If You Build It, They Will Come

Ok, so I'm not Kevin Costner and this ain't no Field of Dreams, but I guess you could call it my garage of dreams. Yes, I built a new garage. You see, I was sort of getting "evicted" from my old three car garage. The eviction was being served by teenagers, and exercise equipment, and cats, and... well, I think you get the picture. Technically I guess you could say I have a five car garage, but right now I can't even get one car in either of them, as I am still in the process of "moving".

All of this was done pre-recession, when I had abundant side jobs. I'm just now getting around to writing about it, now that all the side jobs are gone... along with all the money! What's that old saying? Oh yeah, "when you have the money, you don't have the time, and when you have the time, you don't have the money!" So I had the money but not the time, so I had someone build me a garage. That's a stretch for me, Mr. "Do It Yourself", but I satisified my inner Tim Taylor by doing the electrical, lights and interior walls. Can you say Tool Time?

Here is the basic frame work being erected.

.

Now they are starting on the roof. When you do this job you cannot be afraid of heights.

.

With the roof almost finished, it was time to start on the sides.

.

Now it is starting to resemble a garage.

.

.

Getting closer now. I can almost see a car parked in there.

.

.

Just about finished. All that is left is the garage door.

.

.

.

.

.

Voila! Instant Garage. Now I just have to finish the wiring, lights, and interior! Fun, fun, fun!

Stay tuned as I tackle the interior and try and squeeze all my stuff into it. From the looks of things I think I am going to have to thin out some of my junk. Hey, I gotta have room for my beer signs and my Keep On Truckin poster!

Wax on... Wax Off

I now have a new appreciation for what the Karate Kid's Daniel LaRusso went through when Mr. Miyagi was teaching him the clockwise/counter-clockwise hand motions, which he referred to as "Wax on, wax off". Was the paint really that bad on Number 1? Aye Danielson.

Let's face it, Number 1's paint is 36 years old! The original factory paint has seen better days. I am not a big fan of primered cars, unless the final paint job is close behind. While the Olds might actually look better in primer, I wanted to see what I could do with the original paint. A lot has to be said for OEM paint with patina.

Here is what the original paint looked like after being neglected for years. Any more rust and the car would look orange!

This is a nice "before and after" shot after a lot of color sanding.

.

.

.

.

I ended up wet sanding the entire car. It really cleaned up the old paint. If I were to buff the paint out it would still have an amazing shine, but I was satisfied with it just being one color.

.

.

.

.

.

I cleaned up the original hood on Number 1 even though I have a fiberglass ram air one for it. It will probably be awhile before I bolt on the ram air hood and I wanted the car to look as good as possible. That may be a little difficult to achieve because I have also started to remove all the chrome and emblems. I am going to slowly start the body work on Number 1. Remember, I said slowly. It doesn't need anything too major, at least as far as I can see... Stay tuned to see if I have opened up Pandora's box.

It Lives! Olds Cutlass Raised From the Dead

So I got my '72 Cutlass, Number 1, running great after quite a bit of work. Funny thing about cars that sit for long periods of time - they tend to fall apart. This is the case with Number one's interior, the front seat to be exact. After pulling off my custom seat covers (T-shirts) the seat looked as though a gang of squirrels had rumbled on it.

See, what did I tell you. Amazingly, the back seat only has one tear in it. Maybe my squirrel theory is not that far off...

.

.

This is beyond covering with a seat cover so I had to come up with a temporary solution. The seat frame is in excellent condition as well as the springs, plus it is a split bench with the not-so-common fold down armrest in the middle, so I definitely want to keep it for the car. While I can't afford to get it re-covered right now, it can't stay in the car either. I came up with the idea of putting in some bucket seats on a temporary basis, but got sticker shock when I started pricing '72 era bucket seats. The prices were outragous! What the heck, are the seat frames made of gold or something? I was almost set to buy a pair of those racing type seats you see in all the imports (yea, I know) when I came across a deal too good to pass up.

