unimogjohn

Bernie, great hint. I will try it. Mine is all the way red on the 1923 McLaughlin Buick. I will report if it works for me.

Found this on the web, it is about the fire. Fire Destroys Four Beloved Antique Cars - WLNS TV 6 Lansing - Jackson | Your Local News Leader Quick storm report on Sunday, 6 PM. Just started to drizzle and will pick up over the night. The weather folks are predicting up to 12 inches of rain in our area over the next two days. Sure glad that we are at 640 ft and on top of a little mountain. On a side note NYC is expected to receive a storm surge of about 8 feet. No wonder that they are closing all public transportation as of 7 PM tonight. we are hunkering down for the next couple of days. Not going anywhere.

Pat, asked Greg for more background. Here is what he said. "Been lying low today with my cold. The only clues I have as to the origin of the burned cars are that they came from Michigan, and Mike said that the guy had the Warren because his last name was Warren. Cause of the fire rumored to be mice chewing on the garage electrical wiring, fire started and stored paint took off. There was at least one more car, forgot what they said it was.' Still Sunday, but PM. I spent the morning finishing farm work ahead of the storm. Then I started to go through my 23 MB parts boxes. Found the special McLaughlin vent control mechanism for the 23. I thought I had lost it and had put in a US Buick control. Now mine is correct. However, I cannot hook it up as I do not have all the mechanical connections to make the vent go up and down. I have asked John Lee in Australia for help with the connections as all of his cars are right hand drive like mine. Here are a few pics. The new knob installed, the old knob and its bracket, and then the dash. The dash is now complete and correct. So I spent a couple of hours sorting electrical parts, wires and light. I got a lot of extra parts from the previous owner. Sometimes it got really confusing when I was putting the car together. Having three or four similar items was a bit perplexing. I also know what I am going to order from Restorationstuff.com and Bob's Automobilia on Monday. Not too much stuff, but will amount to about $200 in mostly little parts consisting of rubber boots for the ignition 9 mm wires, woven heat cloth tube for fuel lines, dust caps for the Alemite fittings, window wiper, and period aluminum ties for wiring. Oh, and a storm report. Been overcast all day, but no rain. Winds have been blowing at about 5 mph with gusts from time to time up to about 15. The worse is suppose to hit Monday late PM.

It is Sunday, October 28th, early AM. Preparations on the farm for the big storm are done. Nothing to do except to wait. Monday PM is going to be bad, all the way into Tuesday. Right now, a light wind and no rain yet. But I can see on NOAA radar that the first rain bands of Sandy will be here soon. Greg slowed down yesterday for some time away from his work and projects. He has a great report. There are projects and then there are projects. "Well some time ago I came to the realization that I was old enough to start finishing projects I started as far back as high school. I've been gaining on them. The '14 International is up and running. So is the '10 REO. The Stoddard-Dayton is now a thing and waits at the ready to go. Seabiscuit Studebaker is too. As is the '21 Dodge Brothers. 5054 Avanti is well underwa,y and I'm sneaking in bits and pieces of the next one up, the '10 Overland. That will leave the '30 Model A begun when I should have been doing my high school homework, it last saw the light of day in '68. But, no new projects. Not all of my friends are in that frame of mind. Glenn Miller has taken on a new project EMF to do after the one he's already doing. Mitch is threatening to get started on his '08 Mitchell. These projects, although challenging, still fall under the classification of reasonable restorations. Now there's Rob Burchill and Mike Zerega. We'll get to them in a minute. Today didn't work out as planned. Our local Horseless Carriage Club was sponsoring a day tour today. I'd hoped to make it, possibly take the Dodge along, but the onset of Old Man Winter has brought me a cold. I just wasn't up to an early start, so I lost out on the tour. By midday however, I responded to a call from Mitch who was attending a local auction of antique farm equipment. The ambient had warmed and the threatened showers hadn't arrived, so Barb and I struck out for the auction. Father and son Sines were there, had already tagged some rusty iron for themselves. I found my way to a haywagon full of magnetos not yet called. I told Barb to look for any Remy RL types and she jumped right on the only one. Bingo! Fits the Overland. But I really didn't feel up to waiting for the auctioneer to get to it, so I asked Mitch to bid if he was still there when. With no interest in doing shop work, I decided it was an opportune time to sit in the truck and aim it towards Rob's place. Barb and I enjoyed a pleasant drive through Northern Virginia, across the Potomac River and through the rolling hills of Maryland. I wanted to see the new projects. Evidently not as old as I am, they are each beginning massive projects. I've always enjoyed the "impossible" restorations. His '28 Chrysler depot wagon being all but completed, I'm enclosing a pic of Rob's new special bodied '33 Chrysler. A rare model, I understand one of four hundred like it. Our friend Mike, not having enough problems with the nurturing of two Stanley steam cars, decided that he should take on the rebuilding of a 1911 Warren-Detroit 30. Photos enclosed. Oh, by the way. You'll notice that both cars are a bit worse for wear. Previously restored cars they were destroyed in a garage fire. If anyone knows of any Warren parts, better let us know. And late this evening I got great news from Mitch. Yes he did stay for the magnetos. And yes he did sucessfully bid on it. $10. You never know what the day will bring around here." =

