Almost Back in the Saddle Again

As I announced in my 3-3-18 post on my LeMans blog, I’ve decided to bump up the priority of Mikhaila’s Corvair (named Scarlett) so that she can have it to drive sooner (within a few months) rather than later (within a few years). This means that this blog will be reactivated to follow our progress on replacing the wrecked front end of her Monza convertible. I should state here that, for the first time, one of my children has more cars than I do. In addition to the aforementioned Corvair convertible, Mikhaila also has her daily-driver MX-3 and the Golf GTI we’re working to put on the road. Speaking of the latter, this past weekend she and I got the new clutch installed, the transmission put back into place, and everything reinstalled and hooked back up. Yay team. We did all this in very close confines (see above layout). Once I confirm the clutch take-up is where it should be, I’ll drop it off the jackstands and drive it out of the garage. That’ll allow us to move to the next task, replacing the heater core. For that, though, I’ll drive the LeMans out of the garage and put the GTI in its place. There’s no way I can strip out the interior and dash in its current confines – it’ll take the entire garage.



During the, hopefully, short time the LeMans is outside, it’ll be under a tarp with most of the loose parts pieces piled in a corner of the garage.

Once the GTI has its heat restored, it’ll leave the garage and Scarlett will take its place. Could be a busy Spring – I sure hope so.

UPDATE: Luna has sold and is gone. Recurring Theme (i.e. Luna’s also for sale)

UPDATED 1/10/17: Added more photos to the bottom of the post.
UPDATED 1/9/17: Added video links.

Last week Victoria told me I should sell Luna for her. She has accepted the fact that her life is too busy to spend the time required to roadify the car. I feel badly for her because she really likes the car, but I can’t work on it without her. Add to that her supposedly reliable, modern car sucked all the spare car time she had during the first half of last year, and she’s in no mood to give up what little free time she has on another car. I put a listing on Facebook and Craigslist and have received the following notable responses: trade for a motorcycle (had to say no), low-ball offer, “I’m still looking and will get back to you,” and an appointment for someone to come by Saturday to look at her. Currently, her battery is dead, but I plan on jump-starting her Saturday morning and adjusting the carbs so she at least runs and drives for any prospective buyer. I toyed with the idea of welding in the patch panels in the rockers and the front fender, but there are too many other priorities in my life right now.


With that said, here’s the pertinent info on Luna. She has a 110HP engine with a Powerglide automatic transmission. Currently, the engine doesn’t run since she needs a battery and a tuning of the newly rebuilt carburetors. She has new tires and a new top, but the top’s installation isn’t perfect - needs some adjustments. There are rust issues in the rocker panel, right front fender, and passenger door, but replacement panels and door are included. The odometer reads 24k miles, but I’m sure it’s 124k. The top is manually operated, but goes up and down easily. We’re asking $2000 for the car with the extra parts. More photos at the bottom of this post. Here's a video of the engine running. Here's a video of me driving the car around our neighborhood.


As I mentioned in my last post, I am selling the parts needed to build a 140 HP engine. Here are a couple photos of the major parts included (note buyer gets two blocks to choose from). Also included is a bin of internal parts including the lifters, rods, pistons, oil pan, fasteners, etc.

I’ve not had any offers on Glinda as of yet, but I’m still hopeful a buyer will come along soon.
As part of my Corvair Reduction Plan, I’ve taken another load of GUPs up to the Corvair Ranch. In return Jeff presented me with a front end of another ’64 to use to repair Scarlett. This cleansing has allowed me to take down the storage shelves in the garage making more room for working. Unfortunately, after pushing Scarlett against one wall, there’s still a large part of floorspace is being taken up by aforementioned front clip. Hopefully, this weekend I can cut it down to something that’s closer to what I need and recycle the rest.


Here are more photos of Luna.

Windy

My two daughters that still own Corvairs joined me in the driveway Saturday to work on their respective convertibles. About 3 PM, the nice-and-sunny turned into windy-and-more-windy - a cold front swept into our driveway and almost swept away the portable garage and Scarlett’s tarp. In the midst of the gale, the girls soldiered on with their tasks.

Mikhaila was removing broken bits from Scarlett’s left front and cataloguing all the pieces we’ll need to replace. When she finished that, she undid the two bolts holding the trunk-lid latch in place and the turnk was open. She emptied it out and we then worked together to try and push some of the mashed metal back out. I’m not thinking I’ll get away with not replacing large sections of sheetmetal, but I do want to make it easier to cut out the bad and make patches and only with the body in some semblance of straight can that happen. We used the tire jack and an assortment of blocks of wood to push on the front panel. It worked somewhat, but we’ve got a ways to go. After she’d turned into a Popsicle, I released her to go inside and thaw out.

Victoria’s goal was to get Luna running again. She started by installing a pair of recently rebuilt ’68 vintage carburetors including reinstalling the linkage pieces and hooking up the fuel lines. Next, she dropped in and hooked up the battery. Finally, before turning the key, she injected fuel into each carb’s bowl using a syringe. Sadly, when she turned the key, we discovered the battery had gone dead. This is the one that was in Glinda and had gone bad, but I’d recharged it and it seemed to be holding the charge. I was wrong. The plan now is to pull the battery out of Glinda and use it to get Luna running and into the garage.

Scarlett’s Gonna’ Get Safer

I started this blog post on Tuesday the 27th. Due to a busy schedule I never got farther than the first paragraph. Sadly, the title of this post and the initial paragraph were a bad omen. Here’s that paragraph.

I have been extremely fortunate that none of my daughters (or myself for that matter) have been injured while driving our Corvairs. Glinda has been the only ‘vair we’ve owned that had shoulder belts. Well, that’s gonna’ change. Today, I bought a pair of front bucket seats out of a Chrysler Sebring convertible. I want to make sure that Mikhaila doesn’t hit the steering (or anything else) if she has an accident.

Now jump ahead to last Thursday when, on slick pavement, Mikhaila lost control of Scarlett and drove her into a guardrail. Mikhaila is pretty banged up, but thankfully nothing that won’t heal in a few weeks. Impacts of note were: the right knee to the heater controls resulting in a flap of skin that should have gotten a few stitches, but she refused; her chest and under her chin collided with the steering wheel and left some nasty bruises and painful breathing, but fortunately negative x-rays; and a bump on the back of the head where a speaker flew up and whacked.

