PhilA

Gas station scrubbing tool. They're remarkably good.

Found a $2 can of turtle wax bug remover in the back of the cupboard Looks like snow, smells like aniseed Removes bugs, wax, top layer of paint

Gotta figure how to clean this off. Windscreen is nearly opaque. Yay flies

A little more work and the Size Eight method of adjusting panel gaps was employed on the leading edge of the hood. Grille all lines up now.

Hit the highway at the weekend, cruising Louisiana Highway One. Hot day car was running pretty well but on the way out the horn got stuck on, so I pulled the wire off and had a look when I got home. Thankfully it all still comes apart with relative ease. Hammered the bearing out thinking my wiring had failed, but that was all in good condition. Turns out the rubber ring that holds the horn push off had gone soft, and the hot weather was just compounding that. The weight of the push was making the connection. Had a little bit of light once the day cooled off, so I decided to look at the brightwork. Gentle application of abrasives saw an improvement, which I'll need to continue with. Dremel doesn't like the work though, it overheated. Phil

Those close up at the tops when the main structure of the car is unsound, so probably someone has made an attempt to adjust the door in the past and made a hash of it. Understandable because getting them right is a pig's arse of a job.

Typically, line most government issue things, it only covers a certain percentage. That's a bit like Saga over there.

Flip side today. Fitted new wiper blades, which now work properly without chattering across the screen. Phil

Too fancy.

Mk1 rear Sierra lights are the best Sierra lights.

Shatner, with his finest Ronnie Pickering impression:

Fiat Cinquecento also, but it's not like they had any option where to put the brakes. There's no room anywhere else in the engine bay. Didn't help they also fitted brakes from the Panda, which were pretty terrible.

GM have been doing this for decades. It's easy to look at how much of my Pontiac is parts-bin Chevy. Body pressing is shared between all 4 door GM vehicles from 1947 to 1954, only the front and rear wings, hood and trunk pressings were changed between year and model. Dash underneath is Chevrolet truck, as is all the sheet metal pressings around the radiator, the radiator itself and the front engine subframe. Engine is from the 1930's. They basically changed just enough for each model to make it A WHOLE NEW CAR FOR 1951! Total crock, but it's the only way they could afford to do a "new" model every year.

I do like the fiberglass looking wheels I used on the Plymouth. They allow air circulation to the surface you're working, tend not to shed everywhere and aren't too vicious. Only caveat is they don't on the grinder with the guard on

Been driving about a whole bunch. Went continue tidy up at mother in law's lot. Takes forever, glad I had spare belts for the mower. That's genuine mower-shite too, it's British Leyland levels of rusty. Headed home. Warm air, window down radio on, engine humming away up the highway. Got bugs all spattered up the glass. Can't say it's a trailer queen.

International postage from here is steep, regardless. Those are $0.58 each.

Blanks, they have the securing screws behind them. The parking in R was a Hydra-Matic thing; they figured why add extra positions? Parking a manual car in reverse was fairly common practice to save stretching the parking brake cables back in the day. In a modern vehicle P does the same thing as this does, it engages two years at once and locks the gearbox up that way.

Particularly as that's a $80k vehicle...

Yup, it performs as An Car quite well. I've done about 3500 miles in it so far, which isn't too bad, considering. Phil

Since the storm, the passenger front indicator was leaking in water but not letting it out. So, it filled up with water and that left a rusty tide mark. I tried some patented rust remover. Nope. Gave up on waiting and scrubbed it with a wire brush. Much better, that was welded on. Slight improvement, for if you were actually looking. Next up, chrome. Phil

Went fuel up tonight. 8.7mpg, but the radio has fixed itself and it doesn't like this fuel much, need to tweak the timing and mixture again. Phil

Nope, they do allsorts of car bits. The original dampers would have been Delco. The old ones were very very very knackered Monroe Manumatics. As you can see, they fully extended under their internal pressure... Nope. Driving the car now- major difference. Like seriously major difference. It's highlighted the rear shocks are also completely shot... Phil

I don't mean to put a damper on things, but this is shocking.

Likely the switch, dirty contact from flashover connecting and disconnecting the headlights, on the slider for the sidelight circuit. It doesn't have the same type of operation as my Pontiac, I don't think- where the tail/dash are on one terminal, front parking lights on one terminal, headlights on another; front lights are either or but not both head/park, while tail/dash are on with both? If so you might have the tail lights wired to the front parking light terminal. Phil

Need a wheel balanced. Can't get it balanced because the tread is near the wear bars. Tire is worn because shock absorber is faulty. Shock absorber is faulty because fuel pump was leaking. Steering is off and wearing tire on one edge. Front suspension needs rebuild. Steering box lower bush needs changing. Only full rebuild available, no spares for steering box. For the want of a nail, the war was lost. That, coupled with walking outside and looking at everything here has put me in a "screw it, sell it all" kind of mood