At times it seems that there is nothing to blog about, but I posted rather diligently anyway. Recently there has been plenty to blog about but I haven't made the time to do it. For instance:

1) We found a small mouse in the house last night. Oddly, I had the pest control guy in the house just a few hours earlier doing and inspection. Coincidence?
2) I may have set a record this weekend for emptying the hot tub. I used 4 hoses to drain it which went rather quickly. After cleaning it, I connected 3 hoses up to fill it back up. OK, yeah, that was boring, but ...
3) I helped David replace the heater hoses on his '91 Miata last Tuesday. The next day my Miata blew a hose. :(
4) My okra plants are over 10 feet tall.
5) I made a small batch of beer last Tuesday night. It is currently fermenting and should be ready in a couple of weeks.
6) The PCV valve on the Morris broken several months ago and some on the parts disappeared on the road. I plugged the holes for a brief period, but without the valve in place the engine leaks like a sieve. I found a close replacement part of a Triumph on ebay. The housing is not the same, but the internal guts are identical. Should have Roger up and rolling in no time.
7) One of my neighbors has started a Cars and Coffee for Huntsville/Madison. The first event went well. The second is only a couple of weeks way. The proceeds from the coffee are going towards an Autism.
8) Wind damage from the Tornado back in April is responsible for several leaks I have on my roof. I will get getting a new roof and painting some ceilings in the near future.

Fly-In/Car Show

Saturday morning I drove over to Big Ed's Pizza. The local British Automobile club was meeting there and then driving out to the Moontown airport for the fly-in. The route was a nice scenic route over Monte Sano which included several miles of tree lined roads. The cars included several MG from various decades, the same Jag E-type I saw last week, Ernie's Fiat Spider, a Sunbeam Tiger, a Karman Ghia, a Volvo, and various German air cooled vehicles. In all there were probably about 30 and I am certain I left out a few very interesting cars.

The fly-in was pretty awesome. Lots of cool planes - old, new, single wing, bi-plane, etc. It was fascinating to watch them take-off, land, and fly by. The older planes were the most intriguing.

Last week I made the mistake of going to the car show with a dead battery in my camera. This week I did not make the same mistake. Instead my memory car was full. I wonder what my next trick will be?

I had such a great time on the drive-out, I was seriously considering joining the Brit. car club. There I was surrounded by a bunch of cool convertibles, driving my Miata! I told one of them it was an Austin. Next time maybe the Morris will be road worthy. In the midst of all this I met yet another guy from Rocket City Miata club. He attempted to recruit me for their club as well. I have been intending to join it but they meetings typically occur on a might I am busy. It turns out they are currently meeting on a night that I am free. Hmmm.

British Car Show

I went to a British car show at nearby Joe Wheeler state park on Saturday. The show consisted mostly of MGs but there were a few others: Triumphs, Minis, Austin Healeys, Jaguars (including an E type), and even a Lotus Esprit.

The battery on my camera died after a just a few pictures, so I made due with my phone's camera. The above shot is a boattail end of a 1930 MG. I have more photos of this car but they are still on the phone.

My favorite cars were either the MGAs or the Austins.

GMC Update

Back at home on Sunday, I finally got around to cleaning up and priming the trans-axle and transmission yoke on the truck.

Ardmore Car Show

Yesterday's excursion was to Ardmore for their annual car show. I believe the show coincides with school starting back and is a fund raiser for the football team.

I had meant to attend this one at least twice in the past. I finally made it this year and was surprised at the size of the show. I don't know for sure how many cars were present, but I estimate it was north of 400. The show is held within a park and a good bit of the cars are actually parked in the shade. The shade didn't help much though because it was just so hot.

There was a high turnout of late 50's Chevrolets as well as a bunch of late 60's Camaros and Mustangs - the usual stuff. Also several interesting trucks. I got several great pictures including the one of the previous post of James and Lisa's Firebird.

The show included a parts swap. I took a quick walk through in search of a 27 spline yoke to put behind the TH350 on the '72 GMC. (I didn't realize I even needed one until last Monday - mine is pretty well worn because the needle bearings seized on the front u-joint. When the bearing stopped spinning, the entire bearing cap starting moving which wore down the yoke.)

It was a good show. I will definitely go back next year as it is less than 30 minutes from my driveway. I ran into several people I knew. Between the chatting and car gazing, I only stayed about 2.5 hours. It was just too hot for me. I hit the Sonic on the way out of town for a Cherry Limeaide. It sure hit the 'I need something cold to drink' spot.