Still Saturday, but now early PM. Still omnious projections for a huge storm. Wind and rain will be major factors for our area. Some power company's are saying that the major problem will be the wind bumping against trees with leaves still on. If limbs and trees come down then expect power outages. In some cases it could be up to two weeks in some cases if it really gets bad. Went out and made sure the generator had oil and checked the propane tank. The tank is at 75% or about 400 gallons. We should be good. I worked on the flapper today. Even with drilling out the rivets, no way that the rod and flap was going to come out whole. So broke it out. Not much finesse, but better than damaging the manifold itself. It has had damage before as I can see welds to reattach the ears. I had to cut the rod and a new one will have to go back in to make the thing look functional. No way was I going to get the rod out of the lever with my limited tools. I will take it to Greg and see if he can drill it out for me. Then I can attach a new rod and push it all the way through. I did reattach the manifold back on the car. Everything lined up great. I did put on copper anti-seize on all the bolts in case I want to take everything apart at some future point in time. As I mentioned before, I found one tube already plugged. I moved it so the plug is at the exhaust rather than the carb. We will see how that goes. Anyway, the flap is out and I now have an unrestricted flow of exhaust to the muffler and beyond. Here are some pics.

It is Saturday, October 27 AM. No real news on the weather front. They said it is still coming and will be a superstorm. The storm is suppose to start for us on Monday PM and hit us with lots of rain and wind on Tuesday. Before it got too dark I attempted to punch out the little pins holding on the flapper in the exhaust manifold. No go, they are hard steel so will attempt to drill them out today. Larry (dibarlaw on this forum) posted a pic of his 22 Buick model 45 engine in a response to a carb question on another forum. I noticed that he had the exhaust flange rod installed. So now I know how it is to be installed. I thought it was to go in front of the vacuum gas tank, as usual I was incorrect, it goes behind. Here is his pic. And I talked to Steve about his new Camaro purchase as we all went out to dinner last night. Plans are to pick it up on Friday if everything works out OK. I will take him over, do the deal, and then follow him home. Should make it just fine.

