Wire-Wheels

I am interested in hearing about any British car events in Southern California ...J.D.

I know what you mean. I have Craftsmen with some other things thrown in there too. The oldest is a Craftsman set I bought new about 1978. It has seen both home use and made me a living. it has become too heavy to move around without a struggle, even with the wheels upgraded some years back. After that I started picking up used ones, as I could find them in good condition. The drawer slides seem to be the most common problem I experience if they are not well made. ...Jim P.S. i also have a dedicated keybox like "rocketraider". Mine is attached to the inside shopwall and has all the duplicate keys. It is secured by a combination lock. My property has a master key for all the buildings and a seperate "pass key" for various areas like the shop, the barn, etc. where I might want to allow limited access. In those cases, the lock can work with the property master key, or the pass key for that lock alone. Tricks I picked up being a maintenance engineer for many years. ...Jim

I have a number of tool boxes I bought used. One thing that always seems to be missing is the keys. I have 2 Craftsman bottom boxes. 4 of thier top boxes. 1 mid box, a side box, 2 wood machinist chests, a little roll around home owner box for fixing doors, cabinets, locks etc. And I still would like more space. I have to keep the power tools on shelves. ...J.D.

No experence with Homak, but any decient used roll away is worth considering. Cost of new ones has gotten out of sight. I never have enough tool storage space myself. My wife is going to have quite the yard sale after I pass on. She never complains about my obsession with tools, cars, motorcycles, houses, etc. etc. Only one wife though. She's a keeper. ...Jim 😉

Spring time here means I am probabily not going to have time to work on my cars and bikes until next winter. We have our main residence and a cabin up on the mountain. There will be more than enough repairs to take up the summer months. The wife does all the mowing, but I am tasked with keeping everything working. When winter sets back in I hunker down in my heated garage and play with my mechanical toys for the winter. ...Jim

I would like to ride forever but you get to a point where you know you are not up to par. It would not be as big an issue, but traffic here has become insane. Not a day goes by that I do not see crazy people willfully running stop signs, driving on the wrong side of the road, and speed limits are completely ignored here. I am 78 and not in too bad shape, but I want to live a while longer. I love the bikes, but my antique car seems a bit safer these days. ...Jim

It would be nice to get a British car group together for the greater So. Cal area. I am out in upper San Bernardino County. Not much in the way of British car events going on out here. ...Jim

Please tell us more. ...Jim

I have been driving it around town for a few days now. The running gear seems pretty solid. Now comes the time to get after the dozens of small things that detract for enjoying it fully. The carbs are close, but not perfect. The clutch adjustment needs some attention. The sun visor comes loose and gets in my face. Etc.etc.etc. it will probabily go on forever, but that is part of the joy. She starts every time, and currenty is not leaking anything. ...Jim

I got my driver's license in 1962. My father rode around with me in his 1948 Willys Jeep pickup. His insisted I learn how to use its 4-wheel drive and 2-speed non-synchro transfer case before he would let me get my license. I took my driving test on his 1953 Buick straight 8 with no power steering or power brakes. It did have an automatic trans though. Different times. ...Jim

While it takes a bit more motor skills than clicking a mouse, I would not be so melodramic as to call it "insanely difficult" . 😆

Looks very much like mine. I got to drive mine for the first time today. I have had it since Nov. We got a temporary permit today and I took it out for a test drive. I have to take it in for a vehicle inspection tomorrow. She has a few bugs to sort out, but for the most part runs pretty good. Makes me remember why I wanted one. I used to work on import cars back when this was new. This one appears to have seen a lot of storage time. It needs some road use and some fine tweeking. She certainly makes some wonderful sounds. ...Jim