Roger's Day Out

Today we took the Morris to a Euro-Brit car show. Lots of Triumphs, MGs, Austin Healeys and Volkswagens. Quite a few Range Rovers, Minis and Porsches. On Ferrari, one Lotus, and one Morris.

The trip, fewer than 10 miles, to the show was uneventful. That is until I stopped for parking directions. At that point Roger refused to start. That has not happened before (when I had gas in the tank – I have already run out twice because the fuel gauge doesn’t work). Fortunately the car is British so no one was surprised when it wouldn’t start.

I popped the bonnet and a bunch of guys leaned in under the hood. These guys were great. And knowledgeable. And prepared. After checking to make sure there was fuel, they checked for spark. The spark was weak. Eventually they had replaced the distributor cap, the rotor cap, and the spark plugs. And Roger was alive again. The amazing part was that they had all these parts with them. And more.

I got the name of the guy that supplied all the parts so I could replace them. I also learned a lot through the process. Basically the car didn’t want to start because the spark was weak – it basically needed a tune up. The weak spark alone was not the problem. The plugs were also really dirty. The plugs were dirty because the car was running rich. And the car was running rich because the electric fuel pump was the wrong part.

Normally these cars have mechanical fuel pumps but they often get replaced with electronic equivalents. The problem was that this one pushes about 5-7 pounds of pressure where the carburetor only needs about 2 pounds. The increased gas pressure basically forces gas through the carb which is what has been causing the car to run rich. This all made complete sense, after it was explained.

The car has been running rich. I had been studying how to tune the carb in order to correct the problem. Using the instructions from my manual, I had tuned the carb down as lean as possible. I was baffled as to why it was running so rich. Now we know. We also know I need to replace the fuel pump. (One of the guys even offered to loan me one.)

I also found out that as the distributor wears out the car loses power at medium to high RPMs. I would say that based on this knowledge I would say my distributor was well worn. The car definitely felt peppier after the meta-tune-up.

And finally I received lots of good advice I plan to follow:

0. Replace the fuel pump. Soon.

1. Finish the tuneup. Replace the plug wires, the condenser, the coil, etc.

2. Carry some spare parts in the boot. Extra plugs, distributor cap, rotor cap. The parts are cheap and don’t take up much space.

3. Buy some extra tools and leave them in the boot as well. With a Harbor Freight nearby, I think I can accomplish this for about $20.

One of guys in my neighborhood invited me to this car show. I already knew about it and planned to attend. I had talked with him about my carburetor already. He was at the show and had brought me a copy of a tuneup guide for my carburetor. (Did I mention these guys were all really helpful.) Ernie is a very interesting and knowledgeable guy. He is also a Fiat guy. I believe he has 4 Fiats, maybe 5, 3 are convertibles. At least one is a parts car. He also has a couple of 1967 Datsun 1600s which are also convertibles and which I think are pretty awesome cars – I mentioned one in a post several years ago when I first saw one in a salvage yard. Most of his cars are still in the project stage and I suspect he is actually working on all of them. (And he is an accomplished brew master.)

Last night the local Euro-Brit car club went on a drive. I had wanted to attend but I was pretty sure Roger wasn’t up to it. It is a good thing I didn’t attempt the drive. Hopefully we will be up to it next year.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable day, even with the breakdown. The kids went with me and I think they had a pretty good time as well.

Rained Out, But No Rain

The car show that was rained out last weekend was reschedule for this weekend. Again we had rain fore-casted but since no rain was actually falling, I decided to go on. When I arrived at the Athens Town Square, I saw a single vintage car. It didn’t occur to me to check the Cars on the Square web site for the event. It turns out the event was reschedule yet again. This time for June 6th.

What I Did and Did Not Do This Week

Last week was spent standing in a field in the middle of Ohio. I got back home Saturday at about 1:00 AM.

We got a dog Friday afternoon. His name is Yoshi. He is about 1.5 years old.

A camping trip had been planned for the weekend, but it was canceled because several of us could not make it. Turns out we had bad weather too.

There was also a car show on Saturday that I wanted to go to. It was postponed until next weekend because of the weather.

And finally there was a wood working show this weekend and I managed to get there on Sunday afternoon.

Buggin' In July 2009

This weekend was the annual air cooled volkswagen show. This is usually my favorite car show of the year. The entire show consists of fewer than 100 cars but usually draws from a larger radius than most car shows. And the cars are all air cooled VWs. Surprisingly every single car is unique.



