Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ringo Tastes Freedom


With the mulch finally out of the way, I rolled Ringo out of the garage to give him a bath. First, though, I needed to empty and uncover him. Seats came off his roof and carpet and door panels came out of his salon, all to find temporary homes in our basement. Now empty and off jackstands, he rolled easily into the twilight glow. I still can’t believe that it’s been over a year since he was taken off the road. Time flies when you’re having fun.

After a thorough, soapy cleaning of only his exterior, I turned my efforts to sweeping out the garage floor. The lovely Loriann picked that time to come out from the house and ask me why I was cleaning the garage, not the car. “It’s already clean,” I retorted. I should’ve had her help me push the car back in the garage then, but there were still piles of grinding dust in the way.

Once Ringo was back under roof, I decided to tackle the task of adjusting the dragging brake shoes. I’d remembered it being the passenger side, so I jacked that corner up and pulled the wheel. Lo and behold the drum spun freely. Crap! Must’ve misremembered. Back on went the tire, and the jack was used on the opposite corner. Before pulling the wheel, I gave it a spin – no dragging. Pulled the wheel anyway to confirm. Guess the problem fixed itself. I’ll keep an eye on it when I take it out on the road. If it’s still dragging that side will pull when stopping.

With that crossed off the mental to-do list, I decided to tackle the backlight. It hurt to cut the $100 weatherstrip, but it’s really the only safe way to remove the glass. Half an hour later the glass was safely out and sitting on its bottom edge leaning out of the way. This exposed the nastiness of the window channel. For the next hour or so I scraped off the sealant I’d unsuccessfully used to seal the joint. The car was still wet, so this evening, I’ll roll the car back out of the garage and go at the channel with the wire wheel attachment on my grinder. This will prep it for POR-15 and tie-coat primer.

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