Scarlett did not come through the incident nearly as well as Mikhaila. Amazingly, the bumper is basically still in its stock location and the front wheels still point in the same direction, so I was able to hitch the towbar to her front end once I pulled some of the fender away from the right front tire. The flat-tow home from the tow-yard was, thankfully, uneventful.

So, what are we to do? I’ve not been in the mood to evaluate all the damage, but at the very least she’ll need a new front panel (Clark’s doesn’t sell a replacement) and valence ($126 from Clark’s), as well as a right front fender from at least the center of the wheel forward ($110 from Clark’s) and a trunk bottom ($113). A visit to the Corvair Ranch will be required to get a used front panel, wheel-well, and a replacement bumper. Since the steering and alignment seem to be working properly, I’m thinking the damage is just to body panels. Mikhaila and I have a lot of cutting and welding and bodywork in our future before the car is ready for the road again.

And those Sebring seats? They will go in before Mikhaila gets behind the wheel again.

Carburetor Issues Again

Friday evening Mikhaila drove back home from visiting friends and I got the following text,” I'm almost home. Scarlet is driving weird also so I don't want to be broken down. “ Since we had a 10 AM appointment at Gary’s, I was up early the next morning to see what’s what. I climbed behind the wheel, started Scarlett’s engine, and took her for a quick spin around the neighborhood. While she seemed to idle okay, she was definitely sluggish under acceleration. I felt, however, we could still get her to and from Gary’s, so Mikhaila climbed in and we headed out. We did not even get to the corner before we noticed further power reduction and significant pinging. We limped her back to a parking spot in front of the house and took Glinda to Gary’s instead.

Gary came through on all fronts – door lock retainers AND gaskets, the blower bearing greasing tool, and a bare convertible door to take sideview mirror measurements off of. Once we got back home, we immediately went to work on the car. First, we started Scarlett’s engine and, by pulling spark plug leads, determined the right side of the engine was not functioning. So, I grabbed the proven ’68 carb, swapped it for the bad one, and restarted the engine. It fired right up and idled and revved nicely once the new carb had filled with fuel. I didn’t take the time to balance it since we had other tasks I wanted to get to before running out of time.

We then disconnected the linkage so we could mount the blower bearing greasing tool. I pumped grease into the tool's Zerk fitting, but wasn't sure any was making it into the bearing. After removing the tool, I noticed a gob of grease on top of the shaft, but none around the seal. I tried the process again, but the result was the same. Irr. Giving up, we put everything back together and started the engine. The howl wasn't gone, but it did seem somewhat quieter as we backed the car down the driveway for a successful test-drive.

Since the lovely Loriann returned and parked the awesome Challenger in the driveway, we parked Scarlett at the curb and moved onto the next items on the to-do list. While Mikhaila swapped courtesy light bulbs, I installed the two door locks. The trick was getting the finger of the mechanism into the slot in the latch. Pushing the retainers in place took some tapping on the end of a flathead screwdriver, but they eventually were seated.

Finally, we carefully measured and marked and re-measured the location of the two screws for the side-view mirror retaining plate before drilling the two holes. The plate was installed followed by the barely GUP gasket and attaching the mirror with its Phillips screw finished the job. At that point, it was time to quit for the day.

Monday, Mikhaila took her car out for a drive and came back informing me it wasn’t idling nicely. I believe she used the terms “rumbling” and “rough.” She and I then headed to the curb with a flathead screwdriver, dwellmeter (with tachometer), and the length of clear plastic tubing. The engine was already warmed-up, so I unhooked the throttle linkage to the left carburetor thus isolating the two carbs from each other. Then I hooked both ends of the tubing to the vacuum ports of the carbs and had Mikhaila fire up the engine. Watching the small amount of fluid in the tube, I adjusted the idle speed screws until it the fluid didn’t move. Then I spun the left side linkage until it just lined up with its hole in the carb and secured it into place. Blipping the throttle didn’t cause the fluid to move, so I considered the carbs synchronized. With the engine off, I put the proper vacuum hoses back into place and hooked up the dwellmeter. Mikhaila restarted the engine and put it into Drive, so I could fine-tune the idle speed and mixture. I slowly turned the idle mixture screws in and out until I’d maximized the rpms. Then, I turned each idle speed screw out in equal increments until the engine was turning at a smooth 550 rpm. A spin around the block showed all was operating satisfactorily.

Then, yesterday, she shared with me that things were still not right with the sluggish acceleration. I confirmed the symptoms this morning before I left for work. The car seems to have decent power everywhere other than acceleration from stop. I checked the ATF level and it’s right on. I also pulled plug leads and both sides seem to respond, so I’m thinking there’s still something amiss with the right carb. My plan is to pull the non-modified carb off Glinda and swap it onto Scarlett. Then I’ll deal with carbs on Glinda instead of Scarlett.

A Little Here, a Little There

Mikhaila and I still have plenty to do before Scarlett is finished. Last night we knocked a few more things off the To-Do list. We started by changing the oil and filter (FYI, the odometer read 55790), and then moved on to installing the trunk lock. The other night I had been looking for something else in the GUP cubbies and unearthed a trunk lock with a gasket, two door locks, and, most importantly, the clip that retains the trunk lock – just the part the local Corvair guru, Gary, said he did not have. TYL. After the lock was in, I lubricated the mechanism with some graphite spray and it turned nice and freely.

With the trunk still open, we checked out the electrics controlling the wiper motor. The other day, I thought we’d found out the wipers wouldn’t run, but didn’t get any farther. With a multi-meter, we verified that 12 volts was getting to the plug and then we verified the switch was grounding out the other terminal. With the electrics working, we deduced the issue must be at the motor. I plugged in the connector and lo-and-behold the wiper motor started spinning. Mikhaila quickly turned off the switch so the blades didn’t run on a dry windshield. Then, with me holding blades up, she turned the switch and they started moving again. TYL. She turned off the switch, and we then slid under the dash and sprayed WD-40 on the linkages. Scarlett’s got wipers.

Back to the open trunk, we emptied out the box of still-to-be-installed parts and refilled it with the gas can and ATF jug from the salon, a set of jumper cables, spare fanbelt, and a funnel. Next, I pulled a jack and lug wrench from the shelf and stowed it in the trunks left front corner before shutting the lid.

The final act of the evening was to install the wheelcovers Mikhaila had chosen. The car’s starting to look finished – at least from the outside.

Tomorrow we're scheduled to visit Gary's and use his blower bearing greasing tool to try and quiet the howl from Scarlett's engine bay. I'll also make some measurements so I can drill holes and install Scarlett's side-view mirror. For whatever reason, she has no mounting holes in her driver's door. Finally, we'll be raiding his stash of spare parts for a couple door lock retaining clips so we can finally fill the holes under the door handles.