No surprise that the same weekend of the show, I found a very nice '65 Beetle nearby. The car was still mostly original and unmodified. My intention was to bring the car home and take it to a few shows while I continued to work on the '72 GMC. Unfortunately someone else bought it while I was still trying to make a decision. I will think faster next time I find an original car in that good of shape.




Happy Birthday Danny!

2009 Greater Tennessee Valley Antique Car Show

This weekend was the big car show of year. The location this year was at Point Mallard in Decatur. The show seemed smaller this year but it was still very large. (I heard there were over 700 cars but I didn't bother to try to count them.)

I didn't have a vehicle that was road worthy this year so I hitched a ride with my neighbor Brian in his '66 Mustang. We took some chairs, a large canopy, and a cooler and made a day of it.

This was my favorite car this year. Reminds me of my first car, only it was a '76 Mercury and it was yellow.

Alabama Jubilee

Yesterday J and I went to a car show at Alabama Jubilee in Decatur. The jubilee is an annual hot air balloon rally. Also included is the car show, a antique tractor show, and some other stuff that currently holds no interest for me. This event falls on the weekend Memorial day each year.

J agreed to the car show under a single condition. He wanted to take pictures of the cars. No problem. He did a great job with the camera and we came home with lots of good pictures.

While at the show, I saw a 1968 Corvette convertible, triple black, which was for sale. The price was reasonable as well. I have been thinking about it.

The Kruse Automobile auction was in Huntsville this weekend. I attended along with a couple of my neighbors. It was definitely a buyer's market.

There were several cars there I wanted to see drive across the block. Unfortunately there were a bunch of cars I had no interest in seeing go across first. We lost interest and went home long before the good stuff started to move.

Next year, instead of arriving an hour before the auction starts, I will arrive two hours after the auction starts. This will still allow me to see all the cars but I can miss the 'junk' that gets auctioned before the cars start moving. Hopefully I will miss most of the five to ten year old SUVs and Cadillac that they started with as well. Who wants to see that? Not me. I was there to see the muscle cars and older.

Today was a wonderful day to be outside.

I drove over the Athens this morning (in the freshly painted Miata) to attend Cars on the Square. It was a really nice show centered around the old downtown square. It was a really big show considering it was only its second year. I ran into several folks I knew while I was there. I also looked over several old Corvettes with for sale signs in their windows. All in all, it was a very pleasant morning.

During the afternoon I finished planting the garden. I added cantaloupe, okra, cucumbers and more corn. For a small garden, I definitely over-planted. I will have to thin it out some once I see which plants are strong.

Weekend Update Posted Mid-to-Late in the Week

The posting has been slow around here lately. This is mostly due to my class schedule for the summer. Not that I am spending a lot of time in class, as I am only in class about 12 hours a week, sometimes slightly less if they let us out early, but still at least 10 hours. The real reason is the amount of time required to complete all of my assignments. The last few weeks has seen me spending anywhere from 40 to 60 hours per week on school. Can you say projects out the wazoo? Go ahead and try to say it. I knew you could. What happened to theSummer of Rick? It is absolutely insane, insane I tell you. Fortunately, all good things must come to an end. There are only about 2.5 weeks left of this semester.

Last Saturday I did manage to find the time to take the Turnip Truck out to the Greater Tennessesseessesseeesse Valley Antique Car Show. (Sorry about that extra eessee.) The trip to the car show was like three separate adventures. Count them.

The forecast for the day was 80% chance of rain all day long starting at 6:00 am. There were no clouds in the sky at 7:00 am so I decided I was going.

#1 Driving to the show. Driving an 83 year old vehicle is always an adventure. Doubly so when you attempt to drive 30 miles at a top speed of 35 miles an hour. No trauma on the trip out but we were amazed to see nearly twice as many cars there at 8:00 am this year than there were last year. Technically, I arrived at 8:10 AM this year. Last year I was right on the bell. When I registered, they gave me registration form #426. I assume that means I was the 426 car to arrive but I doubt it. And yes it was hot. And no, I didn't win any of the door prizes.

