60FlatTop

From the day I met with the realtor. I wasn't the seller..... Bernie

We are becoming owners of 50 and 60 year old wiring harnesses with our cars. A few times I have looked at Megohmmeters. Prices are quite reasonable from when I first used them and one I probably should pick one up. They can me used to find failing wire insulation and resistance related electrical problems by putting high, low amperage power, like 500V and measuring leakage. They are down to about $100-$150, about the cost of a flatbed ride. It would be a good test for an intermittent problem as you describe. You might also be able to get an air conditioning or refrigeration mechanic to test it. They used a megger to test windings on hemetic compressors. Bernie

Looks like another publicity ploy by the NAACP. National Association for the Advancement of Clothes Pins. The monitor will throw you in the dryer for that. Bernie

Clinton Corners? Plan your escape to Canada in a new Ford! Warranty- no Sweat.Includes optional Matt. Bernie

I REALLY don't have much money in this car....... but believe me, the previous owner sure did. He spent a lot of money on mechanicals and not much on "pretty" Pretty sells cars if circumstances change. Distribute your efforts for worst case. Bernie

Hey. Lincoln! You are in there all alone. Your garage buddies have all been out enjoying the sunny day! Bernie

If you get $1,000 a year worth of pleasure from learning about the car, working on it, and eventually driving it to functions over the next 20 years, you will be able to deduct $20,000 from your total investment and come out pretty good on the value of ownership. I have given way a few cars in the past and felt fully satisfied. The key is not to disable the car for any long term during ownership. Always keep it close to being drivable so you don't lose the awareness of why you own it. Component restoration is not a commonly used term. It should be. Have the money available before attacking the job. If a restoration level brake job is estimated at $300 per wheel, have $1200 in a tin can before you jack it up. If the cooling system needs a shot of reliability, have $600 to $1,000 ready to tap through the process. About 4 days of labor and zero $ can have a car disassembled and in labeled baggies. There are at least 300 $100 jobs to get it back together. That is a rude awakening and, in many cases, the awakening never comes- disassembled barn finds. You may have seen those shock prison visits they give juveniles. For $1,000 plus expenses I will visit your garage with three full vacuum cleaner bags to dump on your car, open the hood and doors. Then we bring you into the garage and discuss for this barn find can be avoided. That just made me remember doing the brake job on the 1956 Olds Holiday that was coated with dog hair underneath. Bernie

About twenty pictures from the end there are a few shots from the Auburn Museum Engine room: http://brockportinternational.com/AuburnWebPhotos/ Bernie

I like humor; the more ironic, cutting, or entwined the better. Humor doesn't work well in forums, email, or between two people. Something triggers the "hey! that's personal" furrows the little ball of thoughts that rolled into the brain. One of my favorite lines was the entity that called the Enterprise crew crew ugly sacks of mostly water. Not personal. not racial. not even the species; stand up and take it as an organism! Be constructive about art forms. When the modified Buick makes you think of a velvet Elvis painting just say "Thank you very much." and move on....... unless they are trying to sell it to you. Bernie

I am nudging 55 years of working on cars and experiencing my own and others workmanship. If you wrote post #1 all by yourself, you are light years ahead of most service providers I have encountered. My suggestion would be to farm out the machine work and follow the shop manual closely as you disassemble and reassemble the engine yourself. If you have to buy a couple of tools you may never use again it's no big deal. You will be assured an attentive and painstaking job. Upstate New York is an interesting concept. For people in Brooklyn it could be all the way up to Westchester. Then, again, if my wife and I take a ride along the Lake for lunch tomorrow, Toronto will look like this from the hill near RT 18: Bernie

There used to be a website that would decode VIN's like this one for my Chevy SS. It closed and I haven't been able to find a similar one. Vehicle VIN Decode.htm Rarity... There are 4 1994 CAPRICE CLASSIC 4 DR vehicles (0.004%) matching your exact options list. There are 27 (0.028%) with at least as many options. Pretty neat stuff and you can verify the car is a Caprice with the SS option, not an SS stand alone model. So there are details out there. It's just finding the database. Bernie

Wife? Here she is at 21. I sure ain't gonna get her the wash my car again. I just checked my pocket and found $103 and a couple of dimes. She took the rest. (except for a couple of tin cans in the garage that I showed my son). All I have is the cars, what's a fella to do. Bernie

I tried the boat fuel. It requires special tubes. And the algae tinted my car kind of green. Bernie

Has anyone noticed that the differentiation between pre-war and post-war cars is a little skewed? About 1900-1942 vs. 1946-2015 keeps getting to be a larger group on one side. And it hasn't stopped. Bernie

1996 was the last year for the Jaguar V12. During the intervening decades most of the problems have been experienced, resolved, and preventive measures have been documents. Here is the 750 page living document. http://www.jag-lovers.org/xj-s/book/XJS_help.pdf Yes, I have read it. I owned the stock and driven both pristine and modified. My next one, and that has a way of happening, will have a GM wengine. Bernie

