Trimming Down

 The Mrs. and I have been accumulating things for many years, and the realization recently hit us that we can't get to all of our projects in our lifetime.  Our friend Gary Bahre has been stopping by for several years to admire our engine accumulation, and he is a darn good old iron restorer.  We called him recently to see if he needed more projects, and in a few days he showed up with a trailer, and his friend Jim Phillips, who also does fine restorations.

We got the business out of the way pretty quickly over a few cups of coffee, and then we got down to loading the trailer.  Mrs. TBS was mighty surprised by my ability to find all of the parts that came with the big old brutes.  Gary made it back to his shop before dark without any trouble along the road.

One of the engine parts, the ignitor trip rod for the IHC Titan, was still in Kentucky where we picked up that engine, and we had that shipped to us.  We took it over to Gary's shop, which gave us the opportunity to see his collection, and some of his restoration work.  This photo shows the ignitor points (bead-blasted) out of the Titan, and they show almost no wear at all.  Evidently, the Titan didn't work very much in its youth.  The piston, cylinder, and rings all show very little wear.

 Gary recently completed restoring this 1906 IHC Famous; in fact, the tank hasn't even had gasoline in it.  It has been run on ether, just to make sure it all works.

 Back to the Titan; Gary has cleaned it up and inventoried all of its needs.  He is having some missing parts cast in a foundry over in Missouri, so it will be a while before this engine is running.  He located a replacement for the exhaust valve push rod, and a rebuilt magneto.

 When the ignitor trip rod arrived, I thought it was bent, but left the kink in it for Gary to fix.  When I told him about it, he said "It's not bent."  and then he showed me how it fits on the engine.

Boy am I glad I left well enough alone.  We will be checking in on our old treasures occasionally, and will keep you all posted on Gary's progress .