unimogjohn

Mickey, thanks for the information above. Made hotel reservations so we are coming with our 23 McLaughlin Buick. Can you tell me when the registration will be open? Is there a list of activities that you can post for us?

Still, Thursday later still, and just picked up the mail. Received a letter from the AACA with a congratulatory note on achieving the First Junior Award. They enclosed a oval plaque that must be permanently mount to some place on the car. I put on some double back tape and put it on the glove compartment door for now. Looks pretty nice.

Still Thursday, but PM. The big brown truck pulled up and dropped off the Optima battery. Looks great and it fits the box perfectly. Am a happy camper. Hope to have it in the car tomorrow. I was thinking. The negative cable is connected to the engine. If I connect it to the frame will that have the same effect, or do I need to put a ground strap from the engine to the frame? Remember, the Avanti body is fiberglass. Note: John, thanks for the input on the ground strap. I will measure and get one. In fact I just ordered one from Amazon, less than $10 to my door. It is a AC Deldo unit, 18 inches.

It is Thursday, October 16th, early PM. Rained hard yesterday, 3.5 inches, so I did not do any car work. I was too busy making sure all the drains were working. This morning I called LeBaron-Bonney and ordered a yard of the brown wool carpeting for the back passenger area of the 1923 McLaughlin Buick. I will fit it to the car and then take it to David Coco so he can sew on the piping that needs to go around it. This is the last interior project that needs to be done in order to make the car correct interior wise. I also made hotel reservations for the AACA Tidewater Region Spring Meet in Virginia Beach, VA. We had so much fun at Hershey decided to see if the 23 can receive a Senior Award at the meet. Besides it will be great to spend some time at the beach. The meet is at the end of April. I am waiting for the Optima battery to show up for the Avanti. Should be here about 5 PM today. I did some cleaning of the engine bay, but with all the components still on the car it is futile. I will get the new battery in the trunk, run the wires and start up the car to make sure everything works. Then will start pulling components to hopefully stop some of the oil and transmission/power steering leaking. Lots of stuff on the front of the engine. Going to try to leave the hood on, but it may have to come off. The cost of the carpet and shipping will be approximately $120. I need a new grounding point for the battery near the trunk area. I selected a welded bracket on the rear of the frame itself. The bracket is for the rear sway bar connection. It had an extra hole in it so cleaned it up down to bare metal, and put a bolt and washers through it. This is were I will mount the negative cable. Here are a couple of pics. One of the mess on the garage floor, which I had totally cleaned yesterday. And of the negative cable attachment point.

Still Tuesday, PM. Now that the car is up on jack stands I can get under it and look at the oil and power steering leaks at the front of the engine. All I can say is that the car is bleeding to death. I am going to clean up the front end tomorrow and then see about replacing the power steering pump (have a rebuilt unit), the power steering hoses (have them also) and the timing cover case gasket and crankshaft felt oil seal (have that too). While doing this all I will remove and repaint the fan. It is currently black and should be orange. So I guess I am in for a few days of work in addition to the battery location. This is going to be exciting as the car is in the garage on a cement floor so I can use my new Lisle floor creeper. Looking forward to getting nice and greasy. Just got to love old cars. Oh and while I have it up on stands may just go ahead and change the transmission fluid, filter and gasket (have them all too). So everything is all paid for and ready to go, just my labor is not covered. Oh well, it should be fun, or at least interesting.

You are really going to have a hard time finding similar vinyl material. Yes, I would agree that it is a very light sheen oxblood color. Its texture is like little sand pebbles, which are raised just a bit from the base of the fabric. David Coco is correct. If you cannot find the vinyl, and it should be boat grade vinyl, then I would go with leather. Many, many kinds and grains, and colors to choose from, and good leather is really not that expensive. I went with a Stayfast black top. Why, the tan water stains easily, which you cannot get out even with a bleach solution. I still have my tan side curtains if you want me to take a pic of them. They are of a single ply, where as I think the Stayfast material has three. Here is my 23 McLaughlin Buick model 45 Special on its way to Hershey last Saturday. Remember, these recommendations are just my opinion. I am sure there are many, but you have to work with the materials that are still available today. The old stuff, even from the 50s and 60s, is brittle and starting to break down. Nothing lasts forever. Oh, David did my top. Still looks as new, but is about five years old now.

Roger, the box is attached to the floor by a bracket, which goes through the floor and fastens to the floor. The top does come off for inspection. Yes, it will be a pain to check on the battery as I will have to unbolt it from the floor and move it out. So I have decided to buy a new Optima battery. It is sealed so nothing to check, and it should last ten or so years. Also i will not have to put in a vent line so one less hole in the trunk area. I realized that my spare batteries were made in 2005 so their life is limited. To be on the safe side just ordered new. The battery will be here on Thursday. Update. Measured several times and drilled holes through the battery box and the floor to hold them together. I was surprised somewhat to discover the fiberglass floor is for the trunk. They sent me huge washers for the mounting rods so I do not think that it will be a problem. Plan on running the cables tomorrow.

