After the Dodge "broke down.." (UPDATE III by the owner of the Riley tuned Model A)

The Riley powered A is a old hot rod that was built in Washington or oregon in the very early 40"s. It arrived in Alaska in 1946, as I have the territorial title. A 1940 buick dashboard was narrowed and shoehorned in for a smart looking dash, the fuel tank was moved to the rear, either aircraft or a 32 ford tank. A firestone heater was installed under the seat, and another heater under the dashboard on firewall, That explains the series of copper tubing on the left hand side of engine compartment. (I chose not to reinstall the one under the dash.) Hudson terriplane bumpers front& rear. The windsheild and frame are from a cad.- lasalle closed car,as it still has the piano hinge across the top. The last owner told me it was hard to track down parts at that time because of the scrap drive of the war era and if the shoe fits. The Riley head is the early version with the spark plugs on the drivers side, ( soon after , because of casting problems and many heads cracking the plugs were recast on the passengers side). The head on this car also has a large crack across the top, it leaks, but not enough to prevent the roadster from going on tours around Fairbanks. That apperatus of hoses on the intake manifold is leftover from a unique either starting system of aircraft quality. The red oil filter canister on the firewall was a container to hold liquid either,( in the old days they came in tin bottles with twist off caps,) This filled the canister partialy, On the lower left portion of the dash was a hand pump simular to the ones early race cars used to pump up their fuel tanks.) A few pumps is all it took to build up a bit of pressure, then a 2 inch hand lever was twisted to the right , but just for a second, now this would send either vapors through the hoses into the intake manifold. Now after pre heating the oil pan with a space heater or a weed burner or by any other means, the previous owner told me that he could start the roadster at 40 below zero. ( that might be true, but who would want to drive a roadster at 40 below zero??) This beautiful car was last driven around 1962 It sat idle for awhile then the famous flood of 1967 covered it with muddy water for more than a week. I first noticed the car when I came back to Alaska in 1975, it was getting in pretty bad shape, but I didn"t eventhink about it untill 2002, at which time I was able to purchase it. It took me 6 monthe for a body off restoration, I got it back to pretty much what it was in 1946-1950"s including the firewall and engine colors. The riley overhead conversion on the "b" block more than doubles the horse power, All that I am lacking is one more gear. Thanx Johnnie Fairbanks Alaska.

Dear editor;
On behalf of we owners of Dodge 4s, I must gently protest the headline for this article: "..the Dodge broke down..". This Dodge was wrecked! The reliability and toughness of the Dodge 4 was legendary in its day, and remains so. The DB advertising agency coined the word 'dependability' was coined to describe their performance. We have owned and used our Dodge 4 for 56 years. Our 2 involuntary stoppages have been caused by a modern coil, and modern thin-walled copper tube.
Simple, rugged, dependable: that's the Dodge 4.

Riley was a popular aftermarket overhead valve conversion for early Fords. Nothing to do with the British Riley, as far as I know.

This is not related to the English Riley. It was an overhead intake valve kit for the Model A. There were many "hot rod" parts made for this engine back in the 1930's and the Riley kit was one of the best.