What did you do to your Reatta today? <ongoing thread>

[handmedownreatta]

does it run well?

[2seater]

2 hours ago, handmedownreatta said:

does it run well?

Yes it seems to. I only put a few miles on it so far. It snowed last week and the roads are still covered in salt residue so my preference is to wait a little while until we get a good rain to flush the streets. It's no rocket ship, still a cruiser more than a bruiser. Effortless is the best way to describe it.

[DAVES89]

Just got back from Gibson's. I found and purchased a Cadillac 4 note horn system. Not installed but tested on the bench. Boy are they loud!

[2seater]

I wondered what that sound was?  My cat is still hiding under the bed

[DAVES89]

I have a German Sheperd and she cleared out too!

[DAVES89]

Installed two of the 4 note horne. Not a lot of clearance for putting more in. Still sounds way better then the one. Also geting the Red out today.

[KDirk]

Revived the 'vert just now. Had been in storsge for the winter and would crank but not start. After thorough investigation I discovered something  (probably a mouse) chewed the first four wires off the ICM harness. Dammit. Went to the parts department  (my basement) and pulled a harness section from stock. Went back over to the storage location with that and soldering/heat shrink/related supplies and repaired the ICM harness. Started right up after that. 

 

Next up is the scrub 88, need to replace the wiper motor, put on the refinished rims with new tires and do the rear brakes. Then I'm ready to take the good 88 in for a proper detailing job.

[waltmail]

bumperpolished.emlbumperpolished.eml

On 3/28/2016 at 11:17 AM, waltmail said:

Got totally anal yesterday. Don't know what to call these, but when the trunk lid is raised the drip channel ( where my trunk lid seal runs)  was full of mung. Got out a toothbrush, sprayed degreaser along the channel and scrubbed away. No rust at all, but now I feel the need to clear coat the freshened channel. All of this because, I am in the process of polishing rear bumper and spotting in some top coat on flakey areas of the panels. I recently discovered how to use top coat blender and the results are nice. That is definitely obsessive behavior.

 

BTW, the bumper polishing is turning out well.

1. Took the anodizing off with a DA and #600 paper.

2. Hand sanded with 800/1000/1200/1500

3. Used an angle head die grinder with a small diameter buff wheel attached and white   rouge.

4. Hand polished with Wenol polish

5. It will be clear coated today.

6.Probably need to gloss paint the bumper black trim.

 

Didn't even remove the bumper

 

Quote

Really wasn't pleased with the results and to break the boredom, I completely disassembled the rear bumper and covers. My new procedure;

1. Used a heavy duty grinding wheel with a softer disk head

2. Used #600 sand paper disk and WD 40

3. Grinding pattern kept uniform in one direction

4. Used a  Caldor pedestal stand buffing wheel and white rouge

5. Cleaned polished surface with Denatured alcohol and Acetone

6. Clear coated finished bumper surface

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

Edited April 11, 2016 by waltmail (see edit history)

[Guest HuevosRanchero]

finally got a break in weather/time and other projects. Pulled the passenger seat and went through the crimps in the wire channel...yep sure enough two were completely gone...and a couple more were nasty so I re did them all.  How nice to have interior lights for the first time. Everything just seems to work better....woohoo...so I ran through the cruise servo test from Ronnie's site and sure enough I have two dead coils so that is the last non op device on the car. Need a couple of band gigs to get a new/rebuilt servo. After that I can move on to the stuff that works...but not as it should. 

[DAVES89]

Installed some LED fog lights this afternoon. They look very white however they are whiter then the H4 Halogens I just installed as well. Also got a great tip from this month's Reatta newsletter. It talked about the velcro that holds the side flaps down at the window on the convertible top. It was a great idea and easy to do. 

 All you have to do is join the Reatta Club and the information is there.

[DAVES89]

I just recieved a second set of Halogen headlights. I hope to install them before we leave for a long weekend in Memphis. We were going to go about a month ago but changed our plans when we saw how much Memphis was getting. Hopefully the weather will be good this time.

 If anyone wants to meet up or need parts I can bring them along. I still have a few odds and ends [no more sensor leads] for sale.

