McCoy's Shell Service

I had great time at the Palestine Lions Club Memorial Day car show at Leaverton Park today. The Model A ran great and fit right in with the other classics at the show. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hello.

Special thanks to Mark Catt for this matching set of 1930 Illinois license plates! These original plates are the perfect addition to our all original 1930 Ford Model A. Even the color and patina matched the car!

First test drive is complete for the 1930 Model A!

Last weekend, I decided it was time to be brave and take the 1930 Model A for a first drive. Since arriving at the Station in mid-December, I have been tinkering with the car and recently got it running again for the first time since the 1970s. I never could have imagined it would run so smoothly and would be ready for a road test so quickly.

It was a lot of work leading up to this moment. It took rebuilding the carburetor, distributor, fixing the radiator, installing a new battery, and rewiring the car to put it back on the road. After much trial and error with ignition points gap and timing, the engine now runs like a sowing machine and quickly became ready for a road test.

The destination of our road test was Leaverton Park in Palestine. This would give the car a 3 mile shakedown and would act as a trial run for next weekend when Leaverton Park hosts the annual memorial day car show (I would like to take the car to the show).

The road test proved successful! I was able to make it to the park and back to the station without the slightest hiccup. Once I made it back to the station, I was feeling so confident, I drove the car to Leo and Phyllis Adams house. I was so excited to share the running car with Leo, Phyllis, and Bryan Hare. It was the Hare family that helped make this moment possible, to whom I am forever grateful.

While there is certainly more work to do on the car (wheel bearings, brakes, ect), the project is off to a great start. I'm thrilled that this car is now a living, breathing piece of history that calls the Shell Station home.

PS - If you want to watch the full length movie, checkout the my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD2ijLCXPCQ&t=1s

Now it's really alive!

After the first time I started the Model A a few weeks ago, I had trouble getting it to start and idle again. It would fire after few cranks, backfire out the exhaust, and not fully start. So I started troubleshooting. Then I found out why they say, 90% of carburetor trouble is ignition.

Turns out my initial points setting was too tight in the distributor. Then after it wore in a little, the points setting was way way too tight, giving me spark trouble. So I adjusted the points gap out, rechecked the ignition timing and tried to restart it. To my surprise, it started up and eventually ran good after it warmed up. With the engine warm, I set low idle and the idle air mix on the carb. The result is what you see here. It purrs like a kitten.

The next steps to actually drive this car once around the block will be to free up the brakes. I am also going to finish rewiring the car and get the headlights working. It's so much fun bringing this old car back to life. Thanks for following along.