unimogjohn

It is Monday, July 29th. We got almost two inches of rain yesterday, yahoo! On the Jaguar possible fuel issue. I had a eureka moment, could I be out of gas? The gauge shows 1/4 tank, but who knows. Will put in some fuel and see. I did get a note from the rebuilder. About $160 plus shipping, so about $200. Trouble is he only rebuilds in the winter. So will continue with my plan to replace the pump. Oh boy, for our morning coffee, we have a weekend report from Greg. "A good and busy weekend about gone. Saturday turned into road trip. Peter Jakab's Model A , ready to be released from the Burchill Auto Hospital, so Barb and I rode along with him to help ferry it home. While I was there I was able to install a gauze strainer in the Harvester fuel tank. The last time I'd had the thing functional it was plagued with some stoppages, so this might be the remedy for some loose flaking. Now I'm ready to add some fuel and see if the carburetor gaskets have dried out. Then it was time to follow the Model A roadster to it's home. Via downtown DC. Getting separated from Peter in the thick of it was cause for concern. Not good to lose the pathfinder. Today was pleasant. Got in some time on Avanti 5054. Fitting the toeboard carpet to the driver side, holes were cut, insulation applied and that allowed me to put it in place as well as the steering column, brake pedal bracket, speedometer cable, hand brake lever, hood release handle, brake booster bracket and various rubber grommets and boots. With the hand brake and speedo cable hooked up, there's more check marks on the list of things to do. On the squirrel front, some progress. The day grays now include a new batch of young ones. They are catching on fast. It hasn't taken them as long to realize that the soup kitchen is always open. If they weren't so interesting, each one developing a personality, they'd be a nuisance. They've taught me to get up from sprawling in the chair, open the door and toss them peanuts. For them Barb is a tougher nut to crack. While she slaves over a hot stove, they try to get her attention. One found a special method. It climbs the screen door, making as much noise as he can. Sometimes it works, but the other day Barb just didn't want to be interrupted. So what does it do? Scrambles to the top of the screen and when that doesn't work , it works it 's way over to the metal edge and like a fireman on a brass pole, it starts sliding down. Claws on the door frame screeched like fingernails on a chalkboard. The thing slides halfway down and stops. Totally annoyed, Barb goes over to the door, they look at each other beezer to beezer and she screams "What are you doing?!!!" Then she spins around goes back to the kitchen counter and the squirrel resumes it's slide. As for the midnight flyers, there's been further progress. At least one of the sneaky (flighty?) little things has taken to snatching a nut from my fingers. Tonight it actually steadied itself with it's paws on my hand. But it only takes a second for the transaction. That's my story for tonight." =

Still Sunday, but PM. The heavy rain has calmed down a bit. We are now at one and a half inches, and a bit more is expected tonight. Usually by this time of the year the grass in the pastures is dormant. Not this year, it is nice and green, and still growing like crazy. This rain will help keep it going. Well, went to the Jaguar parts storage area, actually Brownie the Chev van, and pulled out the fuel pump. I bought it last year when the SU pump left of stranded. Now is the time so replace the pump with a Carter P60504, low volume, electric fuel pump. And it is USA made too. Paid $50 including shipping. Here is a pic of the new pump and the old SU square body pump. Over the next couple of days will install it. I know I will have to do some line cutting, but a fuel line is easy to run. I will probably send out the SU pump for a rebuild. But I am hoping that this fixes the fuel delivery issues for good.

It is Sunday, raining hard here today, over one inch in twelve hours. But, cannot complain much, we need it. Yesterday I was going to take the Jaguar XK 120 out, but I blew a fuse and did not have a replacement. I plugged my cell phone into the cigar lighter socket and it did not like that. Trouble is that fuse also powers the Pertronix distributor. So I got a new fuse last night and put it in. I went to start the engine and it would not start, not even sputter. Well, that is odd. But it was getting dark so left it for the night. This morning I tried to start it again. No go. I started chasing the electricity, and the new fuse was good, 12.2 volts on both sides; checked the coil, 11.6 volts; and then removed a spark plug boot, put in a spare plug and grounded it, we have a good spark. So it looks like fuel. Will tackle that tomorrow. I do have another non-standard electric fuel pump so may take out the SU pump and plumb it in. That is what a lot of the 120 owners do. The SU pumps go out just too often and are very expensive to buy new or rebuild. New they are over $400. A rebuild costs at least $220 or more. Gee, and I was going to play with the Avanti today. Oh well.