Portable Garage Tarp on the Way

Last weekend Victoria and I talked about what we should be doing with Luna. We decided that we’d get a replacement tarp for the portable garage and she’d commit to working on her car at least 8 hours every two weeks. I did some shopping and a new tarp has been bought. It will be here before the snow files, so Luna will be protected for another winter. We’ll get the car running so we can drive her in and out of the heated garage during the upcoming cold months. She’ll be sharing garage time with Glinda, who will be getting more rust repair, including a new trunk bottom, as well as crossing off some more of his tasks in the blogs To-Do List sidebar.

Last evening Mikhaila and I spent some quality time in the garage taking care of Scarlett issues. We lubricated the speedometer cable, screwed down the hi-beam foot switch, installed the C, the I, and the crossed flags on the engine lid using caulk, and adjusted the front toe-in.

The alignment project went exceptionally easily due to Scarlett’s rust-free condition. The clamps nuts over the tie-rod adjusting sleeves turned without drama, the adjusting sleeves themselves also turned with just a pair of vice-grips clamped to them. We started the project by Mikhaila driving the front tires onto round serving trays I’d sandwiched a layer of grease between. This allowed the free movement of the wheels without much resistance. We then determined the center of steering wheel travel by going lock-to-lock and marking top dead center with a piece of masking top at 12 o’clock. Next we laid out our strings along each side of the car exactly ten inches out from the face of the wheel. Then we measured the condition of each wheel to the string at the front of the tire sidewall and then at the rear. Then, with Mikhaila measuring and me spinning the sleeve, we set toe-in at an eighth of an inch (in other words an eighth of an inch difference between the front and back measurements with the front one being larger). I told her to drive the car around and make sure the tape on the steering wheel was still pointed at 12 o’clock while she’s going straight down the road. That’ll indicate where we re-set the steering wheel’s location on the steering column.

With Scarlett back on the street, I moved Glinda to the curb and put the truck in the driveway. I’m such an optimist that I don’t think I’ll need to use the truck any time soon.

An Empty Stall Is Good News

After the successful roadtrip of last week, Mikhaila and I had our eyes on the prize this weekend – putting Scarlett right enough for daily-driver duties. The two main items to address were the sticky throttle and the dim brakelight. We dealt with the former by removing the two screws holding the throttle pedal pivot to the floor, sliding the bound bushing off the rod, sanding the rust off the rod and greasing it, sliding the bushing back over the rod, and reinstalling the pivot to the floor. We dealt with the latter, by reattaching the ground wire to the back of the socket and binding it with electrical tape and a zip-tie.

With those two items resolved, and some time left in the garage before dinner, I dug out the cavity coating kit I'd bought months ago. After shaking the can for one minute, Mikhaila, now wearing safety glasses and gloves per the instructions, gave the inside of the rocker panels a healthy coating working both from the heater door back and forward and from the hole under the back seat. We then moved on to the upside-down steering wheel. In my mind, a misaligned steering is a sign the front wheels are also out of alignment. Using the string method, we determined that the front wheels have roughly .8 degrees total toe-out. The car is supposed to have roughly .6 degrees total toe-in. Some adjustments will be necessary, but, by that time, dinner was upon us, so we had to quit.

With the promise she’d stay within a 5 mile radius of the house and limit her route to surface streets, Mikhaila and Scarlett hit the road to visit friends. When they came back home, they parked on the street thus affording me the opportunity to take the above photograph.

Big news regarding Glinda. I think (hope and pray) I’ve solved the starter issue. Thanks to Jeff at the Corvair Ranch for the parts, I rebuilt her starter with a new Bendix, a very GUP solenoid fork, and a new felt washer. I also cleaned the commutator, checked the brushes (plenty of life left), and lubricate appropriate surfaces with synthetic grease. Once it was all reassembled, I rolled it under the car, and I followed armed wrenches, light, phone, and a mirror. Prior to reinstalling the starter, I wanted to shoot some photos of the ring gear teeth to make sure they were in good order. From what I can tell (see photos below) everything looks to be in pretty good condition. With the starter bolted in and the wiring hooked up, I gave the key a twist and the starter spun the engine just like it was designed to. I gave it about six times to misbehave, but it worked right each time. Glinda is back into daily-driver service.

Roadtrip

Click to see the video of backing out the driveway.

Click to see the video of going down the road.
“Put your shoes on and let’s take your car for a drive.” That was my greeting to Mikhaila as I walked through the door yesterday late afternoon. Out to the garage we went, and once the door was opened, Scarlett started right up. I guided Mikhaila back through the door and down the driveway. I had her slam on the brakes a few times while backing up to adjust the self-adjusting brakes. Then, I had her pause near the street while I got out my phone to record the momentous event of her car seeing a public road under its power for the first time in many, many years. The next thing I know Scarlett has disappeared down the street leaving me standing at the curb. I told the lovely Loriann (also out witnessing this milestone) that Mikhaila did not have her phone, so I hope Scarlett didn’t break down. A few moments later, she reappeared on the horizon and drove up and back into the driveway. I slid onto the passenger seat and the only comment that came out of her smiling mouth was, “The gas pedal sticks.” I got back out and said, “Okay, it’s my turn.” We switched places and headed back out to tour more of our neighborhood. I told her we’d fix the sticky pedal, but that a quick blip before letting up on the gas resulted in the pedal going to idle position. I also did a few more brake adjustment stops while reversing which did seem to get rid of the pulling to the left while braking. After a few minutes of my driving, Mikhaila informed me it was her turn again. With her back behind the wheel we headed out of the neighborhood and onto the bordering boulevard. This gave the car the opportunity to get above 25 MPH and she performed fine. Still a little pulling under braking, but that should get better with more driving.

Back into the garage she went, where we recapped what we’d discovered still needed attention. Along with the aforementioned throttle, we need to lubricate the speedometer cable, get the right brake light to illuminate brighter (it’s noticeably dimmer than the left side), check the alignment (the steering wheel is upside down),and make the fuel gauge functional.

Later that evening, when I went out to close up the garage, I couldn’t resist grabbing the spray bottle of Armor-all and a rag and attacking the vinyl of Scarlett’s top. I found that what I’d assumed was dirt near the rear bow, was actually overspray from when the car was repainted. The rest of the top cleaned up nicely and is now shiny black.