Chuck, for sure Greg is going to be hunkering down. The new folks are now calling this a "Frankenstorm" due to the convergence of several air masses resulting in the ultimate nor'easter type storm. We will see. Winds are suppose to pick up on Sunday here with the storm hitting on Monday/Tues/Wed. They say it is going to stick around us a long time. Decided to see if I could get off the cast manifold holding the flapper. After some prodding and a lot of Kroil, it finally came off. And I did not break anything. One thing of note that you will see in the pics is that one of the tubes that move exhaust into the carb heat riser was already blocked. So the hot exhaust could not get into the riser, but the tube would get hot. With the flapper closed, the exhaust had no where to go and just stayed in the manifold. I will see if I can seal all four ends of the two tubes. I can read the size of the plug, it says 13/16. Looks like I will have to drill out the little rivets that are holding in the flapper. It's in the vice now and may tackle it after we bring back momma cat from the vet after being fixed. Here are some pics. Oh, both gaskets between flapper manifold were leaking. So it is a good thing that I removed it. Will pick up the gaskets today or tomorrow.

Chuck, as of this morning they are calling this a "maga storm". Set to sit over us for 36 to 48 hours. One forecaster just said that this could be the largest NE storm of all time. Run for the hills! Will keep everyone updated.

It is Friday, October 26th, AM. Heading in to get the newest mom cat fixed so that will take a chunk out of the day. Plan on pulling the manifold section that holds the flapper valve. Then will head down to Carquest to get a set of gaskets. Oh, woe is us. Now they are forecasting that we may be ground zero. Guess I better clean the gutters. And I see that the central US is going to get a lot of snow. Crazy. Enough for the weather report. But car guy extreme Greg has a report for us. "In my prime. Epoxy prime that is. This evening was spent cleaning, masking and spraying cylinders. A couple light coats of epoxy to seal and locate any areas that I'd like to go over. Got'em all, Matheson and Overland. Getting closer to putting the enamel on the Mathesons, Overlands will wait. Now to clean up. Not fun when neglected and the stuff hardens in the gun."

Still Thursday, PM much later, actually around 9 PM. Just got a call from Steve, the Camaro owner accepted a counter offer of $21K. So we go to pick up the car Monday after next as hurricane Sandy will be upon us this coming Monday/Tuesday. Steve is so excited. He is getting a very nice car for the money. And I got a call from John Lee from Australia. He said to gut the flap and block off the two exhaust tubes going to the carb. He said they are not needed due to the volatility of modern gas and leads to vapor lock. He said to leave the flap lever and make the rod so it will look correct. So I will heed his advice and see if I can do it over the weekend. Warnings on the hurricane Sandy are getting more ominous for the area. Now they are forecasting that it could hit just above us, but we will get lots of rain and wind. They have started telling folks to get prepared for a week of power loss. Suppose to hit Monday/Tuesday. Winds are suppose to be in the 40 to 60 mph range.

OK, just one little more bit. There is a rod that goes between the carb and the exhaust manifold flap valve. My car has never had it as it was long lost when I got the car. But the flap works so John Lee from Australia said that I need to install one, and he would send me a drawing when he got home. The rod opens the flap on the exhaust as you press on the accelerator. For example, when you mash the pedal, the flap goes to full open allowing all the gasses to go down the pipe, as you ease off, it closes the exhaust a bit so it starts flowing through the heat riser on the carb. Does anyone know the advantage or reason for this? So today I sent Alice off in search of some rod stock. She was successful and tomorrow I will bend some rod per John's drawing. Here are some pics.

I also did some work on the exhaust. Sometimes I am so stupid .......... A few years ago, when I noticed the exhaust pipe starting to go bad, I bought a replacement pipe from Waldron exhaust. They advertise on the net, magazines, etc. So I got one. Not much money, I think about $70. I got it and left it in the box and did not even take a look at it. Well, last year I opened the box and saw that the flange that holds on the exhaust pipe to the manifold was 180 degrees off to be able to attache it. No way that was going to work. I was going to call Waldron, but heck it was my fault for not opening the box. Hence my decision to have another one made. Well today stupid me took another look at the pipe to see if it was the correct length and diameter. It was too long, but instructions said it had to be trimmed to fit. The size was 2 and 1/8 inches versus the rusty 2 inches of the original. Then I looked at the flange. It was wrapped in clear plastic and when I removed the plastic the flange rotated. Stupid me. Now I can use the exhaust pipe. I then decided to see if I could remove the pipe from the cast exhaust riser. Worked very carefully with a small screwdriver (an old one) and gradually collapsed the pipe as I went around it. Finally, it gave up and came out. I did not damage the riser either. I then test fitted the new pipe, yes it is too long and needs to have the back end expanded and cut to go around the riser opening versus inside of it like the old one. It is just too large to fit inside the riser opening. So will still take the car to the shop for the pipe to be fitted. Then I used a air saw to cut off the end of the exhaust pipe were it exits the car. First it was too long and also looked funny with the end pointed down. The AACA judges did not like that either and I got something knocked off for that. So made some adjustment by cutting off the curved end. Still may be too long, but it looks better. So here are some pics.