Edited April 20, 2016 by DAVES89 (see edit history)

[handmedownreatta]

10 minutes ago, DAVES89 said:

I just recieved a second set of Halogen headlights. I hope to install them before we leave for a long weekend in Memphis. We were going to go about a month ago but changed our plans when we saw how much Memphis was getting. Hopefully the weather will be good this time.

 If anyone wants to meet up or need parts I can bring them along. I still have a few odds and ends [no more sensor leads] for sale.

can you link the lights again?i can't see at night.

[DAVES89]

They are Autopal 6054 to H4 conversions. Bought them on Ebay.

[Machiner 55]

Dave,

 

What day will you be passing through the "Chicagoland" area?

 

John F.

[dship]

My Reatta spends winter under a cover in a shared igloo with my Riviera.  Weather good enough now so I took the cover off, opened up the igloo, and "spiffied'er up" ready for a first of the season cruise-in tomorrow.

[DAVES89]

We are leaving home Friday sometime around 3 am. Should be on the south side of Chicago by 9 am or so. I will purposely NOT fill the car so we can take a "legitimate" potty break an hour or two down the road. My wife likes her coffee, so will need to stop.

Edited April 20, 2016 by DAVES89 (see edit history)

[Machiner 55]

Dave,

I'd thought about arranging a meeting with you along your journey southward but it's not going to be doable.

Hope You have a great and safe trip.

 

John F.

[Ronnie]

23 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

We are leaving home Friday sometime around 3 am. Should be on the south side of Chicago by 9 am or so. I will purposely NOT fill the car so we can take a "legitimate" potty break an hour or two down the road. My wife likes her coffee, so will need to stop.

 

 

Dave, will you be driving your Reatta to Memphis?

[DAVES89]

We will be driving the 'vert. Hoping for great weather.

[KDirk]

Got lots done today. On the good 88, I installed the C and D note horns scavenged from a Cadillac some time ago, so now have 4 note horns on that one. Also replaced a flaky EGR valve and did an oil change. 

 

On the scrub 88, I replaced the hood support struts, put on newly refinished stock wheels with new tires mounted and balanced, replaced the air filter housing (had a crack in the plastic, been that way since I bought it), and replaced a missing mounting bracket. Fixed a small brake fluid leak at the rear driver side caliper and fixed an issue with the drivers side manual lock actuator. Also put on a rebuilt power antenna to replace the not-quite-correct one that had been on there for a while with a factory original one. Added Barsleak to the coolant due to minor weeping from the freeze plugs. These will get replaced, but I wanted to buy myself some time yet (I hope) before tackling that mess.

 

This car is coming along slowly but surely. It has cosmetic issues still (in and out) but those are being worked through.  Also has a few electronic and mechanical issues that need addressing yet, particularly struts , but is roadworthy and generally reliable. Not bad now for a car I bought for $900 that has needed a lot of work just to get it to this point. Still have much to do to get it to my usual high standards, but have lacked the time to do much with it until very recently. 

[ol' yeller]

I took my 90 convertible on a 200 mile trip with our local chapter of the BCA for the Spring "Mystery Tour". The only downside was the weather didn't accommodate top down driving.

[handmedownreatta]

its perfect convertible weather here but i don't have one.....

[ol' yeller]

My top had been down since the 1st of April but yesterday the weather looked a lot more like April in the Great Pacific Northwet.

[DAVES89]

Just got done reaiming my headlights on the Red, fixed a "No sound" situation on the left rear speaker [one lead came unplugged?] and redid my end clips on the door handles. I used "Gorilla" tape. It looks pretty good and the nice thing is it is easy to redo if I go into the door. What I do is remove the retainer and cut a piece of tape to go over the top and down two sides of the retainer. Then I cut an "X" in the piece I just installed so I can put the screw back in and tighten down with my socket wrench. I then lay another piece of tape that starts on one side of the retainer and ends at the far top edge of the retainer. Before I press the top side in place, I screw the retainer down, then lay the tape down in place. If you are stil not finished with the look, just cut another square of tape and lay it on top of what you have just installed.