Top Has Been Tacked

Not a lot of garage time this past weekend, but Mikhaila and I did spend a couple hours working on Scarlett’s convertible top. With the back window already stapled to the three trim sticks (last weekend), we moved on to the stapling the top to the trim sticks. Since this top had been stapled to the sticks before, it was just a simple matter of lining up the holes in the vinyl with the bolt holes in the sticks, right? Wish it was that easy. We started with the short, driver’s side stick and aligned the top’s bottom edge like we thought it should be (using a couple hole-ish cuts in the vinyl) and put in a few staples to hold the edge in place. While holding the window material taut, we tried to find holes in the top that would line up with the holes in the center trim sticks – no luck and the window-edge of the top didn’t come close to the edge of the window causing a lot of white to be revealed. Hoping the other side would be more cooperative, we started by lining up inboard holes in the bottom edge of the top with the outer holes in the center trim stick. Holding the holes in alignment with a couple large Phillips screwdrivers, we popped in a few staples and moved around to attaching the side trim stick. Lo and behold, holes were lining up so we finished stapling the top to the two sticks. Mikhaila insisted we screw the sticks in on that side to make sure we were doing it right. Many minutes and some swearwords later, we were satisfied with the look of the top and moved back to the left side. This time, instead of lining up holes, we lined up the window edge of the top with the window, put in staples, punched new holes, and screwed the sticks into the body. With the sticks now in place, we said a prayer and extended the front bow to the top of the windshield and, after some pushing and pulling, the pins went into the holes and the latches pulled the top down tight. Really tight. Thankfully, not tearing sounds emanated as we pushed and pulled. The top fits beautifully, but the rear bow has not been stapled to the top, so the rear window’s a little saggy. I had to take off at that point, so the final couple steps will have to wait.

So Close

Last weekend was a busy one, but Mikhaila and I did spend some quality time in the garage. Friday evening I pulled the right-side carburetor off Glinda and installed on the right side of Scarlett’s engine. I also removed the front bucket seats and laid down two coats of shiny black Rustoleum on Glinda’s floor.

The next morning, Mikhaila and I started up Scarlett’s engine and, finally, the right side was getting hot (meaning it was working), so the choke on that carb opened at roughly the same rate as the left side. This proved that the carb that has twice shown some sort of vacuum leak still leaks.

Now I needed to get a functioning carburetor to fill the now empty spot on Glinda’s engine. I recently received the modified carb bases in the mail, so using them to make whole carbs was the next project. I’d put all the pulled parts from the pre-modified bases in a container and I was actually able to locate said container and put the carbs back together. Part of that effort was to drill out one of the tiny brass screws that holds the throttle plate to its shaft. That went better than expected thanks to my drill press, a sharp bit, and the softness of the screw. Also part of the reassembly was installing the o-rings, washers, and springs that serve to seal the joint between a worn throttle shaft and the holes in the base. With both carbs complete, I installed the closest one to hand in Glinda and fired up her engine. Within a few seconds fuel was gushing out the vent holes on the top of the carb – stuck needle-and-seat. I yanked the coil lead from the distributor cap killing the engine and stopping the geyser show. Before pulling the top off the carb to fix the issues, I did a quick blip of the throttle to see if the old accelerator pump was working – it wasn’t. With the top off, I cut off the old pump cup and popped a new one in its place. I also, blew through the inlet of the carb with the float in the up position to verify it would close, and then, right before reinstalling the top, I checked the float and all looked good. With everything back together, I fired up the engine hoping all was good – it was not. The new carb was still misbehaving, so off went the engine and I had another choice to make – put on the other modified carb, or put together one of Glinda’s original-style carbs (earmarked for Luna) and install it. I opted for the latter and fifteen or so minutes later, Glinda was running smoothly again.

The next day I had some time before Mikhaila got off work, so I swapped on the second modified carb and, lo-and-behold, it worked fine. So, for those keeping score, it’s one modified ‘66 carb and one stock (LM, but not original) carb working on Glinda; one recently rebuilt LM carb and one stock (also LM) on Scarlett; a non-functioning stock and a non-functioning, a recently rebuilt ’68 carb, and an unassembled ’68 carb all sitting on the workbench. The last two Glinda activities of the weekend were squirting beads of high-quality caulk into all the joints around the new floor patches and then bolting in the front bucket seats.

Once Mikhaila was home from work, we headed out to the garage to work on installing Scarlett’s rear window. We carefully removed the staples holding the trim strip to the rear bow allowing us to remove that, but before we did, we used masking tape to mark exactly where the strip went on the top. With the strip out of the way, we removed the staples at the same bow holding the top in place. With those gone, we peeled back the top allowing us to move on to the next step – installing the rear window piece. In addition to its top edge being stapled to the bow, its bottom edge is stapled to the three trim sticks and that’s what we tackled next. Using marks that were already on the vinyl, we located and stapled the window to only the center, long trim stick and then, using only three bolts, installed said trim stick. After checking that the window was even on the bow, we pulled out the stick and stapled to the two, shorter, side sticks and then, using just enough bolts, we installed the sticks to the car. We then pulled the bow back as far as we dared and put in a few staples. The next check was pulling the top back over the bow and seeing if everything lined up – it appeared to be right on. With confidence we went ahead and completed stapling the window to the bow. At that point, it was dinner time and we called it a day.

So, we are so close to getting Scarlett on the road – just need to remove the trim sticks, staple the top’s bottom edge to the sticks using the existing holes as guides, reinstall the sticks, re-staple the top to the bow, and install the new leading edge weatherstrip. Okay, maybe not so close.

Second Seat In

Yesterday, after dinner, I donned grungies and proceeded to do what had to be done to get the front passenger Cobalt seat installed in Glinda. I placed the seat in the car lining up the outboard rear mounting screw, and marked the locations of the four feet on the floor. The angle grinder with a wire brush made quick work of removing all coatings from the areas to be welded to, while the bench grinder’s wire wheel cleaned up the four pieces of square tube. The angle grinder, now with a cutoff wheel installed shorted the feet so they’d fit into the tube pieces. After rolling the MIG welder out to the car, I welded the four pieces of tubing to the floor. For some reason the welding was not a nice as the driver’s side even after adjusting the feed rate a few times. I remembered that I’d put the heat setting on C, but I’d forgotten what had worked for the speed before. It also could’ve been that the connection to ground was farther away than last time. So while it didn’t look as good, the weld was still complete enough to provide good anchors. Once the four tubes were attached and the welds had cooled, I covered all the exposed steel with primer and let things dry while I turned my attention to the clutch again.

