[Gator67]

Spoke too soon about the car being finished.

Was driving the family back from a car show on the other side of town on Saturday night. Cruising along with the top down, "Good Times Roll" by the Cars playing on the radio, kids chilling in the back seat. Wife tells me that she loves the car and thanks me for seeing it through...2 seconds later..click click click click click click.. Immediately suspected a bad lifter...confirmed it the following morning. Thankfully nothing came apart. New lifters on the way from Comp...

While the car's out of service, I plan to replace the radiator with a direct fit aluminum unit (painted black). The car ran cool with A/C off, even in traffic--190 or so. But with the A/C on, it heated up more than I feel is ideal, especially at long lights. Cycling the A/C on and off in traffic is not a workable solution here in Arizona. The car simply won't cool down quickly enough between lights. We''ll see if an aluminum radiator give us a greater margin of safety.

Good reminder that these cars are never finished.