60,000 and something, which means it was probably built maybe June of night of 2012 of 1911.

Another car, the serial number is 87,000.

And it would have been built in December 2011.

But Ford at that time changed their model year before the calendar year.

So that's why the the car although it was probably built in 2000, 2000.

In 1911, it is still considered a 1912 model.

Now, if you look at this car, you'll notice it has no front doors.

And that was typical for 1911.

And for 1912, they were trying to make the cars look a little more up to date.

And so they added the front doors that you saw on that other car.

Pretty crudely, I might add, some of the things they did on these cars were done pretty quickly and blacksmith's style construction, but at least it made the cars look a little more up to date and hopefully they would sell.

And believe me, they certainly did sell.

We use these cars, we drive them.

This one was just on a tour in Ohio about three weeks ago.

And in three days, we drove it over 200 miles.

That's crazy.

Top speed?

Top speed.

I guess they'll do about 40, 42 miles an hour on the flat.

But you don't drive in that fast.

You don't want to push a car like this 30 to 35 miles an hour or 50 kilometers an hour.

I guess this is a comfortable speed.

(music) Now, this car originally didn't have an electric starter, was strictly crank from the front But of course, older people like myself with back issues and whatnot, find that difficult.

And in 1919, Ford installed the first electric starters on Model-T. And fortunately, because of the way they did things, they always basically retrofitted things.

And that makes it easy for us now because I can take the 19 actually 11 motor in this car, change the flywheel and put an electric starter on it.

That was designed originally for the Model T. So that's kind of an upgrade, but it certainly saves on my back and many other people's backs.

So that's why we'll start it with the starter.

But I can demonstrate how you start it with the crank later.

(engine starts) If they're set up right they will start fairly easily.

But if it's cold, that's not the case.

The transmission and motor is integral to these cars.

And with the heavy oil, if if the weather gets cold and the oil's stiff, it's very difficult to turn them over.

Years ago, what people did was they would jack up one rear wheel so that when they were trying to crank it the whole drive shaft would turn and it would turn one wheel and that would make it easier to crank.

Well, it's no different than starting your lawnmower by pulling the rope.

Same idea.

(coil buzzing) The switches flipped on the battery to provide current for the coils and right now (engine starts) the triple button the way it was going.

And then once we get it running, we switch the battery or the ignition system from the battery over to the magneto.

So it's now running just like a lawnmower on the magneto that's in the engine.

(engine running) Transmission in these cars is a Is a two speed planetary transmission And the pedal on the left, when it's pushed right down to the floor, it puts the car in the low gear and then when we begin to accelerate (engine running faster) the pedal all the way up and it goes into high gear (engine running) People are always, I guess, somewhat taken aback when they see this car or cars of this era And they they tend to wave They'll beep another funny thing is, we use hand signals on them.

And when I put a hand signal up like that, most people today don't seem to know hand signals and they think you're waving at them.

So, you know, you do this and then you're giving them the finger or you're waving at them So far only once in over 40 years have I almost had a collision caused by someone.

I put my arm up for a signal and I was turning into a driveway and a fellow passed me on the shoulder, on the gravel shoulder, of the road.

Just as I was turning fortunately there was no collision.

But this is the sort of thing that we always have to be very careful when we're driving these cars that you accommodate the fact that people are not familiar with them.

They don't realize they they can't stop as efficiently as a modern car.

And also, they can't go as fast.

(engine running) Ford manufactured the Model T until 1927.

So and it started in in the fall of 1908, the car remained essentially the same throughout the entire production year.

Over 15 million of them were manufactured between 19 the fall of 1908 and the spring of 1927.

But by 1927, this car was obsolete.

Actually, it was obsolete a lot sooner than that.

But Ford stuck with it, and because it was such a good seller and they were so inexpensive, they were able to get away with selling an obsolete car for many years beyond when it should have been retired.

Well, when it became evident in the twenties that sales were dropping, Chevrolet was overtaking Ford in terms of sales.

It was decided they had to produce a more up to date car and they designed the model A.

These were in production from the fall of 1927 until 1931.

The Model A was in service, of course, all through the forties and particularly during the wartime.

There were lots of them around because other cars weren't available.

And when I was a child, my uncle had a model A roadster just almost the same as this one.

And I have many fond memories of riding in that car and riding in the rumble seat on it.

And I think maybe that's part of the reason why I have this interest in these cars is because when I look back at my childhood and the good times that we had in a car like that one, it always made me want to have one later on.

So and there it is.

(car driving by) So this is a 1936 Ford truck cab.

The roof has been chopped.

The chop was done up in here.

The roof's been lowered about three and a half inches.

and it's been moved forward ever so slightly, the the truck is just, in primer at this point.

