[tom s]

It stopped so I went down the street and bough a couple cheap beach towels.Got the cars all dried off and perfect.A coupe hours latter another cell went throug and was gone in 15 min BUT had to dry the cars again.Sun came out the rest of the day and life was good!Tom

[Verdoro 68]

Success! We got the trans back into the car yesterday and it appears to be leak free. They also got their pics with the car before prom this afternoon.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by Verdoro 68

Success! We got the trans back into the car yesterday and it appears to be leak free. They also got their pics with the car before prom this afternoon.

Great job to all involved and the young lady for picking a dress that goes with the car.... Fantastic!

[Verdoro 68]

The car was an accessory so we had no choice but to finish it!

I owe a big debt of thanks to his shop teacher who stayed a little later on Thursday and Friday so we could get the car done. He said that was likely a shop record for pulling and reinstalling a transmission.

I’ve pulled the trans in the Goat many times, so there weren’t any surprises except the top two bell housing bolts which are more of a PITA on an X-body due to the tight confines.

[carcrazy]

Took the 62 GP today for a few hard runs through the gears. Had my 12 year old grandson with me....it got his attention....lol!

[sdbob]

We still rain soaked from heavy rains Friday,Saturday.

[php600]

Originally Posted by Verdoro 68

Busy weekend on the cars. Great weather for tinkering.

I went to install the Progression distributor on the Goat thought I'd warm it up so I could write down the current advance curve. I fired it up and within a couple minutes the idle got erratic and the car shut off. I installed a new fuel pump a few weeks ago and apparently it wasn't up to the task. The end of the arm broke off inside the pump!

Fortunately, I saved the old one, reinstalled it and was back in business. It took about an hour to install the distributor - super cool piece. I didn't get to take the car out because we were finishing up the carpet on the Ventura, but I did get an initial curve dialed in.



Back on the Ventura...I wasn't happy with the green paint the shop mixed up as it was too light and I went on the hunt for something closer. I probably went through 10-12 different off the shelf greens before finding Krylon Italian Olive which is almost an exact match. So, we repainted all the interior plastic. Cole had to work on Sunday so I kept going and installed a new package tray, new a/c vents, reinstalled the repainted panels and finished with new sill plates. Got things wrapped up just as the sun went down.

Original mix by the paint shop is on the rear door panel and part of the kick panel:


Some of my green paint collection:


The winner!


Repainted rear door panel:

Had one of those pumps break in the same location. Ran for bout 1 minute. I think it was a china carter pump...

[srmmmm]

Got the car back to the House of Hotrods for the last punch list items. First step though was pulling the TH350 so I could return it to TCI for inspection and repair. It was suffering from extremely hard 2-3 upshift and tried to lock up on the 3-2 downshift. TCI folks were surprised to see a customer drive 500 miles to bring back an RMA unit (I had a lot of vacation time to burn), but were very nice and seemed to take a genuine interest in diagnosing the issue and fixing it. I explained that I really liked the performance of the TCI converter/TH350 combination with my engine and rear axle ratio, but was just disheartened about the reliability. We'll see what they come up with, but the initial thought was a pressure bleed in the case or separator plate. Thanks to covid and delays on getting technicians hired, it's possible the transmission sat dry for almost 4 years which would have contributed to the failure. Nobody seemed to think it involved hard part damage though.

It was good to get under the car after its first 1800 miles now and see that everything looked tight and in place. We did spot a coolant leak trail at the water pump weep hole (I didn't think I'd have to worry about that with a $360 Edelbrock pump), but there were no wet spots to be found. Looks like the CVF power steering pump is leaking at the tank connection but that has a lifetime warranty.

The trip from DFW to TCI was a nice drive through springtime green forests in Arkansas and Mississippi and who can complain about getting over 29mpg in a 5100 pound SUV at 75mph. Ain't no electric cars with a 705 mile range!

[Verdoro 68]

Pulled the rear window out of the Ventura and resealed it. The urethane had degraded so much that I was able to lift the window out with little effort

Surprisingly no rust at all! Gotta love these West Coast cars. I bought the rope style Window Weld, but it set the glass to high, so I had to run to the store and get a tube of it instead which was a lot messier to deal with.

[Redpiston]

Cleaned up all the clips for windshield trim and POR15 them. Grabbed the wire guides under the dash pad and did same then plastic dipped those. Next day I got my windshield installed

[67drake]

My son is moving back up to Wisconsin after being away for 10 years ( 6 in the Marines, 4 in Florida). He flew in yesterday to take a look at the new farm he bought for him and his family, which is 10 minutes from me.
My other son, who I sold my GTO to, came for the weekend too. He’s moving from the city to out here in the boondocks too, so asked if I would store the GTO at my house while he cleans his house up to get ready to sell-Sure!
We went all went out to breakfast this AM and took the GTO, Catalina, and ‘62 Mercury, and made our own personal car show at the diner.
Didn’t really get any pics of us all together.

[b-man]

Tell him that storing the GTO for any extended period may result in the need for some new rear tires when he picks up the car……

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Lots of long overdue cleaning… couple trips around the block.

[1965gp]

My 17 year old drive the 30th anniversary for the first time this weekend. She loved the T Tops! She really wants to drive the 68 LeMans convertible but I have to get it out first

[67drake]

Originally Posted by b-man

Tell him that storing the GTO for any extended period may result in the need for some new rear tires when he picks up the car……

That’s almost word for word what I posted on Facebook.
My garage is full, so the wife parked her UTV outside, and the GTO is now in the attached garage.

[71GP76TA]

Took this to a car show today.. Took home a couple trophys..

[Drag Star Le Mans]

Drove the 69 GTO to buy a 63 TriPower intake setup.
Sent out a few smoke signals from the little 14" tires.

[php600]

Installed vent window rubbers. 1st one took 3 hours and the 2nd 30 min.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

My mother died this past Tuesday the 29th. I was in Orlando on a train at the time I got the call, and was thankfully spared the site of seeing her that way before the funeral home took her to the morgue. She was at home and it was sudden, but not entirely unexpected. My struggle these past 10 years or so has been financially providing for her and her boyfriend who took care of her when she became bedbound in 2022 because of spinal degeneration, so that she would never have to spend her remaining years in a nursing home. I accomplished this, and by the sounds of it she died in her sleep and at home, not in a depressing hospital bed. She was 75.

I feel it has not affected me as much as I thought, but I think that's because I probably have been grieving already in a slow trickle for the past 3 years when she became bedbound in the reality of her declining health. They both lived with me and I very seldom went in her room to talk to her or see her. I may have been compartmentalizing or in denial about her health, but thankfully my last memory of speaking to her in person was the Thursday prior to her death, I came home from a date and we just chatted and reminisced about the past. Something we enjoyed doing a lot.

My mom made mistakes in life (including regarding her health), but only for the sake of others rather than for herself. She was uncannily selfless, and like any Italian mom her love language was food. She gave me and my sister an amazing childhood, and she's the one who got me into Trans Ams when I faced the reality that my longtime childhood dream car had become out of reach (Plymouth 'Cuda). She had two of them in her younger days up in NY - a Sterling Silver '75 and '76. So I bought this mini-urn pendant that you deposit a small amount of cremation remains in (since that is what she wished for), and I'm going to hang it from the rearview mirror in my '79. That way, she will not only always be with me every time I take the car out for a drive, she will be forever in touch with her youth. She never did get to take a ride with me in the car when I got it in 2020 since by then her mobility was so bad, she couldn't get inside the car. This is the next best thing.

Rest in peace, mom. No more pain.

[Shiny]

Sorry for your loss. Sounds like great memories to help you work through it.