Does anyone have a source for the little brass eyelets that go into the top of the doors for the open cars? These are pressed into holes in the top of the doors and they have a raised lip. The side curtain supports go into them. Thanks.

It is Saturday, July 27th. Well yesterday we picked up one ton of wood pellets and then stacked them on the back deck. Today we have to do it all over again for our second ton. This will be our main heating supply for the winter. I did get the Optima sealed battery installed in the 23 McLaughlin Buick. I had to put in a 2x6 piece of wood to raise it up so the cable would not be stretched. It fit fine and looks good. I did not start the car, but I did turn on the ignition and the starter/generator spun like a top. Much faster than with the old battery. I hope to start the car today if I get some time. I did get the little tensioner for the 03 Suburban. I will put that in next week. Off to see Steve and his 67 Camaro this morning. Going to help him do some maintenance work for a few hours. Think I will drive the Jaguar over there.

Chris, re painting. The guys at the paint shop had the PPG rep come in and select the products for my Avanti. After taking a look at the paint (only one repaint on the car) he recommended that they take it down to the original primer as it was still holding well. So they hand sanded the entire car and they applied a coating of primer over the entire car. Sorry, I do not know what product they applied, but am sure I can find out. It was the same stuff they used on Corvettes. They then blocked sanded and painted/clear coated the car. Their initial sanding exposed a lot of spider cracks in the glass that had to be repaired as well as several big splits in the glass where it had been hit and damaged. Eastwood has some good videos on painting that you might want to take a look at. They are on Youtube. http://www.eastwood.com/catalog-specialty-coatings

I would just bump the engine with the starter. You have the pugs out anyway.

Here are the raw pics from the Studebaker Museum. https://plus.google.com/photos/108456879037339730707/albums/5904544859681757105?authkey=CIfAzqvL29__9gE#photos/108456879037339730707/albums/5904544859681757105?authkey=CIfAzqvL29__9gE Here are the raw pics from the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum.https://plus.google.com/photos/108456879037339730707/albums/5904573620586986625?authkey=CInPgI3SpZWFxQE#photos/108456879037339730707/albums/5904573620586986625?authkey=CInPgI3SpZWFxQE Here are the raw pics from the 2013 Buick Nationals. https://plus.google.com/photos/108456879037339730707/albums/5904576842853173169?banner=pwa&authkey=CPGTqa7eqNjnXA

Boy, that really looks nice. I am impressed.

It is Friday, AM, July 26th. Heading out this morning with the Suburban and horse trailer to pick up a ton of wood pellets for the winter heating. Actually, I have to make two trips as we get two tons. We will see if the engine computer throws the MAF not working code. Oh, and I ordered the tensioner for the AC belt. Should be here tomorrow or Monday. And Greg is still doing fun stuff on his black Avanti. It is beginning to look like a car again. In one of the pic you will see the underside of the dash. Looks like there was a cat fight in there. Here is Greg's report. "Avanti 5054. Remembering how unbearably hot that car got in summer (black paint, black upholstery, automatic transmission) I thought I'd try that Dynamat insulation. Ordered and arrived, tonight I started the installation. Needing the driver side floor done first, I cut a paper pattern and transferred it to the stuff. It's like an aluminum foil with butyl rubber for an adhesive. After a good cleaning of the fiberglass body floor, I got it in position and started applying pressure to make it stick, then beat it into submission with a plastic mallet. Made sure that I covered the underside of that shelf in the engine compartment. The toeboard carpet has also been fitted after some initial trimming. In an effort to reduce the cabin heat as much as possible, I've decided to use some Home Depot double surface aluminum foil insulation as a substitute for the jute usually found backing automotive carpet. A reasonable amount of progress tonight, I'll do more carpet cut and trim this weekend."

Chris, re a box for the bumpers. You have a couple of choices. Greg made a wooden box out of 2x4s and then covered it with light weight plywood that is about 1/8 thick. Then he wrapped everything in foam and screwed everything together. The last time I sent Jerry the front bumper I just bought a cardboard carton and wrapped it in bubble wrap and sent it. You will have to send the little bumpers in their own cardboard box. Both ways worked great. I used UPS ground. Oh, and I got the cardboard container at a local shipping store. It was only about $8 as I remember.