It is Tuesday, October 14th, late AM. Have the Avanti up on jack stands so she is nice and secure all the way around. Time to decide how I am going to run the hot wire from the battery in the trunk to the starter solenoid. I am going to mount the battery on the passenger side of the trunk for weight distribution. Fits good in a little cubby hole just behind the wheel well. And can still get to the spare tire if need be. Ran the red wire across the rear body brace and then beside the fuel lines. Did not like that, somehow fuel and sparks don't mix. So I am going to run it along side the frame on the passenger side, go up by the heater motor and then tuck it in behind the main wiring harness and cross over the firewall to the solenoid. I will post more pictures as progress is made. Right now we are waiting on a huge thunderstorm to pass thru the area. Here is where the battery box is going.

Mike, the results were available yesterday, Monday. Go to the main AACA home page at www.aaca.org Then go to Meets, which is a main header, and then Meet Results. Good luck.

It is Monday, October 13th PM. Just got a note from David Coco/Trimacar that the 23 McLaughlin Buick had received its AACA National First Junior Award. We are honored and happy. Looking forward to getting it to more National shows in the future. And we know that some things have to be done to improve the car. David, ready to do the side curtains? Spent the morning unpacking from the weekend and cleaning both the Jaguar and the McLaughlin Buick. I also received the battery relocation kit from Summit Racing. Looks good and seems to be of very high quality. Here are pics. I decided to check the battery on the Avanti one last time before I embark on the relocation effort. The 3EE battery reads 12.6 volts on the meter. Turned the key and the solenoid barely clicked. I put in an old, like ten year old, tractor battery that still holds a charge. Hooked it up and the Avanti roared to life. So it is confirmed, the 3EE battery is dead, gone, kaput. On another note Alice fell in love with a British car at yesterday's show. So it looks like we are on the hunt for one to restore. Here is a pic.

Here are the final pics from the show. The two top awards were won by Jaguars. Jake Keesler won the Mayor's trophy and 3rd place in class for this black XK120 OTS. Dave Hofstadter won the British Embassy Best Car award and 1st place in class for his Jaguar E type. Both are members of the Jaguar Club of North America, National Capital Region. Thought I better give my club a little recognition. We are spent from all the work of the weekend. I will clean both the Jaguar and 23 McLaughlin Buick tomorrow. I like to get them ready for their next outing.

This series of pics has our boot/tool display. Only a handful of the cars had their tools displayed. Ours received a lot of good comments.

There were 141 pre-registrations. Lots of cars came in un-registered. There must have been over 200 cars. A very nice turnout.

And more cars.

Here are the pics of the British Car Show. Hope that you can id most of them. I really liked the MGC.

One special car that was there was a MGA race car. I was impressed with the restoration to include the light on the fender so you could see it at night, and the little light on the front bumper to alert the crew that the driver was coming into the pit on the next lap. Just too cool.

It is Sunday, PM, October 12th. Just got home from the all British Car Show. Well attended with lots of interesting and well presented cars. I will post pics tomorrow. Started raining at the end of the show so drove home in a light rain. Alice did good again this years. A first place in class. Way to go Alice!

One funny thing that happened. After the judging, the Head Judging came back with a suggestion. He showed us how to roll up the back top straps so they do not flap about when the car is run with the top up, and it also looks more presentable for judging. Alice now has a new job to do. And a couple of pics of that the judges do best, judging.

The final grouping of pics. I hate to say it, but the only Corvette I like is the 1963 split window coupe. Others just do nothing for me, but love the lines and look of the coupe.

Lots of people around all the cars. You can tell what folks like. You could hardly move around the oldest iron.

and more.

I will post as many pic as I can this morning. I took lots of pics, but was unable to identify them all. Just some of the hundreds of car there. All beautiful.

OK, here is the first pics of the trailer area and the cars getting ready to go. It was a cold and rainy morning.

No news on the judging yet. But we do have a Greg Hershey report. Have to run out and start the Jaguar. For once, no rain today, but it is very wet from yesterday's storms around VA and PA. I do expect a muddy field. Here is Greg's report. "Spent the week traipsing the Hershey, Pa flea market and auto show. Found a few things and ordered some for the 1910 Overland that's waiting in the wings for its turn. It was also a good week for reuniting with old friends and making more. This morning's show was rained on but not rained out. ~~~~~~~NEWS FLASH!~~~~~~~~~~ Paul Rose wins a First Place with his low mileage Avanti! Nothing like buying a ready to go prize winner. Sure beats working for years to win a Second Place. Leaving Pa. a little before lunch, I arrived at home base to find my rebuilt heater valve waiting, so I took a few minutes to install it in the 5054. Tomorrow should hear the car run again." =

It is Saturday, October 11th, PM. Just got home safe and sound from Hershey at 8 PM. Left this morning at 3:30 AM so it has been a long day. Rained hard all the way to Hershey, and continued for a couple of hours at Hershey as we tried to decided if we were going to show the car or head for home. At 8:30 AM we decided to pull it out of the trailer and head to the show. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. At about 10 AM the hard rain stopped and we had some drizzle, but the show went on. The show was well attended and about 80% of the registered cars were on the field, the others were scared off due to the rain. We had about two miles from the trailer parking area to the show field. The car overheated on way into the field so we looked like a steam car. Opened the hood and saw the reason why it was so hot, the fan belt had broken. I had a spare but it was two miles away. But at the end of the show I got a ride back to the truck/trailer and move them to the park. Then got the spare leather belt and put it on the car. Ah, the overheating problem fixed. We had a great time. Lots of folks stopped to talk to us about the car. Even had forum members stop by for a chat. It was great to finally meet Al. Took over 70 pics so will post them over the next couple of day. We have the Jaguar show tomorrow.