This time I decided to actually follow directions when setting the locations for the two clevises (or is that clevii?). After putting Glinda up on the ramps, I slid under the rear and disassembled both clutch linkage pivots. I tugged on the cable with roughly 15 pounds of muscle and spun the first clevis down the thread until the pin lined up with the hole in the fork (z-bar). All this with the fork set as close to 7/8ths of an inch from the cross-member as I could measure. With the fork engaged with the clevis, I then pulled all the slack out of clutch and spun the second clevis until the pin lined up with the corresponding hole in the other end of the z-bar. The final instruction was to, “Back off (3) Adjusting Rod three turns and assemble to lever with (2) Clip.” When something’s underlined, I tend to think it’s important. Well, I backed it off three from being inline and now the clutch grabs as soon as it’s off the floor. I think three should be two. Since the rear was up on the ramps, I

Having given the primer some time to dry, I decided I could install seatbelts and the front passenger seat. The seat bolted right in, so now I've got the ability to transport a passenger.

Before calling it a night, I started Scarlett’s engine to see if my vacuum blocking had fixed the right side’s cool running. The engine fired right up and there’s now a significant amount of vacuum at the right carb’s air horn and no hissing when I put my hand on top. However, the choke still didn’t move much from cold, but I can attest to the exhaust manifold putting out the heat. Not sure what the deal is – maybe the thermostat is bad. I’m thinking of investing in a new tool – an infrared gun to compare right and left sides. Also, thinking I’ll swap right with left carbs to see if the problem stays with the side or follows the carb.

Oily Mess

It was a very busy weekend car-wise. It all started Friday evening with the hitching and re-hitching of Ringo to the truck. After gathering all the parts that were going with Ringo to his new home as well as the parts destined for the Corvair Ranch, I loaded them all in the bed of the truck. Next, I hitched Ringo to the truck, and as I was finishing Ariel drove up. As she rolled down her window, I could see the disappointment on her face - she’d hoped to drive her car one last time. I quickly offered to unhitch him, but she insisted it was okay. As she drove away and I went to the garage to close up for the night I couldn’t get her disappointment out of my head. So, I decided it was early enough that I had time to give her that one last drive. I called her and told her that I was on my way over with her car, so be ready to take him on your last ride together. I went back to the curb and undid the towbar from Ringo’s front bumper and the chain and wiring for the lights from the back of the truck. Knowing it would just be a short drive on neighborhood streets, I didn’t bother climbing under the car to disconnect the chain from the crossmember, but, instead, put the loose end with a good bit of length in the trunk and closed the lid to the first catch making sure nothing was dragging. After driving over a speed bump, I started to hear the chain dragging. Using my cellphone as a flashlight I found the chain hook dragging under the crossmember, so pulled it out and added that end to the end already in the trunk and continued to Ariel’s. After she and her fiancé, Jeff, drove off, I sat down on their front stoop and reached into my pocket for my cellphone, but it wasn’t there. Must’ve fallen out in Ringo – no worries. When they returned a few minutes later, I climbed behind the wheel and drove home where I grabbed a flashlight to find the phone, but it wasn’t there either. Okay, maybe it fell out when I climbed out of the car at Ariel’s. Using Brianna’s phone I called Ariel and she did a quick search but found nothing. Not good. It then occurred to me I didn’t remember having the phone with me after I used it to deal with the loose chain, so I wandered out to the spot where I’d used it as flashlight. I fully expected to find a smashed phone lying on the pavement, but saw nothing there or along the first few blocks of the drive after that corner. Big time not good. Fuming at my stupidity, I re-hitched Ringo to the truck and called it a night.

Saturday morning I arrived at Ringo’s new home around 9:30. John and I conducted the transaction and I headed on to the Corvair Ranch. After relieving the truck bed of its contents of cylinder heads, Glinda’s back seat, a large collection of wheel covers, and some other odds and ends, I headed into their office to gather the few parts on my shopping list. Jeff had the new key ready and I verified it fit the trunk lock I’d brought along. Next, Jeb (Jeff’s assistant) and I headed upstairs in one of the buildings to hunt for a ’64 Monza wheelcover for Scarlett and a driver’s door panel for Glinda. The former showed up right away, but I didn’t find the latter until the last section of panels. Fortunately, the first one I finally came across was in pretty good condition with just a few edges peeled from the cardboard – easily fixed with some spray contact cement. The last item on the list was a GUP finned, rear drum for Scarlett. Jeb had pulled a good one from their stash and I was set. Once I was back home, it was time for Mikhaila and I to do some work on her car. We decided to tackle the door weatherstripping. It took careful cement application, a bit of masking taped, and some sore fingertips to get both doors done, but done they were. At that point, we decided to be done with Scarlett until the next afternoon.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I needed to get Glinda back on the road, so putting in the floor was next on my agenda. I measured out and cut a large patch from an old LM hood and tacked it into place along the edge and with some plug welds where the u-beam ran under the floor patch. A smaller patch covering the forward part of the missing floor was cut and welded in as well. With the floor whole again, I coated all the added metal with primer and left the windows down so the primer could dry. Dinner time was fast approaching at that point, so I put the welder and the rest of the tools and supplies away for the day.

Sunday, before Mikhaila got back from work, I opened the garage door with the intention of ensuring Scarlett was running right for her first foray onto the street. I wanted to make sure all was good with the drivetrain before we spent the time putting the rear window in. With the brand new DieHard hooked up, I turned the key and a few cranks later the engine fired right up. As the engine warmed up, I put the shifter in D, but the transmission did not respond. The dipstick was dry, so I poured about a quart of ATF down the fill tube. After that, a flip of the shifter was followed with the associated lurch forward and drop in rpm. Same response when I flipped the lever to R, with the lurch being backwards. With that victory, I went back to the engine compartment and noticed the choke on the right side wasn’t opening up like the one on the left. I put my hand over the air horn and heard a lot of hissing – crap, a vacuum leak. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to determine the hissing was coming from the hole for the air cleaner hold-down j-hook. Since Mikhaila had decided she wanted the EM air cleaner set up, we didn’t need that hole, so I shut off the engine, mixed up a tiny batch of JB Weld, and plugged the hole. She arrived home soon after that, but, sadly, the new plug had to harden before we could start up the car again for its maiden voyage. So, instead, we changed the rear shocks. We’d put new ones in a few months back, but I never liked the way the rear of the car was way too bouncy. I dug through my stash and came up with a pair of GUP KYB’s that I decided were stiffer than the Clark’s Red Ryders. We swapped them out and then Mikhaila was done for the day – too tired from her job to continue contributing.


