unimogjohn

Sunday, PM. Hotter than a fire cracker outside. So everyone is inside that wants to be, and the llamas are comfortable in the shade and under fans. A couple of days ago the AACA magazine arrived. I saw the article on the Virginia Beach Spring Meet, and it had a couple of pages of pictures. To my surprise, there was a pic of the 23 McLaughin Buick. Sweet! Alice kept bugging me to buy a big TV for the garage. She envisions a weekly drive-in movie night for the neighborhood with pizza and popcorn. I looked at those TV projectors, but they seems pretty pricey for what you got. Instead I just waited for my favorite web buying site "Woot" to come up with a deal. And would you know it, they finally were selling some refurbished Smart 55 inch TVs for not much money. So got me one. It should fit the drive-in requirements, and we would not have to wait until 10 PM to play a movie. Also I received word from the shipping company that the Goodman HVAC heat pump package will be here on Monday.

It is Sunday, July 19th. It is really going to be hot and humid today. The weather folks are saying 110 degrees! Yikes!!!!!!! So we got an early start to finish the lift. We were in the garage at 6 AM, and just gave up at 10 AM. But it was a great morning as we have "lift off". I got everything done this morning, filled the hydraulic motor with fluid, fixed the electrical plug, and Alice hit the up button. Whoa, Houston we have a problem! Hydraulic fluid spewing everywhere and out of every fitting. We had a bleeder and it was hard to figure out what to tackle first. But we got everything tight and tried again. The system pressurized and everything was moving nicely and then another big leak. This time it was the factory coupling. Lots of fluid on the ground. Really made a mess of things, but you just clean up and go forward. With Alice at the controls the system pressurized, the hydro ram pulled on the cables, and the ramps started to lift. Yahoo! I checked all the cables and made sure they were still on their rollers, and we went up a few more feet. Then we let her go down. Everything worked. I still have to adjust the lock mechanism and level everything, but that should not take too long.

PM Friday, July 17th. A long day. We worked on the four post lift and the end is in sight. This morning I flipped over the ramp with the ram and wires. Blew a tire on the dolly doing it, but it worked great. The ramp is the heaviest piece of the lift system. Camaro Steve dropped by before heading off to work, and we were able to put the ramps on the cross bracing. We had to move the bracing from the floor to the first lock position on the columns. They are heavy to be sure. But we got everything lined up and the ramps were bolted into place. I then ran the lifting wires to each of the columns and connected them up. Things went well and the cables stayed on the rollers. We were very happy. Then Alice and I connected up the hydraulic pump. Boy, it is heavy. On Sunday we will hook up the locking rod safety mechanism; put a electrical plug on the pump wiring; and fill up the pump unit with hydraulic oil. I cannot quite figure out why the pump did not have a plug, you would have thought that it would. If we have time, we will put power to the ramp and see if she works. I will also have to level up the ramps when I get a load on the cables. The last thing that we have to do is put on the wheel system so we can move it to its place in the garage. p.s. We also had full time helpers, Ernest the dog and Bella the cat that thinks she is a dog.

It is Thursday, July 16th. Today we began the four post lift installation. I have a installation plan in my head and going ahead with them. The written directions are of little value. They are very vague and not intuitive. First, I flipped the over the ramp. Tried my C clamp trick, but that did not work. Got it vertical, but could not make it flip over. So used our dolly truck to just flip it over. Worked great. We then slipped in the cross members into the columns, attached the lock rails, and put on the top caps. We are done for the day. I all so put in the ends of the double bubble insulation into the back of the OSB panels to finish off the walls. Tomorrow the plan is to attach the ramps to the rails, and then we have to figure out which cable goes to which column. Fun stuff.

Hi all! It is Tuesday morning, June 15th. On the garage front Alice and I hung five panels of double bubble insulation, have some finishing work to do, but they are up. So three walls are done. Only the front wall left to do. We will see if we can do that today. Looked at the installation instructions for the four post lift. Have it figured out somewhat and know how we are going to proceed. Have to flip over the ramps, which are now upside down. Attaching a big clamp and going to put them on the vertical and then push them over to the right side as we lower them down. This is a very heavy task so we have to be very careful. But enough of the garage, we have a report from Greg. "OK, got a lot of feedback on the Curtiss engine test, so here's a new one just in from Cecil B. Dedavis....he's learning how to download his cellphone . Notes: Engine shown running on my test stand for a function check , oil pressure, coolant leaks, valve action , etc. Because it wasn't loaded with the propeller drag and the magneto is set at full advance, I held it to 1200 Rpm maximum crankshaft speed. Taking off throttle stops would only net a low speed of about 800. The engine as installed in the airframe with propeller loading had the idle set at 550 RPM. You will also notice the valve action peculiar to the Curtiss OX series of engines. Long rocker arm opens the exhaust, push rod operated. The intake is opened by a tube surrounding the push rod and pulls a yoke which opens the intake valve. Lots of moving parts that are only lubricated by oil can. Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2015 11:14:44 -0400 Subject: Closeup of OX-5 Aero Engine From: n1014f@gmail.com To: GregCone@msn.com Here is the link ... https://youtu.be/m1AD5VhuzIA -- Jim Davis, Retired Government Clerk Youtube Channel: N1014F=

