The other day Facebook memories notified me that I hit the milestone of owning my pride and joy for 6 years. As a way of reminiscing I was looking through some old photos from when i first bought her, including some of the dash, and noticed that since getting her back on the road I’ve racked up 600 miles.
So far, knock on wood, they have been 600 more or less trouble free miles, which is really encouraging and gives me some confidence that it might be time to roam a bit further from home base. Road trip?
The weather will have to play ball though, as winter has well and truly hit south west Australia and it seems to be just non stop pouring rain. With all round drums and questionable waterproofing, the car has stayed in the dry garage for most of the last few weeks. This has allowed me to knock off a few little jobs that have needed doing. Number 1 was the rear door locks, which haven’t worked since i bought the car, meaning whenever I’ve taken her into town, the rear doors were unlocked and open season to whoever wanted to jump in. That said the security on a 50 year old car with old knob door locks is pretty rudimentary, you can get into one with some packing tape in under a minute. But they at least stop a honest thief, or slow them down anyway, so off came the door cards. A bit of penetrant sprayed around in the mechanisms took care of business and everything was working sweet again. I took the time while the cards were off to cold galv the backs of the rust repairs in the doors, and spray fish oil and wax inside the lower door cavity to keep the rust at bay. I’ve also taken advantage of a few end of year sales to buy a few odds and sods, including an earth strap for the fuel tank sender (having no fuel gauge is worrisome, and i’m hoping its just a bad earth), some new rubber bump stops for the bonnet to help alignment, and a new front wheel bearing which has been singing a bit on turns.
All in all, not much exciting. To keep me occupied in my spare time (hahaha, whats that) I’ve also ordered a new book written by slant six guru, Doug Dutra. I’m keen to put the secrets held within to work, and start tinkering again with the spare slant in the shed.
To finish off, here’s a few pics i took on a road trip to Donnybrook on one of the few recent “fine” days.
Rust, oil and skinned knuckles 