There's been a custom floor made for it and we've just finished putting in all the supports for the steering column.

We've rebraced it behind the dashboard and made the lower pieces it has a custom pump with a different shifter location.

So this truck will have custom what they call the Double Z chassis, which is that's the main chassis with the front of the rear overlaid to give it a really low stance.

It'll be gloss black with copper accents and copper accents with inside the passenger compartment as well.

There's a lot of bodywork to be done.

You can feel the creases in here You know, up in here, this thing actually had bullet holes in it.

So we've got I mean, if you look at the back of the cab, there's still a lot of work to be done here and here.

You can see it all along the top of the roofline.

You see the cut lines where everything's been spliced and moved.

So there's still a lot of work.

But there, you know, anything in the thirties is becoming rarer (grinding) (music) This truck will be up at Cobble Beach which is up in Owen Sound.

It's invite only show and they've invited four modified hot rods up.

This is one of the four.

So we're very happy to see one of our projects up there.

We're fixing up a few things before it goes.

There is some stone chips up on the roof and in the front here, so we've taken it right back down to the metal.

We're going to fix that up before it goes.

This is the first time for us being at Cobble Beach.

So it's very interesting.

It's a whole different market for us.

There's this is normally, you know, high end Duesenberg type cars where they've invited hot rods and which is really neat because that exposes us to that market.

And and those people are like those classics.

We'll get to see some of this type of work as well.

So how are you feeling?

Feeling really good about it, actually.

The car, this car's done extremely well this year has probably picked up close to 20 awards already, pretty much with every show it goes to.

So to go up there and hopefully come out of there with the trophy would be great.

You a nice topper for the year.

(music) I'm Mike Livia and this is my 36 Ford.

It's a it's a nice little project that we started two and a half years ago, and I'm just thrilled by the way that came out.

We're headed up to Cobble Beach this weekend, and I'm pretty excited about that.

I've never been to one of these concourses.

I really don't know what to expect, but I'm hoping it's pretty exciting up there (music) In 2010, I headed down to Good Guys with a bunch of my buddies and I had never been to a car show two weeks after I got back from from Columbus, I bought a 32 four, two door sedan, but I really wanted a hot rod.

I had collected a motor.

So I found this, this cab on eBay.

It was in South Dakota, and it was a mess.

I had it shipped to Buffalo.

I went and picked it up in Buffalo and and the journey began.

We got a custom chassis made from Lucky seven.

Before I brought it here.

It looked like a rat rod, you know, it had all the markings, the flathead and and the custom chassis, but, but radical rods, they, they put it over the top.

(music) Everyone has chrome.

I wanted something different.

Originally we were looking at black chrome.

You see it a lot on motorcycles and I knew it was something different.

So we were originally looking at that, but it didn't stand out enough.

And Joe, actually from Lucky seven, he had a piece of copper lying around and he goes, Mike, what about this?

So we went outside and there was a couple of black pickups, you know, modern pickups.

We held it up against the black truck and that was it.

That was it.

You know, the color combination just jumped out at us and it stuck that that's how we got the copper.

I had a lot of help along the way.

The guys at Lucky seven made an amazing chassis for me.

B.B.

and Woods did a phenomenal job on the Flathead.

She sounds amazing.

And then Dave Remnants, then my chop on the top and recreated the firewall.

You know, his metal work is unbelievable.

And then of course, the guys at Radical Rod, they finished off that paint job and body work.

All the the door gaps are are phenomenal.

You know, I think they spent a week just on door gaps.

We also had eagle canvas.

They did an amazing job on my interior.

They made my custom door bags on the side.

It's just excellent craftsmanship (engine starts) (engine running) little bit of solvent pop here.

But but that should be okay.

(music) There's some imperfections and a little bit of dirt in the clear coat some dust.

Of course, you can't get them as level as you'd like it.

There's a little orange peel as well.

We've just taken that out, taking a few layers and taking it down to where it's flat.

As you know, today's Wednesday, there's not much time.

So we'll probably be a late night here tonight.

I'm a little nervous to head up to Cobble Beach.

I've never been to a, you know, a show of this magnitude where, you know, they look at everything.

I'm I'm hoping the truck shows.

Well, that's why we have it back here at Radical Rods and to go, you know, a little once over, make sure we put our best foot forward.

(music) Pretty much match the rest of it OK I guess, is the day that we we painted the truck on Wednesday morning.

Yeah.

It was a little humid.

Yeah.

Which affected the paint.

So .... OK I had to do it again I stayed late again last night.

You're the man.

You're the man.

So we're just doing you.

Yeah.

