Tag Archives: Auto Restoration

Lemons, Lemonade, Life and Project Cars

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No this isn’t a about purchasing a junker car.

This is just an update.

I’ve been preoccupied the last few days I haven’t kept up with my articles.  Since this is the Average Guy’s..etc., then you’ll get this next part.

Thing’s happen in life (a.k.a. – Lemons) and you just have to deal with them.  The goal is always make the best of the circumstances (a.k.a. – Lemonade).

Earlier this week I lost my job with the company I worked in for the past six years. This is not  uncommon in these economic times and there are many average car guys and car gals in the same boat.   Many of those people have project cars and these end up being put on the back burner or sadly end up being sold. As car people we all know this happens and hopefully the car goes to good home.  Hold on before anyone drags out their savings and offers to purchase my Mustang – I’m not there yet.  But it will put my major plans for it on hold for a bit, which is a darn shame, because now I seem to have extra time on my hands to accomplish all those mod, not true a week ago.

So for the better part of the past week I’ve been setting up my job hunting network and getting it in motion.  Now it time to wait it out and see what pops up.  In the meantime I’ll have more time for writing and doing the little left over projects on the Mustang.  I still have the passenger’s seat to re-upholster and the front air dam to put on (I’ve had that in the box for years).  I can install  the polished aluminum alternator bracket I worked so hard on and have yet to install.

And……. I am project managing the restoration of a 1975 Standard VW beetle – pro bono. Here she is:

1975 VW Standard Bug - New Project.

More to come on that.

So unless you are Jay Leno (I hate that guy!!! – not really,  I’m just jealous – I want him to hire me to keep his cars driven and shiny and search out more cars for him..hey..there’s an idea!!!! “Dear Mr. Leno, I’m a car guy and I currently find myself with some  free time so I’m applying for…..”)   you dealt with circumstances like job loss or lack of funds to finish or keep that project collector car.  But remember you can take it slow on projects – it’s OK to slow down and if you have to give up that beautiful machine, keep the memories and there is always tomorrow and another car in your future  –  you have to believe that and work toward it.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Racing History – The Manufacturers – Mercury Part I

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Read on and let me know what you think.

1950 was the year Mercury produced its one millionth  car and it also produced two Mercury NASCAR Grand National wins and was the official pace car of the Indianapolis 500.

1950 Indianapolis 500 Pace Car ’50 Merc Convertible

One of those wins on  June 18, 1950 – Blair piloted a 1950 Mercury owned by Sam Rice to victory in a race at Vernon fairgrounds in Vernon, NY.

Mercury was able to reproduce that success with two wins in 1951 as well.

There was a bit of a dry spell until 1956 when they won 5 NASCAR Grand Nationals.

One of those wins was Tim Flock, with his Mercury in rather wet conditions in the 258-mile NASCAR Grand National event at Elkhart Lake‘s Road America.

1956 Mercury

More coming up.

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

mercury nascar historymercury nascar history

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1934

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Jump back to 1934 and lets see what the auto makers cold crank out.

Ford was the leader over Chevy but only by 12k cars, 563,921 and 551,191 respectively.

Plymouth was third with 321,171.

Dodge was a distant fourth with 95,011

Hudson/Terraplane produced 85,935

Oldsmobile only 79,814

Pontiac just slightly behind them with 78,859

Buick finished up last with 71,009

What else was going on in 1934:

–  Hudson dropped its six banger

– Lincoln put V12’s in all of their cars.  The 414 cid carried a 6.3:1 compression.

– Graham produced the supercharged Custom Eight.

Graham's 1934 Custom Eight

You know I love engines and this Custom Eight is great!!

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

Mustang Upholstery Part V

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I thought I’d take a minute finish up the write-up on the very first upholstery job.  I finished it up a two weeks ago and really missed driving the Mustang, but that’s what happens when you do your own work and you can only fit it between all the normal life stuff that needs to get done.

Yes, as I  was reminded twice by a couple of car acquaintances, I used a kit, some say they aren’t much different from slip covers, but as you can see in my shots here that’s a bit of an understatement.

Now these next two videos are not all that great but I think you can see the removal of the back and the fasteners.  I’ve worked with these type of fasteners before in my father’s body shop (back in the early ’70s) nearly all door panels and seat back were fastened in that way.  They work really well but bend them (and they do bend easy of they aren’t aligned with the hole and pressure is applied) and you’ll have to spend sometime reshaping them, even then they might not hold properly, or replace them.

