In a previous post I talked about psychological hurdles that an average guy, with average skill, average tools and an average budget has to deal with when he owns a classic car (ok…doesn’t have to be a classic…just “loved”). One of those was the fear of something breaking, either while you driving it or working on it. Can I fix it? Do I have the right tool? What if I can’t? Do I know anyone that can? For free? Can I afford to get it fixed? Even worse – long will I be deprived of driving it?
These are my concerns–always.
So with these worries..what in H….E. double L (does everyone get the H..E double L??) am I doing drag racing!?!?!?! Where’s my head at?!??!?!?!!
I hope you aren’t sitting there waiting for an answer!!!! ‘Cause I don’t know. I just do it.
But dude….you are so average….especially in the budget….heck..in all the areas listed above…oh and BTW….how about SWMBO (she who must be obeyed)…how’s that going to go…..”Hey honey guess what? I was at the tree and the light turned green and I got a huge jump on the V.W. next to me and the darndest thing happend…little pieces of my u-joint flew everywhere. Would you mind moving your car so the tow truck back into the driveway…thanks snookems!!!”….Um…sure…… good luck with that!!!
So over the next few post, I’m going to give some average guy tips for handling a little test and tune drag racing.
Next up…do I need different tires?????
Thanks for reading.
My Coupe taking of from the line. Before the new paint!!!
Just about every auto blog, has a place where the reader can upload their cars. I think that’s great but I’d like to take it a bit further. If you have a project car, no matter the condition or state of restoration it’s in….erk….even if it’s just sitting out in the backyard and you’re thinking about restoring…let me know. I want to feature it on the front page this blog. There is a following for the Average Guy’s Car Restoration, Mods and Racing blog, (over 60 view in one day) and it’s followed on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
So become part of the Average Car Guy’s Nation. Drop me a comment and we’ll get your car featured. If we can muster up a good flow of cars, we’ll have a car of the month contest with a gift card give away.
I received a couple emails referring to the images on the blog. Generally, I can’t get copies of the Robert Hooper’s prints, but I can get copies of the Mustang interior.
If you are interested let me know…sorry..they aren’t free…but very reasonable.
Thanks for the interest. Remember, a blog’s life’s blood are comments. Drop me some.
I love car art…anything from poster, to quality prints to cartoonish drawings.
On my wall in my office here at home I have 4 beautiful pieces done by Robert Hooper. We ran into him in Prescott, Az and at a street fair and, I just have to have these pieces.
I can’t them off the wall and scan them. So you’ll just have to stop by and see them….little joke there. I tried to capture them with the digital. Not great…but here ya go.
Next
Next
And the last of Mr. Hooper’s
I like these.
I really like this next one in particular…why? It’s an image of the interior of my Mustang. Let me know what you think. This one hangs up in my office at work. Little washed out as posted here but much better in person.
You have a piece of car art? Let’s hear about. Drop a note, post a pic or email an image to me and I’ll put up on the blog.
As I slowly start to bring this blog back to the core of why I created this blog (Restoration, Modifying, Race..etc) I’ll begin to post some restoration tips. This will be things I’ve actually done, or friends have done that I know worked.
So here is one:
Most of the old cars with manually roll down windows have felt window seals. You know, the two cushions on either side of the door that the window slide up between. Those are normally rubber with felt covering and over time they get hard and shrink. The next thing you now you have water in the bottom of your door. That water will rust your car, even in Tucson, AZ where I live.
I don’t know if you are like me but I drive my cars, no garage babies or trailer queens and I drive them while they are in the middle of being restored…..erk…as long as they are safe to do so (had to through that in there…just in case!!!). This means they get wet, although here in AZ, it’s mainly from a weekly washing, it’s still water. I bring this up because, besides the door felt leaking, other rubber areas can leak as well. The very thing that makes AZ so great, the abundance of sunshine, can be harmful to your car. Sure it’s great for getting a tan and raising cactus… not so great for plastic and rubber parts of your car.
I know this because I had a problem with my Mustang and a rear window leak. Water would puddle up (slightly) in the trunk. If you are familiar with the older cars you’ll know that many of the trunks have a drop off on each side of the trunk floor that leads to the side lamps. This forms a nice little well in the bottom of the rear quarter panels and water collects there. Where water collects, water rusts….ya don’t need a degree in chemistry to figure that out.