Dwight, good job. Post a pic of the other side.

Where in VA are you? Some of your winders are shot as you know. A vendor in Australia is making stainless steel reproductions. They are pricey, but then you only have to replace them once. Welcome Also your top material should or probably was long grain cobra with hidem welt around the edges. The cobra fabric is available from several vendors. I think that Restoration Supply Company has it. Restoration Supply Company

It is Wednesday, PM, July 24th. Been catching up on farm stuff, but I did have some four hours to work on the 03 Suburban. First I removed the MAF and cleaned it with some special cleaner. We will see if that works. Then I tackled the thermostatic fan hub. Oh, now that was hard. It was welded by rust to the big hub of the water pump. I saw several Youtube videos on how to remove it. All just put a big wrench on it and hit it with a hammer. It always came off easily. Not mine. No amount of hitting a wrench with a hammer was going to cut it. So I did some more searching on Youtube. I found one guy that used his air hammer/chisel to get it loose. I have one, and a 150 psi compressor. I gave it a try. After about two minutes of beating the big nut to pieces it finally gave up. Success, but what a job. It was a easy job to replace the fan hub. I then took a look at the belts. The AC belt was about shot, so decided to replace both of them. Off to NAPA and $27 later I have both in my hot little hands. Got home and took off the old belts. Oh, the tensioner on the AC belt is a little too free. But I am not going to spend another hour going into town and getting a replacement. I will put it on my to do list. So after a few hours, it is all back together.

Your plan looks pretty comprehensive. You can use permatex to hold on the valve and pan gaskets. I would use straight 30 weight, detergent now that you have cleaned the pan. The rough running is probably on the ignition side. I would also open up the float bowl on the carb and check for debris. How is the fuel filter/bowl and fuel tank? What does the fuel smell like? In any case I would drain the old gas out if it is more than 6 months old and replace with new. You should have a plug in the bottom of the tank or you can pump out. Keep us posted. A great find too.

Dave, as mentioned it was a recreation. But here are some more pics and a description of the car. I must say, it was stunning.

Still Monday, late PM, it is dark! Waiting for a thunderstorm. Sure hope that one comes. Unhitched the trailer and leveled, and stabilized it. So it is all set as a storage facility. Took off the hold down straps on the 23. Will start her up tomorrow and check the radiator. Then got the truck unpacked and everything put away. Oh no, the garage is full again. At the car show they took your picture as you rolled to the inspection station. I usually do not buy anything, but Joe and Kathy decided that I should have a big picture. So here is a picture of the picture. The original is much more detailed. But you get the idea. They did a nice job added the reflection on the bottom. It is a very nice memento of the show. Thanks Joe and Kathy!

Still Monday, AM. Put the code reader on the Suburban. Only one code came up. P0101, MAF or VAF A ckt Rns Perform. It looks like the MAF is dirty or not within spec. So I will get some special MAF cleaner and see if that does the trick. If not I will buy a new MAF for $65. I will give a report when I get it cleaned and have driven it a bit. If it throws the code again I will replace the MAF.

Chad, thank god, a garage that looks like mine. Here I thought I was the only one. Great thread and am enjoying the journey. But where is the car? I can hardly wait. The suspense is killing me.

Chris, I had a similar dimple on mine. When I sent it to Jerry's Chrome in GA, he fixed the dent. It was included in the quote so I do not know how much it was. As I remember it was $1200 to do every piece of the front and rear bumpers. Shipping was about $60 each way via UPS in a big wooden box that Greg had lent me.

It is Monday morning, July 22nd. Boy was I rummy last night. I could still feel myself driving down the road five hours later. 600 miles is just about my max limit nowadays. But today is another day. Got my Actron scanner out and am reading the manual. Will check the engine light codes this morning. I hope that it is something simple like "you are going too slow" rather than "replace engine". It is good to be home, but we did have lots of fun at the show; and at six days, it was a vacation. Charged up the Optima battery last nigh with the trickle charger to make sure it was good, it is. Oh, the Optima battery was $125 from Amazon. And here is a pic of the wire set for the 23 that I bought from Bob's Automobilia. It is the correct color. The ends are on, boots are included too. So it is full kit. Not a bad deal for $50. Now I won't have to keep pushing in the wires into the cap all the time.

