unimogjohn

Still Friday, and we have a report from Greg. "Progress on the '21 Dodge retopping courtesy of David "trimacar" Coco's Convertible Top Center. At this point I guess a little background is proper. I've had this car since '76. It came with the original top removed and stuffed in a trash bag. Curtains too. Still in the 70s I'd heard of an excellent trimmer in Chambersburg, Pa who was supposed to be really really good. Before I shipped the car to him, I studied the original topping and found that although the material was a very common type used in the nineteen twenties, short cobra grain with a tan backing, it hadn't been available for decades. Haartz, the leading supplier didn't offer it, but somehow I convinced them to run me off some, a roll of which I supplied to Sonny's Upholstery. Asked to faithfully copy the original, it looked like he did. Fast forward to the summer of '15 and that top had outlived it's use by date. Shrunken, torn, and flapping in the breeze. Time to see if David would feed it into his Drive-Thru. Hooray, he would, and I had a remaining roll of the material on hand. Amazingly , enough. Some of you have been following the project. Not only has it been enjoyable seeing the progress, in a way it has been a reminder of when we worked together at White Post Restorations and we'd confer. Any restoration is made up of opinions, also compromises and we'd strive for authenticity. Now these years later we're conferring over the phone and emailing photos. One big difference is that now he can't, unlike those earlier days, sing to me. Alice's Restaurant, start to finish. There have been some surprises like the lack of original references to study. The Dodge Brothers were really cranking out the cars. More expensive that Fords, but also more car that a Ford. Study any old street scene and you'll see lots of them. There were a lot of survivors. In the 1960's in Winchester, Va./ West Virginia area there were a number of originals . Try to find them now. Before he would cut and nail, David would ask about a detail. What about the unusual method of strapping the back bow. The sample sure looks like the hard way of doing things. Top material folded and stitched, cotton webbing, rivets....what's that all about? Phone calls, emails, trips to see cars....verification was sought. Made a few good friends to have in the DB world, but nothing substantial. That's when in the restoration biz you have to make your best guess. Evidence that some other Dodges had the top material stitched straps was one deciding factor since it could be made from scraps and cheap, knowing that the cotton webbing would be much more substantial to feed through the metal bracket and why would Sonny have done this the hard way instead of just running webbing all the way to the bow? We went with what you see in the pics. Unusual enough to be correct. If this had been a Model T we'd have had access to anything we wanted to know. To the day of the week it was manufactured and pitch of the stitches. I hope David had been enjoying this too. The job should be finished next week. Stay tuned."

These came with my 1923 McLaughlin Buick model 45. They were not correct for a McLaughlin so they were taken off and put in a box. I will never use them so it is time to sell them on to someone who can use them. There are four caps, all are in excellent condition with no dents, nicks or scratches. They have been chromed. The underlying base is most likely brass. I will post a couple of pictures. If anyone would like individual pictures just let me know. They look great on the car and really set it off. I do not know what the original finish would have been perhaps the raw brass or nickle plated. I do know that chrome was not available until the early 30s. So these would not be correct if you are having your car judged. I would like to get $150 for the four plus shipping. Shipping will probably be around $10 or so. PayPal is just fine for payment. You can contact me at unimogjohn@aol.com

Friday evening, November 20th. Just closed up the garage after going through boxes and boxes of stuff. I had some big plastic bins and separated all the parts by car. The SHO had the most, followed by the 1923 McLaughlin Buick, and then the 1928 Buick. I even found parts for the Trailblazer and Suburban. I guess I am just a pack rat. I must have a least four sets of brakes for the SHO. Here are a few pics so you will get the idea. Tomorrow Camaro Steve is coming over and we will put on his new shocks and finish the fluid change on the rear end.

I have a few Willys Knight parts that I picked up many years ago. All are in great condition. Motormeter - Excellent condition. I was able to shake down most of the red in the meter. The finish on the meter and the base is excellent. $250 SOLD Grease Cap - Looks to be never used. Excellent condition. $30 SOLD Rear Light - Excellent Condition. May have never been used. I can see no light bulbs in it, but the wiring is all there. $150 Spare tire lock - Never used. Keys work. Excellent. $50 Send me a PM or email at unimogjohn@aol.com Payment via PayPal. Shipping will be added to the price. Will be happy to send more pics and to answer any questions.