Still Monday, but PM. Another very long day, but still having fun. Rained hard all morning with a great light show. We got over 1.5 inches of rain. Tomorrow promises to be another stormy day. Alice and I decided to unload both lifts from the trailer. No tractor involved, used the engine hoist and it did a great job. Everything went without a hitch. I just had to remove a tire from each side to get the hoist into position over each lift. I even did the two post lift as a single unit. A bit dicier, but we managed just fine. So here are the pics for today. Tomorrow we plan on doing some double bubble insulation and then start on the four post lift construction. That will probably take us a couple of days. Quite a puzzle. I have looked at a couple of youtube videos so at least I have some idea as how to proceed.

It is Monday morning, July 13th. Big rain is upon us this morning, coming down in buckets. Going to head to the garage in a bit and get the engine hoist out of the barn and into the garage. Going to see if I can lift the big rails for the lift. My broadband provider and friend Paul is concerned that I am going to lose too much heat and cooling from the ridge vent. He has come up with a way to close and open the vent line with a simple method of using plastic pipe to block off the air. I will post more on that later when we figure out a way to install it. And of course, it was the weekend and we have a report from Greg. " Summer time and things are hopping. Got in some time on the black Avanti 5054. Had to redo some leaking transmission cooler lines, a couple times, it looks like I got that under control but now I see there's a persistent coolant leak that streams across the garage floor. The kind of thing that's best traced when on a lift. Otherwise, enclosed find a link to a Jim Davis production, an abbreviated version of his documentation of a day job engine run. All for now. " Revised version https://youtu.be/Ng1Wfh-fxUw -- Jim Davis, Retired Government Clerk714 Avondale DriveSterling, VA 20164-1215703 444 6243 ®703 501 0184 ©Youtube Channel: N1014F=

Still Sunday, but PM. Had a great time at the annual Jaguar picnic. Plenty of good food and "cat" talk. Only one XK 140 showed, and no other vintage Jaguars, ll newer or new. Folks are just getting too old for the vintage iron I guess. And everyone wants AC. Here are some pics. And we had a breakdown! The newly rebuilt clock gave up. So looks like I have to pull it and get it back to the vendor. I miss the tic, tic, tic. The car ran great. It seems more smoother and powerful with the 1/4 race fuel in her. Race fuel along with real gas is what she seems to like.

It is Sunday, July 12th. Heading off this afternoon to the annual Jaguar Club picnic. It is just down the road. Always fun it see all the cats. But, this morning I rigged up a couple of straps to the top ramp of the four post lift. Figured I could just lift it up and then down to the floor. Well, that met with no success as the loader struggled to even jiggle the ramp. So gave that up and called for help next week. Porsche Alan has a larger tractor with forks that should be able to lift it off. Once off I am going to put it on blocks so I can get under it with floor jacks to move it around. Of course I have to flip it over. Now that will be interesting. Since I lost the battle with the four post I decided to at least uncover the two post lift. Here is what it looks like.

Still Saturday, but now it is 3 PM. Quitting for the day. Houston, we have lift off, well part way. I cleaned up the garage a bit and moved stuff around. Wanted to see if I could move the trailer with the lifts into the garage. It will be much easier to off-load the lifts in the garage. So I used the little Kubota tractor to get the nose into the garage and put a wheel skate under the post support. Then I moved the tractor to the rear and just slowly pushed it in. Of course I could not leave it alone so started to take stuff off. I managed to get about half of it unloaded. The rest is way too heavy so have to wait until a tractor with fork lifts is available from the neighborhood. I did lift one end of the package with the Kubota's bucket, I was surprised. It struggled but it did it. I think that I could use a couple of straps and lift off the very heavy ramps if I had to. Here are pics of everything I took out. I think it will help you see what it all takes to put one up. So far so good and no smashed anything. The lift looks of very good quality and fit/finish. I am happy so far. Oh, this is the four post lift.

