Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas Loot....

Hope everyone had a great holidays. I got some pretty neat stuff for Christmas and my birthday. XM radio, new Nikon camera, tools, clothes, some music and dvds. All in all some great stuff.

I may have the TR4 sold. Waiting on the buyer to get back in town next week. If that is the case then the TR6 could be sitting in my garage pretty soon. Already have a to do list for the 6: new front brakes (Toyota swap ins), new seat covers, and a transmission rebuild. I estimate I can do all this work and still clear a profit on the TR4.

Heading back to work for the first time in a week tomorrow. Going to get a plan in place for visits back up north, out west and through my southeast accounts. Planning to be on the road a lot this first quarter of 2008 to really try to expand my customer base and push my companies products into the aerospace industry as well (trip to Florida and Texas possibly.) Also going to look into a trip to South Korea sometime this year.

Looking forward to a good 2008. Hope everyone reading has a great New Years!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

TR6?

Ok, new development on the car front. Found a 1970 TR6 that I am going to look at today. Nice looking car in pictures (but aren't they all?), owner says it is in great mechanical shape and just needs interior work. Guess I'll find out in a few hours. I'll post some pictures of the car when I get back from the test drive.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Waffle, waffle....

I worked on the TR a bit this week. Changed the oil and the spark plugs. Changing the plugs made a HUGE difference the first time I started it up. Still have not driven it around with the new plugs but I look forward to seeing what the performance different will be this weekend. I have been able to drive it a good bit the last week or so here in Atlanta, the weather has been perfect for cruising. Just like my MINI, when I haven't driven it for a while I forget how much fun it is. So I guess I am officially waffling on if I want to sell it now. I caught myself thinking of things I would like to do to it. Paint, Fuel Injection, engine rebuild ect. So what to do? Don't know. I think I am going to have to think about it over Christmas. I still have a few guys interested in the car but no one that has come and look at it in person. I also still need to call the guy with the Datsun and go look at it. Don't want to sell the TR and not have a replacement lined up.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Random Thoughts....

Warning: NON-Car Related Talk to follow (for the most part)

If you didn't know, I went to Georgia Tech for college. Graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering (Yes, my kids will get to say Daddy is a Rocket Scientist one day). Anyway; GT hired a new football coach last week, Paul Johnson. I'm a big fan of this guy. Been arguing with the guys I sit with that we should hire this guy for over a year. Well, know we have and I guess I get to see if he can turn the corner with our program or not.

Had a good weekend seeing my Grandmother and parents in wonderful Boiling Springs, NC this weekend. As always it was great to see everyone. Ended up looking at old baby pictures most of the morning on Sunday. It is surprising how much better it is to look at old actual pictures then to sit in front of the computer and look through pictures. Realized that I need to talk my dad into picking up a 1972 Volvo P1800ES off ebay (Dad, if you buy it I'll do my darnedest to restore it for you!).

I am in Chattanooga this week on bidness (as Dave Thomas would say) again. Going to try to make a quick trip through some twisties on the way home tomorrow.

In music news: Waiting on getting my Radiohead collectors edition of "In Rainbows" this week. By far my favorite record in the past 5 years. Can't wait for my first listen of the unreleased material on the phonograph later this week.

Should have the rest of the items in to build my wall mounted draft beer system later this week. Just have to decide on what kegs to buy first. At the moment I am leaning towards a Pony Keg of Amstel Light and a 1/6 Barrel of Breckenridge Avalanche Amber Ale. I'll post pictures when I get it all installed.

On the car front. Still trying to sell the TR4a. Drove it to work today and realized what a great car it is. So smooth once the engine gets warmed up. Got to thinking of what I would like to do if I keep it....New paint job and then build a megasquirt fuel injection system for it. Guess I'll have to wait and see if anyone buys it.

That is it for know......

Friday, December 07, 2007

No Bugeye afterall?

Well, still trying to sell the TR. I have one guy looking but he hasn't been able to get away and come look at the car in person. Got the pictures of the Bugeye that I was interested in. It is pretty rough. Not sure if it is the type of project that I want to tackle right now. Would involve a lot more body and interior restoration than I would like. The Patrol would need some work but would be much easier to do than the work needed on the Bugeye. Plus, I don't know if I would want to "projects" going on at the same time. So, what to replace the TR with if I can't find a suitable Bugeye? Another TR? Nope, unless I can find a TR3 in good shape for cheap (not going to happen). Hmmm, what neat, rare and relatively cheap classic 2-seater roadster are out there? How 'bout a Datsun 1500/1600/2000 Fairlady? Yep! Love these cars, would like to get a 2000 but could accept one of the 1500/1600 ones. Neat looking cars with performance equal to the TR4a. Guess you'll just have to wait and see.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Triumph Replacement?