It is Thursday, November 19th, PM. Spent the day sorting parts and putting them in boxes by car. After I get through them all I will resort them and put them on shelves by car. I have a huge pile just for the Taurus SHO. I am afraid of what I will find for the other cars. But I did find some interesting stuff that I will put on display in the garage. Here is just a sample of stuff.

It is Wednesday, November 18th. Camaro Steve surprised me with a present for the new garage. Thanks Stevie!

Still Tuesday, but now PM. And it is SHO time! I spent about 7 hours working on the 1989 Ford Taurus SHO (Super High Output). Did a major scrubbing of the exterior and a good vacuum of the interior. I did surprise a mouse in the truck when I opened it. Tomorrow I will have to figure out how to get rid of the critter. She looks pretty good in pictures, but she needs help. The clear coat is about half off, and there are a few rust spots starting to appear. Nothing major yet that I can see. I will have to get it one the lift to see if there are any issues. The interior is not great. The seat seams are letting go and the leather is starting to tear in several parts. The headliner is starting to come down also. She was last on the road in 2008. She has 197,047 miles on the odometer. The tires are shot and dry rotted, but just so happens I have a good set on rims sitting in the storage barn. I will take a look at those to see if they are good. If not I will get some new ones from Tire Rack. I have owned her since new. As I remember she had about 350 miles on her when I bought it in 1989. It was one of the first ones off the production line in Atlanta, GA. She was a fast car back in the day. The the six cylinder Yahama engine produced 220 HP and gave about 210 are the front wheels. Lots of torque steer when you got on the gas. She was the fastest sedan in her day, 143 mph. I charged up the tractor battery that is in her and gave it a boost from a portable charger. After a couple of short pulls, she started right up. Just amazing. And she sounds great also. I decided to see if I could move her to the front of the garage so she will be easier to work on. After a couple of back and forth power moves the brakes finally released, and I was able to drive her to the garage. I am sure the pads were stuck to the rotors. Felt good to have her move again. And then of course she started to smoke from the engine bay. Now I remember why she was parked. A leaky power steering hose way back behind the engine. I am going to continue to clean her up and hope to stabilize the rust areas, and make her as presentable as I can. As soon as the Camaro leaves the garage I will put her up on the lift for an inspection, to see about the power steering hose, and give it a brake job. Just so happens I have several sets of rotors and pads that I have collected over the years. A few weeks ago I had the car registered as a vintage car, over 25 years old, so I can drive it again. It will be good to run down the road again. Here is a link to the history of the SHO line up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taurus_SHO

I think that this should be Roger's next project. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACkmg3Y64_s?rel=0

It is Tuesday morning. Here is a Greg report for your morning coffee. "More on the Dodge. Photo of David test fitting the rear curtain. Next we will resolve the two vertical straps that retain the rear bow placement. Progress on the Avanti R3 engine. Nathan came over to install the oil filter mount, all seals and gaskets required for the oil pan installation, the front timing cover temporarily installed. Then we figured out how to remove the plugs so that we could clean the rocker arm shafts. New plugs installed. To ease his pain of installing all these rear curtain diamonds for the Dodge, David traveled to Paul Rose's shop (thanks Paul) to use a wonderful long neck sewing machine. Made managing that big piece of material a lot easier. The Dodge Brothers are coming along. The last pic shows another batch of nickel plating for the Matheson engineproject. These items for valve spring retention, compression relief and camshaft drive. I think twenty-seven items, another batch of over one hundred twenty to go."

It is Monday, PM, November 16th. A real nice day so spent most of the day doing needed farm stuff. We have a few medium sized trees that have died and need to come out. So used the little Kubota to push them over so I can cut them up tomorrow with the chain saw. It did take some heavy pushing with the loader. It was not a "push over". But got them down. Had a few minutes to work in the garage. I was embarrassed when I went over to Wayne's garage. He had all his sockets in little trays in his tool cabinet. Mine are just jammed into a drawer, and you have to go looking for the right size. I saw some socket and tool holders on sale at Eastwood. So bought three to see how they would work. Now I have wrenches and sockets on the wall for easy picking.