#2 Spending the Day at the Show. It was hot, but we came prepared. (We = me + 1 of the Brians) We had a cooler full of ice, a gallon of water, and a nice tent-tarpy-thingy along with several soccer-mom chairs, sans the soccer moms. I walked the parts swap and did not find anything I could live without. I also viewed like 70,000 old cars and trucks. OK, maybe 300. I ran into several people I knew, no surprise, and spent some time talking with Mr. Trailer Queen (Tim T.) who brought his 1924 Studebaker in on a trailer. I gave him the business because I had pretty much driven past his house on my way to the show.

Around 3:30 or 4:00 or something like that It was time to head home. Still no clouds in the sky but a call from home informed me it was raining there and had been for a couple of hours. Complete with dogs and cats.

#3 The trip consists of about 30 miles, probably an equal number heading north and east and unfortunately no roads go north east. As I am heading north, I notice large dark clouds to the east and some lightning. And some more lightning. I decided to change my route home in hopes of going around some of the rain. And lightning. I managed to find a nice bank drive thru to park under just as the rain came rolling in. The truck (and '66 Mustang) sat parked for about an hour while we waited out the rain. Eventually the rain pasted and clouds cleared and the pavement dried up. Still we sat there. Why? Have you ever tried to solve a differential equation in your head?

The rain is heading NE at 6 mph. We have a top speed of approximately 35 mph. The house is approximately 15 miles away almost due east. How much of a head start to we have to give the trailing edge of the rain before we leave so that we get home without driving back into the storm? So then we set there for another 10 minutes after agreeing we should wait at least 15. No patience to be found among us, for sure.

We did not catch the rain on the way home though at times we were just behind it. We experienced a little fine sprinkling but nothing worth blogging about. Getting home mostly dry was a major accomplishment. I guess it is good that I didn't win a door prize at the show for surely that would have used all my luck up leaving me to be drenched all the way home.

And in other news, this weekend is my favorite car show of the year. Yes, it is once again time for the air cooled Volkswagen show at Point Mallard. I will probably wait until Sunday to venture forth. See you there.

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

Weekend Update

We had a busy weekend. For starters we had a most special guest. OK, it was just Terry. The kids were thrilled to see her.

Friday we saw the Narnia movie.

Saturday morning I hit a car show in Decatur at the annual balloon festival. Many nice cars, too hot for me though. After the show, I went to my mothers house were we had a birthday party. The part was to celebrate her, Terry's, and Jordan's birthdays. Speaking of which, today is Jordan's birthday. Terry bought him an MP3 player for his birthday. He has been plugged in ever since.

Sunday. Hmm. Can't recall a clue about Sunday.

Monday we saw the Indiana Jones movie. And I ordered a clutch kit for the Miata. Little Beth and David came over for dinner. And Brian is working on rebuilding the carburetor on his 1966 Mustang. Once it is complete, he is going to finally give in and sell it to G.

This morning I put another coat of paint on the trailing arms of the GMC truck. I haven't touched them in months. Once the Miata clutch is complete, I will probably finally get around to rebuilding the GMC's differential.

Time for school.

Guess who got a sunburn this weekend?

This weekend was the first car show of the season. Mr. Mustang and I took our vehicles to a nearby car show/fund raiser for a volunteer fire department.

This was the second year for the show. The show consisted of about 80 to 100 cars, up from last years count of 18.

It was a bit chilly out so we did not set up our tent, instead opting to sit in the sun to keep warm. We both ended up sun burned. The worst part is that we had a tent and sun block with us. We just didn't use it.

Below you see a 1924 Studebaker. This was the oldest car at the show.



And this old Lincoln won best of show. As you can see, it was parked next to the Turnip truck.

Kruse Auction In Huntsville

I attended a classic car auction this weekend. I had never been to one before and it was quite enjoyable. The I only lasted about 5 hours. I suspect the entire event was 10 or more hours. During my time there, the lowest price was $2100 and the highest price was $110,000. Quite a few muscles cars sold in the 60 to 70 k price range.

This '57 convertible went for $110k.




At one point one of the bidders assistants was messing with me. I had accidentally made eye contact with him and he offered to place a $57,000 bid on a '62 convertible Corvette for me. *** Shakes head side to side and looks at this feet. *** The car eventually sold for $67k. I did not buy it.

If possible, I will try to attend this again next year.

Weekend Update

I got the taxes out of the way this weekend. One less thang.

Yesterday I finished up removing all the suspension leaf spring brackets on the GMC. I have made pretty good progess in the last couple of weeks considering it is winter. I suppose the next step is to drill holes for the related coil spring brackets and then touch up the frame paint. Either that or clean up, blast, and paint the rear differential. So many choices.