Aviation gas is OK, but sometimes one feels out of place waiting in line. Bernie

The coefficient of expansion due to weather at this end of New York makes everything seem like Invar. That's the stuff we made satellite chassis out of so it wouldn't change in deep space. I keep the tanks full, usually top them off on Sunday nights, to keep humid air out of them and prevent rust on the exposed inner surfaces. Moisture can condense out and settle under the fuel where it will pit the bottom of the tank. Moisture also collects in oil pans during long storage and put pinholes in them. If I was going to leave them at a 1/4 I would probably try to get a light oil slick on the fuel surface to slosh around the upper surfaces to prevent rust scale. I got a surprise filling the Packard prior to reading the owner's manual. It has a whistle! A guy in camouflage coming out of the station yelled "Incoming!" and hit the deck. I'm not seeing the fuel issues yet. It will come someday, I imagine. Until then I'll just use it up as fast as I can. The way gas goes through those cars I'm going to have to refer to then a a gaggle of tin geese. 7 PM, now; I'm heading out for a 5 mile round trip for coffee in the convert. I have 700 miles on that one so far this year and the more I drive it, the happier it gets. Bernie

It's not just chrome. A guy was telling me his V6 was "just like a V8". I was leaning against the fender of my '64 Riviera with the 425, patted his little head, and said "Sure it is." Bargains, wholesale pricing, and the whole insider sales thing, I think, is a post WWII phenomenon from the farm boys meeting the city boys. In the '50's and '60's I worked with my Grandfather in his businesses; Wholesale Tires and Wholesale Used Cars. P. T. Barnum would have been proud of us. Well.... actually I did get an unsolicited email from a car dealer who had to compliment me on an ad I wrote for a Jaguar on Ebay. He said it was motivating and didn't even say anything about the car. For old pot metal, clean and polish it real good, use a jack knife tip to clean the loose stuff out of pits, wipe it down with lacquer thinner, and spray it clear (clear makes taillights look great, too). And always remember "What you pay for is the MOST you can expect to get" Bernie

Ethanol can also colonize in the tank and, in some instances, develop a collective intelligence commonly referred to a a monsanto. When maintained at half a tank they can become agitated and aggressive. If your garage is attached to your house always check that the gas cap is tight before you go to bed. Being the victim of a nocturnal hygroscopic incident wouldn't be my idea of dry humor. Bernie

I have had two XJS V12's, a '53 Mark VII and a Series II XJ6. There is a kind of empty feeling when you sell one unless you divert your attention. I prefer my next one to be a Chevy powered XJS and expect to pay $3500 to $4,000 for a nice one. A really nice one. Bernie

Yep, Imroned is our way of saying we squirted the DuPont Imron paint. It is an especially durable two part paint. Here is a picture of the subframe: The paint, primer, and hardener probably ate up most of a hundred dollar bill. There were about 2 to 3 hours of cleaning and prep time plus at least another hour of spraying. That car uses a special motor mount and I think it was something like $120. Then the new struts; and, as long as we did the front, we did the rears. The car looked a little squatty so I put new springs in. My point is that there are so many interrelated parts and detail a job can easily exceed an informed budget and greatly exceed the "wave of the hand" estimate. I had a 1959 Cadillac come in for a brake job once. In total, the owner asked for and we came across 27 more jobs ranging from windshield wipers not working to new heater and radiator hoses, each done with prior approval. When presented with the final bill (I invoiced T&M weekly) his comment was "That is a lot for a brake job." We even fixed his horn! The logic of a car that just needs an engine rebuild doesn't work well. All the parts wear out together. I just got back from a 100 mile drive with that convertible today. It performs pretty good and looks good. Another $2,000 to $3,000 in some more details and I will be satisfied. Bernie

I had hopes of getting to the Buffalo Meet tomorrow. It has been raining all day and it looks like the rain will continue tomorrow, as well. Let's hope for a peek of sunshine. So, 10 days ago, to get ready, I wanted to touch up a small bad spot that always attracts fingers to my Park Ave convert. You know how it seems the only valid sense people in general have is touch. And they always have to touch imperfections so they know their vision is not fooling them. Ten days ago I removed the third brake light from the fabricated panel between my deck lid and the top lip and tack strip. That is a non-stock panel that was spray painted during the conversion 28 years ago. The paint blistered around the brake light housing, raised, and got some pitting started. I thought I would have time, but a job came up that demanded most of the week (yeah, I actually do work). All I managed to do was remove the light and make bare metal at about the 40 grit level, not a big spot, but enough. I got creative last night and the pits no longer show. Ready to go now! Bernie

I had hopes of getting to the Buffalo Meet tomorrow. It has been raining all day and it looks like the rain will continue tomorrow, as well. Let's hope for a peek of sunshine. So, 10 days ago, to get ready, I wanted to touch up a small bad spot that always attracts fingers to my Park Ave convert. You know how it seems the only valid sense people in general have is touch. And they always have to touch imperfections so they know their vision is not fooling them. Ten days ago I removed the third brake light from the fabricated panel between my deck lid and the top lip and tack strip. That is a non-stock panel that was spray painted during the conversion 28 years ago. The paint blistered around the brake light housing, raised, and got some pitting started.

My old rule of thumb, 1,000 bucks a hole for a restoration level engine job usually holds true. I figure the R&R and all the things you do during the whole process. It is never the straight forward job of bearings, rings, and valves. My V6 Park Ave left home with a bad 3.8 and came back $6,000 later. The subframe was imroned, transmission rebuilt, lots of engine management parts, and little details everywhere. Bernie

There's a time in life when your priorities were different. Figure out what overshadowed the price of gas then, regain it now, and you'll be in good shape. Interesting comment about keeping the 25 gallon tank full during High School. Gas was 30 cents a gallon when I was in school and I never started filling the tank until it cost over a dollar a gallon. Now I keep seven tanks full and don't really know the exact cost of gas. Must be MY priorities are elsewhere. Bernie