unimogjohn

David, come by anytime. And bring your trimmer kit too. I need to fix the broken thread on the 1923 McLaughlin Buick top. It is Tuesday, February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day. Just received word that our green Avanti has been painted and looks great. They will move it to the main shop this afternoon. Their main shop is about 2 miles away. I plan on going out to see it tomorrow morning. I will bring the new red carpet set with me along with a vacuum. I plan on removing all the old carpet and doing a good cleaning. Then can assess what I need to do to install the new carpet and make arrangements for the shop's supplies. Right now I plan on working full time on it on Thursday and Friday. Then will bring the Avanti home on Monday if everything has been done and the weather is good. I am not going to bring it home in the the rain or snow.

Still Monday. Spent the day doing farm stuff. Alice decided to spread lime on the pastures so got her all set up on the tractor with her new tow behind broadcast spreader. Her old one kept tipping over on the uneven ground, so bought her a big one that holds 200 lbs of product and has a wide track. Works great. But I kept waiting for her to quit for the day, but she kept going and going. Finally, I told her that we were taking the Jaguar and going to see Greg. It is suppose to snow tomorrow, so today was now or never. We had a nice 15 mile ride to Greg's place; and found him in the corner with a hand grinder working on the crankcase of a Wright repo engine. We walked him out to the Jaguar and Alice offered to stay behind so Greg to have a ride. So off we went for about five or so miles. We had a great ride. After saying good-by to Greg we headed home. I must say that I have a big grin on my face driving the Jaguar. She runs like a scalded cat with good manners. So now she is back in the garage as bad weather returns tomorrow. I will check to see if I solved the little oil leaks tomorrow too. All in all, a great day.

It is Monday, February 13th. Cold here again this morning, 19 degrees. Received a note from the body shop. The Avanti will be painted today. Yippee! And here is a report from Greg. "Parts arrived in the mail Friday, so I found time this weekend to install the new cam bearings in the black R-3 Studebaker Avanti engine. Then the timing gear and camshaft installation. That went well, so why not drop the crankshaft in place? Now the main caps are on and torqued. Other than that, some small parts cleaning and prep. Soon I'll have to check the piston ring gaps, get them loaded on their pistons and put that stuff where it belongs. Not a rush job, just getting parts off the bench and screwed down."

Pat, Thanks and found it on the web. Here it is. Victory by Design: Jaguar XK 120 - Bing Videos and here is a great follow-up on Jaguar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3IbF5bJSEU

Still Friday. Spent the morning at the local DMV. For once it was not busy, and after filling out all the paperwork we got the call to come to the desk for processing. In about 20 minutes we were back out the door with the title, registration, and the 1953 plates. Now we are legal to be out on the Virginia roads. Yahoo! And here is a link to a historical history of the Jaguar XK120. Neat to see all those race cars. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RyyMfdhNL0&feature=fvsr

It is Friday, February 10th. When you have a very early car with no parts available, you just have to make everything yourself. So that is what Greg is doing with the Matheson engine. Here is his report from last night. "Doesn't look like much, but they're off the Matheson todo list. These are the phenolic rubbing blocks and rivets for the make and break ignition triggers."

Still Thursday. Did farm stuff all day, no cars today. But I did get a call from Jerry Forrester of Jerry's Chrome in Douglasville, GA. The Avanti bumpers are done, boxed and ready to be sent. So headed off to the post office with a envelope and a check. I expect they will be here late next week.

Bernie, you planning on taking a long vacation? Or just going to slooooooooooooooooow down? You said: "My completion date is not until early 2014" They way you have been going I would expect that you would be done late this year. Get to work!

It s early Thursday morning, February 9th. Just received a report from Greg. He is busy as usual. "No great strides tonight. The maroon Avanti. The big brown truck brought me a shipment of parts, tie rods and ends, other front suspension parts for the front end rebuild I've been putting off until warm weather. The Avanti still has an occasional front wheel shimmy that I don't like. The only way to get rid of it is to throw money and sweat at it. I did prime and paint the new steel parts and the enamel is still too sticky to put them back in the box. Matheson engine. I'm playing with the Bosch generator to determine voltage output at different speeds. Wright eight cylinder. Today I took a few minutes to look into the cam follower placement. It appears that the followers from the four cylinder engine might fit if shimmed slightly. Photos include: >Bosch generator in test. >Test fitting of cam follower. >Comparison of followers from the Wright vertical four and the 6-60 six cylinder engines."

John, thanks. Hope that you are still enjoying Hawaii full time. Miss the mainland US yet? Still Wednesday. Normally I do not try to overwhelm the blog, but I got a nice surprise tonight brought by my favorite UPS driver. It was the car bag for the Jaguar. Here are a couple of pics. I will not take it out of the box until I need to. It is big and heavy. Oh, and the snow. Not much. As usual it petered out about 6 PM. Hardly anything stuck. But is was pretty coming down, big flakes.

