PhilAndrews

New shocks. That's one of those "I should have done that years ago" jobs. The right hand one was seized solid. Car rides like a dream now. Phil

Hoping to try be there, at this time.

Been on the road again. Really nice weather, car's been using a little oil this weather but only really on overrun. Most of the journeys have been at highway speed too. Seeing lots of places. Getting smothered in bugs. To finish with a sunset on the road. Just ordered a new pair of rear shocks, these ones have had it. Phil

Now that the ambient temperature is actually getting below 85° the 20W oil I have in it behaves quite well. The 10W was only good for the middle of winter, and only then if you didn't sit in traffic. Accidentally tore the exhaust off on a speed hump yesterday. The drive home was loud. Phil

Gearbox.

I received an answer: Print more pages! Also noted soon up due for an oil change and grease.

I need to see about filling in the AACA "how far driven" paperwork because I drive this everywhere. Problem is the checklist has "where you went on this trip", and odometer readings. "McDonald's", "2.3 miles" listed many times is fairly droll. The Pontiac is my get in to go car. Anyone else fills theirs out? If so, do local trips get compounded together between longer, more planned journeys? Thanks Phil

Started to clean the car because the sun was hidden by clouds and the temperature dropped. Unfortunately the side-effect of this was it started to rain, all I got done was the front chrome.

Been doing some late evening and night driving recently and was dissatisfied with my headlight aim. Went check the old Federal specifications for these light bulbs and spent 45 minutes tonight driving about, adjusting, doing squats 50 yards in front of the car and finally have them set just right. They light up the highway correctly, don't dazzle when on low beam, but usefully light up all of the road when switched to high beam. Bright moon the other evening just peeking up over the war veterans memorial. Happiness in night driving is a correctly aimed set of 7"ers. Phil

Since then, just local trips. Weather's been hot hot hot, car mostly behaving. It cooled off a touch last night after the rain (relative, it was 82 rather than the 100+ we've been having) and the car really took to it. Transmission was smooth, engine didn't miss a beat. I'll see how this fluid does over winter, thinking 50w might be a bit heavy for the cold. Hazy, horrible weather though. Next week is forecast to be all rain. Somewhere between all this I might get to polishing the paint and chrome again...

I'm glad I drove by here the other day and not yesterday. It was quite pleasant then; not so much yesterday. Naptha fire. Oops.

Back on the road again. Sugar refinery Swamp Alumina plant Phil

Not broken, just... Saggy. Need new rear shocks and bushings too. Phil

Though, I am not sure I don't have a broken leaf spring. Driver's side has a nasty sag to it right at the end. I guess I'm not driving that for now until that's investigated. Phil

Ended fine, was just a bit of Hollywood smoke and mirrors.

Something lighthearted today, for sitting in traffic in this hot weather... Phil

It's good oil, but it might be a bit light for summer. Try it and see. Phil

The more you drive it, the more will fail but the more you fix the better it'll drive.

I would think that maybe they'd ponder if any of the cars would really last a long time- "modern" cars produced in mass volumes like these had only really been in production for about thirty years- certainly long enough to see a lot having gone to the scrap yard by then- the idea that they could be in use 70+ years on would be nothing but a pipedream.

Just been driving the heck out of the car. The more it's driven, the better it drives. Held 175-180F all the way regardless of speed; had it up to 65 for part of the way which is really motoring (3000rpm). Considering fitting an under-dash air-conditioning unit because man, driving in 105° summer heat is just plain warm. Sweaty. Yuk. You can see how hot it's been, my inspection sticker is peeling off the screen! Phil

Ooh. I remember doing my gauges. That was from necessity- previous owners had burned the coils up. If yours is an electrical gauge, there's a couple issues it may have but the most likely is the temperature sender thermistor has gone "soft". That is, it drops to a lower resistance than it should with the heat of the engine. Obviously the fix is a replacement sender but back in the fifties semiconductor technology was very much in its nascence and the "cold" resistance versus the "hot" was rather narrow compared to today's counterparts. The temperature versus resistance curve is "off" compared to what the gauge requires. I rewound my gauges to accept the temperature sender resistance curve for a '65 C10 pickup, the senders for which fit physically and have a moderately similar curve. They're also readily available at most parts stores for cheap. What you might be able to do is add a resistance in line to bring the 250 to read 180. That's only a band-aid though. You might be able to adjust the coils to read a C10 sensor but it's tricky to get right. As for the radios- the Delco units are really very good. Nice sensitive radio with a quality final output stage. I made a Frankenstein by conglomerating the 12V parts from a late 50's Buick radio to turn mine 12V natively but they work fine at 6. It'll just need a rebuild. It's not a task for a beginner, though. I added a Bluetooth reciever to mine; it has a passthrough which means the radio works as factory with nothing connected, but I can send music to it from my phone on the move, which is great. Looks and sounds just right. If you're planning on gutting it for something modern let me know and I can probably rebuild it instead of that. I'm with the guys that say it's a good radio, don't trash it if it's able to be rebuilt. The only real caveat is the tuning coil frame is made from pot metal and can suffer from zinc pest, rendering it almost impossible to tune, but there's fixes for that. Cost me about $45 in parts to rebuild mine factory fresh. Food for thought. Phil

Done a few high speed, moderate distance runs recently. 80-100 miles at 55. Summertime fuel, got the carb set up and running just about right. 13.8 mpg on the last run which I'm quite happy with. Phil

@MercMontMars did you ever solve the non running issue? Just harks of fuel starvation, checked you're getting a good feed from the pump?

A pleasant drive this evening. Pulled the fuses now, parked up. Going on vacation. Phil

Southwest, down near Bristol.