Last weekend, Jeff and I moved the second wing of his Kitfox out of the paint booth, so I had somewhere to spray the manifold heater for the Model A. A couple of new bolts later, and everything’s installed:

As you can see, it’s a pretty simple heating mechanism. Air flows through the radiator, enters the manifold heater (which is sitting on the exhaust manifold, so it’s hot), then enters the cabin. Works alright as long as you’re not moving too fast or too slow. But it’s better than nothing and didn’t require any additional modifications, since one of my relatives had already installed the firewall opening. The other option is to have a hot water radiator mechanism, but that means running water lines from the radiator to the cabin, which seems like a bad idea.

The last Model A club breakfast was a bit… chilly, reminding me that I really needed to order an exhaust shield, which is the final piece of the passive heating system once offered as an add-on in the Model A (the car had no heat). Basically, it’s a shroud that fits on top of the exhaust manifold and directs air from just behind the radiator into the cabin. Basically, the shroud gets hot from passive heating off the exhaust manifold and heats the already slightly warmer air coming through the radiator and dumps it in the cabin. As long as the exhaust system isn’t leaking, it’s not a bad system.

While ordering the shroud, I continued my hunt for a vacuum windshield wiper motor for a ’31 Slant Windshield. The motors are hard to come by, since they’re different than the one on the straight windshield As. Luck finally hit and Berts had just gotten one in stock. So I now have a windshield wiper that works.

Still have to paint the heat shroud, get some new bolts, and install it.

This morning was the monthly Poco Quatros Model A club breakfast.  The weather was finally nice, so we had a great turn out, particularly the number of cars that showed up.  Mine’s the one just to the left of the A trunk everyone is looking at.After breakfast, we visited the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society, where they are currently restoring a Baldwin 4-8-4 Steam Locomotive.  They’re still working on the boiler, but expect that they’re only a couple years from being able to start boiler testing.

After a long winter hibernation, the Model A is running again.  The battery needed a good charge (which leads me to believe I should pick up a new battery sometime this summer).  Other than that, she fired right up.  Draining the carb at the end of the fall is definitely worth it.

There’s a squeak I’m going to try to track down somewhere under the engine.  I need to find someone to help cause the squeak while I’m under the car listening.  Hopefully, it’s nothing major.  I think I’m also going to install a right side tail light / brake light unit and put bright LEDs in the tail lights in an attempt to avoid getting run over this summer.  Other than that, not much planned upgrades for the car this year.