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Eric W

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Eric W last won the day on August 29 2016

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About Eric W

  • Birthday 12/06/1968

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  1. They had taken the bottom mesh part and made it perfectly flat, so the mount pins didn't line up at all. I remembered the slight "dish" shape, and put it on some carpet and gradually worked the dish back into it. Then the mount pins fit really well. Here it is on the car:
  2. Well, that took a while. I think they definitely prioritize local shops (or shops anywhere) that do a lot of business with them. I guess one-off jobs like mine only get worked when they're otherwise slow. Stopped by 3x, called 2-3 more times. Their phone wasn't even responding yesterday, but they called me ~2 weeks ago asking about some cracks. I said to not fix them (because I didn't know what they were, really, but also if it would move the job along...). Not sure what all the process is after that, but 2 weeks ago they said it would be done in a week. I went in there this morning (I get every other Friday off work to cover things like this) - it was on one of their drying racks or something, and they had to cut the wires off. But that only took a minute - they wiped it with a cloth and wrapped it up. Here's a reminder for the before & after: Took it home & got it on the car.
  3. Healey's got a big brother, courtesy mostly of my Mom, who passed away earlier this year. (Isn't that how a lot of maybe less-than-fully-rational purchases get done - you fall into $ you weren't expecting?) Anyway, one of her mottoes was "Get busy living, or get busy dying" from Shawshank Redemption. Well Mom, you got your end done, so I'm getting busy living with what's left. She'd probably find this quite funny - the only car she bought for me (while I was in college) was also a black Chevrolet. Must have been meant to be since black wasn't even on my list of things I was looking for in this car. I know, it's not AACA material (yet). Collection is getting to be at least 1 car more than I want to handle. Really like the Model A, but it's feeling like the odd one out at the moment. No decisions yet, though.
  4. To answer your original question, I bought my 1930 A Tudor about 3 years ago, very similar appearance & condition, for $10k. Given inflation, maybe $11-13k for your car, but really what anyone will pay. I look at Model A's posted for sale around my area, and people are asking anywhere $10-25k, but with the higher-priced ones, I see the same ads placed and re-placed month after month. Reality is, they made over a million of these each year for 4 years. EVERY last part is still available, so there are many, many of them still around. Even with wrecks, abandonment, hot-rodding and other things that make a car either un-original to the point of no (practical) return or scrap metal, there's still plenty of A's to choose from. There are reasons some of them are higher-priced - more recent restoration / better condition, and body style seem to be the main drivers. The Tudor is among if not the lowest valued. Oddly enough, 4-doors are higher, as are coupes and any of the open top / soft top styles. So keep it going and enjoy it.
  5. Had been thinking about taking the grille to the chrome shop for a while now. Finally got there this morning. Cost for new/repro is about $450, so this is a guide for a not to exceed cost. Turns out, cost will be quite a bit less than that. Fortunately this part doesn't have any major dents or bends needing repairs. This is the same shop that did about 7 of the Studebaker bumper parts for me a few years back, so if this turns out like those, it will be really good. They have quite a backlog so this will be a while.
  6. About a week ago, saw that the hood emblems were back in stock with a U.S. seller. I believe they've been continuously available from UK sources, but at higher cost. I've been thinking I should take the grille to the chrome shop if only to get their price, but now I think I'll have to go through with it as the emblem looks too good.
  7. Been a while since I added to this thread, but I do still drive it just about every week. Took it up to the photo spot this morning a couple of streets north of here. It's a good spot because the street goes up the slope to give a wide background.
  8. Last Friday early, I took it up to the photo point a couple of streets north of here. Last Saturday, I took my son to the monthly show at the big box store. Right rear shock had a rattle to it. Last Sunday, I pulled the left rear wheel and tightened all the fasteners related to the shock. Found the upper shock attach was not very tight, or it had "settled in" or "broken loose" some dirt or something that wasn't letting it tighten all the way down. Drove it again yesterday - and no suspension noises at all. Feels pretty good. Here's some photos from last week's show and the photo spot. The first car is a Kellison. Data sheet on it indicated fiberglass body and a lot of Corvette underneath. Very rare "kit" car. The Jaguar is a replica. Body-wise, I think it looked great, but the wheels are too far outboard and that kind of detracts from the vintage look.
  9. Was at the store today, so picked up a package of washers to reverse the bolt. Haven't had a chance to drive it yet, but it looks like more clearance to the exhaust.