What car am I looking at to replace the TR with? Well it is actually a few. Found a guy in South Carolina that has a few Austin Healey Bugeye Sprites that I am going to look at. He also has a Sunbeam Alpine, 2 Alfa's, a Lotus Elan and a Lotus Europa that he is selling. He had a Sunbeam Tiger but already sold it. Figure I will go up to see the Sprites and poke my head around whatever else he has lying around. I also figure I will finally be able to pick up the Nissan Patrol here in Atlanta and maybe try to get the one I found in VA to use for parts. More news to follow when I know if the TR sells or not....

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Selling the Triumph??

Some news on the classic car front. I may be selling the Triumph. If you are interested drop me a line! Reason why I would sell it? Well, the classic British Roadster that I always wanted was an Austin Healey Sprite Mk I, commonly known as a "Bugeye" or "Frogeye" Sprite. I have recently found a few for sale around Atlanta that are affordable and figured that this would be as good time as any to make the switch. Depending on how much the Bugeye costs and how much I sell the TR4a for, I may even have enough left over to get the Nissan Patrol I have been trying to get for the past few months. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes! As soon as I know anything I'll update my readers here!

Again, If you would be interested in buying my 1967 Triumph TR4a, drop me a line at clifclavin@gmail.com

Monday, November 19, 2007

1 Year in.....

Well, just realized that I've had this blog for just over a year. 72 posts so far. I've had a good time writing about my trips, adventures and side projects. Hope everyone out there in the world has enjoyed reading my humble ramblings. I've had readers from all over the globe, pretty sure I have covered every continent excluding Antarctica. I'm pretty impressed with that since I only set to have this as just some place to let friends and family keep track of me!

Some shout outs to countries viewing my blog:
New Zealand
Oz
China
India
Thailand
Philippines
Norway
Iceland
Canada
Mexico
Chile
Argentina
Brazil
Venezuela
South Africa
Egypt
UK
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Greece
Romania
Hungary
Plus a few others. In all 34 different countries, pretty neat.

Anyway, looking forward to another year of writing.

Dodge Stratus Review

I was given an '06 Dodge Stratus as my rental for my most recent business trip to Virginia, Maryland and DC. When I first got the car I really wanted to hate it and dog it as much as I did the Chrysler 300 that I had while in New York. It ended up that I don't really hate this car, I don't like it either. It gets kind of a meh reaction from me.

I'll start with the minuses:

The car isn't a looker, still has the Dodge Cab Forward design language to it. It is one of those cars that you just ignore because it is so boring. The engine pick up was pretty poor, of course it only had a 4 cylinder and must weigh in at over 3000lbs. A lot of weight for a small engine to pull around and you can tell. The engine whines pretty bad when pressed to get up to speed on a on-ramp and dislikes any hills that you come to. Those where the only two big minuses but they present the biggest problem. I am reminded of a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Will Farrell is lamenting on the fact that he drives a Dodge Stratus (or maybe a Cirrus).

The Pluses (Or rather things that where not all that bad):
Seats where ok, radio was ok, cabin controls where ok (still don't know why the cruise controls needed 6 buttons to operate), space was ok, sight lines where ok, ride was ok....blah blah blah.

That is the thing about this car, it is just so bland. Dodge built this car to be just, ok. They didn't try to do anything special with this car. I still can't put it worse than the 300 (there where just so many things wrong about that car) but at least someone tried to do something exciting with the design to where it stands out in a crowd. Why did anyone buy the Status? Really why? If you did tell me. Was it price? Had to be because I can't think of any other reason to own one.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Vegas!

Got back from the wonderful city of Las Vegas Sunday night. We had a great trip out there with a couple that we are good friends with. We flew out Wednesday night and did not get in until almost midnight thanks to a bad door on our original aircraft. This continues a streak with my buddy that we went with of almost every flight he goes on with friends being delayed. Anywho, after staying in Wednesday night we got up pretty early Thursday and grabbed a nice cheap Vegas breakfast at the Ellis Island Casino. They had a special on an 8oz steak and eggs plate for $2.99! I got the french toast and sausage ($3.99) and was very happy with the food. Word to the wise about this place, service is not the best but the food and prices make it worth it. So we then proceeded to walk the strip since Kim (the other girl that went with us) had never been to Vegas. Went in the Venetian, the Wynn (which is incredible), TI, Mirage ect. All in all I think we figured that we must have walked about 6 miles that day. Only stopped to gamble in on place, Bill's Gamblin' Hall (only place we could find with $5 blackjack). After Ping (the asian Mariano Rivera like dealer, she was throwing heat) cleaned Chris and I out in 30mins we decided to call it a day. Picked up some beer and got changed for dinner and the show we where going to see (Ka). Ate dinner at Smith and Wolensky's, great dinner. Best part was our waiter was hilarious! He is a part time Chris Farley impersonator and gave us a great time at dinner, dare I say his antics where a lot better than Ka was. Check out his site at www.kenasfarley.com. As stated, Ka bombed. Too much theater type stuff in I guess Japanese and not enough crazy stunts. If you are going to a Cirque show go to "O", now that is a great show.

