unimogjohn

And we just received the official word that the Jaguar has been accepted to participate in the Kiawah Island, South Carolina, Concours. This is probably be our first and only concours. We are certainly not expecting an award, but just to be invited is an honor in itself. Here is the link to the event. If anyone is in the area, please do come and see us on April 17th. http://kiawahislandmotoringretreat.com/

Thanks Bill, I am sure that someday I might try it. But I went down to my favorite tire store, and they filled the tire for free. Could not pass on the deal.

Still Thursday. Had a bit of time so moved out the Trailblazer to the outside front of the garage and then lowered the Jaguar down to the floor as it was on the four post lift. The battery was low so charged it up. The old cat started right up. Then decided to replace the fender mirrors when the ones I got off of Ebay. The are repo, but of good quality. Got them on and they look great. Keeping the old ones as spares for the next owner.

Thursday PM, February 25th. A few snow flakes this morning; and a cat up on the roof. I left the ladder up after cleaning the gutters before the storm. Bella decided to go for a climb, and then Alice went up for the rescue. Crisis averted, I then retreated to the garage. Put the new tie rod on the Suburban. Really a pretty easy job. The bearing was pretty toasted, glad that I replaced it. the tapered stud end actually just fell out, did not have to bang on it or use a puller. Here are some pics. Ordered another tie rod and going to do the other side. Probably just as bad as this one was.

Roger, yes, the switch runs all the ignition and starter functions. According to the manual it has a series of hot contacts that switch on and off depending on the position of the gear selection of the shifter on the console. There is also a TSB (technical service bulletin) from Chevrolet indicating that the ground should be checked. Odd, they do not say where the ground is. Wednesday, February 24th, early PM. Waiting for another big storm that is suppose to hit us this afternoon. High winds, lots of rain, thunder and lightning, and maybe a tornado. This is the same storm system that went through the southern states yesterday that caused so much damage. Hopefully, it will be weaker when it gets to us. So I spent the morning cleaning out the gutters. And then I decided to attempt to mount the front tire on the little garden tractor. Used a long bolt in my vise to hold the tire while I used hand tools to get the old one off and the new one on. That was a tough little bugger, not easy by any means. But I am stuck. The tire is compressed in the middle and I cannot get it to seat even with my new bead seater air tool. Guess I will have to take it to the shop. I also received the new tie rod end for the Suburban. Looks of good quality. I will put it on tomorrow.

Kerry, thanks for the info. After more research and re-reading the official repair manual, it seems that the neutral safety switch turns off everything, the starter, fuel pump and PCM. So decided for $34 it was worth a shot to replace the switch. It is on order and will put the Trailblazer back on the lift to replace it. It is on the side of the transmission, only a couple of bolts, but you do have to remove the front driveline to get access to it. Stay tuned.

Chris, I never did put my Avanti up for the winter this year. Been driving it every week or so, except when we got the big snow. Get her out of the storage shed, and remember it does have a heater. I did rip into the ignition switch of the Trailblazer to see if I had somehow got it installed wrong. Nope, installed correctly, but still no starter or ignition. So off to the dealer it goes in a couple of days. Just have to make the appointment and call Allstate Towing. Only took fifteen minutes from start to finish on removing and installing the switch. I am getting real good at it.

For the Avanti fans. A new YouTube video chronicling the Avanti. A quite good production.

Monday, February 22nd, PM. Made it to 53 degrees so at least we had some more snow melt. But it felt a bit cool to be working in the garage. But I decided to see if I could do a temporary repair on the 2003 Suburban driver's leather seat. They do make a replacement leather cover, but it is about $200 and you have to remove the seat to put it on. So that is going to have to wait. Decided that I would use 3M leather glue and attach the two split ends back together. I also put a reinforcement under the leather to help with some additional strengthening. I used a sharp cutter to peel the leather from the seat so I could get the reinforcement in. I put glue on the cut and on the reinforcement tape and then pressed everything together with a couple of clamps. I will probably not look great, but anything is better than allowing the cut to become longer. Here are some pics. Oh, forgot. I did order a tie rod end for the Suburban yesterday. Will be here by Friday. $12 shipped to my door from a Ebay seller. We will judge the quality when it gets here, but cannot beat the price.