So now I have water in both my doors and both of my quarter panels. NOT GOOD!!!!! Some cars were built with in drains in the quarter panels…my Mustang has them. However, if you remember back a few post (errkkk….Hey if you are new to my blog…go back and read the older posts..there’s some good stuff there…) I mentioned that my Mustang was rear ended. During the major reconstruction the body shop left debris in the quarters and it plugged the drain. Unprofessional, for sure (we’ll talk more about picking the right place to have the work done in another post), and dangerous.
So make sure you check this area out and keep the drains unplugged.
Now I went a step further…I took an 1/8 inch drill bit and added a couple extra holes in the doors and quarter to ensure that air gets in there and the water can get out.
Ok..anyone freaking out yet?? Good!!! I placed these where they can’t be seen (unless you are laying on your back with the door open in the very bottom of the door between the weather-stripping and the outside of the door, where it meets the rocker panel. And in the quarter panels I just drilled in the 1/4 space that is the width of the bottom.
I took a very small round file and smoothed the holes up and then took a little touch up paint to them.
Works like a dream and but you still have to check them and ensure they don’t plug up.
Here in Tucson we have a lot of road construction and as is the case with most states in the union, suffering some budget issues, so maintaining our roads is a bit lacking. Put these two things together and you have a lot of debris lying around the road.
Over the course of the last 3 weeks two incidents have taken a toll on the undercarriage of the CINC_Household’s car….)erk…..CINC is a military term meaning “Commander in Charge”). Seems a pieces of metal ended up in the front wheel well and snapped off the clips holding the plastic lining. That one had to go to the dealership for repair. Just last week the CINC couldn’t miss what appeared as a bent hub cap on a highway and this destroyed the plastic covering underneath the engine compartment.
So my task today is to replace that piece along with the sound proofing.
Need to get that done this morning, because apparently, although totally beautiful outside right now, we are in for some nasty weather this afternoon. I’ll post up some pictures of the work later on. Yes…I know…not a classic car and not a muscle car..but it’s got 305 hp w/ automatic slap shifting transmission….it can get out of its own way!!!! And one day…I’m sneaking it out of the garage and taking to a test-n-tune.
I should throw “collecting” in the title of this blog, because, although it’s about 2.5 months old, I have mentioned collecting a bunch of times. But really that is part of hobby as well.
Of course if I were to list all the cars I’d love collect, it would be fairly long and in reality (my reality) unaffordable..unless you are Jay Leno… I hate that guy. Ok..I don’t hate him…not really..the green-eyed monster made me say that.
Since I’m not as funny as Jay and I have to work for a living….what?…..ok..ok….I’m sure Jay works very hard…I guess…it’s tough reading funny newpaper clips….ok…Sorry Jay, I have “substituted” this alternative method of obtaining the cars I’d love to own.
You all figured it out yet? I’m talking about models, scale diecast replicas. There is an entire industry out there that produces, imports and markets these items. Some of them are extremely well done.
Here are some shots of my collection. I’m concentrating on the Mustangs and Corvettes in the sizes 1/18 or 1/24 scale.
These are a few of Mustangs
And these are a few of the Corvettes.
A Few of the Vettes
Most of these are Danbury Mint and GMP pieces, I do like what they produce, lots of details and they are affordable (around $100.00 each).
Here is a few shots of the 1967 GT 350.
GMP 1967 GT350 Interior
GMP Mustang GT350 Engine compartment
The Franklin mint produces cars, Greenleaf, Motormint, just to name a few.
It’s fun and affordable and they do increase in value. It’s gotten so popular that even the mainstream car magazines like Hemmings (they normally have at least one article in every Motor News edition), Mustang Monthly and Corvette magazine have articles that discuss this portion of the hobby and even rate the quality of individual brands and their offerings.
If you collect already or want to get started drop a comment to this post. Toss in some pic as well.
They attended Greeley Wesleyan Church. Garen collected all types of diecast model cars and loved to show his collection to all who visited their home. Above all was his love of his family, especially his grandchildren. Garen is survived by his wife …
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