The final (I thought) fleet activity for the day was bolting in Glinda’s driver’s seat so I could put her back into daily-drivership. That went easily enough, but when I fired up the engine I noticed the oil gauge stayed on zero. Since the idiot light was not illuminated, I knew the issue was with the switch not the engine, so I backed the car out to the street. After helping my future son-in-law change the oil in his car, I went back to the street to put Glinda up on the ramps to adjust the clutch. As I approached the car, I noticed a shiny puddle under Glinda. I stuck my finger in it and the cause of the non-functioning gauge became apparent – a break in the nylon tube. For once I was actually prepared for such a failure. I opened the tool bag I pack for my trips to the track, dug out the small plastic bag with the pipe plug. With plug and wrenches in hand, I removed the fitting at the engine and filled it to keep any more oil excaping from the engine. Then, instead of backing onto the ramps to access the clutch linkage, I pulled forward onto them so I could remove the tunnel cover and clean up the oily mess I was sure the tunnel’s inside surface was coated with. A bunch of screws later the pan was loose and leaning against the fence where I coated it with Purple Power and brushed and rinsed the oil away. Thinking it was one of the splices on the clutch cable that had caused the tube to fail, I also removed the inside cover so both splices were exposed. Neither of them appeared to be rubbing on anything critical, but the upper splice was catching on a zip tie causing the catch near the end of the pedal travel. I cut it off and put on a new just out of reach of the moving splice. I also wrapped both splices completely with vinyl tape before putting the covers back on. I decided I’ll buy a whole new length of tubing with the fittings since I also needed to deal with the leak at the back of the gauge. Then I drove off the ramps, moved the ramps to rear of the car, and backed up onto them so I could move the clutch clevis a few turns out. Back down off the ramps and it was time to put away all the tools.

Visiting the Ranch

Saturday morning I thought I was getting up before anyone in the house when I drug myself out of bed at 7:30. I was wrong. Brianna and Nicholas had already been up and running (literally), and they arrived back home as I was fixing myself breakfast. I had resigned myself to leaving Glinda’s front bench seat out of the load of parts going up to the Corvair Ranch, but Nicholas was kind enough to help me carry it out of the temporary garage and place it atop the pile in the back of the truck.

I arrived at the Ranch shortly after their 9 AM opening, and snapped a few photos of the bed-full before Jeff and I unloaded it onto a pallet. While he gathered the new parts to fill my shopping list, I chatted with a couple ‘vair guys about their projects. Jeb has dropped a 140HP with a modified Powerglide into his Greenbrier and is in the process of putting in aftermarket A/C . Tom pulled a turbo Corsa convertible out of Jeff’s collection of restorables and gave me a tour of what it’s been through. I told him I had some serious rotisserie envy as he spun the bare body around on its axis showing me the results of the body being acid dipped (to remove the paint and body putty) and dipped e-coated. The trick, he shared, was minimzing the air pockets that prevent the coating from getting to nooks and crannies. Looked like his coater was about ninety-nine percent successful.

Back to see how Jeff was doing. He’d pulled together the fuzzies, weatherstripping, and air cleaner brackets for Scarlett and the steering box for Glinda, but couldn’t come up with a 500 fender badge for a ’68. I quickly offered to go walk the yard with a borrowed putty knife. I relished the excuse to wander amongst the dozens of parts cars. Model 500s are much rarer than Monzas, so I had to pass by quite a few LMs until I came across the first 500, and quite a few more before I found a 500 with a badge still in place. Fortunately, it was the stick-on ’68 style I needed for Glinda and it was in the same slightly worn condition as Glinda’s existing one.

While the pile of parts I was to take home was significantly smaller than the one I’d brought Jeff, I knew that they were worth some serious money (the fuzzies and weatherstrip pieces alone have a Clark’s list price of nearly $300). Expecting to write him a check, I was thrilled when Jeff told me since I’d given him some good stuff (mainly the bench seat and a EM posi-traction differential), he’d call it even. What a guy!!!!!

Three Piles

Last Friday I was contacted by a prospective Ringo buyer who said he’d try to come out and kick some tires Monday. In preparation for that I went digging for the good EM hood I’d promised would be part of the deal. I knew it was in the stall behind the garage, so Saturday I went digging. That area, for a while, was a catch-all for all things automotive and otherwise that I didn’t want cluttering up the garage. As I flipped up the tarp that partially covers the open end of the stall, I decided it was time to get rid of some of the excess stuff. The creation of three piles ensued. Pile 1 would be nastiness destined for the dump. Pile 2 would be bound for the Corvair Ranch. Pile 3 was the keeper pile – the stuff I’m just positive I’ll find a use for in the future.

Pile 1 ended up being three destroyed tires and a set of 14” 4-bolt wheels from an old Toyota. I’m sure the lovely Loriann would be disappointed to hear that I couldn’t find more for the pile. Pile 2 currently consists of a couple bucket seat frames, a box of LM parts, five 5-lug stock wheels, and a single 4-lug. Earmarked for this pile are an aluminum steering box, a rebuildable EM axle assembly, a couple Powerglides, a pair of bellhousings, a ’64 empty engine with bellhousing, a couple boxes of pistons, rods, and cylinders, an engine blocks, the seats out of Glinda, and some odd sheetmetal pieces. Pile 3 ended up being the aforementioned EM hood, a LM hood, two LM engine lids, and bottom section of a LM trunk.

The rest of the items in the stall are the LeMans and LeMans-related parts and pieces, gardening stuff, the sand-blast barrel, and a car-top carrier Brianna won’t let me throw away. Back to Ringo and my efforts to sell him. The prospective buyer couldn’t make it Monday, so it looks like he’s planning on coming Saturday. Also, another guy is interested and he may also come down over this weekend for a look. Not holding my breath.

For Scarlett, we’re down to just the rear window install, and weatherstripping and window fuzzies, which I’m planning on picking up Saturday morning. Bright and early I’ll make the drive up to the Corvair Ranch to get rid of the Pile 2 stuff and bring home the Scarlett stuff as well as a few items for Glinda (500 fender badge and a GUP steering box).

Speaking of Glinda; one picture is worth a thousand.
Yeah, she’s been sitting, interior empty, for far too long. Need to get the floor patched and the Cobalt seats installed before I have to park her for the salt season.