You wanted these, this stuff that Because they're going to look underneath when I brought it in I know it's not.

It's bound to happen.

There had some here already.

Yeah.

You know what?

I think this happened when we put it on the rack for the four wheel alignment.

This.

Yeah, yeah.

And I you know what?

It's, it's pretty good.

And we did it already.

Okay, You have a bit of a leak here Mike and it's around the... Yeah, ..this seam here.

I think it's the seam.

Yeah.

Again, this is our and this is my first one, so I don't know what they're looking for exactly.

(chuckles) Yeah, I just want to be as clean as possible.

But you can't even.

It's a road car.

Absolutely.

(music) never thought I'd be polishing (laughs) (music) (polishing) It's going good.

We're down to the wire.

Yeah, I got to leave.

I got to get to the show.

Go.

Got to go.

Getting a little anxious?

A little bit.

A little bit.

It would have been nice to have a couple of days to clean it, clean it all up.

But here we are leaving for the show in a couple of hours.

And she looks beautiful.

Chris did an amazing job.

Another late night.

Absolutely.

But for you, not me.

It's.

It's okay.

It paid off, right?

Absolutely.

It looks good.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just, you know, I mean, under the gun, trying to get the truck nice and clean and and and shiny for the show.

So I'm just a little anxious to actually get on the road and get up there.

Any fears about getting up there?

(polishing) no weather.

Supposed to be nice now.

Before they were calling for rain.

Now it's supposed to be nice, so we should be good.

Yeah, I guess.

How are your nerves?

(laughs) I'm on my last one.

Yeah, I've.

I've used them all up, (Car starts up) so I, I'll calm down once we load it in the truck and I'm on my way and finalize things, eh.

Exactly we're doing that now.

Yeah.

(car engine running) (music) Show Car association (music continues) (car engine) the world sports car Ferrari Congratulations, Jeffrey.

(music) Well, starting, I think, hard.

I'm Rob McLeese, chairman and founder of the Cobble Beach Concours D'elegance.

It's about it's a concours.

This concours is for elegant and rarely seen automobiles.

Automobiles often viewed as art.

We try and have fun here.

We have a lot of really interesting things to show people.

Part of what we're doing is showcasing the area.

But I happen to love cars, so it's a real passion and we have a lot of fun The Hot Rod category.

I have to admit it's not my strong suit.

However, one hot rod that was here this year, that is all copper piping.

Copper tubing is a spectacular car.

Followed me on the participant tour this weekend and at every stoplight I kept thinking that my muffler had gone and I realized he was right behind me gurgling along.

So this this hot rod class is a carbonated class a little bit different than the West Coast hot rods.

But we're trying to make it more and more interesting each year.

So I think this year we were pretty lucky with some of the hot rods we had.

So me and my wife were were in the clubhouse for lunch and then we were making our wayback to the car when we ran into Kenny from Lug Nuts magazine.

And he just yelled out, congratulations, and I'm like, For what?

(laughs) So he got it.

So he's he's stopped in his tracks.

He didn't tell me any more.

He just walked with me to the car.

And I and I saw a big first place ribbon on the car.

So that was that was pretty exciting.

First, the first place in my class, the traditional hot rods.

No, it feels great.

It absolutely feels amazing.

All the hard work and worrying about whether or not the car was going to get done and cleaning it.

I was up at 5 a.m. this morning and they had some big bright lights on on the fairway there on the green.

So I was cleaning a way, cleaning a way.

And she looked great.

It it really paid off.

The guys at radical rods, they did an amazing job.

They really pulled through for me at the last second.

A great group of guys.

They took this you know, my vision.

I had a lot of outside help as well.

But they took my vision and they turned it from from a rat rod into a nice, cool looking street rod.

This is an invitation only show.

So it's fabulous to be here.

You know that in itself.

And then winning even better.

(music) Funding for Radical Restoration is provided by (Music) Rakabot sources sustainable materials to create boot racks that organize footwear that allows drippings to go in the bowl.

Models designed for home, work or recreational settings are available on line at Rakabot dot com Joe's Hand Cleaner Manufactured by Clean Products supports Radical Restoration With our without water Joe's Hand Cleaner cleanses to ingredients that are food or cosmetic grade A family business since 1948.

On line at Joe's Hand Cleaner dot com.

Tire tag.

Re Usable labelling to organize tire rotation and re-mounting.

Tire Tag.

(car honk ) On line at Tire dash Tag dot com Additional funding provided by Nutrafarms and Hagerty Insurance Thank you for joining us.

My name is Gary Nichols.

Until next time, may all your rides be radical.

(car races by) (tires squealing) (sanding) (car drives by) (shop sounds) (music)