Check Writing

The Pair
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.

The '83 "Blue Bomber" is at Giovanni's shop getting a rebuilt trans, oil pan, oil pickup, front end bushings, center bearing, u-joints, new distributor oil seals, full tune up, and a re-working of the heat / vent and window crank systems. I have two replacement "turbo" style rims coming in from Ohio, and Firestone-Bob is getting me some nice tires at an excellent price.

Most of this I was planning on doing a bit at a time over the course of the winter...but when my trans blew & left me stranded, it was time to admit I'd left a few things too long. This way it'll be in GREAT shape for the Oct 6th Leelanua Penninsula drive w/ WM-FLU. Thinking about taking the Milwaukee ferry over next Thursday night, maybe Friday morning. And the next weekend, there is the Milwaukee area cruise with Chi-FLU! It'll be nice to enjoy the end of driving season, just in time to button her up for the winter...

The '69 "Red Barron" got driven to work today. Monday night and last night I was using the new tap and bolts (Thanks Steve!), and an apparently INCOMPLETE description in BOTH the Haynes manual AND the shop manual as I tried to compress the piston into the caliper to attempt re-construction. What a pink-pickled-pucker of a job! It's a damn 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle! Trying to re-assemble all the pieces, while keeping them where they need to be, getting stuff aligned...WOW...

From this point forward in my life, I consider money spent at a good brake shop WELL SPENT!

But - I got it done! Now I know enough to appreciate the job, and be able to speak fluently to those doing the job themselves.

The Red Baron still needs a good bit of work before I'll trust it on longer drives. I'm swapping the coil & dist for the electronic ignition I got from John Logan's infamous '83 Lancia Zagato. It'll be nice to get rid of those points, condensers, and the old style coil with the ballast!

The carb still needs tweaking, and it's got an awful exhaust leak - admitting I'm immature here - IT SOUNDS AWESOME! Not sure what's up with the coolant system, but when the car is warm, the higher level of coolant in the overflow bottle looks like a blended smoothie. Guess I'll flush the system, & see how it looks at that point. The electrical systems needs a bit of TLC - I think cleaning the fuse contacts & pinching them for better connectivity will solve 90% of the little things. Then I can worry about replacing the carpet, new map pockets, a replacement dash, and upgrading the dash-wood.

It never ends, does it? It's FUN, though! It's AMAZING how different these two Spiders are...BOTH are a scream to drive, but very, very different.