Day 6

Day 6 was a short, but expensive day.  I really want to get the car out on the highway, but I also really want to get to where I’m going with all four tires remaining intact, so time for new tires.  During the past few drives, its become evident that the tires are ready for replacement.  This is not an unknown expense, but I was hoping to wait a little while longer before spending the money.  I started searching for a set in the stock size and haven’t found much out there.  Not much of a market for a wide 16” tire.  Really, what self respecting individual would ride around on 16’s?  I guess me, for one.  If I knew for sure what the ultimate outcome of this whole project was going to be, and I were going to keep the car for myself, I would upgrade the wheels to a newer larger wheel…  But, in order to keep the car as original as possible, I’m going to stick with the 16”, so that limits the options.  I did finally find a set of the same tire that is presently on the car, and with the lack of other options, I ordered them. 

The tire place had them in the same day, but I didn’t have time to get there to have them mounted.  I had a dinner to get to tonight, but that wouldn’t be until later in the evening, so I left work, grabbed the car and headed out to the tire shop.  They got me right in and out.  I was going to keep the two front tires as spares, but as I examined the passenger side front tire, I saw the evidence of dry rot between the treads and there was a bad cupping wear pattern on the inside edge.  The driver’s side had cupping along the inside edge too, but not as bad, so I kept that one.  The cupping wear pattern concerned me, as that tells me there is a suspension problem of some sort, and if memory serves me, it is the shocks being worn out that causes that. 

I decide to swap out the shocks, they’re only about $30 a corner anyway and fairly simple to get to… or at least it looks that way.  So after dinner, I placed an order for a set of shocks as well, then bedtime. 

Until tomorrow…

Parts replaced today:

Tires $630

Parts cost so far: $850

Day 5

Day 5 was nothing major, just did an oil change.  I took the car out for the trip to the parts store, grabbed an oil filter and brought it back in and up on the ramps for the oil change.  During the drive, I tried the cruise control, and found out it works…  one less item to take care of. 

I got the oil change wrapped up, while the oil was draining, I greased up the upper ball joints and the tie rod ends, while greasing the uppers, it was evident that the rubber boots are history, the joints are solid, but the boots will need to be replaced, cheap fix, but not for today.  I buttoned everything back up and cleaned up. 

Until tomorrow…

Parts replaced today:

Oil and Filter $40

Parts cost so far: $220

Day 4-Window motor repair continued

Day 4 is history now.  I finally got a chance to finish the window motor repair.  But that was Tuesday afternoon following an early morning concrete placement on the jobsite.  Over the weekend, I spent some money… 

So I’m killing time in the airport on Friday and I start to make up a spreadsheet with the parts costs so far, as well as the projected parts costs to finish the repairs.  I plug in everything I can think of including the tools I have and plan to purchase…  then I look at the total…  Ouch, over 7 grand…  I was a little bummed out after that, because I had in my head $7000.00 as the resale amount…  and then I had to tell my Wife.  Not looking forward to that.

So I finally get back to Detroit and my Wife picks me up.  We’re driving out of the airport when I break the news…  I figure She can’t do anything too rash right now as I’m the one driving… but I brace for the impact…  and… nothing, she’s cool with it…  did I tell you all how much I love this woman?  She anticipated I’d be putting more than the cost of the car into the car for repairs, so she was not upset at all, or surprised.  Phew.  She makes a joke about this moment being documented on my blog and we both have a laugh. 

Saturday night I’m looking up parts and adding everything to my cart, I check a couple different websites, I compare prices and shipping.  Some parts are cheaper one place, some cheaper at the other, but overall they are close, so I settle on one place to purchase everything.  I place an order and hit the sack. 

Sunday was church then travel back to Georgia.  Monday was a late night at the jobsite, picked up the window motor on the way home, then an early morning for the concrete placement…  which brings us back to Tuesday afternoon, Day 4.  I don’t plan to work on the car today because I’m running on little sleep.  I figure I’ll get to the house, have a bite to eat, shower and head for bed.  Not so much.  I finish my lunch and get a second wind, so I figure I’ll tear into the door again.  It’ll be good, my roommate is not home so I get the whole garage to myself.

I crank up some tunes and get to work.  I left the door panel off and only reattached the inner panel with a couple screws, so it came back apart easily.  Now the hard part, to get the window and the regulator out.  I try to get the window glass out, but there is one stop that is bolted through the glass that will not allow me to slide the glass out.  Not cool.  I’m stumped.  I cannot seem to figure a way to get the regulator out without taking the glass out first.  Then I see there may be enough room if I can lower the regulator as if I were lowering the window.  I had the motor housing off last week when I tried to clean everything and make it work so I fingered it’d be simple enough to pull it off again and spin the motor internals to lower the window.  It does the trick and I’m able to get the regulator out without too much hassle.  I swap out the motor, using the dremel to cut off the rivets to remove the old unit first.  I grease the regulator and put it back in the door.  I reattach the glass and loosely bolt it in the door.  I then plug in the motor and give it a try.  It works great.  I bolt everything back together per the marks I made before disassembly… oh yeah, forgot to mention that… These windows must be realigned if they are removed from the regulator, so I made a few witness marks for reassembly…  before I reassembled everything, I took the opportunity to replace the outer door window seal.  I drilled out three rivets and removed the old piece.  Florida sun has not been kind to the window seals.  I install the replacement part and it functions and looks much better.  Now I can put the door back together.  It’s going to be replaced, but I don’t have the new parts yet, so I’ll need to get back together as best I can.  I button it up and give it a whirl.  The window goes up and down nicely, job done. 

