The Utah Valley Model A Club held a Garage Day in April in the garage of club member Theon Laney. Fifteen club members attended to install a newly rebuilt engine and transmission in Theon’s 1928 Tudor. Fortunately the weather had warmed sufficiently to melt the six foot snow banks that lined the driveway, so there was room to park.

The activity began with the adjustment of the clutch contact and mating the transmission to the engine. Once the engine was in the air it was a tight fit to get the engine over the head light bar and into the compartment. That was accomplished with an expert on the engine hoist and a sharp eye below the engine compartment. It was a team effort — forward an inch and drop two inches, forward an inch, drop two inches. Until we got it in.

The next chal...

The best things about garage days (and roadside repairs) is the number of different ways “supervisors” tell you how to do the job. But at least you have a lot of helping hands to make up for it. We’ve been lucky in the past and at this garage day too. Club members seem to have very similar points of view. So that made it easy to get the jobs done.

Tony Jacob’s Engine Installation

With 14 members in attendance, we had plenty of people lend a helping hand with this heavy project. At first there were problems getting the engine down below the firewall and lined up with the bell housing, but, with Tim Isaksen using a crowbar, and with the potential of pinching many fingers, it finally went...