HMC WBOD news

[dome]

That C10 looks ace. Right decision in getting rid of the Caddy I'd say, even if @GingerNuttz has to cancel his Carribbean holiday next year.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, OM646 said:

Basically GM brought in Toyota to tell those people how to build a damn car

A rare, wise GM decision.

[eddyramrod]

Chevy pickup looks nice!

[dave j]

13 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The most surprising thing about that post to me is the concept that one can go up to Tavistock...

I was up Tavvy the other day, it's about 15 miles north from here! 

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, dave j said:

I was up Tavvy the other day, it's about 15 miles north from here! 

Are you a fish?

[HMC]

Been out a few times in the Chevy. I’d got hold of it as a largely completed project as it needed a new engine. It has a replacement 305ci (5 litre) v8 with 3 speed automatic transmission. One of the consequences of the engine swap was that various vacuum lines had been hurriedly cut and not re instated. I made up a few; the the vacuum advance, pcv valve and auto box. The last of these means that the gearbox shifts up as it should as it was holding onto the gears for far too long.

The next decision is wether or not to add more silencing to the violently loud exhaust system. It basically sounds like a dragster which is partly hilarious but basically antisocial IMO. So I think I’ll certainly add more as the new looking system is pretty much straight through with a couple of minimal, demonic looking red painted silencers. I want some v8 noise but not to wake everyone up.
 

Anyway I took it for a quick spin in a sparsely populated area to celibate a functioning gearbox.

[Matty]

Pretty please do a driving video

[PhilA]

The cam timing on the smog-era engines causes them to be some of the loudest exhausts I have heard.

Get some big "turbo" style mufflers, that'll bring the WHAK WHAK WHAK WHAK WHIPPAWHOPPAWHOPPA-BAAAAAAABAAABAAABAAA down into the bass notes.

[purplebargeken]

Ooooh, a most wonderful outcome.

[Cookiesouwest]

In my opinion, that's the greatest motor you have had, in my time on AS

[andyberg]

Surely next step 😁

[500tops]

1 hour ago, Cookiesouwest said:

In my opinion, that's the greatest motor you have had, in my time on AS

Up there with the 504 break

[GingerNuttz]

Leave the cherry bombs and put in a thumper cam, got some of that lope life on the go 👌

[brownnova]

That truck is bloody awesome!!! 

[HMC]

I figured out why the speedometer isn’t working, or at least one reason. The truck had cruise control from the factory and this means it’s got 2 Speedo cable runs. The lower cable is disconnected and  a bit mangled. As the cruise is partly dismantled and the indicator stalk has even been swapped for a non cruise item at some point, im just going to simplify it by binning the redundant bits and having once cable straight into the gearbox.

I also took the dash apart to clean up the uv degraded  clock plastics. 
 

I Found some bits of paper under the bench seat and one former keeper keeper was a suitably American sounding Chase Hanks. There was a card for a hairdressers in a town called seaside, In the Monterey Bay Area of California. Sort of between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Later on I went for another spin.  
 

[HMC]

With the allegro sold I now had a 1977 Chevy c10 and a Nissan micra on the fleet. 
 

I’m all for a noisy American toy but that micra. Actually I like k11 micras for their chuckability but decided I needed something a little bit nicer as my daily….

Hence I’ve sold the micra and bought a 1992  merc 220ce. In “Nutra” - named after a semi aquatic rodent. It’s metallic brown basically. Probably a very unusual choice in 1992, long before it was rediscovered by car buyers.

Its also been very thoroughly gone over.  All the stuff that rots or goes wrong has been sorted. 
 

Anyway here is the rodent brown merc coupe

 

[brownnova]

Oh I like that a lot!! You do seem to find some fantastic cars! 

[Jim Bell]

Yes!

Brown. Coupe. Three pointed star. 

Mint. 

[Marm Toastsmith]

I've said it before, but never felt it so strongly:

Dibs when you get bored.

 

[gadgetgricey]

That is beautiful,

[BL Bloke]

That Merc looks lovely. 

[HMC]

I also got hold of a roll back vinyl cover for the truck bed. Its not lockable, it’s just about keeping the good old Dartmoor weather out of the back. 

The company hq is in South Dakota, with a very USA name…

 

Yes the company is called truXedo. A tuxedo for your pickup? 

[SiC]

That truck is incredibly cool. Is it a thirsty, thirsty beast? Or does fuel crisis era tuning have helped keep things remotely sensible?

[HMC]

40 minutes ago, SiC said:

That truck is incredibly cool. Is it a thirsty, thirsty beast? Or does fuel crisis era tuning have helped keep things remotely sensible?

I’m not sure. It converts fuel into noise in a highly efficient way what with the (farmer) importers nascar tastes. I’m assuming thirsty beast but apparently the 305ci plus quadrajet carb can be ok ish on fuel, relatively speaking 🤪

[HMC]

I was still having problems with the pickup stalling, particularly on the overrun, with a bit of clever footwork needed to prevent loss of braking and steering on descents.

In the end replacing more vacuum line and using larger bolts to seal redundant vacuum tubes has done the trick. Also now the gearbox has a proper vacuum supply it shifts up nicely on a light throttle. This definitely helps the nascar soundtrack as around town it’s relatively discrete and not deafening. 

I’m finding it amusing that whilst some drivers pick a noisy exhaust and then let everyone know about it, I didn’t choose the exhaust system on the truck and I’m tip toeing around with it. It actually is quite a cruisy sort of vehicle anyway and suits a laid back approach; and anything that avoids kickdown stops Detroit iron heaven/hell being unleashed.

I celebrated by going for a pizza

 

 

[hairnet]

On 6/11/2022 at 10:09 AM, HMC said:

 

 

 

 

 

[hairnet]

On 6/11/2022 at 10:09 AM, HMC said:

 

 

 

@Faker @Datsuncog @They_all_do_that_sir will have all their jealousy and oofs in one of those🤣 /stereotype

*runs

[AndyW201]

 Ohhh, Nutria brown! As you say, a VERY rare colour. It was only available on the 190 for one year, in 1993 and known examples were reckoned to be barely into double  figures. I managed to own two...

I think the colour was even rarer on the 124 series, a Nutria coupe must be almost unique, I love it! Looks clean as a whistle too.

[loserone]

On 03/06/2022 at 17:03, HMC said:

Chase Hanks

[loserone]

I love that C10 so much I'm looking at radio controlled ones because I'll never be able to afford a real one.

 

It's a million times better than what it replaced.