Thanks for the comment David. And all of us remember that the airplane will be soaring the skies sometime soon. It is Saturday, July 11th, AM. Heading out soon to put up the very last two little sections of the OSB panels. Alice and I worked about 6 hours to almost get to the end. We were hot and spent by 2 PM, so we decided to live to fight another day. We will be done with the OSB today and you will never have to hear of them again. We used exactly 30 panels for the job. Got our boadband provider out and he hooked up the pod radios on the garage and the house, and gave us a new router as our was too out of date (2002) to use. So much for a used router. We now have the WWW in the garage. A good thing for sure. P.S. We just got in from hanging the last two pieces of OSB panels. We are done.

FYI. See what Greg does on his day job. He is in the blue polo shirt. Very cool.

It is Friday, July 11th, AM. It is Friday morning, and we have a report from Greg. "Today, July 10th is a reason to celebrate. As of today, The black Avanti R-5054 is licensed and insured, first time since 8/31/1979 . Registered for daily use with Year of Manufacture plates. After my successful trip to the Division of Motor Vehicles, I felt it necessary to stop at the store for a reward, my old favorite from those old days.....Mountain Dew and Cracker Jacks. Even after a hard bicycle ride on a hot summer's day....they never tasted better. Now to proceed with chores to make it somewhat driveable so that I can be working the bugs out of it and have it ready to ferry to my painter for touchup and final buffing." =

It is Wednesday, July 9th, PM. Are you getting tired of insulation yet? We are closing in on it. Camaro Steve came over this morning and after three hours we got most of the wall insulated with glass and double bubble. Alice and I have a little clean up to do and tiding up, but it is almost done. Alice came home from her Master Gardener project and wanted to help. She measured and cut for the OSB panel under the window. It is now 3 PM and hotter than all get out. So we are done for the day. More panels to put up tomorrow. And we still have one gable end of the building to insulate. Waiting for our broadband provider too. Hope he comes.

Glenn, if I have to pull the choke to keep the engine running when hot, it has been clogged jets or metering tubes. It does not take much to plug them up. In my 28 there are two, one long and one short and stubby, that clog up. When cleaned it runs like a top with the choke fully in. Let us know how your investigation and cure comes out.

Still Wednesday. Update on today's garage activities. Worked steady from 8 AM until 2 PM, but seemed to not accomplish all that I wanted to do. Broadband for the garage. Our provider is coming tomorrow PM to link up the house router with the new one in the garage. OSB panels. We installed four more today. We have them in the horse/llama trailer so we have to load them onto the Kubota tractor and move them to the garage. Using the tractor is a lot easier on us. Had to do a lot of trimming and cutting for the outlets and switches so that takes a lot more time. Insulation. Alice had to bug out at 10 AM so we only got a bit hung. We went all the way to the top on one section. Now I know that it can be done. Double bubble insulation. It came this afternoon so we will be able to finish off the insulation above the OSB panels. Here are pics for your enjoyment.

It is Wednesday, July 8th. On the garage front. Alice and I finished up all the insulation up to 14 feet. We also installed one section at 16 feet. Will do more today. We also installed 5 OSB panels. More OSB going up today also. Got word that the double bubble reflective insulation will be here today also. So will be putting that up over the next couple of days. It looks like that we will be done with all the insulation by the weekend. I also have to get a higher amperage electrical cable for the HVAC unit. I have #10 wire and it needs #8. Ordered the correct 45 amp breaker and will run to Home Depot to get about 70 feet of cable. We have a clear path to route it but will have to remove a OSB panel and insulation to install it. Good thing that the panels are screwed in. Found this great video on Norman Dewis, the great race and test driver for Jaguar. An interesting watch if you have the interest and time. Lots of period footage of the early Jags including the XK120. I did not know that he took a 120 to a top speed of 172 mph. And here I get scared at 70 mph. Here is the link.

Still Monday, PM. We headed off to Home Depot and picked up the insulation bundle and 15 sheets of OSB paneling. We hung the final bats of insulation above the garage doors. The insulation is up 14 feet on all sides and the two long sides of the garage are done with the exception of the reflective double bubble insulation. Only have the ends of the garage to finish. When it cools down we will see how that goes. Here are a few pics of the walls, before and after today's work; and a couple of the Harbor Freight workbench. I also washed the Avanti and started up the 23 McLaughlin Buick for car stuff.

And the front suspension is fitted also! Bernie, she is looking like a car again versus a pile of parts. Great job!