I found a set of bucket seats advertised on craigslist for a paltry $40 dollars. The ad said they were out of a Mazda RX7 and in very good condition. Hmmm, sounded like it might be worth a look. When I got there I discovered they were non-electric, leather covered, and felt good to sit in. Sold! Even though these came with the tracks, the Japanese must assemble their cars vertically, because the bolt holes in the tracks were all facing horizontal. I'll show them! That's what good old American angle iron is made for, even though the piece I used was probably made in China.

.

.

.

.

This is what I had to do to bolt the Mazda seats

in. Yeah, I know their burgandy, but they are also temporary. They bolted right to the original holes with my custom angle brackets, if you can believe that!

.

.

.

.

.

Here is the burgandy bun rester all bolted in. One down, one more to go. These seats should fill in nicely until the original split bench seat is ready to re-install.

.

.

.

.

.

After my bargin basement seats are installed and years of dust vacuumed up, the interior should be driver quality. Up next, it will be time to address the exterior. I'm not a big fan of primer, and I love patina, so stay tuned to see what I come up with to make Number 1 look a little more presentable and less like a rusting oil tanker.

Christmas and Music but not Christmas Music

As I write this on Christmas eve, it is very cold and rainy outside. The only way it could be more Christmas-like would be if it started snowing. I've really been falling behind in my blogging duties, as this is the first post I have managed to write in months. I have been doing minor tweeks here and there to the page, as some of you may have noticed.

The biggest change has been the addition of a radio of sorts. You really need to cruise down to the bottom of the page and check out the Garage Radio. The Garage Radio is powered by playlist.com, which is completely free. My music tastes are pretty diverse, but the main theme is eighties rock and roll. (Are you rockin with Dokken?) When was the last time you heard Convoy? It's on there along with a bunch of others. Hit the play button and crank up your speakers!

I've got a few more presents to wrap, so I had better stop playing on the computer. I am planning to post a lot more blogs in the new year so stay tuned for some interesting stuff. I hope all my readers have a very happy holiday and prosperous New Year.

Day of the Dead - Deadly Resurrection

Sounds like a low budget horror flick, doesn't it? In reality, it is a real B-movie that was made in the 90's. Do you know what is really scary? I was actually in the movie! My first and only acting gig. My old Chevelle was also in the movie. I think it actually did a better job of acting then me! While that movie was total fiction, I recently discovered that getting a derelict old car road worthy is a lot like resurrecting the dead, it's impossible.

I decided to take on the impossible and put my '72 Cutlass, Number 1, back on the road. Now keep in mind that Number 1 has been out of commission for at least three years. I use to start it up every other week, but that lasted as long as a bucket of KFC chicken. So I decided to do a visual inspection to assess the mess that Number 1 had become. Both front tires were now flat and most of the trans fluid had leaked out. The engine hadn't been started in at least a year, and it seemed to be leaking from anything that contained fluid. The front rotors were rusted badly and were wafer thin, it needed new front tires, the trans needed to be serviced, engine oil had to be changed, front end lubed, gas tank hoses replaced, carburetor rebuilt, possible tune up, wiper blades, and let's not forget washing years of dirt and grime away. I was afraid to even look in the interior, suffice to say it needed help before I parked the car...

First things first, I had to see if the engine would still run, as this would give me some kind of indication of how bad things were. I decided to charge the battery and then see if old Number 1 would start up. Of course I did the basic fluids check to make sure I didn't damage the engine. To my utter amazement the engine fired right up. All I did was prime the carb with some gas! A true testament to the durability of Oldsmobile engines and synthetic oil. Hard to believe? I caught the whole thing on video. Check it out:

Pardon the camera shake, I'm kind of new at this. Come to think of it, it kind of reminds me of the horror flick I was in! Now that I know that Number 1 still runs pretty good, it's time to dig in. Gee, I can't wait...

Here it is all raised up and ready for me to start working. Hey, I don't have a lift yet so I use what works. Besides, I have to be able to get all of my girth under this beast.

I figured I would start from the bottom up, so I started with the front brakes, then did the trans. After that I replaced the fuel tank hoses, changed the oil and lubed the front end. To wrap up the underside, I did a complete visual inspection just in case I missed something. All I needed now was a couple of front tires so I could lower Number 1 back down

Ok, the new tires are mounted and Number 1 is back down to earth. Now it's time to dive in under the hood. The carb needs to be rebuilt, spark plugs changed, and I need to inspect the cap, rotor and wires.