Check out the videos:

 

 

 

Here are a few more photos and the finished product.  Not to bad for my first one.  I have the passenger’s side to do.

With the plastic seatback removed.

Needed to remove the back release

2 piece

release removed.

Helpful hint:  All the hardware and fasteners have to pass through upholstery.  Rather than  try to cut holes, I made X cuts and pressed the screw or hardware through.  This made it as tight as possible.

Markings on the Foam

Good shot of the cloth sleeve with the wire passed through.

Here you would pass the hog wire while in the hog-nose pliers through the cloth between the upholstery and the wire.  You then have to shove this down between the two pieces of foam and grab a spring.

Finished product.

Replacing the seat track was done before I married the bottom and back.  Placing it back in the car was a little tricky..until I figured out that moving the set on the track was the way to get the studs to drop back in to holes in the floor board.

Over all this was not as tough as I thought it would be.  The passenger side will be quicker.  I’ll post the final product on that side.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

 

 

 

What’s coming up? Take a look!

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I have a couple of interesting pieces coming up.

1.  Mercury Marauder name plate

2.  Closure on the upholstery for my ’70 Mustang.

3.  Reader choice – you choose the next engine to highlight

I have a couple commercial ventures on the near horizon:

1.  Certified Auto Appraiser – I’m about to finish my certification and will be specializing in Classic, Muscle, Antique and speciality cars.

2.  Auto restoration project management.  Focus is on those individuals that love their cars, but don’t have the time nor the experience to know what needs to be done.  I’m actually waiting for my first car.  It is a 1975 VW Bug coming all the way from Iowa City, Iowa, should be here this will for inspection and the beginning of its restoration.

So what engine would you want to see highlighted?  Drop me a note here or on Facebook.

Thanks for reading

 

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1950

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Folks seem to like this segment so let’s continue with 1950.

19 major car makers existed back then and Chevy topped the production totals with 1,498,590 units followed closely by Ford with 1, 208,912.  The rest of the field were all less than have that.

Plymouth – 610,954

Buick – 588,439

Pontiac – 466,429

Olds – 408,060

Dodge – 341,797

Studebaker – 320,884  (Don’t ya wish they would have made it?  I would love to have seen their innovation continue.)

Mercury – 293,658

Chrysler – 179,299

Nash – 171,782

DeSoto – 136,203

Hudson – 121,408

Cadillac – 103,857

Packard – 42,627

Lincoln – 28,190

Kaiser – 15,228

Croslely – 6,792

Frazer – 3,700

Of note:

This was the last year for the Old 6 cylinder 76 models, while their Rocket  88 set speed records at Daytona – averaging 100.28 mph.

Packard began selling the only automatic transmission ever developed by an independent car maker.

The Rocket 88 - record setter.

 

Can a pick a Frazer out of a line up?  Me either. Here’s one.

1950 Frazer Manhattan Convertible

How about a Crosley?  Yeah I could do that one.

Crosley Hot Spot - circa 1950

And what did a automatic transmission look like in 1949?  Here is the Packards Ultramatic.

The looked a lot like todays automatic transmissions

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Product Review – Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing Closure

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So you’ve read my review and I promised to drop a note as to the “Long Lasting” part of Griot’s Garage’s – Long Lasting Tire Dressing.

Now is has rained nearly every day since I applied the dressing.

So take a look at the tires with 2 applications and 3 applications.

Tires with 2 applications of tire dressing

 

Here is the tire with 3 applications of tire dressing

 

Here is what I think as a wrap up.   Long lasting to me doesn’t necessarily mean just duration, but can it stand up to everyday driving – oh—yeah…just in case I failed to mention, the  Vette is my daily driver.  It lived up to the Griot promise.  I’ll continue using this product.

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

Readers Question – Swings in Oil Pressure.

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From Michael Woodword – hey, I just got a 1993 thunderbird with a 5.0 HO. every time I come to a stop, the oil pressure drops dramatically. I was wanting to know if you would have any idea what could cause this. Thank You
But when I get back up to speed its fine.
It would be nice to get an opinion from an expert which ar
nt easy to find

 

ANSWER:   Michael. The pressure should drop when you stop, dramatic swings in the gauge could be a problem with the gauge or you need replace your oil sending unit.

Transformers The Movie – Do We Love Our Cars?

