State of the Cars Address February 8th, 2004

Well it has been awhile since I last confessed to my progress...

1930 Chrysler 77 - frame is almost (some minor tweaks) ready to paint. Paint will be here Tuesday. Engine block is ready to paint. All brake components are here, and ready to be installed once the painting is done.

1959 Jaguar Mk IX Saloon, transmission is working well. Seem to have developed a sticky right front caliper, will be addressing that in the near future. Rear carburetor ocassional drip has become a constant drip. Full carburetor rebuilds in the near future. Colleen started the body work... we'll see how this goes.

1974 Fiat 124 Spider - swapped heads, installed carburetors, flushed fuel tank, etc. New head gasket seems to have a slight coolant leak issue, will retorque head and see how that goes. Fuel pickup filter screen is clogged to the hilt, will need cleaned. Have not touched the rusted through floor pans, or other minor body work issues yet.

1981 Mustang LX - looks like it is going to be sold... needs an engine rebuild and I have too many projects, it is simply too low on the food chain.

1982 Fiat 2000 Spider - Cranks and tries to run, but stalls, usually with a small backfire when the starter is disengaged. Have tinkered with timing forever to get it to run this well. I hate electronic ignition, points are so much easer to work with.

Well that's it for the projects... the daily drivers are another story... Suburban needs an ac compressor clutch coil... '89 Toyota Camry unknown ailment, hard to start, stalls when you put it in gear, '91 Oldsmobile needs some minor rust work resolved before it becomes more than minor...

Well that's the short version...

Rich

Rich,

That is precisely why you should finish up that "77" and drive IT everyday and sell off all the newer stuff. When I was in highschool not too long ago (class of 1987) My 1931 Ford r/s coupe was my daily driver regular CT registration, and we used to go all over, It had high enough rear axle to go 55 all day, once we piled 7 of us in it, I thought we would flip on one corner once because my 200lb buddy was in the outside of the curve in the r/s. I bought the car in complete body off basket condition, and spent the next year getting it going, I drove it the last half on my senior year, and to the next year when i wnet in to the Navy.

The '29 model 75 at our shop is comming along too, the red head you sold ED is on the engine and looks good.

Glad the Red Head worked out for Ed. Sure wish it had been the one for the 77 like I was told when I bought it. Oh well, glad it found a good home. My car projects are seperated by distance as well as years. The '30 Chrysler gets worked on during the week, the other cars are weekend tinkerers. Mainly due to the location of vehicle storage, the Chrysler gets the primo garage space at my folks house, the other cars are relegated to tarps and carports.

Rich

Rich, the float is probably either sunk or stuck. When you dissassemble the brakes you will most likely find that they will need to be sleeved. Do not sleeve them in brass; Jags do much better with stainless steel. If the tranny gives you anymore trouble you might want to consider a John's Cars tranny conversion. I have done four or so and they are awesome.