If One Of My Tires Had To Go Flat...

then it picked a good time and place to happen - sitting in the sunny parking lot at Ariel's school. The only better place would be in the driveway at home. This incident proved that my older, dry-rotted tires are not long for this world. Once my balljoints have been replaced, Tom promised Ariel that he'd buy me some new tires. Now the decision of white-wall vs. black-wall. I think that the white-wall look is much classier, but I'll leave the final decision up to Ariel.

A Brake Job Means More Breaks

Last weekend Tom decided to give me a thorough brake job, but the project turned out to be more thorough than planned.

Step one was to remove the original brake hoses for replacement. Both front steel lines twisted and broke when he unscrewed the fittings (the fittings were rusted to the line and the Deep Creep he sprayed didn’t creep deep enough). Having replaced one of the rear hoses during the post-fire repairs, that left only the passenger-side rear hose to remove. That fitting came loose from the original hose without twisting the line, but Tom noticed that the original steel line seemed a little too flexible (due to rust). He measured all three lines and sent Ariel on an errand to Pep Boys to buy new ones 12”, 30”, and 60” long.

With the hoses out, next on the list was rebuilding the wheel cylinders. He had ordered kits from Clark’s and installed them after honing out each cylinder. He took the opportunity to install the self-adjusting hardware on the front brakes (having already upgraded the rears) when putting the brakes back together. With brakes reassembled, he installed the new hoses and then bent and installed the new steel lines. With Ariel pushing on the brake pedal, he went around and bled the air out of the system. The subsequent test drive showed I can now stop nice and straight. Another set of items crossed off the To Do list.

A Wheel Cover Adventure

While being driven home by Ariel the other night, she accidentally runs my right wheels into a curb while exiting the interstate. It's dark and since I'm still driving fine, she continues on home without checking for damage. Unbeknownst to her, one of my very nice-looking wire wheel covers popped off and rolled up the hill.

The next morning, Tom discovered that the cover was missing and immediately jumped to the conclusion that it had been stolen. Ariel told him about hitting the curb, and said that that might have caused the cover to pop off. Tom drove to where Ariel told him it had happened and he found the cover in two pieces. A little straightening and it will be usable again. In the meantime, Tom replaced all my wheel covers with less expensive stock covers from a '63 Monza.

Another happy thing is that my driver's door is getting easier to close. It must be that the weatherstrip is relaxing. Good news.

That Blankety-Blank Door

Because my driver's side door has been so difficult to close, it got left slightly open during the last snowstorm. Now my carpets are quite soggy. Tom knew he HAD to deal with the door alignment so that the door wouldn't get left ajar again. He spent three hours on that job yesterday. He removed the driver's seat, kick-panel, and defroster duct to access the hinge bolts. He loosened the bottom hinge bolts and slightly lowered the back end of the door. That caused him to have to lower the latch plate on the car body. After some tweaking, he got the door latched. It still required a pretty good shove, but nothing like before. He found that he really had to crank down on the latch plate screws to keep the plate from moving when the door closed.

He reinstalled the duct, and since removing and replacing the duct disturbed the wiring behind the dash, he checked to make sure that all the dash controls still worked. Everything was fine except that the heater fan was not working (again), so he checked the pertinent fuse and it was fine. He checked to see if I had 12V at the heater switch - nothing. He checked the fuse box again and found that wire that is supposed to power the heater fan was connected to the blown back-up lights fuse instead of the blower fuse (the draw of the heater fan AND the back-up lights were too much for that fuse). He replaced the blown fuse and moved the fan connector to its correct location and everything worked fine. Since Ariel was still complaining that my heat never got very hot, Tom then looked at the HOT air control. While pressing down on the lever to make sure that the heater’s damper door was fully open, the cable broke. Using a vise-grips, he forced the cable completely in, so now all Ariel will get is heat. Add another item to the To Do list.

