Niles Essanay SIlent Film Museum tour 8/14/10

The SCVC Model A club took a tour on 8/14/10 to the Essanay Silent Film Museum in downtown Niles. It turns out that from 1913 to I believe 1923, the Essanay movie production company was based in Niles. This is where Charlie Chaplin filmed 'The Tramp' which was his breakout film. The company was founded by George Spoor and Gilbert Anderson, this is where the 'S' and 'A' (Essanay) name is from. (That's my green roadster in the picture in front of the museum).

The group met at the corner of Calaveras and Park Victoria in front of the donut shop. It took me about 45 minutes covering 17 miles of city streets to get to the meeting point. The tour to Niles was only about 12 miles, again over city streets. I had never been to Niles before, I really enjoyed walking around town. Lots of antique shops, restaurants, etc.

Once we arrived, we wandered into the museum for a couple of silent movies; "The Tramp" with Charlie Chaplin and "The Making of Bronco Billy" with Gilbert Anderson. The museum often has live music accompanying the films for weekend and evening performances, but we were there during off-hours, so they used recorded music. Still quite a fun way to watch movies where you're encouraged to talk, boo, hiss, clap, etc during the film.

We then broke up into groups and had a tour of the projection room (metal lined in case of fire...), were shown many old hand cranked cameras, and had a short lecture about the museum and the production company history.



Then one of our docents took us on a walking tour of Niles. She showed us the former location of the production company, along with several of the bungalos built for the actors and employees which were still standing. We were shown some older homes along with the old courthouse and jail.
I headed back home about 1:30 or 2pm. A successful tour, no car troubles, I didn't get lost, and I made it home safe and sound. The tour was just under 60 miles for me round trip. Now it's time to change the oil in the car.

Ever see a 1929 Model A Chevy Roadster? Now you have...

Registering the roadster with the state of California was an interesting event. Not the hair pulling, nerve racking, scream at the top of your lungs experience I was expecting, in fact it was almost easy and pleasant. I downloaded and filled out the paperwork ahead of time for the title transfer. Drove the car down to the Los Gatos DMV, without an appointment mind you, waited in line a short time, was told I had to have the car inspected and went back outside and drove it to the inspection spot. The DMV dude came out, looked at the car, looked at the VIN number on the engine, signed his copy of the paperwork (ignored my filled in and signed copy) and sent me back inside. I stood in line again, got my assigned number, then waited. Luckily I only had to wait about 20 minutes before I was called. The nice gal at the counter took my paperwork, looked at it, looked at the inspectors paperwork, then threw them away and had me fill out something different, oh well. Unfortunately I could not keep the original title from my dad. She made a copy of it, but had to keep the original. I was then handed a new set of plates for my Roadster. I now could legally drive the car anytime, anywhere. And get this, it's exempt from smog inspections, which is a very good thing...

This was in mid August of '09. Months went by and in May I was randomly checking paperwork and while scanning through the titles I saw the Toyota, GMC, Chevy, and then another Chevy??? Turns out that despite me having filled out the paperwork correctly, the gal at the counter put down the car as a Chevy. I was the proud owner of a 1929 Model A Chevy Roadster, built by Ford...

Well, the next day I drove the roadster back down to the DMV, stood in line, again, with no appointment and when I had to describe the problem to the front desk person, he couldn't figure out how to fill in the paperwork he had to give me. Evidently they don't run into this problem very often and don't have the proper 'checkbox' on the forms. I then had to go back outside, get the car re-inspected (yup, it's a Ford...), then go back inside and get my special number. This time I waited a bit longer and had the displeasure of listening to some lady talking to her mother about her son stealing an iPod. Then she called her son and talked to him about it. The really sad part was how she seemed to accept this behavior and wasn't really all that mad about it. Anyway, I eventually got called and had the paperwork fixed, so I am now the owner of a true 1929 Model A Ford Roadster.

The moral of the story is to always check your paperwork from the DMV...

Major fixes

It's been 1 year since we trailered the roadster out to California and quite a fun and challenging year it's been.