I put my front brakes back right with the world today. Looks like most everything that was there was new. Rotors and calipers both. Brake lines look good. I replaced the brake booster a while back. Just some spacers and clips were missing. Looks like the PO was working on it, but had a ways to go. I am planning to make a few changes electrically. There was some schechy wiring that had been done in the past. I am getting rid of it as I can. I plan to convert the headlights to LED H-4 units to decrease the draw on the factory Lucas alternator. I also have a pair of vintage rally style driving lights the will receive LED inserts. All will look 1973, but work a lot better. I plan to drive this often in the summer months. I will post more later. ...Jim

I have run a yellow headlight on my 3 motorcycles here in California for many years. My reason is to make the bike more noticable in traffic. It does seem to be effective. Although I am not sure how legal it is, I have passed many cops over the years and have never been cited, or even pulled over. ...J.D.

This is one of my Triumphs. This one was built just before the Hinckley factory burned down, so I don't know how many they got built that year. Mostly stock but a lot of after market and pieces I made myself. Great little machine. Don't know how many more years I will be able to ride though. I turned 78 last November. ...Jim

I had some free time today, so I decided to pull the front wheels to inspect the brakes. Good thing I did. There was a piece of wire replacing one of the clips, and all 4 of the pad shims are missing. Parts on order. Maybe I had better pull the rears too. I cannot believe people take risks with brake parts. Most of what this car has needed has been dumb stuff like this...At least so far. ...Jim

When all is said and done, these modern inovations are a fact of life that is not going away. Getting all wound up about it does not make it go away. It is like a dog barking at the moon. If he would just go back in his dog house, the moon would not be keeping him awake, and we all could get some sleep. All his barking is not going to make it go away. ...Jim

Maybe some of these old codgers need to stay in at night. I can see just fine. ;p

If you do this correctly, they will not blind anyone. This will be my 4th. LED conversion. The LED bulbs do not work like other bulbs. They must be installed in the proper orentation in the housing because the bulb shapes the light pattern, not the lens. Also, it is better if you use LED bulbs behind an unfluted lens. If they were such a problem, you would not see all the newer vehicles using them. You have to do your homework before you make these kind of upgrades. ...J.D.

I am in the process of restoring my 1973 Triumph TR-6. I am planning on converting both the headlights and driving lights to LED. I have done this conversion before on my Mitsubishi and two different motorcycles. The headlight units will be changed out. The U.S. delevery, sealed beams will be replaced by the european H-4 units fitted with Auxito LED bulbs. The driving lights I am adding, will also be fitted with the compatible Auxito LEDs. They are brighter, I can see better, and they draw far less current from my cars little, original alternator. Better solution all around, in my opinion. ...Jim

I used to buld these motors professionally. Back in those days (1970s) we had few options when it came to the 69mm lower end. We built a lot of 1835s using stock cranks. Our shop had a policy of magnafluxing and balancing the crank, rods, and flywheel in that kind of situation, and would always use the biggest aftermarket oil pump we could find. We never had a crank or bearing failure. That being said, I would however recommend 8 doweling the flywheel and going to a lightweight flywheel to reduce rotating mass. ...Jim D.

I purchased the TR from Florida and had it shipped to California. I am currently jumping through the legal red tape to get it reqistered. It will need a VIN # verification and a CHP inspection. I would have loved to avoid all that, but I had been looking a long time to find one locally, but to no avail. They will also require a brake and light inspection. I had some repairs to do on both. All I have left to do in that department is put some new brake pads on the front. ...Jim

This is my 3rd. Generation Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder V-6. Not quite an antique yet, but running strong and solid at almost 24 yrs. old & 143k miles. I think it will out live me. It is always up for a day trip to my mountain cabin as show here, or a weekend at the beach. She is an early 2001 model. ...Jim

I am going to update it's electrical some. I've added a second fuse panel to make the electric a bit more reliable. I also plan to add an electric cooling fan because I live in an extremely hot area of the desert South-West. ...Jim

I don't know that I will restore it. Runs well now that I have sorted it's carbs and timing out. Also made a big difference when I adjusted it's valves. Been fixing some small issues and getting all it's lights working. Always wanted one of these....Jim