Thanks for the suggestions on getting to the highest points on the garage. Camaro Steve brought over his extra tall ladder, so we are going to try it. It easily reaches all the places I need to get. We will get more insulation today and see how it goes. And I was researching the size of wire I need to support the new AC unit. I have to run another wire as the 10 gauge that we ran for it is too small. Have to go to 6 gauge as the breaker size is 45 amps. Not a big deal. I finished the little Harbor Freight work bench yesterday. One of the drawer rails was bent so the drawer kept falling out. Fixed it and then shimmed it out a bit with a few washers. Perfect now. Looks pretty good. It will work good until I can build a permanent bench by the side window. And it is Monday, July 6th so we have a report from Greg. "It has been a busy week, perplexing at times. With the day job demanding all the time I can give it, I would naturally hope that time given to Avanti 5054 should be productive. Not the case. With the Coco Carpet Company supplying the flooring, and me in a hurry, it took three tries to get the rear carpet to suit me. I should have taken more time on the patterns, but he graciously cut, bound, re-cut and rebound until we got it right. With the carpet down I was able to get the front seats and belts in. Then being able to move the car under its own power, I can finish the carpet and other trim at my leisure. Poor planning on my part cost me several nights. Then to get the engine ready so that I could drive around Hyde Manor , especially to park by the water hose. It really needed its first bath. It wouldn't start. Took the plugs out and cleaned them. Wouldn't start. Checked the spark plug wires for spark. Had good fire. Added more gas. Pulled the plugs for another compression check. Good compression. Suspecting perhaps a vacuum leak I looked for the obvious. No hoses off, no plugs left out of the carburetor, well maybe an intake manifold gasket had failed (after all I did have to remill the angles to match the heads). Using a vacuum gauge I found that upon cranking with closed throttle, the gauge needle didn't move. Tried it on Seabiscuit and the needle pointed to 4 inches of vacuum. I realize that the performance 288 cam is known for low vacuum, so I tried an experiment. Made an aluminum plate, removed the carburetor and pressure box. A fresh gasket, some Hylomar sealant and the cover plate replacing the carburetor. Cranked over, the vacuum gauge showed 11 inches with the needle slow to drop. Reasoned the manifold gaskets were holding. After several wasted nights troubleshooting to no avail, I was reduced to calling 5054 the Black Ba$+@rd. What the hell could be wrong with it. It used to run, I heard it. Then, on one of my many runs to the Coco place, I had time to think while driving the hour each way. We had a phenomenon at White Post that never made sense. During the course of a restoration, a rebuilt engine would be installed in the restored chassis and test fired to check for leaks, oil pressure, etc. Then a year or two or three later when the rest of car was finished and readied for a test drive, it wouldn't start. All manor of things were checked. No start. The new spark plugs would be checked, bead cleaned and reinstalled. No start. At wit's end, someone would suggest replacing the spark plugs with another new set. That's when the engine would start. Friday morning I picked up another new set of plugs. After beating my brains out on the garage floor for a week looking for the problem, the car started right up. As of today, the car has had its first wash. Now running, it nears being ready for final paint touchup and buffing , things to be tended to when on a lift, the installation of bumpers and trim, supercharger belts, etc. So it was a good weekend. Plenty of good eating, good company, and on Saturday night as Barb and I were returning from Rob's we were treated to an almost constant barrage of fireworks from Maryland to Hyde Manor. At one point on a lonely stretch of highway, we pulled over to enjoy a spectacular display that seemed as if it was just for us. And today after returning the 5054 to the shed, I called out old Seabiscuit for a short spin just so I could say I drove both Avantis on the same day. As good as it gets."

It is July 4th, AM, Saturday. Happy Birthday USA! Had a minor setback on the garage heating/cooling front. The HVAC unit that I wanted is out of production (I think it price was too low) so my order was canceled. Never fear, I found another unit for not much more money from another web based company. It is a Goodman R410A 14 SEER Packaged Dual Fuel 4 Ton Heat Pump and 115,000 Gas Heat (G-GPD1448115M41). I also put together the little work table from Harbor Freight. Took me back to my childhood as it was like an Erector Set. Of course, a drawer rail is bent so one of the drawers will not stay attached. Looks like I will have only one drawer for awhile. I will not attach the top so I can get to it at some point. And all the insulation is up to 12 feet now, and half to 14 feet. Today we are going to tackle one gable end and insulate all the way to the top. Getting closer to being done. p.s. We put up four section at the 14 foot level this morning. Attempted to go up to 16 feet, it is a no go, just too dangerous as the ladders are at max height. We did not like it up that high and backed down. We will live to fight another day. Going to do four more sections at the opposite side of the garage when we cool down. Still short one bundle of R19 insulation. p.s. It is the mid afternoon, and it is cooking outside. Alice and I went out at noon and put up all the insulation we had, the final four bats for today. We have to get more insulation bats for the front wall and more OSB. Will start putting up more OSB as soon as we get the final four bats up. Still waiting on the double bubble reflective insulation to come. Then we can say that we are almost finished. Going to look into renting a taller ladder too.