Thanks everyone. We made it home. 597 miles in 13 hours. We left at 5 AM and arrived home at 6 PM. Of course the check engine light came on half way home, but it did not seem to affect performance. Will put the scan tool on it tomorrow and report. Joe (packick on the forum) discussed the 2014 show in Portland, OR. Right now he plans to take his two Buicks and have them judged. We will fly back and drive one of them to Portland from their home near the Canadian/US border. It is probably a 6 hour or so trip. I am sure we will be talking more about it. Already looking forward to it. Oh, and the Optima battery arrived for the 23. Good thing we did not need it. The 23 started just fine every time we asked. Tomorrow I will attempt to take off the motometer. I have a strap that I think should do it. It is now later, found my oil filter nylon scrap wrench and put it on the neck of the radiator and held it tight. Then I was able to use the other hand to remove a tight motometer. This issue was not the fault of the radiator repair, rather me attempting to make sure the motometer was tight and lined up correctly. My fault totally. I will fill it with water tomorrow and see how bad the leak will be. One good thing is that the neck is at the top of the radiator and the water about two inches below that. But it does have to come out of the car and it shell, and back to the shop. I will have to decide when I am going to do it.

Still Saturday. Well the meet has been concluded, and we are packing and loading up for the trip home tomorrow. Going to be a very long day for sure. The dinner and ceremonies were very good, and ran as quickly as possible. We got there a little before six and most of the tables were full, and folks were not told to come until 6:30. If we waited any longer we would have not been able to sit together. But we found a half full table and enjoyed meeting new folks and having a very good dinner. The awards started with the oldest classes first. So if we were going to receive anything it would be soon. I must say I was surprised to hear our name read out. So with five others we headed to the awards platform. They announced the bronze award first, three of them, two silver and then one gold. Our 23 McLaughlin Buick received a Silver Award, so it received somewhere between 370 to 384 points out of 400 total. We were happy. Joe snapped my picture, Alice refused to go up. Here are a couple of pics of the assembled masses, and my receipt of the award, and then the award. We are heading off to sleepy land and plan to get up about 4 AM for the trip home. So this will be my last report for a day or so. Hope you all enjoyed the adventure and encourages you to attend a show near you. It is a lot of fun.

Still Saturday, but 4 PM. Done for the day. We had a great time showing the car and talking to lots of folks. We invited lots of folks to get in and sit behind the wheel. Many did and the look on their faces was fantastic. Joe and I got out to the car in the morning and prepared to pull her out. I went to check the radiator and the fill tube that holds the motometer spun off the radiator itself. The neck had broken loose from the radiator. Joe and I could not get the motometer off to we just had to hope we had enough water left in the radiator to keep the engine cool to the show field about a quarter of a mile away. So I have a repair to do when we get home. The radiator has to go back to the shop. Oh well. On the good side the seven year old battery held up and the car started on the first pull every time. I was very happy about that. Competition was fierce on the show field. We were surprised at the number of cars in our class, 18 in total, and all were beautiful. There were also four 20's cars in the driven class too, and after judging we went over to their field and told them to come join us to keep all the cars together. They all did and everyone had a great time telling stories about their cars. I was amazed that Dave drove his 28 the 640 miles from Baltimore, and another drove his 23 260 miles from Michigan. I am impressed. All in all it was a great day. Hot, yes, but we made it through with lots of water and some shade under our big umbrella. Here are some pics. Tonight is the awards banquet. And then we hit the sack for a few hours and then head for home. The 23 is already loaded in the trailer and ready to go. All we have to do about 4 AM is grab our bags and a cup of coffee and we are off for home, which will probably take us twelve hours or so. We may have to stop for a nap and lunch/dinner, but that is about it. If you ever get the chance to go to one of the big shows, do it. It is lots of fun and you meet great people.

Joe, great pic. Well, it is Saturday, July 20th, early AM, like 6 AM. Today is the big day, SHOW DAY. Joe and I are meeting for breakfast and then heading up the hill to pull the 23 McLaughlin Buick out of the trailer and load her up with the stuff we will need for the day. We hope to be on the show field and in place about 7:30. We have to set up the display, put up the top and give her a quick dust off. It is always fun to talk to folks about the car so I hope that we have a good turnout. Looks to be in the mid 80s as a cold front of sorts has rolled through last night. Should be a great day. I am sure that Alice will be at her best inviting the young and old get in the car and have their picture taken. Always a delight to see the look on the faces of folks as they get in a 90 year old car. Such fun.