Still Thursday, PM. Done for the day, but thought I would do a couple of posts on the 23 McLaughlin Buick. Started the day vacuuming the inside and underside of the top and fitting the storm curtains. I then took some leather conditioner and worked on the all the leather to include the door panels, seats, etc. There is lots of leather in the car, seems like acres. Everything came out fine, and I even replace a couple of fasteners that were difficult to use. I took a couple of pics of the doors as they have some fine detail in them, a trademark of a McLaughlin. Also you can see the door in the back seat where the side curtains are stored. I have the original side curtains, but sometime in the past all the isinglass was replaced with fabric, with the exception of the front seat area where they were left open. I think that I will have David Coco (Trimacar) on this forum to see how much it would cost to do them in black Stayfast. Or I might have him just put in plastic boat glass. You need to have side curtains when the car is being AACA judged, but they need not be on the car. I think I would get dinged a point or so for having the wrong color/fabric. As a FYI, David did the top, back seat and back seat side panels. He did a great job. If you need some work done on an early car, I would recommend him highly. OK, here are some pics.

It is Thursday, AM, October 25th. Going to be our last really nice day for a few days so have to get a car out and just drive. Big storm coming in over the weekend, maybe they say. Anyway it is a good excuse. Here is Greg's midnight report. The pics of the Mathison engine do not do it justice. The jugs are massive when you see them in person. "As of now all four Matheson cylinders have been sanded. Then, while still in the mode, I knocked out the four Overland cylinders too. The next step is to get them cleaned and taped off. Then sprayed with a light coat of epoxy primer. Today is officially over. No need to call for Mr. Sandman. Sleeping is never a problem here."

Pat, I am still watching and reading your blog. That is a pretty rare (in the USA) Unimog 401 Unimog agricultural tractor. Nice little guy with the frog like front headlights. Built to work in the field like a tractor and then turn around and take the product to the in town markets. Great concept, better yet, it worked. Glad that the 34 is getting to the shop. You are making great progress. Keep after it.

Chuck, good eye. Actually, if I over fill it I have a small crack at the filler on top. To fix it I have to remove the radiator and the radiator shell. Just not a priority. It is a "get around to it" task for the future. Still, Wednesday but early PM. Just got back from a five hour road trip with Steve. He found a very nice 67 (I think) Camaro in a town about 75 miles west of us. A very nice #3 ++ car. Restored in the 80s, but still very presentable. Here are some pics. The car has PB/PS, auto, AC (but not working), PW and a nice interior. Has 108,xxx on the odometer. Newer tires and SS exhaust system. Underside and frame is very clean. No rust except for one seam in the trunk. Engine bay is nice and clean. We took it for a long test drive and seems to be in very good running condition. No surprises really. Only a couple of gauges on the console that do not work, but the clock does, go figure. Radio crackles, but does not work. It is AM/FM. The headlight covers do not work, you have to move them out of the way when you want to use the headlights. Smells good inside, no musty smell. The owner wanted $30K, but now would accept $25K. Steve has offered $20,500 after some back and forth. Seems that he will get it for close to that. Owner is going to sleep on it and call Steve tomorrow.