Leaving the doors open, he set up a fan to blow through my interior all night. This morning when he came out to drive me out of the garage, he couldn't get the door to close. He was NOT happy. It took a pretty good slam to get the latch to work. He didn't have time to deal with it, but he will tonight. VERY frustrating.

Still Consuming Oil

Ariel checked my oil level this morning, and it's still above the Add mark, but just barely. I know that Tom does not want to do Ring job on my engine, but it's not looking good.

On a happier note, here's a picture of my temporary back seat setup.

Miscellaneous Ramblings, Part I

A couple of days ago, Tom poured a quart of Lucas Oil Conditioner into my crankcase to try and reduce the oil consumption (blow-by past the rings) I've been showing of late. He'll give it a few days to work its magic before he starts shopping for new piston rings.

Yesterday Tom placed an order with Clark's Corvair Parts for new brake parts. Hopefully they'll get here by the weekend.

Also yesterday Ariel left my lights on all day, and I rewarded her with a dead battery. Lucky for her her mom had jumper cables and was nearby to come to her rescue.

A Trip To The Doctor Lengthens The To Do List

Last Saturday morning Tom drove me over to Gary Segal's (the Corvair mechanic) house where the pro spent nearly two hours giving me a thorough check-up. In addition to adjusting my throttle linkage, providing a replacement fanbelt, and greasing my fan bearing, he gave Tom a list of issues and the methods to address them. Those items have been added to the To Do list here on my blog.

They took me out for a test drive with Gary driving, and I was amazed when he shifted me into Low and floored my throttle. I'm sure Tom was saying a prayer that my engine wouldn't explode as I hit 45 MPH (probably 4000+ rpm) before Gary let up on the throttle. All was well and I actually appreciated the opportunity to "stretch my legs."

Tom drove me home and replaced my failed choke controls (the little actuators that use vacuum to slightly open the chokes). That completely fixed my cold-start running problems. He also installed my original upper backseat and then "borrowed" and installed the lower backseat from his red Corvair. I'm not real happy with a non-matching black seat bottom, but it's nice to be a four-passenger vehicle again.

That afternoon Tom took his wife, Loriann, to a local Antique Car Flea Market. I was happy when they chose me to drive there. It was cool to be seen at an old car event.

Adding To The To Do List

Tom drove me to work this morning. This gave him a good opportunity to check the accuracy of my odometer. He calculated that it's only off by 6%. That's probably due to the smaller diameter tires that I have.

During the trip, he made a list of the issues that still need to be addressed. I've added them to my To Do list.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to visit a Corvair mechanic to take a look at my front suspension. My right front tire is wearing unevenly, so it looks like one of my balljoints on that side is going bad. I wouldn't mind a rebuilt front end - who wouldn't :-)

My First Corvair Club Meeting

Last night Tom drove me to the monthly meeting of CORSA of Baltimore. We were a little disappointed that no one wanted to take a closer look at me after the meeting. I guess that the darkness, low temperature, and frigid wind put a damper on everyone's desire to spend much time outside.

Come spring I'm sure they'll want to check me out.

A Little Tweaking

Last night Tom came out to the garage and tightened my fan belt and adjusted the choke rods. When he went to start me up this morning, I didn't want to idle. I think he has the chokes too far closed. Hopefully he'll loosen them tonight.

A New Gage Cluster For Me

Ever since Ariel has owned me, I haven't had a functioning odometer or an accurate speedometer. Also, my gas gage doesn't always read correctly. Well, they have fixed that. Last weekend, Tom removed my gages and replaced them with used ones he had setting in the garage. Instantly I was transformed into a car with 77,892 miles. Now Ariel won't see 90 mph when she's just keeping up with traffic.

Tom also mounted a fire extinguisher on the floor between the two front seats. He explained to Ariel that she would never need to use it on me. It was to have when she came across someone else whose car is on fire. It better be that way.

I've Got My Own Video on YouTube

Thought you'd like to see and hear me.