Rolly's ex restoration part 2

Springs, U-Bolts & Hardware

This was a main concern of mine. From all the information I could gather the springs should be 1-3/8 inch’s wide. I was unable to locate any manufacture of springs of this size. 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 were available. I decided on going with the 1-1/4 springs and I would add an extra leaf.
The Stanley springs are unique in the shape from what is on the market. Each leaf would have to be re-cut and re-arched. The main spring ends would also have to be reworked to give it the shape of the Stanley end. To do this a thick washer was obtained from the spring supplier with the square hole already punched. These washers had to be welded to each side on both ends and added weld material and grinding was needed to get the desired shape.
I ordered six springs so as to have four extra long leafs and some spare leafs if I mess some up in reworking them.
Each leaf had tapered ends both in width and thickness and had to have about three inches cut of both ends and reshaped to a round radius and tapered in thickness.
Each leaf also had to be re-arched; this was done cold by hand using a template.
About six inch in from one end a tab was welded on the underside of each leaf and ground to a little knife edge protruding down. A corresponding groove was ground into the leaf directly under it. This keeps the leaf from moving off to one side. The early cars did not have the tabs on the sides of each leaf.
I still need to make new bolts with a larger radius on each end to match the original.
This work took a little over a month to complete.  I would not want to do it again. 

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The EX Body

​I had the opportunity to purchases the body of the EX from Louis Biondi now deceased.
He and his brother had built quite a few different models Stanley bodies from original bodies he had acquired. Most of these bodies were built over thirty years ago and were finished into complete running cars and are still in the family collection.
 The original EX body is still in a storage trailer at the family estate, two far gone to restore into a finished car. I had the opportunity to go over it in detail and do several drawings and was allowed to bring the floorboard with the foot rest home for a more detailed copy for pattern work of the footrest. My EX body is as good and accurate copy as could be duplicated.
 Photo of the body as received was the start of a four-year project, and learning experience of Stanley cars in general and a very detailed study of the model EX.
 The body required replacement of some wood do to dry rot but in general was in very good condition. I had to build the base of the front seat. The original would have been a single seat. I built it as a two-cushion seat as the left hand side is the access to the water tank. I also had to build the entire back seat and all the hardware for the railing. I built most of all the metal parts and hardware for the car; we will get into those later.