 It is not original but gives a finished look and costs pennies, certainly worth giving a try. 

[Ronnie]

On 5/1/2016 at 3:18 PM, DAVES89 said:

redid my end clips on the door handles. I used "Gorilla" tape. It looks pretty good and the nice thing is it is easy to redo if I go into the door. What I do is remove the retainer and cut a piece of tape to go over the top and down two sides of the retainer. Then I cut an "X" in the piece I just installed so I can put the screw back in and tighten down with my socket wrench. I then lay another piece of tape that starts on one side of the retainer and ends at the far top edge of the retainer. Before I press the top side in place, I screw the retainer down, then lay the tape down in place. If you are stil not finished with the look, just cut another square of tape and lay it on top of what you have just installed.

 It is not original but gives a finished look and costs pennies, certainly worth giving a try. 

 

Dave sent me a photo of the end caps he finished with Gorilla tape. It appears they turned out pretty good. I thought I would share the photo in case someone wants to try his quick fix.

 

 

[Barney Eaton]

Finished the a/c repairs last week.....today first opportunity to get the 91 on the road...wife and I went to lunch and put on about 20 miles.

A/c is working fine, big car show this weekend but the '39 will go to that.

[91vert]

12 hours ago, Barney Eaton said:

Finished the a/c repairs last week.....today first opportunity to get the 91 on the road...wife and I went to lunch and put on about 20 miles.

A/c is working fine, big car show this weekend but the '39 will go to that.

 

The '39 is looking mighty fine.

[DAVES89]

My wife got tickets for her and our daughter to attend a play so today was mine to do as I pleased, so I polished the chrome wheels on both the Red and 'vert. Also swapped out the alternator on the Red as it was getting noisy. Had one is back up from the Reatta Kevin and I stripped down last fall. It was the front bushing that was making the noise. It works well so I marked it for when I have an alternator that fails due to a different issue then the front bushing so I can swap parts and make a good one out of two.

[DAVES89]

Big day for the Red tomorrow as she will get a new headliner, console lid and ordered from Jim today, new sun visors. Then a couple of coats of wax and she should be looking good for the summer!  

[DAVES89]

Just picked up the car and the new headliner and console lid looks great. I was able to take in the seat back from a car I stripped. I know it is vinyl instaed of leather but it makes the car look like new. The vinyl should last years and if it doesn't I have more vinyl to use.

 Now when I get the visors from Jim, the interior will look pretty nice again. I had the drivers bolsters done a year or so again. They are leather which I got from the Reatta headrests that I also got from a stripped Reatta.

[Machiner 55]

My '90 (WTF) Driftwood was due for an emissions check. Last week, I ran it through with my fingers crossed. It was the first test since I bought it from that guy from Pittsburgh who no longer posts here. He purchased the car from someone in North Carolina where the car spent most of it's adult life.

Not surprisingly, it failed.

I spent two days covering all things related to excessive hydrocarbon emissions.

Replaced all vacuum tubes and hoses. Found a partially missing gasket under the four port vacuum manifold atop the throttle body.

Pulled all the plugs and regaped to .060" due to my changing the Magnavox coil set to the Delco set ala Padgett. I kept the year old spark plugs but installed a new O2 sensor just in case. I did find the the #2 plug looked as though it wasn't firing properly. I found the contact area inside the boot had some kind of "fuzziness" inside. I guess from not making good contact with the head of the plug. must have gotten some Dielectric grease up in there where it "cooked". Cleaned and made sure the was a "click" when I snapped the boot back in place.

Anyway...

There were several other things I did that don't come to mind right now. (Checked PCV valve and rubber connections. They were only a year old but checked anyway.) Then, I took the car back to be tested and it failed again with no improvement. The numbers should have moved in a positive direction but didn't at all.

Convinced that there wasn't much of anything more to be done with the engine, I turned my attention to the Catalytic Converter. I thought that the matrix may be coated with an oil film or that some additive or even an attempt made to use leaded fuel, I constructed a back pressure tester that screws into the O2 port. The FSM says that at 2500 RPM the back pressure should be no higher than 1.5 PSI.

