Machine Gun

You remove the rear seat back before you get into the car. Then after you drive it into the trailer you climb into the back seat and exit out the trunk. You just need an assistant you can trust to open the trunk. 🤪

Being at an unknown location could not have been good for business.

I guess the best solution is to inspect the covers every so often to see if one is trying to make its escape. A pre-flight walk-around is a good idea. Thanx to all for your input.

Your wheel covers are different from mine, and as nice as they are I prefer to keep the same style covers as the ones that came on my car. I've seen matching covers show up on eBay every so often so I'll keep looking until I find something reasonably priced. Thanx for the response.

@Bill Stoneberg Good idea about the RTV, thanx. @NTX5467 Only two of the covers were prone to rotate along the wheel, but interestingly not the one that escaped. I'm running P205/75R14 tires. And yes, the wheel cover came off on a curve as I would have expected it to. @RivNut Here's a photo of one of the remaining wheel covers. Not sure if yours match. Let me know, and if you have the same type I'll shoot you a PM. Considering that I drove the car for about four years before I lost a wheel cover I might just get a replacement and hope for the best.

A couple of years ago I lost a spinner wheel cover from my '64 Skylark. Since then I've been running Buick dog dish type hub caps until I get around to buying a replacement wheel cover. Before I invest in a replacement I'd like to get some advice on how to keep those things from flying off my wheels. I'm running radials on OEM type steel wheels. Based on what I've read it seems like the steel wheels are subject to more stress and flexing with radial tires, causing wheel covers to sometimes fly off. I had heard of the problem so I made sure that my wheel covers fit very tightly and that the gripping fingers were all there and in good shape. Still the thing flew off. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep wheel covers attached on OEM style wheels, apart from switching to bias ply tires? Does anyone have any experience with new manufacture steel wheels like Coker and others sell? Are they less resistant to flexing with radials? I really like the original wheel covers so I don't want to switch to alloy wheels. Suggestions would be appreciated. Thanx. Jim

PM sent.

You weren't kidding when you said you took it easy going home....it took you 12 years!

Finally put a few miles on the Skylark this weekend. It had been laid up for a few reasons, not the least of which was a malfunctioning carburetor. After several attempts at DIY repair I realized that it needed a pro's touch. Sent it out for repair, and in less than a week it came back repaired. The car hasn't run better in the nearly six years I've owned it, really. We ran several errands, visited my daughter, wen to a local cruise night, and overall used it as my daily driver for the weekend. Depending on how things continue to share up over the next couple of months I may take the trip to South Bend and Auburn this year after all, maybe after Labor Day.

Not really...those are Chevys 😀

That's pretty much the story with my '86 Pontiac 6000LE. I found it a few years ago for cheap. It had 30K miles on it when I found it. It has a cheap overspray to hide some body repairs from the previous owner and is beginning to rust. However it runs perfectly and I put more than 30K additional miles on it commuting to Rochester and Boston for work. It's my use-it-up car that is being sacrificed for my modern daily driver. Bonus: I"m the only one on my block that has one!

That's the type of car that people will want one day, so hopefully the new owners will care for it as a future desirable. The first car I bought new after a couple of years out of college was a 1978 Regal, which was a very nice car indeed. Wish I had kept it, but in those days I changed cars more often than my underwear.

One of my favorite cigars!

My non-A/C '64 Skylark has a shroud.

I finally got around to installing shoulder belts in my Skylark. I did the installation yesterday, and it went very smoothly once I got up the courage to take a drill and hole saw to my B-pillars. I went with a set of three point retractable belts that I got from Juliano's in CT. The set came with very thick steel anchor plates for the floors and the pillar anchor bolts. My car has factory anchor points in the floor, so I only had to add the pivot anchor in the B-pillar. Installation of the pillar anchor plate required a 1-5/8" hole to slip the somewhat wide plate into and up the pillar. Cutting that hole was the most cringeworthy part of the job. A Milwaukee Hole Dozer made a nice clean hole, and from there the rest of the job was easy. The only thing I need to do to complete the job is get hole plugs. I'll look for a paint color to match the pillar as best I can to minimize the visual impact of the hole plug. Fortunately the seat belts pretty much hide the holes as you can see from the photos.

I took the Skylark out of the garage yesterday for the first time in months. I installed shoulder belts in front, and then took it for a short 22 mile ride up to Warwick, NY and back home via Pine Island. It was a very pleasant ride. Passed by a crowded parking lot near one of the Appalachian trail sections and saw lots of motorcycles, but mine was the only old car in sight.

I haven't even backed the car out of the garage since I posted the odometer photo back in March. All gassed up and no place to go. Needless to say my trip to South Bend and Auburn is off until next year. Maybe I'll add the National Meet in Ohio to my route next year.

Kids will grow up, your financial situation will improve over time, and you will want that car one day when you can get around to finishing it. Carefully catalog and store the parts, prepare the mechanicals for long term storage, and look at it with the attitude that every day you see it is one day closer to getting it back on the road.

Very nice Opel. I had a '73 with the same body style and color, except that mine was the Rallye with the flat black hood and instrument package. Was trying to find one a few years back but finally gave up.

My Skylark will crank over for about 10-15 seconds before firing when the fuel in the carburetor bowl evaporates after sitting for more than a few days. It's not necessarily a bad thing IMO. I think of it as giving the oil pressure a chance to build up a bit before the engine starts. A friend of mine has a '39 Chevy street rod that has a system that keeps the ignition disabled while cranking until the oil pressure builds up to a certain level. That's overkill for us, but a little extra cranking probably is better than not after a car sits for several days.

With everything that's going on right now I'm not sure if and when I'll be able to make my road trip to South Bend and Auburn. Being optimistic about it I'm posting my "official" starting mileage. I plan to head west as long as there are hotels and restaurants operating along the way.

Had the Skylark out on Saturday and Sunday mostly running errands around town and taking a one hour round trip to my daughter and her husband's place. Weather permitting I plan to take it out every weekend on small shakedown cruises to make sure that she'll be up for the road trip to IN this summer. Sorry, no photos. The Acme parking lot isn't very interesting.

Thanx for the suggestion John, I'll look into that option. I got another idea from one of the seat belt vendors that involves using a painted metal plug to cover the hole where the backing plate goes in. As with most things I do, I'll analyze it to death before taking any action.

I want to install front shoulder belts in my Skylark. It will involve cutting a hole in the B pillar in order to slide in the bracket. The problem I have is that the Skylark doesn't have any trim on the B pillars that would hide the work, it's only painted metal. I guess I could glue some headliner-like material to the pillar but I'm not sure how that will look. Before I go that route, I'm looking for any alternate suggestions that the more creative among us may have to offer.

That's one machine shop I can cross off my list.