I clean up the garage and chill out for a bit, Day 4 is over.

Parts replaced today:

Window Motor $35

Window Seal $0 (came with the car)

Parts cost so far: $180

Day 3 Driver's window repair?

Day 3 was a short day for work on the car.  Our intern was heading back to school and we went out to dinner after work.  I need to work on the brakes, but that will involve removing the wheels and tying up the whole garage, so tonight wasn’t the night to start that type of project. 

Instead, I’d try figuring out the driver’s window problem.  I started out with the easy fix by checking the switch and fuses.  The switch works fine and the fuse and relay are good so now its on to opening up the door panel, bummer.  I was hoping it would be easy, but not the case. 

I pull the door apart and find a welcomed surprise.  The window regulators are the newer scissor style, not the ribbon style.  The ribbon style is prone to failure and it is a slower mechanism as well.  Problem is, the motor doesn’t work.  I try taking the contacts apart and clean them, but still no luck.  Next, I pull the motor housing off and try to clean that as well, maybe I’ll get lucky… 

No dice.  The only thing left to do will be to replace the motor, but that will have to wait.  It’s late, I’m hot, and my beer is empty.  Time to pack it in for the night. 

Well, they can’t all be easy fixes, right?  I can’t complain too much, the replacement part is only $35 bucks, but the effort to swap it out is fairly involved.  Sounds like a job for Tomorrow-Man…

Parts replaced today:

None

Parts cost so far: $145

Day Two Progress: Fuel injector cleaning and plugs

Day two’s goal was to run the fuel injector cleaner through the injectors and then swap out the plugs. 

I was all set to purchase a professional style fuel induction cleaning rig when I came across a few posts about using an old R-12 can tap and a can of fuel injector cleaner from Napa auto parts.  R-12. For those that don’t know, is the refrigerant used long, long ago, in a land far away back when we didn’t care about the ozone layer or global warming…  at least that’s one of the reasons cited to replace the stuff with R-134a, which they are now looking to phase out as well.  But I digress…

With the R-12 being unavailable to the common man for the past few years, the hardware is just as hard to come by, so finding a cap tap on the shelf at your local auto parts is near impossible.  Oh yeah, they can order it, but it’ll cost you over $50…  not exactly a bargain. 

My father used to have a can tap for the R-12 cans due to driving older cars with tired A/C systems, so last weekend I dropped him a line asking if he still had it.  He found it out on the garage and he brought it with when Him and my Mother came to visit.  I had purchased a can of the cleaner earlier in the day from Napa to do a test run on my truck and it worked great.  Pull the fuel pump relay, screw the end of the fill hose into the fuel rail port and tap the can.  Started the truck, it runs for about 5 minutes on the can of cleaner, then stalls out when the can runs dry.  Job done.

I packed up the can tap and shipped it down to the rental house in Georgia.  It was delivered Wednesday afternoon, so after I procured another can of cleaner from a local Napa store, I was all ready to go.

I got home from work, pulled the fuel pump fuse, checked to make sure the fuel rail was not pressurized, and hooked up the can tap.  I put in the can of cleaner, tapped it, and fired up the car.  It ran for about 5 minutes and stalled out.  I pulled the can tap off, replaced the fuse, and started the car up again.  It still had a miss, at least one cylinder off, but I figured the cleaner wouldn’t fix the problem, and possibly make it worse by fouling a plug or two.  Next step was to swap out the plugs, once the old plugs were out, I’d be able to read them and see what’s been happening in the cylinders.  I’m was hoping to find a carbon fouled plug instead of a lean burning plug, which would mean the fuel delivery is good, but the spark was off at some point to allow the plug to foul.  But yesterday’s repairs should have fixed that issue.  I let the car cool down for a few hours, then swapped out the plugs, pretty simple task.  Finally got it all buttoned up and started it up… 

It fired right up and settled in to a nice smooth idle, no miss… 

To say I was excited, was an understatement.  I took her out for a victory lap.  It was running good, a little stab of the throttle broke the rear tires loose.  I finally had a Corvette! 