Roger, it is always great to have a co-pilot. It is Wednesday, October 24th, AM, and we have Greg's report from last night. "Well, another night of Matheson mania. I've given each cylinder a light putty rub and the first casting has been hand sanded. Not a difficult job, just mindless pushing of sandpaper into nooks and crannies. The object here is to eliminate definite scars, flaws, and any damage done my Father Time. Not shooting for over restored. You'll see however, I'm protecting the stamped serial and placement numbers. Now I'd like to stay and visit with you a while, but you'll have to excuse me so that I can get started on the next one. I'd like to have the four sanded by the end of the week." =

Still Tuesday, later PM. Got a second wind at 5 PM and decided to see if I could get the exhaust pipe off. I was able to get the flange off the manifold, but I could see that the pipe that goes into the casting was cemented in. So I decided to just cut it in half. Figured that I could just replace half. Upon inspection I could see that the pipe is only about 25%, so in a couple of years I would have to replace the back portion. So have decided to take the car to the local muffler shop and have them put in a complete unit. And I do not want to start banging on the cast riser and break it. I am sure that it is a rare part to find. Here are a couple of pics to include the worn out pipe. After I got that done, and since it was dusk, I decided to check my lights. So here they are in each position. I have one headlight that does not work, I believe it to be a bad ground, so I will be working on that in the coming days. Notice the fender lights, they are required in England. I was told that the govt. wanted to be sure that there were additional lights in case the main ones burned out. I also have parking or running lights too. Each set of lights is controlled by the combo switch on the dash. Oh, and I have a searchlight too, but I have to rewire that to even see if it works. Here are pics of the lights. Tomorrow morning I am going with a neighbor, Steve, to look at a car. I know that he is looking for an early Camaro so will see what he has found.

It is still Tuesday, but now PM. Spent some quality time with the 23 MB today. I was determined to find out the source of my power problems. Well, it was not one thing, but three. First, a spark plug wire was off the number 3 plug. Not much power on only 5 cylinders. Second, the points gap was set too close, .01 versus the .02 it should have been. Easy fix. Third, I had the exhaust cold weather lever in the wrong position. I had 80% of the exhaust going through the heat riser for the carb. Not a good thing. So now it is set for 100% through the exhaust. Shadow and I then took a long ride. The car ran great with a lot of power. Spent a couple of hours washing, cleaning and primping the body and interior of the car. Have to vacuum and clean the top tomorrow. Still a bit of movie mud from our film work on "J Edgar" last year about this time. Here are a few pics and a couple that Joe sent of me leaning over the engine of the car.

It is Tuesday, AM, October 23rd and having my morning coffee with Greg's report. Here is his report. "Not much to report tonight, although I did spend the evening on Matheson engine cylinders. It's time to work on the cosmetics. Already coated with epoxy primer, it was lightly scuffed and fresh coat applied. Lots of nooks and crannies. Tomorrow evening they'll get a slight rub with "coach putty" to hide any obvious gouges, casting flaws, etc. When cured, they'll get another light sanding. The object being when painted , they'll look like they came from the Matheson factory on a good day, not to go for the over-restored "glazed ham" look. A heavy buildup of paint isn't a good thing either." =

It is Monday, PM, October 22nd. Joe and I continued to work on the 1923 McLaughlin Buick. With some minor adjustments she is starting easily now. The steering has always been very heavy, so heavy in fact that I had to use to hands to get the wheel to move. John Lee from Australia said to loosen the steering collar and see if that helped. So we did this in 1/3 of a turn on the big adjusting nut. We did this for one full turn and the steering became much easier. Going to drive the car a few miles and see if this does the trick. May loosen it just a bit more. Joe and I took several two mile trips, the car seems down on power compared to the last time I drove her. Could barely make it up the steep driveway in first gear. I have it on full advance too. I will check all the electrical adjustments tomorrow and see if I can see anything wrong. Also tomorrow am going to attempt to take off the front portion of the exhaust pipe. It has split and a new one needs to be made. Here are a couple of pics of the car. Don't mind the dirt, she needs a good wash. And Joe and Kathy have left for home in Ferndale, WA. Thanks for all the help Joe!