The Sweet, Smoky, Smell of Success

Yesterday evening Mikhaila and I headed to the garage to work on Scarlett. The two things keeping her from roadworthiness were no compression in cylinders number 1 and 3, and a transmission that only rotates forward. Since both sides were on jackstands, we started with the transmission shifter. I’d hoped that reinserting the shifter linkage into the housing properly would fix the issue, so Mikhaila undid the retaining bolt and I followed the directions to a T and she followed up with reinstalling the bolt.

Since the spark plugs were out, we couldn’t check on our success, so we moved on to adjusting the #1 and #3 valves. She put the left rear tire back on and lowered that corner back onto the garage floor before rolling the jack over to the left rear which we then raised as high as safely possible. With all the oil now on the left side of the engine, we pulled off the right valve cover. Fortunately, the muffler didn’t prevent us from accessing the cover or the nuts set the lifter pre-load. We did, however, have to loosen the muffler strap bolt to provide clearance for the 5/8ths socket and wrench. With access gained and the engine now sitting on top dead center with the rotor pointing at #1, Mikhaila loosened both nuts retaining the rockers for #1’s intake and exhaust valves. We carefully followed the manual’s instructions to tighten the nuts just to the point where the push rods couldn’t not be spun, but we diverged from giving the nut a subsequent 360 degree turn to only 270. #2’s intake would also be readjusted with the crank set at its current position. Then, after spinning the crank exactly one rotation, we readjusted #2 exhaust to the same criteria.

I bolted the valve cover in place, and we move on to do a quick compression test. Cylinder #1? Over 120 psi. Cylinder #2? Also back up over 120 psi. Excellent news.

On to a test start. With the spark plugs back in their holes and the leads attached, Mikhaila turned the key and the engine fired right up. Still somewhat smokey, but running smoother than before, it settled into idle. When she put the shifter into Reverse, the tire up off the floor started spinning backwards, and when she shifted into Drive, the wheel spun forwards. Success!

Too Tight?

Mikhaila and I had a few goals to attain last night, and we got to most of them. First, we wanted to return Ringo’s borrowed parts. While Mikhaila removed Ringo’s carbs, fuel lines, and throttle linkage, I finished rebuilding two carburetors I’d started on months ago. We bolted them onto Scarlett along with GUP fuel lines and linkage. We started the engine and I adjusted the idle speed screw. I was so intent upon the two screws, I missed that right carb’s fuel fitting was not tight enough and gas was spraying all over the front of the engine compartment. I immediately pulled the coil lead from the distributor cap. We wiped up the gas and tightened the fitting before moving on to Ringo. I found a fuel pump that did not have the word BAD marked on it, and we installed it into its hole in Ringo’s engine. Fuel lines went in next while Mikhaila bolted the carbs in place. We retrieved the batter from Scarlett’s engine compartment , dropped it into place, and attached the leads. A push of the “start” button and Ringo fired right up. I kept waiting for the engine to stall due to a bad pump, but, instead, I was rewarded with some spewing fuel from another loose fitting. Actually a good sign since it indicated the pump was still good.

With Ringo functional again (just in case someone wants to test drive him before buying), we moved on to the second goal of the night; checking compression. I had Mikhaila remove all the spark plugs while I swapped the battery back into Scarlett. With the compression tester screwed into Cylinder #1, Mikhaila turned the key to spin then engine. The needle did not move – zero compression. I connected the tester to #3 – same result. I moved it to #2 – 65 psi. This was an improvement of 20 psi from the last time we checked compression – certainly moving the right direction. As for #1 and #3, I must’ve gone too far with tightening the valves during the readjust of months ago. Pulling the valve cover and re-setting the lash is now at the top of the to-do list.

The final goal for the night was to pull the transmission shifter linkage from the trans and reinsert following the manual’s directions. We didn’t get there.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Last night, the lovely Loriann came out to the garage and warned Mikhaila and I about the dangerous atmosphere we'd created in the garage. At the time we were standing in a fog of Scarlett's exhaust and blow-by, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday evening Mikhaila and I traveled to the home of the local Corvair guru, Gary. He had the balance tube we needed for Scarlett. He joked that if she was missing hers, the one in his hand may have been it. He’d helped the previous owner get the car running about fifteen years. He warned me it was a hot engine – “the strongest 110 Powerglide I ever drove.”” The only problem,” I replied, “it’s got low compression now in at least one cylinder.”

Yesterday, after dinner, Mikhaila and I headed out to the garage to, hopefully, get Scarlett running. We installed the aforementioned balance tube using new hoses to the carbs and transmission. Thinking positively, we screwed on the taillight lenses and bezels with new gaskets. Next, we opened the garage door, turned on all the fans to keep air moving through and out the space while we poured in about three gallons of hi-test and half a bottle of Marvel’s Mystery Oil into the gas tank. During the pour, I had Mikhaila check for drips and puddles under the car. Thankfully, all remained dry below.

A check for fuel at the carbs by blipping the throttle showed they were empty. Using a large syringe I squirted about a half-cup of gas into vent holes to refill each carb’s bowls. Before starting, we checked the dwell (31 degrees – close enough) and set the timing. The former was checked with the dwell-meter while cranking the engine, while the latter was accomplished by turning the engine until the rotor was pointing to the #1 terminal on the distributor cap and the timing mark was sitting at about twelve degrees before top dead center and then slowly turning the distributor counter-clockwise until the timing light (connected to the #1 lead) blinked. Jumping the starter’s purple wire to the positive battery terminal got the engine spinning and a few seconds later we had a running engine.

The first thing I noticed was the excessive blow-by coming out the crankcase vent tube. The second thing I noticed was the lack of a clacking lifter. Okay, bad news balanced by good. We let the engine warm up watching the chokes slowly open – oops, the left choke is not opening very quickly. After tweaking the timing to get it up to around 12, and adjusting the idle speed down to around 600, we pulled spark plug leads off the distributor one at a time to gauge whether individual cylinders were contributing. Pulling #1 – no change in engine rpm. #3 – no change. All others appear to be functioning. This is odd since the last compression test (if my notes are correct) showed #2 to be the dead cylinder. Ah, old cars; consistency is a myth. The last thing we checked before turning off the engine was the transmission. Mikhaila put the shifter in Drive and the left rear wheel spun (the rear of the car’s still on jackstands), but only half-heartedly. I asked her to put the shifter into Reverse and the only change was a backup light came on. The left rear wheel kept spinning forwards. Irr. Looks like we need to reinsert the shifter cable.

