[Scarebird]

Bought a 70-72 gauge carrier at Norwalk and managed to get it her to Portugal without the ramp rats wrecking it. Suitcase was flattened a bit but I gather that 50+ year old plastic is pretty tough stuff!

[mgarblik]

Finally got the 62 Catalina out for a drive. The weather here has been horrible for over 2 months. Either torrential rainfall or 110 heat index every day. So many events rained out or held in the heat and mud. Weather perfect today. Went to a Cars and Coffee. Well over 1000 cars, probably closer to 1500 when considering the constant cars coming in and leaving. Some notable Pontiacs and a few others. 1. 1970 TA, Nice car, original drivetrain, white/blue, power windows and AC. 2. 1967 GTO, original owner, original paint, original everything, right down to the 400 2BBL. engine with Hurst His and Hers shifter! 3. 1970 4-door Executive all original, now owned by the grandson of the original owner. He just completed a 1700 mile drive in it. My car got allot of attention from the 50 and older crowd. A few curious younger people looked puzzled by the bathtub intake and the 2 4BBL. carbs. Others: 2 1968 Olds 442's, beautiful. 1957 Nomad, red/white, beautiful. 3. 67 Camaro SS all original 4-speed, 4. 454 El Camino 4-speed. Tons of Corvettes, exotics of every brand. Leaving the event, entering the highway, performance cars are "expected to accelerate" on the interstate. Catalina turned some heads, pulling hard to 6000 RPM's in 1-3rd. gear. Fun morning.

[67drake]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Finally got the 62 Catalina out for a drive. The weather here has been horrible for over 2 months. Either torrential rainfall or 110 heat index every day. So many events rained out or held in the heat and mud. Weather perfect today. Went to a Cars and Coffee. Well over 1000 cars, probably closer to 1500 when considering the constant cars coming in and leaving. Some notable Pontiacs and a few others. 1. 1970 TA, Nice car, original drivetrain, white/blue, power windows and AC. 2. 1967 GTO, original owner, original paint, original everything, right down to the 400 2BBL. engine with Hurst His and Hers shifter! 3. 1970 4-door Executive all original, now owned by the grandson of the original owner. He just completed a 1700 mile drive in it. My car got allot of attention from the 50 and older crowd. A few curious younger people looked puzzled by the bathtub intake and the 2 4BBL. carbs. Others: 2 1968 Olds 442's, beautiful. 1957 Nomad, red/white, beautiful. 3. 67 Camaro SS all original 4-speed, 4. 454 El Camino 4-speed. Tons of Corvettes, exotics of every brand. Leaving the event, entering the highway, performance cars are "expected to accelerate" on the interstate. Catalina turned some heads, pulling hard to 6000 RPM's in 1-3rd. gear. Fun morning.

Same here! Great season for the local farmers, as it seems to rain every other day. Getting projects done is kinda hard though as between the rain and heat, and Canadian wildfire smoke, I can only do so much before exhausting myself. Any non rain days I’m trying to keep up cutting grass!
My plan is to get into the shop this weekend and and least get the new lighted hood ornament on the ‘55 installed and lighting, in place of the original one.

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Aggravated both of them! Put a SBC in between them. Its for my truck, I’m not jumping ship.

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Originally Posted by 67drake

Same here! Great season for the local farmers, as it seems to rain every other day. Getting projects done is kinda hard though as between the rain and heat, and Canadian wildfire smoke, I can only do so much before exhausting myself. Any non rain days I’m trying to keep up cutting grass!
My plan is to get into the shop this weekend and and least get the new lighted hood ornament on the ‘55 installed and lighting, in place of the original one.

Exactly, been doing next to nothing because of the heat or rain. Today was the first time in 6-7 weeks that the air is off and windows open!

[OCMDGTO]

Fun day at the track today!! Been a while here since temps were under 85°.

[Verdoro 68]

Thought about getting up for Cars and Coffee, but decided the time would be better spent doing projects. I worked on the Ventura all day - stripped and painted the passenger inner fender inside and out, the hood hinges, passenger side frame, and part of the core support.

Cole and I are planning on road tripping the Ventura to the Duct Tape Drags in Arizona. It's about 1800 miles round trip. I'm confident in the chassis and cooling system since that's where a bulk of our focus has been, but have been debating what to do with the engine.

The engine has about 100K miles and compression is low on a couple cylinders However, the low cylinders have gone up 20psi since he started driving it regularly. A few weeks ago he changed the oil and I had him put 6 quarts of Driven 15-50. A day later it developed a lifter tick. He checked the dipstick and it was showing overfull, so he drained enough out to show the correct level on the dipstick.