Now the car had the go, next task is to make sure it’s got the whoa.  It feels like the brakes are a little off, so no long drives yet.  Till tomorrow…

Parts replaced today:

Spark Plugs $25

Parts cost so far: $145

Day One Progress

Well, day one has come and gone.  I had to get a battery charger to bring the battery back to life.  While it was charging I gave had a chance to look over more of the car, trying to mentally prepare for what needs attention.  I did find that the tires are in better shape than I thought.  I don’t see any dry rot, and there is still a fair amount of tread left, so I can put that on the back burner for a bit. 

And since I could get the old girl started up, I had an opportunity to swap out the distributor cap and wires.  The old ones weren’t in awful shape, but the plugs will be getting changed anyway, and I figured its just a good idea to start with new tune up parts.  My injector cleaning rig is still en route, so I was unable to run a can of cleaner through them, but the battery was still charging anyway.  The longer I give it to charge, the better my chances of the car firing up. 

So I get the old wires off, marking them as I go so the firing order doesn’t get goofed up.  The cap and rotor are next.  A couple of electrical connections and four screws and it’s off too, exposing the rotor.  Two more screws and the old ones gone, being replaced by a shiny new one.  On this particular engine, the coil sits on top of the distributor cap, so that needs to be swapped over to the new cap.  No problems there, the instructions are easy to follow and the job is done.  Four more screws, and the cap is back on.  Now it’s time to run the new wires, always a treat, but I just take it one wire at a time and get them all installed.  By now, the battery has had a few hours to charge, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get the car started now.  I unhook the battery charger and jump in the driver’s seat…  well more like fall into the driver’s seat… 

I turn the key and it fires right up, and stays running…  It’s a good day.  Its still running a little rough, but it is running, nonetheless.  I want to get a full tank of premium fuel so any of the old fuel will be diluted enough that it wont affect performance.  That means I need to drive it down the road a few miles.  I start the voyage with a couple practice laps around the block first…  Sitting for a year has not been kind to the fuel system.  There is a definite miss, but it’s running on most cylinders.  After the parade laps through the subdivision, I bring her back to the garage to clean the windshield and check for any rubbing wires and look for other signs of problems, but it all looks decent, so it’s off to the gas station I go. 

I get out on the road and get her up to speed, it shifts okay and it tracks straight, those are both good signs.  Ah, but the rough running continues, and as I go to check the coolant temp, the gauge on the dash is not reading correctly…  Add one more item to the list.  I get to the gas station, I don’t dare shut it down now, for fear it will not restart.  I pop the hood and check for signs of any catastrophic failures, but other than a little bit of what look like cast off from the fan…  hopefully not coolant…  everything looks good.  So I get the car a full tank of fresh premium fuel with a dash of fuel system cleaner and I’m on my way back to the house.  I get the old girl tucked in for the night, or so I think… 

What is that chime for?  My car is beeping at me, could this be the reason the battery was drained?  I take the key out, I put the key back in, I check the steering column, I tilt the wheel, nothing stops it.  I get out of the car and close the door, the chime is still going…  and then I see it…  the headlights are on dummy.  Oops, so I reach in and turn off the lights, they flip down into the hood so elegantly.  I pop the hood, and hook up the charger for the night. 

Day one is in the books, it was a good day.

Parts replaced today:

Distributor Cap $20

Distributor Rotor $10

Spark plug wire set $90

Parts cost so far: $120

The Game Plan

Now that I have the car in my possession and got it registered this weekend, it is time to figure out my plan of attack.  In its current condition, it is unrivaled.  Its got a miss and the brakes are untested.  Fortunately, there is next to no fuel in the tank, so my first step will be to put a few gallons of fresh premium fuel in her and see how it responds.  I’ve ordered tune up parts, new plugs, wires, and cap and rotor, so those will be replaced for good measure, but I’ll try some fresh fuel and a injector cleaning prior to swapping out the plugs.  I also plan to replace the fuel filter.  If it still runs rough, then it may require a new set of injectors, the OEM pieces are a noted problem and the replacements are about $200, so it’s not a huge expense, but every dollar counts.  I’m going to try the cheap route with the injector cleaning first, but I won’t hesitate to swap out the injectors.  If that doesn’t get it running right, then I’ll have to come up with a new plan of attack.  That should take care of the major items under hood…  Hopefully anyway.

Next item will be the brakes.  From my quick assessment of the brakes, they are okay, with the exception of the parking brake, but that repair can wait a bit.  The priority will be to flush the braking system… A perfect excuse to get a new tool…  I’ll check all the guide pins and condition of the rotors and pads and replace whatever looks worn out, no need to skimp on the braking system.

And now for something completely different… 

I need to replace all four tires and the wheels need a bit of polishing, so I figure I’ll polish the wheels off the car with the old tires so I don’t have to worry about being neat about it.  Tires are still a mystery, there is not a huge selection out there for wide ass 16” tires, so I’ll deal with what is available.

After the mechanicals are sorted, I’ll move on to the interior, but that is a job for another day.