I found that it barely measured 1PSI at that RPM and had to go almost to WOT to get it over 5 PSI.

So the cat's not plugged but what's wrong with it. Only one way to find out. Got the Sawzall out and cut the cat from the exhaust pipe at both ends. Please see the attached photos below to see the fruit of my labor.

 

Had to submit more photos in a following post due to some sort of problem uploading files. So the following text should go with the next post. Damn frustrating's what it is.

Imagine that huh. Who the Phock does something like this?!

Every repair or attempt to "fix" something on this car was done in some hafast billybob manner.

I've been tempted on many occasion to start a thread titled "WTF" so that I could vent and give others a venue to post things they've found that makes the first thing that comes to mind is WTF!?

But... I'm thinking I'd be banned from the Forum and I don't want to risk that.

But... if there is a monitor that reads this and gives me a big thumbs up, well... it could get down right interesting around here.

Anyway... I installed a $57 dollar (plus $24 bux in a pipe adapter and clamps) Walker Universal Catalytic Converter and went back to the the testing site. As you can see by the latest test results, the emissions are at or near new car levels.  How about that. (Couldn't post the scan of the test results due to upload failures. Will try again tomorrow.

 

John F.

 

Edited May 13, 2016 by Machiner 55 (see edit history)

[Machiner 55]

Having trouble uploading photos.

 

John F.

 

                                                          Tah-Da!

 

 

                                    New Walker Universal Converter Installed (upside-down I think)

 

 

Edited May 13, 2016 by Machiner 55 (see edit history)

[Machiner 55]

 

Test Results.

 

 

I've tried three times to upload this and other files and keep getting messages that there's trouble uploading the files (photos or scans)

I'm done for the evening. This is much more aggravating than it should be.

 

 

Yeah!!!! it worked!!!

Edited May 13, 2016 by Machiner 55
4th attempt uploading this image. This time it worked. (see edit history)

[2seater]

Gutted cat eh? Did it look like it was original or had been removed at some time? Original is a resistance weld around an internal stub pipe.

[Machiner 55]

Looked to be the original. Although there was evidence of weld work done at the exit end of the Cat.

 

John F.

[Ronnie]

That is common here in areas of Tennessee where no testing is required. Sometimes you will find a straight pipe inserted through the cat and welded in place. It has enough of the correct size pipe sticking out each end to mate with the stock pipes without adapters. The straight pipe through the center of the cat keeps it quite like the stock converter.

 

I think new converters that include the head pipe and mounting flange that bolts to the exhaust manifold are available in the Reatta store.

[DAVES89]

Just went past 248,000 miles on the Red yesterday. Bought it with 113,000 on it from a guy in Florida. 135,000 mostly trouble free miles for me. It will be needing a transmission rebuild this fall. It is warning me like the Black did a year ago. I know I talked about the Black being a "donor" car but I just can't do it. It still looks good and runs great.

[Ronnie]

What is your transmission doing Dave?

[DAVES89]

Just like the Black did before it went out. The Black would slip going from second into third when cold and then got worse from there by "chattering" [even when at proper engine temperature] going into third.

 The Red will not engage second gear unless the tranny is warm. So a cold start under 60 degree weather, the car needs to sit in gear for about 1 minute before I can drive it otherwise it won't grab second. And you might remember when I floor it in overdrive it drops down a gear like it should but won't come out at any RPM until I let off the gas. I took it up to 6000 RPMs before it shifted out [won't do that again].

[waltmail]

3 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

Just like the Black did before it went out. The Black would slip going from second into third when cold and then got worse from there by "chattering" [even when at proper engine temperature] going into third.

 The Red will not engage second gear unless the tranny is warm. So a cold start under 60 degree weather, the car needs to sit in gear for about 1 minute before I can drive it otherwise it won't grab second. And you might remember when I floor it in overdrive it drops down a gear like it should but won't come out at any RPM until I let off the gas. I took it up to 6000 RPMs before it shifted out [won't do that again].

Sea Foam Transmission treatment. Worth a try. Worked for me.