unimogjohn

Those are some nice cars. Nice to see them. Life on the farm continues. On a whim we decided that we needed two donkeys, a bonded pair. So we contacted a rescue group in central Virginia and adopted Eli and Jerry, both three years old. Going to be delivered to the farm by the end of next week, their new forever home. On the car side, going to attempt to put on the two of the Suburban exhaust manifold clamps today.

It is Wednesday, December 13th. Wow, cold here this morning, 19 degrees. But am happy that the garage heat pump is working and keeping it at a nice 46 degrees. Yesterday I got the Dorman exhaust manifold hold down clamps for the Suburban, two large ones for the passenger rear and driver front, and a smaller one for the driver rear. The two large ones will be an easy installation, the rear not so much. The rear clamp is attached to the back of the cylinder head and you can barely get your fingers in there. I am going to put the truck up on the lift to see if it will be easier to go up by the transmission. Plan is to do this on Thursday. Here are pics of the two clamps and one of the bolts that broke off.

It is Monday, December 11th. Now that I have the rear chains on the tractor I thought I better put on the fronts. No go! The tire is too close to the steering arm. So I ordered a set of 1.5 in spacers from Canada. And to fix the Suburban's exhaust manifold problem I ordered three Dorman clamps. I will post pics when I start the installation. And we got our first snow, 3.5 inches, but the roads were warm so nothing stuck to them. Sure is pretty.

Re the broken bolts on the exhaust manifold. A little company has come up with a clamp-on solution using existing open bolt housings on the head itself. Here is a video. Will take a look at their products.

OK, here is a pic of the broken bolts, seem to be the heads have just vibrated and rusted off. Thankfully there is room to get in there pretty easily. Folks say all the others will probably break off if you try to remove them. You have to use a lot of heat to get them out. And I installed the new chains on my B series Kubota tractor. Rears for today, fronts tomorrow. I think that it took me four hours to get the rears on. They are staying on for the winter.

It is Friday, December 8th. OH NO!!!!!! Now it is the Suburban. It failed its annual safety inspection for broken/missing exhaust manifold bolts. Seems to be a very common problem. The heads are rusting and breaking off causing the gasket to leak. I just looked and have three bolts broken off. There is a kit you can get to hopefully not have to take off the manifold. So some investigation is in order.

It is Thursday, December 7th. Brownie the van is alive. I got a new coil and electronic ignition module in the mail last night. So this morning I pulled off the distributor cap and removed the old coil. To my surprise the transfer carbon button was completely blown away again, actually blown into two parts. I have no idea what could do this. Lucky that I have another new distributor cap and it has a new button. So put in the button, coil and module. Hit the starter and she roared into life. Something must have had an internal short. But I am back on the road. Now I can get back to work on the Trailblazer. Oh, and just got new tractor tire chains for the big Kubota tractor, B3200. Going to put them on for the winter. The tires on the tractor are flat type industrial tires, front and back, they really are not any good in the mud and snow. So chains on the back and front will really help.

Chris, yes, a 350 with a Carter Quadrajet with a wopping 175 HP.

It is Monday, December 4th. Oh no........ Brownie (79 Chev Sportsvan) and I were heading out to pick up feed for the llamas, and she just quit. An attempted re-fire yielded nothing so we towed her home with the Suburban and a tow strap. Fuel is not the problem as I pulled a line and let it crank. Plenty of fuel coming out. So it has to be the ignition. I started to dismantle the distributor to see if anything was amiss. Well, the little button under the coil pack was gone. I just so happened to have another distributor cap and rotor so put them on. Nothing. So I must have also fried the coil and/or the electronic module. So I have ordered both for $15 each. Here are some pics.

Tuesday, November 21st. Spent the day working on the modern cars getting them ready for winter service. Changed the oil and tires/rims on the Passat W8. But also spent a few minutes putting the HPOF award on the 1928 Buick. Sure happy to see that the old girl receive the award. I have had the car 37 years and have managed to keep her almost original and more importantly, running and driving.

Here is some more information on the Cunningham C3 car. Rare and expensive. https://www.rmsothebys.com/mo17/monterey/lots/1953-cunningham-c-3-coupe-by-vignale/1704356 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briggs_Cunningham