Al, I hope to get to the ignition part tomorrow, and that will confirm if I have power up to the switch and beyond. Tom, that is a hard top Unimog 404. Has actual roll up windows. A rare truck, usually they are soft tops with plastic windows that are inserted into the top door frame. Not a bad price either for $7500 if it is a good driver. The hard top usually has a gun port in the passenger side of the roof; a neat feature if you need to mount a machine gun. It is Sunday, PM, November 15th. Surprise, surprise as Greg and Barb made an unannounced visit to the farm last night. They brought a thank you gift for the garage. So now I have a microwave. Thanks Greg and Barbara! And Camaro Steve came over today and spent the morning working on his Camaro. He took off the old shocks, drained and opened up the differential (posi-traction), and did some more cleaning and painting of the engine bay and suspension parts. Corvette Wayne also came by, and we loaded the transmission into his truck. It is going to the re-builder tomorrow. Wayne has the engine all rebuilt and will be painting it in the next couple of days. Steve gets the shocks on Tuesday so I imagine that he will be over some evening this week to put them on. We do not have a schedule for the tranny yet. And what did I do? Just did some garage clean up; and admired the new tires on the Suburban. Nice Cooper truck tires, which should last another 50,000 miles.

It is Saturday, November 14th, PM. A big day for Camaro Steve. We picked up the open trailer at our place and headed over to Steve's garage and picked up the engineless Camaro. Brought it over to our garage and proceeded to put it on the lift. The transmission is coming out. Up on the lift Steve could see that the rear main transmission seal was leaking as well as some of the other seals. So he feels better about getting the transmission rebuilt. It came out rather easy with no issues. The transmission jack worked like a charm. A valuable piece of equipment for sure. Steve also said that Wayne has the engine all back together. He is just waiting on a nice day to paint it. Maybe even tomorrow. Wayne is coming over tomorrow to pick up the tranny and take it to the rebuilder. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment.

Roger, I agree completely with your assessment. My little truck needed some maintenance, nothing critical, and a few upgrades. It is stuff I would have done anyway, just not all at once. I have other vehicles for farm use so it being down has really not caused any issues. Dealers will cost you about $100 per hour now I just wanted to mitigate the pain if I had to take it in. Much easier for me to replace a starter at $70 versus $700 at the dealer. The redone computer cost me $200, the dealer wanted $1200.

Quick note: Corvette Wayne sent me a note. The damper mounting hole was smaller than the crankshaft end, so the machinist took a bit out to make it fit. Everything was measured so there will be no play. Wayne reported that it fits great. On Saturday we will trailer the Camaro over to our place, put it on the lift and remove the transmission. While under the Trailblazer I noticed that the front brake dust shields were rubbing the rotor. They are rusty and about done. So ordered a new ones for both sides. Also the rear sway bar end links are really worn so ordered new ones. When I get the truck running I will have an almost new truck with all the new parts being put on.

Most excellent!

Dale, I can jump across the relay tabs for 12 volts and it does engage the solenoid and the starter spins. I am just not getting any power to the ignition and start circuits. The relays for both circuits are new. These are both controlled by the engine management computer, which I replaced. Before I drop the gas tank I am going to pull the ignition switch, which I replaced, and check that I did it correctly. This should only take me a couple of hours. There is a little wheel with cogs on it that moves various plates within the switch that goes "off, accessories, run and start", maybe I have one cog off which does not allow it to go to the start position? The key turns a lever that engages the cogs on the ignition switch. Oh, and I just replaced the fuel filter. Had not done that in several years. I could still blow though it, but it was restricted. The new one was way better. On a farm side note, Shadow, our pooch of some 16 years, is starting to have some issues with his back legs. So Alice has him going to a holistic vet for acupuncture, laser and massage therapy. Me, I have the same aces and pains, but get the "just keep moving treatment" or "you are such a baby". Shadow goes first class. This is what he looks like when getting prepared for laser therapy.

It is Thursday, November 12th. Well I got the new starter for the Trailblazer last evening via FedEx. So this morning I decided that I better put it in. So after a few hours of work the new starter is in and hooked up. With great hope I turned the key. Nothing! I then decided to check every fuse in the car. All OK. So I guess now the only thing I can do now is change out the fuel pump, which I have on hand. If that does not work. Then I give up, off to the local Chevrolet dealer.

