PhilA

For reasons beyond my control, I ended up in town today and braved Christmas traffic. That was potentially a good thing because the gearbox did something weird it's never done before, which shed light on the fault of the 1-3.......4 shift thing it does when it gets hot. The drive home was pleasant. The car was running perfectly. Quiet, smooth, luxury. That gave me chance to think so when I got home I broke out the gearbox service manual, then went take apart the spare valve block. Turns out the 1-2 throttle valve appears to be a bit of a kludge and as such has a bit of bad engineering occuring. A sharp 90 degree edge was machined on the edge of the idle drain plug, which should be sitting in a bore with a port, but instead sits between two sections of the casting with holes drilled in. As the spring that pushes against heats up it seems to compress in an arc rather than straight down, applying a small radial force to the plug, pushing it off center because it's worn (we're talking maybe a thousandth of an inch) and causes it to jam solid halfway down it's travel, which blocks the 1-2 shuttle valve from moving fully. So, I machined a chamfer to overcome their faux pas. Applying a side load to that now isn't a problem, it self centers and moves properly. If circumstances allow I'll fit it tomorrow. Phil

Insurance here went up this year also. Embedded up cancelling with our previous insurance agent because they wouldn't come down to a reasonable cost. Ended up with the Chieftain on an annual policy of $300 because it's insured as a regular car, not a Sunday driver or show car; the Infiniti and Ram are now $281 a month to insure ($3372/pa). Ain't cheap, round here. Phil

Always wonder if the alternator finished the battery off, or the other way around...

Brackets welded on, exhaust all tightened up. Just need to go up and over the axle now Phil

Had 30 minutes so got the end of the mid-section done. That now reaches the muffler. Need to make the support brackets next. Phil

Thankfully that fits. Need some new bump stops also.

Had a look up underneath now the sun is out. Elegant, no. Functional, yes. I'll dress the welds out later, ordered some sleeve clamps, they'll be here Thursday. Edit: Nope, delayed until next week Phil

That's not a bad idea. I'll have to see how much those replicas are. Phil

Made up the rear section of driver's side pipe. Shows you just how damn long the car is, that's axle to bumper. Welding in the dark isn't much fun. Need to tidy it up a bit and get some clamps. Sits nicely though. Still pondering what ends I should put on. I'm thinking turn down. Phil

Well, the exhausts are cobbled together here, also! Discovered a loose plug lead. That was making all the pops and bangs out the exhaust, no2. We'll see if the manifold darkens up. I bought a couple of Flowmaster clones, mild steel because hey, cheap, and the inlet and outlet are in the right place. Spent an age trying to get that all to line up and created a hanger with a rubber bungy- all with enough room to wobble a bit. Stuffed the other side into the downpipe and wedged the other muffler on the floor, and gave it a test. Nice deep note, surprisingly quiet. Because it was up in the air, I changed on the oil. Yuk. Lots of gasoline and condensation. Phil

A bit of cut and weld today. Started by making up the mirror image of the passenger side mid-pipe. Rain stopped play, need to clean the welds up. They fit pretty well though. Weatherman says the rain should stop now for the rest of the day (believe it when I see it). Now being held up by FedEx who have my mufflers on their truck with expedite labels on, and they still aren't here yet. Phil

Well done on discovering that. Amazing how long old fuel lines can last and then fail very suddenly... Also, if you were close, just screw the idle stop screw in to get about 1500-2000 RPM and drive the thing home... Phil

Small external cooler will work fine if you can't find an automatic transmission radiator for decent coin. Phil

Transmission breather line. Should be connected to the driver's side of the case, there's a union fairly high up. With a cooler fitted it forms the return. You can run a 35 without a cooler but it does help in traffic. Phil

McD do a Philly Cheesteak? Wonder if they use Cheeze Whiz.

Driver's side downpipe. This one was simpler, there's less in the way. Built up the passenger side section that gets to where the muffler will be. Soon, I shall have to buy some. Phil

This afternoon I created a wiggly pipe. It weaves its way around the torsion bar on the passenger side. Lines up with the notch in the subframe. Looks tidy enough. With a length of straight pipe stuffed in the end it has a nice deep note already. Next up working out where it's going to go from there. Phil

The retailers want people to be able to come and use the parking lots. Difference is the average Walmart parking lot is the size of Oxford.

It's things like that which makes me glad I left. Obviously that doesn't outweigh the good things but it's nonsense like that which makes me worry about the way our future generations will come to accept these things as normal. That's the second time a story of retail woe has got under my skin. Phil

Looks like an interesting trip. Never ventured that far south. Might have to some day.

Day off today, the whim took me and I drove old highway 1 to where the road stops. That's desolate now. That road used to be 24/7 busy traffic, the town was a busy little place. Now it looks like a Mad Max movie set. Phil

A box of pieces arrived. Carburetor insulator, heat wrap for the exhaust and some manifold to downpipe pieces. Started by pulling the carburetor off, doesn't look too bad inside still. Added the new longer studs that are needed now. Then, slot the spacer and gaskets on. Clearanced the manifold a touch with bfh. Ended up using a bbfh because that one wasn't b enough. Wrapped the tubes down. Makes a surprising difference to the heat felt there. Hopefully that should make the steering last a little longer. More boxes have arrived in the interim. Phil

Funny, photos of vehicles I mostly don't own any more. Still haven't managed to make it back to that little car show yet. Meant to this year and remembered the day after it was on. Go figure. Phil

Put the car back, cleaned out the carburetor and got it adjusted up. Better than it was, I had to play church organ pedals to stop it from stalling when moving it. Phil

Two Pontiac cars, both daily drivers, in one photo. Rare sight! Phil