Still Wednesday. Finally it has started to snow. You can barely make it out in the pic with the llamas. I did finish the Jag garage. Dug out all the poop, etc and made a big pile. It will be used around the farm as fill. Always a use for dirt. I have attached a couple of pics. The pile; the poop chunks that have almost tuned to coal; the trusty tractor that did the work; the Jag stall in the barn; and finally the tractor in the stall. I also picked up 5 gallons of premium fuel for the Jag. The gas gauge reads 3/4 full, and I wanted to make sure that it works and is semi-accurate. So I carefully put in the five gallons. I can see it as the bottom of the filler neck so I am sure that it is almost full. Took pics of the gauge, before and after. Looks like it works. Another little item off my things to check list.

It is Wednesday, February 8th. Waiting for the snow to come, so in the interim I am going to take the tractor and finish making a good pad in the barn for the Jag as it looks like the Avanti will be home in a couple of weeks. I have to dig down to the base ground and remove all the compacted poop, hay, etc that has seemed to grown over the past twelve years. If I am going to pour concrete in the spring all this stuff has to go to give me a good base. I am going to put the Avanti in the garage for re-assembly work. Wayne told me last night that the Avanti was in the paint booth undergoing final preparations for it new coat of paint. Greg sent me a report too. Here it is. "Yesterday evening the big brown truck brought the shipment from Delta Cam. They returned to me a fresh Studebaker 288* camshaft for the R-3 and the Wright eight cam on which they did some finishing touches. I also spent some very constructive time with David Coco (trimacar on this forum) on the phone. Looking ahead to the time I'm to layout the details of the crankshaft, we had a good discussion about how they modified the production four shaft. It's good to have some perspective and his computations with a mechanical engineer's background. Even if he does like Pierce Arrows." The first three pictures are of the Wright 8 engine, and the fourth picture is of the Avanti cam.

Re oil leaks, don't get me started on the Avanti. Still Tuesday. Wayne called and asked me to come over to his place to help him unload the 64 Corvette. He had borrowed my trailer this morning as mine has a winch. It was an easy unload. And it is now in the garage. He has a two post lift and will lift the body off the frame in a couple of days. Then his frame, suspension, and rear end rebuilds begin. He showed me the 327, numbers matching, engine that will go back into the car. He upgraded it a bit, and it is rated at about 340 HP. Here is a pic of the car on the trailer as we begin the unloading process; and a pic of the rebuilt engine.

It is Tuesday, February 7th. A very nice day here today, about 53 degrees. Tomorrow it looks like a couple inches of snow. So took the opportunity to do some looking around the Jaguar. I found another oil leak. The oil filter was leaking badly from the top of the housing. It was coming from the bolt that pulls up on the filter housing to secure it. It was not just a drip or a seep, but lots coming out from under the washer, which was under the head of the bolt. I put a 1 inch box wrench on it and tightened it up. It moved a full half turn. It just goes to show you that even a professional shop can mess up. I also took a look at the oil line and the two banjo fittings holding it on to the head and block. Both were very tight. I then noticed that there was oil block where the oil dip stick hole is. It is about two inches from the lower banjo fitting. I took a look at the dip stick and noticed that it did not have a felt washer where it contacts the block hole. This could be letting oil get out and on the fitting. Found a rubber washer that fit and put that on until I can get a felt washer. Here are a couple of pics. You can see the oil on top of the filter, and this was only about 30 seconds after I cleaned it all off.

Guy, we sure are enjoying the Jaguar. She is the hit of the neighborhood. Thanks again for all your help.

OK, here is my Alice, bride of 12 years, with her new 1953 Jaguar XK120. Of course she still likes her 1963 Avanti R2.