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Do we love our cars or what?

I recent attended a showing of the latest Transformers movie (“Dark Side of the Moon“) and if you know anything about this series or of the cartoon of years gone by, you’ll know that the main characters are machines that turn in to robots.  Most of these are vehicles, cars, trucks, semis and even military aircraft.

The car group included a lot of chevys this time, a Camaro  which is one of the main stairs, an Impala and a Corvette (actually a representation of a prototype Corvette).  The  Corvette transformed into a rollerblading robot – which I thought unfitting of my favorite car.

There is the human hero and of course a hot model as his object of desire.

When the hot model was threatened or in harm’s way you could hear the audience get involved.  But when an evil robot was about to execute the Camaro character the audience got really vocal.   Kids cried at that images, thinking that the Camaro was about to get wacked,   forget about the girl….just don’t hurt the car!!!

Yes we love your cars.  Oh and the good cars – the Chevy‘s– saved the world again.

But that’s movies and you can just enjoy it with no lasting harmful effects..unless you are me or  maybe it wasn’t me but the subliminal messages.  I left wanting a Camaro, but not just any 2012 Camaro, but a yellow with black striped bumble bee Camaro.

It must be subliminal messages, I had the same desire after watching Will Smith zip through the empty streets of New York City in the 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang in his move ‘I Am Legend’ yes the red with white stripes.

2007 GT500 Mustang

2012 Camaro

 

You know you want both too!!!

Thanks for reading…and go hug your car!!!

Tim

Product Review – Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing Prt 2

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Before I attempted to use the tire dressing, I washed the car and gave the rubber a good scrubbing.  For the actual application I used an old sock.  When I first poured the dressing on to the sock, it was a bit runny, but still has some consistency.  Keep in mind the temperature, 105 degrees in my garage where I  stored it and where I was applying it and about 108 outside.  I was a bit concerned, because with two show cars (one, a trophy winner and white!!) and having the tire dressing flung all over the paint isn’t cool, which is exactly what I won’t use the Eagle One brand.

I gave 3 of my 07 Vette’s tires two coats and I have one 3 coats.  Take a look a the results.

First coat:

First coat - not even - most likely due to the sock.

Another first coat

An additional note – these pics were taken in my garage with a less than optimal source light.

Now with the Vette  moved out into the sun and two coats.

Two coats - pretty nice coverage.

I really liked the 3rd application.

3 coats created a good look

So know I’ve given each tire 3 coats and since I don’t do this for a living, the next test had to wait.  I had a few ‘honey-do’ chores, before I took the Vette for a drive.  So the car sat in the sun for about an hour – temp was about 108.

With the to do list completed, I  needed  to take the Vette out to toss some air in the tires.  Yes…average guy tools = small compressor  that doesn’t hold enough air to top off four tires..heck…it can barely do one…got to upgrade one of these days.

Here is where the rubber meets the road and hopefully the tire dressing doesn’t meet the paint, but first a note. I did in fact drip some of Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing on my chrome wheels and sure enough it cleans off with moist rag.

Take a quick spin about 1.5 miles from the house and I don’t drive 30 miles an hour…the tires spun pretty hard the entire trip.

At the air pump here is what I saw.

Light running

Same here.

I’ll mention, again the temperature and I think that might have something to do with it, but really this wasn’t bad.  The real test was whether or not it spread to the paint and since it’s a black car you aren’t going to see it as easily – it’s a clear liquid as well.  So a quick swipe with a white showed me all I needed to know, it came back clean.

So I’m pretty pleased with how the product worked.

As far as the “long-lasting” part.  I’m not going to be able to render a fair opinion yet for a couple of reason:

1.  I just put it on

2.  We don’t get much rain here in Southern AZ  but it is the monsoon season so it has rained 3 times since the application.

So that will have to be in Part 3 later on.

I need to add a few notes as I always do when I review a product. (Some of that laws school was worth the $$$.)

I don’t work for Griot’s, my only connection is that I”m on their mailing list.  This is the first product I’ve purchased from them.

I did see a tweet from someone related to Griot’s Garage commenting on this review, but don’t know the individual.

I’m not Consumer Reports or Consumer Digest.  I only comment on products I use in my search for “stuff” that works well for me.

Whenever I write about a product I try to follow the  instructions provided and always give any variances or events/conditions that might impact the outcome.

Thanks for reading.

Tim