It is Tuesday, June 30th, PM. Guess what I have been doing? Insulation I say....... Alice has been helping and we have all the insulation up to 12 feet and have started doing the last two feet. We are about 40% done. It takes two people to put the long bats of insulation and then move the heavy ladders so I can staple them in. Lots of up and down stuff. We just need a couple of cool mornings and we will have it done. I closed up the garage this morning and the temp was 76 inside and 78 outside. Now at 2 PM it is 80 inside and 88 outside. So what insulation we have up right now is working. I will do a final read at about 5, which is the hottest part of the day for us. Speaking of heat and cold, I ordered the HVAC unit this morning. We had a contractor come by and give us some options. But his price was sky high, $10,000 installed. Way too much for me. So I decided to go it alone and ordered a HVAC heat pump package unit. It is a Goodman 5 Ton 13 SEER 140,000 BTU Gas/Electric Package Unit. It is probably overkill, but the larger unit was less expensive than lower BTU units. The unit plus some parts (electrical umbilical, thermostat, filter, cover transitions, etc) came in at $3,004 delivered to my door. I figure that the round vent piping will cost another $400 or so, and maybe $200 in other parts. So I should have a working unit for under $4,000. Connecting and running the piping should not be that hard of a deal. I do have to cut two 14 inch holes in the building and build a pad for the unit. I am going to buy some concrete pavers for the pad. The gas company said that they would hook up the unit to the propane tanks for $200 when they installed the two 140 gallon tanks.

Paul, here is Greg's answer to the fan clutch rebuild. " Fan clutch. Seems the Corvettes used the same Schwitzer unit for a while. Googled it and there are several firms doing it. I closed my eyes and chose one www.kirkconnellcorvettes.com 1-813-477-6217 They do a fantastic job. In fact, thinking it is for a Corvette they'll ask you what month the car was built so they can put the right ink marks on it for NCRS judging. I really don't know how they unroll the seam that holds it together and then reroll it upon reassembly. Nice people to trust your clutch to, they try their best to take care of you. But it ain't cheap, you can buy two or three of the replacement clutches instead. I've had them do one for Seabiscuit and another for 5054. The replacement I bought is on the shelf. I like originality." I just went to their web site. The price to rebuild a unit to concours condition is $225 plus shipping.

It is Wednesday, AM, July 24th. HOME! Back from a short vacation trip to Seattle. Arrived home last night to a huge storm. We made it OK, but lots of folks with damage and no electricity. Off today for more insulation. In the meantime we have a report from Greg. "It's the busy busy season. Day job pushing deadlines and weather suitable for me to get something done in the tin barn on my stuff. For my fleet, black Avanti 5054 is the main focus. Coco's Carpet Center has been supplying me with new flooring. Tonight I got the passenger front floor semi-installed. Driver's is next, When he gets the back carpet cut and bound I can lay it down and look forward to mounting the bucket seats. That will be a milestone. Tonight I also installed the rebuilt original fan clutch. Another check mark on the list. Sunday Barb and I took the old Dodge touring into Warrenton to walk the car show. They fill the main street with cars and enthusiasts. Old '63 Avanti Seabiscuit is running well. It really needs a good cleaning, something I don't find time for. Today was also a good one. Another day job field trip to Udvar-Hazy NASM collection. Enclosed photo shows Thetan Ogle doing some Curtiss JN4 investigation. Or looking for spare change under the pilot's seat. Any day with the NASM crew is a good day. Otherwise, still waiting for Matheson hardware, about ready to fire that vendor. Also hitting a few licks on the '10 REO. Top support leather straps are repaired, oil changed, fuel in the gas tank, things like that. Not much time for it. The Overland seat waiting on the back burner, but we've got a plan on how to proceed." =

Bill, you forget about the lifts. I have four more bundles of insulation (32 pieces) and 15 OSB panels to complete the interior. With those done, the lifts will be installed. And then the cars! Oh at some point I have to do the heat pump.