The lifter tick mostly quieted down, which makes me think maybe the oil was getting aerated, but I still wasn't feeling super confident in the engine. We've been running off the idiots lights since we got the car, so I installed an old set of AutoMeters I had laying around. I was surprised to see plenty of oil pressure! It almost seems too good the be true for a 100k engine, but I'll take it. I'm not even sure we need the thick oil.

[fairwayhit]

Took it out for a little shake down run. Still has a small miss at idle, but otherwise running pretty good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jhein]

Put her up on the Quickjack. Took the rear wheels/tires down to the tire shop and had my BFGs put back on. Got rid of the MT drag radials which were worn out anyway. I only got about 2500 miles out of them which was not unexpected. While they did my tire swap, I went back home and changed the oil. Also collected a sample to send in to Blackstone. I know it's somewhat controversial, but I usually fill my new filter with oil before installing it. This time I didn't. I didn't time it but it took a little while for the pressure to come up. Probably only 5 seconds or maybe a little more but it felt like forever sitting there looking at my zero oil pressure. So I'll go back to filling the filter. I also have developed an oil leak at the rear end of the motor. I couldn't really tell where it's coming from but the four bolts on the rear of the pan were a little loose. So we'll see if tightening them up helps or not.

[Shiny]

After a year of moving, house projects, and doing nothing on the car, it's time to pick up where I left off. I have a lot more space in this garage than I've ever had, so there's that.

Here's where I left it:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...ighlight=front

Re-acquainting myself with a dolly and slapper, I raised a low spot and then decided it was too hot.

Or maybe I just want to ease back into this and didn't want to deal with the bigger challenges in the contours!



And BTW, spray-on dyekem is great for this... way easier than the giant sharpies I'd been using as a guide.

[carcrazy]

Preparing the 67 GTO for a new headliner. A job I have put off for quite awhile. Got the bows pulled out (took a lot more effort than I thought it would), cleaned them up and then cleaned up the left over adhesive along the edges. Still waiting for some new front hubs to finish off the brake job.

[Scarebird]

I could not get back to sleep at 5 this morning so I thought I would exercise the Lemans before sunrise. It was still somewhat dark and foggy. Common sense would say the hell with it and go back in - nah. I was greeted by one of the headlights beaming off into space light a searchlight during the Blitz. WTH?

I wonder if the inspection company was dinking around with it too?

That, and it took a bit to restart after I went to get a Phillips - these ECM's are really sensitive to voltage. I guess trickle charging is in my future...

[Cosmic Charlie]

As you probably know you actually want a Battery Maintainer ... that shuts off at charged voltage, a trickle charger will eventually over charge your battery. I like the cheap ones that have a voltage digital read out window.

[Scarebird]

Actually I did not know that. The one I have may have that feature - will have to read more about it.

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

..these ECM's are really sensitive to voltage. ...

What does this mean?

Maybe an inexpensive DC-DC converter would take care of it?

[Scarebird]

Starting voltage needs to be at least 12.8ish. Sitting for a bit with a trunk mounted battery is not a recipe for success here.

[Cosmic Charlie]

If your battery is Very Low a maintainer will not charge it if the maintainer is only rated at 1/2 Amp or 1 or 2 Amps. I have the newer inexpensive maintainers that are rated 6 +- Amps that will actually charge a low battery +- eventually

I have 6 inexpensive maintainers, various companies and I just bought this one that works OK (2 amp)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7VFB64L...fed_asin_title

Brand Battery Tender are Well Known but cost like $ 60

Lastly Battery Maintainers are NOT for small motorcycle batteries like a 250 CC but are OK for a large motorcycle batteries like a Harley Davidson

Voltage State of the Battery’s Charge
12.6 or higher 100%
12.5 90%
12.42 80%
12.32 70%
12.2 60%
12.06 50%
11.9 40%
11.75 30%
11.58 20%
11.31 10%
10.5 or lower Dead

[Verdoro 68]

Got the Ventura back together. Most of the work we did is hidden, but the underside of the hood and freshened up hinges look good. I ended up repainting the inside of the fender Fernmist because it was so ratty looking.

Next on the list - inspecting the engine to see if it's up for the drive to Duct Tape Drags in October.

[Drag Star Le Mans]

Got a 4 banger outta this...

[73_Lemans_350]

Yesterday my wife and I took the LeMans to a free local car show. I parked next to a Bonneville, and found a nice 77 Can Am! Weather was perfect.