| Saturday, September 18, 2004 |
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Closed for Remodelling
by brian @ 12:04:40 - [perma-link]The Clodine General Store, est 1864 or something. There's a remodelling
sign out front. Getting new rust? |
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Mike's Dad's DeLorean
by brian @ 13:04:49 - [perma-link]The original owner painted it white after burning his hand on the bare
stainless, after it baked in the Houston sun. Quite a unique car. I like
the "door is ajar" light and the 170mph speedo. Its just plain cool. |
   
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| Monday, September 13, 2004 |
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New Distributor Cap and Rotor
by brian @ 22:57:06 - [perma-link]The old ones are in the pictures. I hit the business end of the old
rotor with a wire wheel to clean off the, uh, carbon deposits I guess,
but you can still see it looks really rough. The spark had to jump
across to the grooved and burned contacts inside the old cap instead of
flowing through it down to the plugs. It took only a few minutes to
replace them, but I swear I can feel a difference even just idling it
around the block. I got a new toy for the garage: two IR remote controlled mini car pens,
red and black. Now I have pens out there when I need one. The cars
are just 2 function, forward and reverse-turning-left, but they're
surprisingly fun for 8 bucks. They even came with 2 sets of batteries. Oh yeah, and a timing light so I can set the timing with the new
distributor cap tomorrow. |
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| Tuesday, September 7, 2004 |
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Charger Update
by brian @ 23:46:12 - [perma-link]I took the Charger down to Josh's shop today and he balanced the
wheels. It drives like a real car now, instead of a drunk driving
simulator. But balanced wheels aren't that interesting to look at, so
its more engine and suspension pics. Everything I worked on is
conveniently highlighted in red. :) I fixed the (perhaps) last oil leak, a loose bolt on the valve cover,
and cleaned up some more wiring in the engine bay. Now I "need" a
braided stainless fuel line. |
  
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GB500 Clubman
by brian @ 23:54:35 - [perma-link]I don't know for sure that its a "Clubman", but I think that's just
what Ze Germans called it. I polished and waxed the GB so it will look all pretty when someone
comes to buy it. We dropped in a new battery (the old one was dead and
wasn't taking a charge) and some new gas. It eventually fired up. I
took it around the block a few times to get it warmed up, and get the
old gas out of it (its not THAT old, but its old). I guess it ran
well, but what do I know? |
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| Monday, September 6, 2004 |
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Race Ready
by brian @ 02:22:03 - [perma-link]Tonight we made new spark plug wires, custom routed along the motor and
cut to fit. I must say they look pretty nice, a lot better than it
looked when I got it in 2000. And it fired up first try! With all the wires out of the way, we noticed that the stock intake has
been "converted" into an air-flow intake. The front and back of the
manifold has been cut away, so air can (you guessed it!) flow
underneath and keep the intake air cooler (or something like that). I
just need some new spark plugs and it should be really fun. |
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PIR Historic Racing
by brian @ 21:03:39 - [perma-link]Josh, Connie and I went to Portland International Raceway to
dangerously drive my Charger as fast and as haphazardly as possible.
Just kidding, Mom!
We went to watch the historic car races. Connie drove her Mini, but
the show was small today, and there weren't many other Brittish cars,
so she bailed. Josh and I hung around for the races. It was really
cool seeing the cars in each class from different years competing
against each other.
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| Saturday, September 4, 2004 |
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On the road again
by brian @ 22:38:25 - [perma-link]I took the Charger into Josh's shop this morning to get the front end
aligned. It took a lot longer than either of us expected, but after
lunch it started going better. Now it drives pretty straight, and
turns really well, and even manages a good, smokey burn-out in the rain
(sorry, no pictures). The alignment machine had a funny Mini sticker on the keyboard tray.
And it looks like someone didn't wipe their hands after the peanut
butter & jelly sandwich before touching the car. Or maybe I put too
much grease in the ball-joint seals. |
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| Tuesday, August 31, 2004 |
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Fixing some wires and hoses
by brian @ 23:30:23 - [perma-link]The heater hoses and some wiring were pretty badly routed at some point
on the car. Both were resting and rubbing against the valve covers and
alternator, eventually wearing through. The electric system has been
acting funny (like all the lights and the radio cut out for a moment
when i touch the brakes), and this is probably a lot of it. While I was stripping the wire harness around the alternator, I forgot
to disconnect the battery and one of the frayed wires managed to short
itself through my chrome (and it had looked pretty good, too!). I
smelled smoke, but not until after it had arc-welded a nice mess in the
trim piece. So I disconnected the battery after the festivities. Tomorrow I'll get more hose, finish splicing the wires and wrapping
them back up, then figure out some sort of brackets to properly route
the heater hoses. Since my car originally had a 318, it didn't have
the right brackets, I guess. |
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| Sunday, August 29, 2004 |
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Back on its wheels!
by brian @ 01:56:02 - [perma-link]Josh and I pulled a marathon session in the garage tonight and got it
all back together. We dropped it down around 12:30, but that's too late
to be firing up the motor. So tomorrow we tighten the wheels, adjust the ride height (resting on
the lowered jack is a tad too low), add some fluids, then its ready to
roll. And get the wheels aligned. |
  
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