  10. Good point, but the bolt can't be reversed because the nut that is a spacer between the shock and the bracket has to go on the threaded portion of the bolt. The threads don't go all the way up the bolt. I have yet to try pushing on the exhaust some to see if the hangers or the pipe itself has some flex and can settle into a position a little to the right of where it is. Another possibility would be to look for a larger nut (or washers) that could be the spacer. The nut being threaded doesn't seem to serve a structural purpose.
  11. Drilling for the brackets - the bracket final position is on the outboard side of the axle bracket, but to drill it, bolt it to the inboard side using the 1/2" bolt, to mark the location for the 3/8" hole to be added. I found my center punch kit, and used that to mark the hole on each side, then removed the bracket again for drilling. The drill with the 3/8" bit was running into the differential case of the rear axle, so couldn't just get a straight shot at it. Found the right angle drill kit again, and using a 1/8" shorty bit, drilled a starter hole. Then used a unibit / step drill to take the hole up to 3/8". All bolted right up on the right side. On the left side, the parking brake bracket also interfered with the drill, so I think the hole on that side either was marked a little off, or drilled at a slight angle. Either way, I filed the bracket a little on the side that would go into the radius of the bracket welded onto the axle, and also relieved the axle bracket right in the corner of the new shock bracket. After a couple of rounds of file and fit, I got the holes lined up. Realized the directions show washers on each side of the 1/2" bolt for the bracket, but these weren't included in the kit. Also, the 1/2" bolt ends up with no threads showing through the nut - maybe the earlier cars don't have the doubler plate welded onto the axle bracket (right around the 1/2" hole that was the original shock link mount). So I got everything fitting, then went to the store and got 1/2" longer bolts. Also got ~1/2" shorter bolts at the original lower shock mounting points to have a bolt through that hole which is part of the securing of the rear suspension upper link bracket. Put everything back together. Another item not on the instructions - at the upper shock attach point (was the rear axle limit strap upper attach), the shock is loose in that bracket, so I added a washer inside the bracket so the shock wouldn't work from side to side. Drove it a little this morning - the exhaust rattles on the lower shock bracket. Will see if I can "adjust" the exhaust (bend it a little). First two photos are right side, second two are left side.
  12. For the Labor Day long weekend, I decided to add something to do - rear shocks. This morning, got up early and did about an hour (the 5 fasteners on the left side, and 1 on the right side) before me and my son go to the gym for an hour (I have to go then - I'm in a group class). After getting back, did about another hour to battle the remaining fasteners on the right side. Feels like just a couple of months ago I did the rear axle limit straps, and that was bad, but not nearly this bad. Right side lower limit strap fastener was a battle all the way, and the forward shock fastener was the worst I've encountered on this car. I used a ratcheting box end wrench on the outboard side, and a 2-foot breaker bar with a deep socket for the inboard side, with a very awkward 100 or so lifts on that breaker bar to work the nut off. Now everything is out. Going with the tube shock conversion. It's about the same cost as rebuilding the lever shocks. Bolt on the new bracket using the existing hole for the shock link, then drill another hole in the axle bracket for a 2nd bolt on the new shock bracket. Drilling a hole in these cramped quarters can't be as bad as fighting multiple corroded locking nuts, can it? I knew the right side shock mounting lug was broken. When I took the car to the British specialty shop for the clutch bleed, they noted that.
  13. 2 weeks ago, went back to the early morning car show. Got a spot on the end of the row. The guy with the Triumph and the TVR stopped by to ask about my car. Got to see what makes a Tesla go . The Z8 Alpina was one of 550. Top of the mountain pics from this morning.
  14. Took it to the early morning car show last weekend. Got there just before 7am and was heading out just before 8. It was HOT. A mesquite tree split apart during all this. A bunch of people were nearby and lifted the branch up. There was a motorcycle under there, but I think all it got was some leaf residue - no damage. So - note to self - don't park under the trees for the shade. Park a spot or two down from right against the tree... Got a lot of questions about the car. Couple of guys who have one or had one. There was a fiberglass VW-based "MG", and a Jaguar 120, but no other LBC's there this time.
  15. Yesterday I finally got the 4th tire installed. Order was showing "delayed", so I was hoping their system didn't see the lost/stuck tire from the prior order and just say "there's one almost there" and use that for my new order. I battled their chatbot again, got someone to call me, and yes, it was a separate / new shipment, and yes, Fedex was a couple days behind with it. But it was delivered to the store on Friday, but not checked through their receiving. I got to the store a couple minutes prior to opening on Saturday, and it was much busier than a couple weeks ago. Took about 45 minutes to just get "checked in" to drop the old wheel/tire off. But it's done now and back on the car. Not sure really what's next as it's getting pretty hot around here and we've got a couple family trips planned this summer.
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