What to do next? In addition to fixing the shifter cable (hoping that it really is installed wrong and not a deeper problem with the trans), we’ll do another compression check on each cylinder to see if things have changed. I was going to do a top-end engine clean using Sea-Foam, but I want to know what we’re dealing with first.

Reversible Sharing

Last night, in support of getting Scarlett on the road ASAP, I made the hard decision to pull perfectly good parts off Ringo and install them on Scarlett. The other option was to rely on recently rebuilt carburetors and a suspect fuel pump, and buy a battery. Since I expected it to only take a few minutes to remove the requisite Ringo parts, I went the cannibalization route. I figured if someone wanted to test-drive Ringo in the next few days, I’d swap everything back – not too big a deal.

While Mikhaila installed the final engine seal retainer on the passenger side, I remove Ringo’s fan belt, loosened the fuel pump retention bolt, spun off the four nuts holding the carbs to his heads, and disconnected the throttle and choke linkages. With Mikhaila helping, we pulled the carbs, fuel pump, and fuel lines as one assembly and dropped it onto Scarlett’s engine. Mikhaila went to free the battery while I began tightening bolts and fittings. Once all that was in place, I realized we hadn’t installed the choke linkage into the thermostat ends. We got it done, but it would have been MUCH easier prior to putting the fuel in the way. Mikhaila bolted down the carbs and then busied herself cleaning chrome while I finished hooking up and adjusting linkages. Ringo’s battery was then yanked from its home and dropped into Scarlett’s engine compartment. After cleaning the terminals, we established electrical power to the car. Next needed part? A vacuum balance tube. I searched the washtub of Scarlett parts – nothing. I searched the shelves and walls and I was able to turn up four tubes, but they were all for LMs. Cool that one of them was from the 140HP engine from the Phil collection. I briefly thought about pulling Ringo’s, but the thought of finagling the tube out didn’t thrill me since it violated the easy-off easy-back-on rule I’d applied to this cannibalization episode.

When I shared my frustration at not have the right piece amongst my stash, Mikhaila pulled out a pen and a used part box to start a list. I guess she figured if we were missing one part, there’d be more. I scanned the engine compartment to see what else I was forgetting to install and came up needing the two brackets that position the bottom air cleaner cans over the engine (circled in red in the image below – taken from the excellent source corvanatics.com. A little explanation here since the Corvair enthusiasts among you readers will recognize that this style air cleaner (two separate elements) is not correct for a ’64 engine. I had given Mikhaila a choice as to which air cleaner style she wanted (correct ’64-‘69 style with a single, larger element or ’61-’63 dual element style). She chose the dual style, so many months ago I made sure I had the cans, lids, and crossover for that. Sadly, I’d forgotten the two brackets. Another deep search of the shelves turned up nothing, so those went on the list. I was, however, able to unearth all the parts necessary for the LM style, so that’s what we’ll go with until the correct brackets are obtained from the Corvair Ranch.

The next scan of the engine reminded me we needed to plug the large hole on the front right of the top engine cover. GM’s design had a hose go between the pressurized volume under the cover and the heater box to provide air to mix in the heater box. That AIR knob under the dash controls the door that lets or restricts this flow. Since stealing any cooling air from an air-cooled engine is not a good idea, many folks remove the hose and block off the exposed opening, and we did that exact thing. Without explanation I cryptically directed her to go to our recycle bin and bring back an aluminum can. She was then instructed to cut the can leaving only the unrolled flat side piece. Using the adapter as a template, she crudely cut out the sheet to fit, we poked holes where the three attachment screws went coated the mounting perimeter of the sheet and adapter with RTV and screwed the parts in place over the hole.

The final act of our evening in the garage was testing the lights. With the key in the ON position, I flicked the blinker lever to the right and left with each position providing the resultant blinking of the front and rear lights. The shifter lever was moved to the R position and one of the two backup lights illuminated. I think I know the issue with the balky passenger side – grounding, and we’ll deal with that soon.

Once back inside I grabbed my phone and sent my buddy, Gary, a quick e-mail to see if he had a balance tube he'd be willing to part with. This morning's response was positive, so I'll be paying him a visit next Monday evening.

Full Speed Ahead, Scarlett

As the sun shone through the garage windows Saturday morning, Mikhaila and I could tell it was going to be another hot, humid day – finally time to dig out the garage-only A/C unit from the basement. It’s marked garage-only since the fan doesn’t start without some help and never gets up to the spinning speed it should, but it’s still makes cold air, so into the window it went.

The second order of the workday was to make Scarlet rollable again, and that meant dealing with wheels and tires. We pried the damaged tires off Ringos rims and the good tires off Glinda’s green wheels. The good tires, whitewalls out) then went on the black four-lugs and were filled with air until they their beads popped into place (much to Mikhaila’s surprise). Once we pumped them high enough (40 psi), the bubbling at the bead stopped and they were ready to go on Ringo. First the rear, then the front, we freed up Scarlett’s smaller tires and made Ringo sit flat again. Scarlett got her 185-75R13s back and we rolled her into the garage and quickly shut the door to keep as much cooler air in as possible.

I’d decided we needed to do the minimum required to quickly get this car roadworthy for Mikhaila, so we focused on getting the engine ready to run. The seals on an EM are 3” or so wide pieces of leather-like rubber. Originally, they are stapled to the top sheetmetal shrouds. While this is the preferred way of attaching replacements, riveting is MUCH easier, so that’s the route we took. With a GUP front shroud (good, pliable seal still in place), we only needed to deal with the two side ones. After marking drill locations, I had Mikhaila put in holes using the drill press. With me holding the shroud and the seal, she then poked holes in the seal using an awl followed by the rivets and the shrouds were ready for installation. First, though, we needed to remove the old front shroud, and that necessitated disconnecting the battery cable and throttle linkage that pass through a hold in the shroud. Of course, that little task wasn’t so simple since we had to remove the left rear wheel to get access to the solenoid. We then snaked all three top shrouds into place as well as the engine’s top cover and bolted them all into place. Finally, working under the car and with the wheel already out of the way, we installed the outer seal retainer to the driver side. We tried to do the passenger side, but the muffler and wheel made it too difficult, so, since it was past dinner time, we quit for the day.

Sunday, Mikhaila had to work, so I did a couple quick Glinda tasks – adjusted the clutch and sewed the headliner. Yes, the same headliner I just finished writing that I’d be replacing. Well, I’m such a cheapskate and the needle and thread were handy so I just stitched the gap closed.