It is Sunday, February 21st, PM. Chris, I guess I have been lazy, the old girl is still sitting in the garage, mocking me. But Greg has sent us a report. But he did leave his car sitting for thirty years before working on it again. Here is Greg's report. "Still here and hunkered down for the winter, but this weekend has been the first hint that the cold weather may be crowded out by a welcome early Spring. It was nice enough to do some outside work. No, not yard work. The '10 Overland seat platform had been repaired, re-glued and re-skinned about thirty years ago and back burnered. Storage and Mother Nature haven't been kind to it, the new steel showing surface rusting even though I'd epoxy primered it. Guess I didn't pile it on heavy enough. With yesterday's temperature in the sixties , I hauled out the platform and sandblaster. Now, after shooting four bags of play sand at it and prepping the steel, it has been re-coated with epoxy. I've ordered some Smith's Penetrating epoxy which should be in this week. That will allow me to soak and seal the wood. This weekend has been a big step in readying the body for the front and back seats, then repair and fitting of the back doors. Lesson learned this weekend: Sandblasting isn't the fun it used to be."

It is Saturday, mid afternoon and it is Spring, 66 degrees. Tomorrow is going to be the same and then back into cold for a week. But this is a real nice retreat from the cold and snow of two weeks ago. We still have lots of snow in the pastures and the drifts are still about four feet tall. It is going to take a few days to melt them down. But I actually did some car stuff today. Pulled the Avanti out and took her for a spin around the neighborhood, maybe six miles or so. Then with the 2 post lift open, I pulled in the Suburban to change oil and lube the front end. The lift raised it easily and I was so glad that it did. The lift has a 9,000 lb capacity and the Suburban is a hefty 6,000. I really check the pad positions and balance of the truck when I got the wheels off the ground about two feet. Everything looked good, so I took her up to about four feet and tested it again, and then I went all the way up. So much easier changing the oil and lubing it up. Everything looked good, but the frame and some components are rusty. Going to spend a few hours putting on Eastwood's rust encapsulator paint to slow the rust down. I also have one rubber boot on the steering linkage has a split in it. Will have to get one and replace it. Other than that, everything looked good. I did have a check engine light come on yesterday. Read the code and it indicates a knock sensor is out of range. Seems that the two sensors are prone to failing due to water intrusion. Looked at a couple of YouTube videos on replacing them. You have to remove the intake and fuel rails to get to them. Looks to be a good day job, but not too complicated. I cleared the code and will wait to see if it throws it again before I do any repair.

Happy Valentines Day. As a result, I did nothing of importance in the garage today. Very cold, it was 8 degrees this morning and only made it to 21 degrees. Now we are waiting for another winter storm that is going to last about 36 hours. Maybe 6 or more inches of snow/sleet before it changes over to rain on Tuesday. Good news is that it will be 60 degrees on the upcoming weekend. Yahoo! While in the new garage this morning I was surprised to hear the heat pump fan come on rather than the propane side of the unit. It was 17 degrees outside. The heat pump was able to maintain the 45 degrees set for the garage. I think that the heat pump working at this low of temperature is fantastic.

Al, no. You have to buy another shield for $5 ea, I think that you can get packages of 10 for less than $40. 3M also makes a set of goggles that go over glasses. I think I may get a pair of those also. They are about $13 from Amazon Prime.

It is Saturday, February 13th, AM. 15 degrees here this morning and heading for a high of 20 degrees; tonight is going to approach 0 degrees. Now that is really cold for us. I guess to prepare for the cold coming, nature presented us with a beautiful sunset last night. Pics do not do it justice. We are just hunkered down for the day. I did get the Jaguar repo mirrors. They look very good, much nicer than what I have on there now. And the Bionic face shield arrived yesterday also. Put it together and fitted in about five minutes. I feel much safer now.

Friday, February 12th and waiting for the snow to start flying. So I have been doing a bit of YouTube surfing. The Goodwood pre-war racing cars are pretty neat. Here is an example. Talked to the insurance folks yesterday, and decided on $150,000 coverage for the new garage and its contents. Does not include the cars, which have their own coverage. Cost is $13 a month.

Joe, headed into town this morning and filled up the Suburban as the weather folks are predicting another big snow storm (maybe) on Monday/Tuesday of next week. Paid $149.9 for regular. Must be "old" gas.

Wow, now that is a great price on gas, we are at $1.57, and I thought that was good.