Today I made a trip up to Nashville to attend a parts swap. The swap was much bigger than I expected. I went looking for a GMC tailgate, or a GMC core support. Both of these items must be off a GMC pickup. Most parts are interchangeable with a 1967 - 1972 Chevrolet, these are not.

I found and purchased a GMC radiator core support. It is in very good shape. By its appearance, the donor truck spent most of its life in a garage or under a car port. The original paint is in excellent shape, considering the piece is 35 or 40 years old. The common problem with this part is the lower portion at one end is usually deteriorated due to acid from the battery being mounted directly above it. This one had the common problem, though someone had patched it. They did a fairly good job. At first I could not even tell the patch was there. Nice job.

The bargaining process went really well. Here is how it played out. I walked up, gave it a quick glance and asked the gentleman "how much for the core support?" His reply was "$50". I then picked it up and gave it a close inspection. While I inspected the core support, he dropped his price to $40. While I closely inspected the patch on the core support, he dropped his price to $30. He had done such an excellent job bargining the price down for me, I didn't even bother to counter offer. Personally, I think he just didn't want to have to carry it back to his truck. Instead, Brian (neighbor) and I carried it about a quarter mile back to our transportation. Well bought.

I also purchased a 1972 Alabama license plate. Perhaps someday this will be registered to the GMC. Brian also purchased an old Alabama license plate, his a 1966 for his Mustange.

My antique truck got posted on Stovebolt in the gallery. See it here.

This weeks welding class went well. I got a little experience arc welding. Arc welding is very frustrating at first, though I will say two+ hours of welding went by very quickly. This is definitely a learned skill and I haven't learned it yet.

[ 9.6 lbs to go]

While driving to visit some relatives on Christmas day I decided that this might be the year that I parked a Corvette in my garage. A Corvette or another old truck.

This creates a bit of a problem. There is not currently an available parking spot in the garage. No problem though, I have a whole year to resolve this.

In the meantime, I will start investigating cars that I see for sale so that I can be educated on what has reasonable value and what is a reasonable price. The thrill is definitely in the hunt. And sometimes the hunt convinces you that you have a bad idea. Or a really good idea. Should be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Another possible option in lieu of the fast car, is an old truck. In the past year plus I have missed having a useful truck at my convenience. If I happened to find a useful truck with the right vintage and quality it could attempt to follow me home instead.

Maybe. If I can find a place to park it.

Here are the initial search requirements. Help me look. The car should be at least 25 years old, more than 30 is preferred. The truck should be at least 35 years old, more than 40 is preferred. Either must be suitable for taking to a car show.

Shhh! Don't tell G. This is a secret.

It was a fine weekend

Saturday I took the turnip truck to the the Greater Tennessee Valley Antique Car Show. A stunning 715 vehicles were registered at this show.

My trip to and from the show was unique. I left the house shortly before 7:00 AM. A quick stop to top off the tank and I was on the road. The trip was 25 miles and it took about an hour. I route was mainly 2 lane roads but I did have to get on a 4 lane highway for a couple of miles. No problems though.

Two of my neighbors decided to accompany me to the show. Brian drove his '66 Mustang and Guy his '72 Chevrolet Pickup. We brought a tent, some chairs, and a couple of coolers. The shade was a nice relief from the warm sun.

The truck got a lot of attention. A whole lot of attention. Most were amazed not by its age (1925), but rather by the fact that it was a Chevrolet. It was not the oldest vehicle there. A gentleman from nearby Athens, AL had trailered in a 1925 American LaFrance fire truck.

Great Show.

Bug'n in July 2007

This weekend was also the VW show in Decatur. It was a two day show so I was able to go to it on Sunday. I took quite a few pictures and learned a lot about the little VWs. The cars are fascinating. A good mixture of vintage and newer, original and customized. The entire show is held under a large pavilion which is nice and cool even in July. This is my favorite show to visit. And there is definitely a Beetle in my future, though probably a very distance future. (I have to finish the 1972 GMC first.)

GMC Update

Sunday afternoon I removed a few more rivets from the new/old LWB frame. Only ten more to go and I will have everything off the frame that I need. I can then start the sand blasting process on the rear suspension componenents.

I will eventually need to remove the leaf spring brackets from the old/old SWB frame. This will be a minimum of another 16 rivets I will defer this task for a while.

This weekend was very busy. I think I need another weekend to recover.