It is still Monday. Oh, Greg has a story to tell. Here it is. "EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! SEABISCUIT IN FOR EMERGENCY SURGERY! Today, the nice day that it was, found 'ol maroon Avanti and I in Winchester. My hometown and about fifty or sixty miles from here. After stopping at the auto parts store where I struck out on my search for locally procured cam bearings, I headed home. But something didn't feel quite right. I was losing clutch pedal. But I still had some. Until out in the road when I heard a crunch and the pedal fell free. Rolling down the road I had a few moments to gather my thoughts. These cars aren't strangers to clutch linkage problems. I hoped that was what it was and not something internal that would require removing the transmission to address. I could see that the traffic light ahead was red, so I slowed it down to time the light in my favor. It wouldn't budge. Traffic was light, so I found my opportunity to run the red and then made a quick turn off into some new and used auto emporium. Throttled it down until I could hit the brakes and kill the ignition. I sat there for a moment but not for long. By the time I had the hood up to peer into the intrals to see what part of the train of things was deranged came the onslaught of salesmen. "You've come to the right place!" one said as he thrust his card in my hand. Another came out of the service department to see. Then he said that he had considered getting the keys to (some whizbang thing on the lot) and racing for pink slips but then he looked under the hood and said "This thing's supercharged! Don't think I will." I explained the problem and asked if he had a floor jack so that I could check clevis pins and such. No, none on the property. I did get him to sit in the car and work the pedal. I couldn't see anything obvious from up top. Since I wasn't going to buy a car, he suggested I call UHaul and get a truck and dolly to tow it home. I knew that Trimacar was enroute to his day job in Sacramento, Unimog I thought was visiting his car in the paint infirmiry, I was running out of options. Except the usual. More than once I've gotten home with a clutch or brake pedal lying on the floor. So I scoped out the parking lot while I took a moment to plan my route home. Super highways work best when you can't stop the thing. I once bought a '57 Packard by the pound that was about to be scrapped. It would start and run, no brakes. Did I ever mention that I hate hydraulic brakes? Drove it home. I knew that if I could make it through the traffic light in Stephens City, it was clear sailing until I made it to the dual lane crossover a mile from home. I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Startup in first, the rebuilt transmission still seems to be tight and it sure didn't like shifting without releasing the clutch. I timed the traffic light just right and we limped towards the I-81 on-ramp at Middletown. From there it was an easy transition to our old favorite stretch of Rt 66 where we used to do our timed runs. Long, straight and mile markers. Our stop watches used to see some short miles. Seabiscuit then felt right at home and it galloped like it's old self without a care in the world. The gradual exit onto 17 and then I began watching traffic flow on both sides of the dual. I had discounted trying to make the uphill and blind crossover to the home stretch in favor of several other opportunities and only at the last one before entering the city limits could I make a wide fourth gear turnaround. Resting comfortably back in its stall, Seabiscuit had gotten me home again. Once on jackstands, I could see that the outboard bearing support for the clutch cross shaft had for some reason moved out of the way to free the linkage. Once I had it out, still nothing obviously wrong. Knocking out the rivets, I cleaned the parts only to find nothing wrong other than noticing that the main spring steel plate was slightly sprung. We had some .062 spring steel plate in stock and I decided to make two duplicates so that I could double them. By now, the new and improved bracket is installed, clutch again working and we've test driven to the gas station feedbag. This thing has sure been a good and faithful old horse. And a couple pics from my day job. The only Wright company clues remaing on the V8 engine are a sketch of the camshaft and a surprise found while sorting through a dusty old crate in a museum back room. Half a casting pattern for the cam bearing. That was about ten years ago or more when I found that. Last week I turned my notes and a couple photos into recreated patterns for the foundry to cast some new ones. So now, think I'll stick my face in a bowl of soup and then put the car away, but I'll take the long way."

Chris, are you sure your Avanti was not used as a boat? Sure a bunch of rusty stuff. I think at most are running without a fuel return line. I know that mine was disconnected and plugged at the fuel pump.

And here are a couple of shots of Wayne's 1964 Corvette. He gets to bring it home this week to start on the frame and running gear components. They have painted the door jams and the underside of the top storage lid in its final color. The color is really pretty. It has a pearl look to it.

It is Monday, February 6th. Alice and I headed off early to the body shop. The Avanti looked great in her light grey primer. We went over every inch of the body and gave the crew a thumbs up. She is ready for paint. Chris, the shop manager and painter, said that he hopes that the car is in color by the end of this week or early next week. We then headed over to the main shop and saw the seats and front door panels. Everything looks great. Here are some pics. Oh, and I forgot to tell you all that I did order the car bag from Classic Car Cocoon. Should be here in a week to ten days. I have to do some work in the barn over the next couple of day to smooth out and prepare the floor. I already have a couple of Costco Blue tarps that the bag will sit on. It is going to be the home of the Jaguar 120 for now.

I still think that it is fuel related. If fuel is running on the ground from the carb that usually means that the engine is flooded. If you pull a plug I bet it is really wet from excess fuel. I think that you have a stuck float on your carb or vacuum tank or both. Both are easy to check before you enter the secret realm of electricity and ignition.

There should be drain fitting on the bottom of the tank. I would drain the fuel (outside in a big bucket) and then check to see what came out. Smell the gas, if it smells like old varnish then you know that the gas was bad. It will also be a burnt umber color, almost like your favorite cola soft drink. I would expect that some debris will also come out, if it is just a little then I would just pour in fresh gas and go. Do you have a filter after your vacuum tank? If not, I would put one on. I would use a temporary "see thru" plastic filter to see what debris, if any, it catches.

It is Sunday, February 5th. A cold day, but at least it is not raining or snowing. Neighbors called and they want to see the Jag so I started her up and pulled out of the garage. Boy, does she sound great. While showing off the engine I noticed some oil seeping from a banjo fitting. This is the oil line that pumps oil into the heads (I think). Here are a couple of pics. It should not be a problem getting a socket on the fitting and giving it a little tug. Then again I am an optimist. The third picture show the fitting. Heading off to the body and paint shop tomorrow morning. Going to be really neat seeing the Avanti in primer. I was also told that the seats were done so will stop over at the main shop for a picture taking session.

The backfiring is also caused by running low on fuel and finally out of fuel. Since it was running it sounds like it was still getting spark. I would add more fuel and see what she does before you start tearing it apart. Also if you have a fuel filter, I would check that also.

Don, she sure looks nice. What a great look. Bet that she gets a lot of looks going down the road. Great work!