Wednesday, February 10th. The weather folks are advising us that Saturday will be the coldest day of winter so far, 13 degrees during the day and 6 degrees at night. I will be leaving the pellet stove on 24 hours for those coldest of day. And snow is to follow the cold also. Just a couple of garage things. I finished up putting on all the fittings on the bead sealer tank, used Teflon tape on all of them to make sure they sealed tight. Then I charged it to about 80 lbs of pressure just to see how it works. Reminder, never put you hand or other body parts in front of the nozzle when you release all that air. I forgot that little warning and had my palm in front of the nozzle to gauge the amount of air coming out. Wow, that is a lot of air, really quick. There must have been a little debris inside the tank as it shot into my hand. It hurt and left a dent, but did not break the skin. Lucky. And since I seem to do a lot of grinding I bought a full face shield. I use safety goggles, but they do not protect the face when the sparks are flying. So went on Amazon and found something I thought would do the job. Here is a pic. About $18 to my door.

Found this online newspaper article today. Interesting. Wonder how much it cost to restore. FHC on any era are worth half the value of roadsters. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3439951/Rusting-old-Jaguar-E-Type-restored-former-glory-3-000-hours.html

Bill, we have a critter sitter that comes to the farm and stays the night. She works during the day at her horse job and then comes to the farm to feed and check on everyone. She has been doing this since she was fourteen, she is now twenty-six. Soon we may have to get her a 15 year service pin. We have forbidden her to ever move away. Heaven forbid if she ever gets married. Not doing much on the car front, just too cold and too many farm chores. Only thing I have accomplished is to plunk down some cash for two repo fender mirrors for the Jaguar. Mine are loosing their luster and have a few debris dents in them and the glass itself is starting to discolor. The new ones should be better than what I have now. We will see.

Sunday, February 7th. Camaro Steve came over this morning. He wanted to borrow my hammer drill. I said sure, but I had to drill into the garage floor so I could mount the new little tire changer. He said that he would do it. So in about fifteen minutes, it was all done and mounted securely to the floor. I can easily remove it to get it out of the way as the mounts are flush with the floor. Good deal. I did add a couple of washers to breaker arm to firm it up. Seemed a bit too sloppy for my taste. Still a lot of snow on the ground and more to come in the next couple of days. And very cold too.

It is Thursday, February 4th. Just got home from a week in Seattle. Much nicer there than here for sure. A little rain and damp sure beats heavy and drifting snow anytime. I was surprised to find a winter wonderland still after a week of melting. Still over a foot of snow on the ground at the farm. And there was heavy fog almost half of the way home, really hard to see. The last ten miles we crawled along with three or four foot snow berms on either side. Good to be home. And we have a Greg report this morning. "Haven't had a lot to share lately. The day job keeps me busy, haven't been able to take this latest OX-5 engine outside to get some running time on it, so I've tried to make more progress on the Wright Brothers V8-60 recreation. Connecting rods being the biggest puzzle pieces missing, so I've returned to gnawing them out of steel bar. They've actually been coming along. Shaping them on a rotary table on the milling machine, I'll do a smidge of trimming on the other side and then there'll be a lot of hand work with a die grinder, burrs and sanding pads. Photo enclosed as of quitting time today. I'd attach more photos of the process but I see the pics are 1 MB (whatever that is) and have a feeling they'd choke up some computers. Otherwise I've gotten the valves installed, the valve spring heights adjusted and the rocker arm assemblies ready to install on the Matheson engine, and the Overland seat wooden structure about ready for the tin skin. C'mon Springtime."

You will be money ahead with a complete kit that is all matching. http://www.lebaronbonney.com/lb-interior-kits-new.php?utm_source=160131+-+NEWKITS&utm_campaign=CC160131&utm_medium=email

Keith, thanks for the comments, I think that you have us beat. We are such wimps when it comes to bad weather. We headed into town this morning. All the roads are clear, you did not need four wheel drive, but it helps. Everyone in farm country is out with their tractors. Never seen so many on the road. Today was shovel day for me. Got the snow away from the generator and heat pump for the house. No way would they work with all the snow piled on them. The new garage heat pump was OK, the wind took most of the snow away from the pump and the roof. I also have to shovel paths to the hay rounds, the llamas do not like snow and will not go to them. So their human does it for them.

Larry, everyone is rooting for you. Now you have to just buy something. Ok I promised, but here are the final snow pics. I had to make the driveway wider, the Suburban would not fit. Still tons of snow on our road, but the plows are coming, or so we hear. Not one car or truck ran the road today. Tomorrow we are going out and into town.