Working Side by Side

Last night Victoria commenced work on her convertible. She’s currently trying out the name Luna since the family rejected her first choice, Dudley. Our intention at this point is to stop the current rust growth and make the car drivable for the summer with the serious bodywork to take place late-fall and throughout the winter. With that in mind, she attacked the bubbling paint and exposed rust spots with a wire wheel and then coated them with Rusty Metal Primer in preparation for a couple coats of hopefully-close metallic blue.

Just for kicks, I rubbed out a small patch on Luna’s lower fender to see what kind of shine could be brought back, and we were pleasantly surprised with the gloss. So much so, that once the newly painted spots are safely cured, Victoria will break out the buffer and pretty up Luna’s entire body. In addition to rust-stopping, we’ll need to install a battery and four new tires, make sure the brakes are up to snuff, and get all the electricals functioning. I had her plug the battery charger onto the old, dead battery and it put out enough power to do a light check. Fortunately, more circuits worked than not, but we’ll still have some sleuthing ahead of us before everything that blinks and shines are doing just that.

Meanwhile, I had some odds and ends on Ringo I needed to address. During my drive home yesterday, I noticed the engine was pinging. When I put a timing light on it, I found the timing had moved about six degrees advanced. I hadn’t gotten the hold-down nut tight enough and the distributor had rotated on its own. I spun it back where it belonged and cranked down on the loose nut. Because there was still some vibration at highway speeds, I swapped another wheel from Heidi onto the right rear of Ringo. Also, when I installed the replacement muffler, it was touching the heat shield. I decided to bend the shield back so there was no contact. Finally, there’s still water coming the corner of the backlight, so I ran silicone across the entire inside bottom joint of the weatherstrip-to-body joint. While the vibration was less during this morning’s commute, there was still water inside the backlight after last night’s rains. I’ll be getting out the soapy water and air blower again. I’m to the point where I’ll have to start applying the black silicone to the outside of the window.

Finally, I was able to complete a task and strike it from Glinda's To-Do list. I rebuilt the wiper switch and now it works swimmingly. I forced back the swagings, cleaned and lubricated the contacts, put the assembly back together, and swaged it snug. After installation, a quick test proved the success.