The car did require a few minor tweaks to get it so I could drive it around town. It had a pretty severe front-end shimmy which wanted to bounce me off the road if I hit just the wrong bump, plus it backfired and overheated.

But even before I tackled those problems, my dad strongly suggested I clean out as much of the rust from the gas tank as I could. This required emptying the gas tank, taking out the bottom shut-off valve, and with a wooden dowl, scraping and pushing large blobs of rust out the bottom of the tank. I managed to collect almost 1 full cup of rust from the tank. I also rinsed the tank with a couple of gallons of kerosene just to flush out any remaining large pieces. I then replaced the gas float so I had an accurate gas gauge.

The next problem was trying to figure out why it overheated. I could drive it about a mile, then Mr. Steam wanted to make himself known. I flushed the radiator/engine a couple of times and noticed some strange 'stuff' coming out of the drain spigot. It looked like hair or stuffing. Turns out that when I looked closer at the radiator, that there appears to have been a mouse nest built in there many many years ago which was clogging the tubes. Once I cleaned this out, I've no problems with overheating that weren't of my own creation..

So, the backfiring was scaring the neighbors. What to do, what to do. I didn't know, so I managed to drive the car to Alfi's house, a local club member, for him to take a look at the engine for me. He quickly diagnosed the problem which was the condenser wasn't properly grounded. I bought a new condenser and lo-and-behold, no more backfiring.

Then the last major problem was the front-end shimmy. To this day, I haven't completely solved the issue, but it's mostly gone. What I did find was that the radius bolts were loose and wouldn't tighten any more. Turns out they were stretched and almost ready to shear off. I replaced these, tightened up the tie rods, adjusted the tow-in, replaced the pitman arm, and tightened the front axle bearings just a tad. The only time I get a shimmy now is if I hit a big bump when I'm stopping, and that's because the sector gear in the steering box is very worn and needs replacing. Some day soon I'll get to it, but that puts the car out of commission while I wait for a new steering rod.

Oh, the brakes, they also needed pretty severe adjustments. With the advice and help from club members, I was able to adjust them to a usable state. I still need to have the roller bars welded and ground smooth to completely fix it.

Those were the major tweaks I did on the car during the first couple of months I owned it. The fix rate has dramatically decreased, but I'm sure there will be something big soon. Tiz the nature of the beast.

Well, here we go. Time to start documenting our adventures with our '29 Model A Roadster.

First, a bit of history...
In the early 60's my father wanted to restore a Model A Roadster. In those days, Model A's were easier to find than they are today, but they were usually found out behind the barns or in the groves rusting away. He eventually found a sedan outside of his home town in Iowa from which he saved the frame, engine and drive train. Then he was fortunate enough to find a '29 roadster body in Minnesota. The woman who owned the car said her husband bought it new for their honeymoon. He then started collecting other body parts such as fenders, wheels, lights, radiators, etc. He eventually had all the parts, but his 'real job' as an Auto Body instructor kept him pretty busy. So it wasn't until he retired that he had the time to finish the car. Well, all except the top that is. There was a local apholsterer who claimed he could put the top on for him, but never got around to it. By the way, my dad did an excellent job on the restoration. Especially since he did not have the resources of a local Model A club to help him out.

He drove the car in local parades or around town, but probably only put about 50 miles on it in the 10 years he had it completed. During those 10 years I kept up my requests (begging and pleading...) that I would make a wonderful owner of the Roadster, and not turn it into a hot rod or sell it for parts. Then in 2009 he and my mother finally succumbed and allowed me the privilege of becoming the car's next owner, it's 3rd.

I had become a member of the Silicon Valley Model A Club (scvcma.org) in anticipation of owning the car. This turned out to be the best decision I could have made regarding the Roadster. The club members are extremely knowledgeable and willing to help, which made fixing and maintaining the car fun and a much less daunting task.

I've completed a number of mechanical updates that I will detail later, the sum of which is a car that is fun to drive and putter around town in.