We all should be so lucky. https://player.vimeo.com/video/139358538

It is Wednesday, Veterans Day, November 11th. And what do three old Veterans do? Well, we get together, told stories of our youth and built an engine. Everything was going good when the vibration damper hung up on the crankshaft. Tried a could of times to get it to press on, but it was a no go. Tried an old one from Wayne's junk pile, and it went right on. So we decided to give up for the day, and Wayne is going to take the damper into the engine shop and see what is up with it. The shop purchased the damper for the engine. Here is what we accomplished today in pictures. Everything else went just fine. We even talked Camaro Steve in to having his automatic transmission rebuild during our story telling. We only what do do this once, and Steve did admit that he thought it "might be" slipping.

This is what I used. you can also fill in the slot if you want a totally flat look. I used JB Weld for that. Much better looking than pop rivets. http://www.grainger.com/product/GRAINGER-APPROVED-Binding-Post-WP73996/_/N-8jr?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/5MA53_AS01?$smthumb$

Still Tuesday, but early PM. Headed out to garage to see if I could remove the starter from the Trailblazer. I did get off the main power lead without much difficulty, but I am stopped trying to remove the upper back nut from the threaded stud holding the starter. I need a deep 15mm socket. I have everything else but the socket. So Alice is going to pick one up this afternoon while she is in town. So I put up a section and a half of ridge line insulation in the roof. I did manage to finally take a pic of a completed section. Only three and a half sections to go. And I pulled out all the old car covers and put them on all the cars. The 23 McLaughln Buick even has two. The covers are well used, but they will keep the dust off the cars over the winter. The only car I might still use is the Avanti, the others are put to bed.

Corvette Wayne has been rebuilding a 60s pickup. The other day he ran across a running chassis with all upgraded running gear, brakes, power steering, etc. So he decided to swap frames and some of the components. He plan to sell the engine, but keep the transmission as it has overdrive and use it on another future project. He stripped the frame, did some minor repairs and had it power coated. He now is in the process of putting everything back on. Just put on the front spindles and next will be the front rotors, pads, and splash shields. I know that it is a modified truck, but the work is interesting.

It looks like David, Trimacar, Coco is almost done with Greg's Dodge top. Looking pretty neat. I am sure that David will add details as Greg's comments were nil. But sometimes that is a good thing.

It is Monday, November 9th. It was at freezing this morning outside and 45 degrees in the garage. So turned on the heat to 65 degrees. Within twenty minutes or so it was nice and comfy. I then figured I would use my new 18 foot pole to see if I could push insulation into the ridge cap. So I cut 10 inch sections and climbed a 6 ft ladder to get a few more feet. Bit by bit I was able to push insulation into the ridge. I did one complete section of ten feet; it took about an hour. Only five more sections to go. The insulation is holding and I made every attempt to push it up and behind the framing so it would stay and not drop. So far, so good. Of course I forgot to take a pic of the completed section, I will do that tomorrow. But I did do one little piece at the end of the building so you can get the idea of what it looks like. This will seal up the last of my major heat exit points, and if I have gone too far in sealing the building I can easily pop out a few insulation blocks. I then started on the Trailblazer's starter. It is so much better working with it on the lift, I have the truck shoulder high so I can get my hand in the side of the engine bay to reach it. So crusty. I did get the solenoid wire off. Then decided that since the starter is about ten years old I would just go ahead and replace it, why do all this work to just have it fail. So for $70 I have a new one coming. It will be here on Wednesday. Tomorrow I hope to have the old one out. One nut is easy to get to, the other is in a blind spot behind the engine so you cannot see it. Everything is by feel.

Roger, I thought that Wayne would use an assembly lube of some sort also. But he uses a premium lithium grease. I asked him about it, and he said that it "sticks" to the bearing surfaces longer than assembly lube and less prone to wash out during the initial start and run in. He only uses it on the crank and rod bearings. He uses something different on the cam and lifters. Stay tuned for that. He has built over a 100 engines without a failure so I figure that he must know his stuff. He did say that there would be some comments on his choice of lube.