Having read about old timers doing this, I had to try it.
Did you have to bow the nickel so it went in cup shaped and then hammer in place? The great thing about this is that the nickel won't rust and it looks cool!
Steve - Another informative post and with your always beautiful photography as well, but I hate to be the one who has to inform you that contrary to your usual flawless work and strict attention to detail, unfortunately, at least one of those "freeze plugs" has been installed backwards!
James, yes, I did.
Harold, yes, but which one(s)? It all depends on your point of view.
Hmm, Think I would have had someone take a very light cut on that gasket surface first-it looks pretty pitted. Yeah, thread drift here.
Otherwise, kinda neat!
Lookie there Steve... It appears you hammered in place the rare and elusive 3-legged Buffalo!!
This is great... I am going to round up some old buffalo nickels with the date worn off and carry them "at the ready".
I've heard that the cool thing to do is to use nickels that are dated to match the motor. Even dated nickels aren't so valuable that using them would be too extravagant.
Of course, the coin guys would cringe at someone "ruining" an original "survivor".
Steve - If installed with the buffalo side showing, it eliminates the possibility of accidently using a politically incorrect term as might happen if the other side of the nick....er....ahhh.....freeze plug is visible. Not often we can point out any flaws in your usual careful work Steve, but I'm glad I could help in this case.
Well, actually, in thinking about it, I suppose the buffalo could be referred to as a bison, however, it's much less likely to upset a buffalo than to upset,.....well,.....you know about political "correctness" so I'd just better shut up here before I really do stick my foot in my mouth!
Hi Harold,
I always thought that the Indian head side (yes, I said it) should be out because he is looking forward. The buffalo (bison?) side ends up going backwards while you're driving down the road. Plus the head side has the year, in case you're matching "numbers"
Hmmmm, how long before we see an eBay ad that says that they're totally restored original car has matching numbers, all the way down to the freeze plugs.... ;)
Eric
Eric - Interesting thought about the "matching numbers"!
I suppose we're approaching the point of "ridiculous" here in this light-hearted thread that Steve started, but I had some weird thoughts too! (Hey,....Steve started it, right?)
I know nothing about judging, and points, and all that, as my three "T's are all drivers, and a couple of them,....just barely drivers, however:
If there were two "trailer queen" type "T's that were 100-point perfect, except that one had one or more buffalo nickel "freeze plugs" that were minted in the '30's (in other words, coins minted AFTER the Model "T" era) could/would that fact (if discovered) be counted as a restoration defect?
I really have no interest in such "perfection" as I am a firm believer that there are Model "T's that (as beautiful as they are) really are "over-restored", but the after Model "T" era buffalo nickel thing did enter my sometimes distorted mind!
(Per Google, buffalo nickels were minted from 1913 to 1938)
If you used a bit-coin would that be called an "E-Plug?"