When I was removing the carb I remembered that the passenger side valve cover had been leaking before I parked the car, and that leak had gotten considerably worse. I had done the drivers side a few years before so it was nice and dry. Oh well, I'll just add it to the list of repairs!

After removing brackets heavy enough to be on a Sherman Tank, I was able to get to the valve cover to remove it. Your looking at a valve train with over 300 thousand miles on it! The benefits of running synthetic oil are clearly visible.

.

.

.

When I was done rebuilding the carb (the subject of a future blog) and replacing the valve cover gasket, it was time to replace the spark plugs and then fire her up. Now we know that it ran before I started all this work, so it should run great now, right?

Wrong! I couldn't get the engine to idle. It kept hunting for an idle and running rough. This picture is after I had remounted the carb after removing it to double check the float level and check for vacuum leaks. My experience told me it was a vacuum leak because the trans was not shifting correctly. Plus, I replaced the vacuum modulator when I serviced the trans so that ruled it out. After checking a few things with my vacuum pump, I discovered the leak in the distributor vacuum advance. One more thing that now needs to be replaced!

I am beginning to sense a pattern here, a parts replacing pattern! As I write this Number 1 is running good and is streetable. It may not look the best right now but I will be addressing that very soon. Next up is installing some bucket seats and cleaning up the interior. Stay tuned as Number 1 begins it's slow transformation from side yard fodder to a clean looking street machine.

Too Much Corn Bread is Bad For You

Note to self: Never buy a three-in-the-tree equipped vehicle again! Yes, you guessed it, I got burnt out shifting that beast of a trans in my International. Add to that a 35+ year old leaf spring equipped suspension and you have one heck of a miserable ride. These trucks are not made for comfort, they are made to work!

So I put it up for sale, not quite sure if there would be much interest in the old corn binder. To my suprise, it didn't stay for sale that long. Now someone else can have all that fun shifting that trans! I understand that the truck will be spending it's twilight years south of the border, in Mexico. If you happen to be down there and see it, say "Hola" for me. Now I'm off to buy mas cervesa!

Can you guess what time it is?

Corn Binder or Corn Bread?

Well, I sold good ol' Number 2, my latest Cutlass project. It was a great car and an excellent project, but I could see myself spending way too much money on it. In case you haven't realized it yet, I get bored with vehicles real quick. I feel good about the sale, not because I made a nice chunk of change, but because it went to a true Oldsmobile enthusiast. Maybe I'll see it someday at a car show...

Being flush with cash I was now on the hunt for another vehicle. (my favorite thing to do!) I decided that I needed a truck, pre-smog, and in the "dare-to-be-different" catagory. After a lot of surfing (the Net, not the ocean), I found my next ride.

Behold my Grandpa Green International 1100c pickup truck, fresh from the farm!

Most folks perceive Internationals as farm vehicles. Heck, there as comfortable as a hay wagon and as good as Grandma's corn bread. This truck was so stock I'm suprised the salesman wasn't in a casket in the bed! It even had the line card. For those who don't know, a line card to an International is like a build sheet to a Chevy. Back in the day you could literally build these when you ordered them, option by option. This corn binder was ordered with the 304 V-8, 3 spd heavy-duty trans, custom appearance group (side moulding), deluxe hub caps (I'd hate to see the non-deluxe), A/C (big spender here), push button AM radio, heavy-duty heater (the heater core was the size of a small child), and full length vinyl flooring... It also listed things like the rearend gear ratio, paint, seat material, gas tank size, etc, etc.

Here is the stump pulling 304 V-8. Yes, International engines really are that big.

So now I have myself a pickup truck. This will be my daily driver for awhile. Let's see how long it is before I get sick and tired of the three-in-the-tree shifter. You can't argue with the fact that it is unique looking, definitely a classic. You see, I just got held-up at gun point... oops, I mean, I went to the gas station to fill up and on the way home I got two "thumbs up". Ok, maybe one was a middle finger, but who's counting anyways? Well, off on another adventure...