Well, the only male member of the fleet isn’t really gone-gone, he’s just not in Baltimore anymore. Victoria and I met Ariel and her buddy, Matt, in PA yesterday and swapped Ringo for Lucy. That exchange wasn’t without its drama, but first I’ll back up a day and a half.
Friday evening I swapped the last two of Heidi’s wheels onto Ringo so his was now a matched set of four. Since I had the jack and jackstands out, I pulled back the rear wheel hubs and added grease to the wheel bearings. Then, with rain on the way, Victoria helped me move Luna out of the garage so I could put Ringo inside. With his leaking backlight, I still needed to apply more sealant.
Saturday’s time in the garage was spent masking off backlight trim, laying a bead of black silicone around the weatherstrip, checking the front alignment, adjust the front brake shoes, and making sure I’d properly installed the dust shield when I’d worked on the rear bearings.
Yesterday was a very busy day and it started early with Ringo getting a bath before 8 AM. Sadly, the backlight still leaks, but my attitude now is, “SCREW IT; I’ve done what I can.” After a nice breakfast with the family, Victoria and I headed up to the Corvair Ranch for their annual Open House. We spent most of the time wandering the back field of retired ‘vairs snapping photos. I’ve uploaded mine to Flickr. I did buy the two GUP tires Jeff had set aside for me. They are slightly smaller than stock at 175/80-13, but with the correct size, 185/80-13, unavailable, beggars can’t be choosers. After availing ourselves of the delicious buffet lunch, we hit the road to meet Ariel in York. The night before she had fallen and hurt her wrist and was unable to shift Lucy, so Matt drove from Millersville. Victoria and I arrived a few mintues early and I did the nice Dad thing and filled Ringo’s gas tank at the Sheetz station. When I turned the key to start his engine though, nothing happened. I tried a few times without success and ended up hot-wiring the engine to get it to crank. It fired right up and ran as usual. While waiting for Lucy’s arrival, I rummaged through the trunk and found a plastic coated metal coat hanger that I quickly unbent so it could be used as a jumper “wire” in case Ringo decided to pull the non-starting crap again. I showed Ariel how to use it if necessary, and sent her and Matt on their way. She was behind the wheel as they pulled off since she insisted she needed to be the driver regardless of how useless her right wrist was. They made a couple stops on the drive back, and Ringo started right up each time.
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