Roger, that is an interesting fact on the car parts. We can still do almost anything here. But every few years the govt. tries to regulate the after market parts industry and get soundly trashed. Thank goodness. And for your morning coffee, opps in your case lunch, here is Greg's weekend report. "Trying to recall what did happen this past weekend. *Carried the exhaust manifolds over to Lee's shop on Saturday morning. He's got a humongous belt sander that is just great for truing the gasket surfaces. Both manifolds were warped a bit, but now they are flat where they're supposed to be flat. *Needed the high temperature paint for them, so it was a quick trip to Rob's where I left it. Nice day for a ride with Barb. *Upon our return, manifolds got two coats of paint. *While they were drying, it seemed a good time to start cleaning the Overland's cylinders. By nightfall I had two of them cleaned and epoxy prime coated. *Today was an opportunity to install the manifolds on Avanti 5054. Right side was easy, left wasn't. Steering box was in the way, so I loosened the retention hardware to move it out of the way, then put it back. While wrestling with things, I recalled in the olden days I'd lay the left manifold in place, then install the cylinder head assy. *Manifolds in, I added the oil pan breather assembly and the dipstick tube. *Another nice day, we found time to visit the Kernstown Battlefield. I'd lived nearby all my life, but never stopped to investigate. In my spare time I'm finally getting around to seeing firsthand where I lost family members one hundred fifty years ago. *Now tonight, after a pleasant day and a good meal, it's back to the Overland department. Three jugs down, one to go. Back to work." =

It is Sunday, PM, October 21st. Joe and I spent most of the day on car stuff. Finished some work on the McLaughlin Buick that needed to be done before we forgot to do it. The car started just fine. Then turned to the front brakes of the 2002 Trailblazer. When we were at Hershey they started pulsing like a rotor was warped, and getting worse. Turned out that one of the slider pins had seized causing the pads to bind up. Not that was the only issue, both sides were worn out and the pads were not completely contacting the rotors. I got some nice rotors and pads on Ebay for just over $100 including shipping. They look pretty good. Anyway we got everything changed out and now stopping is nice and smooth. We still had some time so decided to pull the front bumper of the Avanti. It has to go back to the chromer for replating. Not an easy task to get it off, but we did it in about an hour. Tomorrow will get it on the little brown truck back to GA. Here are some pics of Joe and I playing with the Trailblazer.

It is Saturday, October 20th, PM. We made it home late yesterday. We went 586 miles, and the old Suburban made an average of 14.8 MPG, and that was doing the max speed limit. So today Joe and I tackled the last bits of the 23 McLaughlin Buick starter/generator saga. Got everything buttoned up and ready to go. The starter kicked in real nice, better and stronger than it has ever been. But the engine would not fire. After considerable fiddling and checking, we got her to start. The problem was that the engine was flooded. Tomorrow we will get her out of the garage and down the road. Thanks for the help Joe, could not have done it without you.

It is Friday, October 19th, early AM. Packing up and heading out for a twelve hour drive back to the farm. Savannah is a real nice place to visit, lots to see and do, and great food too. But there is no place like home, or in our case, the farm. Here is Greg's report from last night. "What takes so long? Tonight I wrapped up the stud party. I chased the threads with a single point lathe tool. Multiple passes until each one was the proper fit with a test nut. As of now they are all cut to the proper lengths, of which there are several. As I close up the shop, I see that I have company, a furry critter trying to escape the downpour outside. I've always heard that they can predict the weather by the coat they wear, but by doing the backstroke, this one tells me it's raining out there. No Avanti or Overland news." =