Still Monday. Well, it has been a long time, but Greg finally gave us an update. He has been toiling away making airplane engines at work so car stuff has been on the back burner. But it looks like his is back in the old car mode for a bit. Here is his report. I spent the weekend working on the Avanti. Pain in the ass things I never have the inclination to do. Replaced the instrument light bulbs. Reinstalled the repaired tachometer. That requires taking out the driver's seat. the steering wheel, parking brake handle, breaking my hand and arm so that it will contort to the backside of the dash....that I'd rather be beaten with a 2 x 4 kind of stuff. Nathan got some OJT on brake light switch replacement. Did get the tasks done though. Today of course was a work day. Bright and sunny but windy and cool. Did some day job things this morning and then went to lunch with Ken at the Diner. Got back and he had to run an errand. Still sunny and bright. Chilly but not cold. Wouldn't be many more days like this with Winter coming. Boss was gone. I hadn't road tested the Avanti after the weekend's work. I hadn't really put any miles on the new tires mounted on the other set of Halibrands. The back of my mind said that I should road test and who was I to say no? Clocked out, fired up the old beast it was running well and we went looking for some asphalt. That asphalt eventually led to the gravel driveway of the Dave Coleman Experience. I hadn't visited in a while and I always enjoy it. I never know what I'll find. Found something new (old) this time too. Greeted at his door, I followed Dave into the shop. Car on the lift, couldn't see much of it and didn't recognize what I was looking at. A bit on the shabby side, obviously of the now coveted "barn find" category. Dull black primer on the body. The car had obviously been ridden hard and put away rusty. It looked like the slightly twisted front bumper had been subjected to a sander with an 80 grit disk. Work was being done to the front suspension. Replacing shocks that must be the laziest I've ever seen, etc. Foreign bodywork. So I ask "What's this thing?" as I notice from underneath that it has an engine with big old rusted Chrysler hemi valve covers. Dave's reply " Cunningham C-3" , one of 25. So I hung out a bit, went along with Dave in his 4 speed 260 Falcon and watched him eat his lunch. Enjoying a few more minutes back at his place and also looking forward to more time in the Avanti. Back on the road, old Seabiscuit lived up to its name. Exhaust note, supercharger whistle, comfortable for me, it settled into it's galloping speed and brought me home. Hard to explain about a car that after all these years it remains a car that I hate to put away and still enjoy everything about it....it's looks, it's history.....even the occasional trip beneath it's dash. That Cunningham would make a great second car I guess.......

It is Monday, November 20th. I had not seen this Studebaker and Avanti video before. Worth a watch.

It is Saturday, November 18th. A beautiful, but coolish day, for the filming of "Billy and Blaze" movie. The shooting was for 4 or 5 non-speaking scenes at a small town riding arena. Billy and Blaze in the last picture are spending a day practicing jumping. There were probably about 60 some extras in period early 30s clothes. Only two cars were needed so our 28 Buick and a Ford Model T made the cut. In one scene I had to drive behind the arena as the horse was jumping. I did this about a half dozen times before the "cut" was given. All in all it was a fun day and the Buick ran great. I figure that we put about 40 miles on the old girl. Here are some pics. Lots of horse shots. And even Alice and myself in our period garb.

Bernie, now that is a mind bender for sure. Do you happen to know the torque specs? And is the head gasket composite or copper. I would imagine that it would be copper as you would not want the head to deform to the composite gasket. Just thinking. Following along on the Studebaker forum too.

And finally for a farm report, hauling round bales of hay into the pastures for the llamas. These are the first two of about sixty that I will need over the course of the winter. I wanted to see if the loader would pick up the bales without a spear, which I do not have. So with a ratchet strap and the loader it worked just fine. The llamas are very happy.

And I picked up a BMW emblem for the engine bay, and installed it. Just a bling piece, but looks much better than just an embossed image of the badge.

Well then I better keep posting. Took Camaro Steve down to Dan's shop to pick up Barney, his 53 Ford P/U. Barney now has a new heating and AC system. And Dan was doing the body work on a Chev P/U that will be all original, it is 4 wheel drive, and a 3100 series.

It is Monday, November 11th. Zipdang, I am hanging in there. Just have been doing farm work and getting ready for winter. Right now I am cleaning and changing oil in all my mowers and tractors. I have to get the Passat on the lift and change oil and put on winter tires. Then I can move the Avanti off the four post lift and begin to change out the single brake cylinder for a dual, and redo the rear brakes. I have a bunch of little stuff to do on the Avanti. I have been debating on pulling the engine to fix all the oil leaks, but will wait until I have the brakes working correctly. Believe it or not, the power steering hoses are easier to replace when the engine is out.

November 1st. I got the awards plaque for the HPOF certification. I do not have the proper brass tacks so mounted everything with what I had on hand. Will update it next week when I get the proper tacks. I have also sent away for the brass backing for the car emblem, and will mount it to the front of the car when it arrives.

Going to be in the movies. It is Monday, October 30th. If the stars align, the 1928 Buick will be back in the movies. We have been notified that the car will be needed in late November in our town of Warrenton, VA at the pony and show grounds, for two days of shooting the movie, "Billy and Blaze". Here is a funding video for your information. This will be the second movie for the 1928. It was in "J Edgar" a few years ago. More to come, it is a bit iffy right now. http://www.billyandblaze.com/feature.htm

Here is a link to the Studebaker Drivers Club forum. I just did a search on their site. You get more than five pages of information. But it looks like the Studebaker Museum and Nostalgic Motors are the way to go. http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?101487-Production-Orders-Museum-Only&highlight=production+orders

JB Weld has always worked for me. No heat required. Just make sure the area is clean.

John, my floor boards are new from the PO. He just covered them with rubber matting. I am thinking it should be linoleum. What does the thimble allow access to? If it is the battery, my McLaughlin has the battery box on the running board.

I think the PO saved the original floor boards for my 23 McLaughlin Buick. I will have to dig them out and take a look.