Friday:
Friday stated off innocently enough, getting up and finding breakfast at the Luxor. Walked around Excaliber, Luxor and Mandalay Bay most of the morning before deciding we needed a beer. Stopped at the Burger Bar between Mandalay Bay and Luxor to grab a pint, or in this case a boot (if you have seen the movie Beer Fest you know what I mean). Chris and I proceed to start downing boots, Kel and Kim headed off to shop and sight see some more. Before too long Chris and I find ourselves at a Blackjack table in NY NY. To make a long story short: 8 hours later, a few jack and cokes, many hands of blackjack, a whole other story involving Chris getting lost between the restroom and the table, we leave NY NY and walk back to our room (the Wyndham Grand Desert half way between Plant Hollywood and the Hard Rock). Leaving NY NY I discover $150 in chips in my pocket and ended up breaking even for the night.

So Saturday starts with Chris and I out of action and watching football. In the afternoon we walked around some more, got dinner at an Sushi place in the Mirage, saw the volcano show, the TI show and then cabbed it to Fremont to look around. I played a bit more at the Golden Nugget, broke even again. We headed back because we where all petty tired (getting old sucks don't it?). Then we flew out Sunday morning. All in all a great trip, wish I would have played a bit more blackjack but I started off slow and the next thing I know it was time to leave.

That is about it, I am in VA this week and will have a new car review by the weekend. The car, a Dodge Stratus.

Monday, November 05, 2007

MINI Cooper Review

Sorry for not updating much in the last week. Not much going on to talk about.

I did take my Cooper S in for some service and received a MINI Cooper as a loaner for the day. I had only driven a standard Cooper for about a day when I first ordered my Cooper S so it had been a while. I had forgotten just how great a car the regular Cooper is. Even with out the extra power as the S the Cooper is still great fun to drive. You get to keep the revs up, has as much pull off the line in 1st as an S and the noise the engine makes is as good if not better than the supercharger whine on my S. The only time you really miss the extra power is in when you try to floor it mid gear. When done on the S the supercharger adds the extra omph to put you in the back of your seat where the regular Cooper just doesn't have it. With gas prices where they are the regular Cooper is a great buy for a car that gets great mileage and still has a fun factor to it.

Heading to Las Vegas later this week for a quick getaway. Should be fun. Get back on Sunday then it is back out on the road for work, this time to Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. Hopefully I'll get a rental I've never had before and will have some thoughts.

TR is driving well but feeling the colder weather. I installed a 160 degree T-stat last spring to keep the engine cool in the summer, it now has the opposite effect and keeps the engine a bit too cold in the winter. I have to keep the choke out just a bit in order to keep the engine running smooth when it is below 55 degrees out. Thinking of ordering a 180 T-stat and new gaskets so that I can switch the T-stats out between the spring and fall.

Think that is about it for now.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Reck Parade!



I was in the Georgia Tech Homecoming Reck Parade last week. Lots of cool old classic cars (Best I saw was a '71 Plymouth 340 'Cuda Convertable). I didn't win anything but had a good time and some good feedback on the car.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Good BBQ and more

On the road again. This time I am heading out to my SC/NC swing. Stopped at a BBQ joint in Bishopville, SC that I drove by last time I was on this trip. Name of the place is Watfords BBQ. Lots of stuff on the menu, possible the coolest thing about the place is the sign out front that proclaims "ALL PORK". None of that Beef or Chicken BBQ at this place. BBQ is served with a spicy vinegar based sauce, very tasty with just the right amount of heat. 2nd time this week I have had BBQ with this type of sauce and it is really growing on me. My all time #1 is still the mustard based yellow sauce that you can find in some places in SC and NC. The thin vinegar sauce is also a NC/SC thing. Only sauce I can find in GA is always a thicker ketchup sauce. Anyway, back to Watfords.... BBQ plate comes with slaw, some excellent hushpuppies, and hash and rice. The hash and rice thing I had never heard of or had before. It is like a thin brunswick stew poured over a bed of rice. Really good. I am going to have to find a good recipe to make this.

Later in the evening I ate at a new place in Hartsville, SC. I think it is called Wingz & Ale. Strange name and looks a bit divey on the outside but it is very nice and spread out on the inside. Plenty of space, long bar, good beer selection. I ordered the "Killer" wings and the waitress asked if I was sure 'cuase they are really hot. Ok, yes I want the hottest thing you make. They where not bad, good heat and nice flavor, big wings too. Not near as hot as Taco Macs Death wings, I would put them on par or just below the Macs TMI (three mile island) wings. The waitress was surprised that I could eat them. The owner stopped by a bit later and chatted (very cool), he was hurting from trying one of the Killer wings since he had never had them before and wondered how I could eat something so hot. Dunno, heat just doesn't bother me. Horseradish on the other hand....

How are the cars doing you ask? Good. The rear brakes need to be replaced on the MINI. I am going to have to hassle Global to get them to replace them since they said they where in good shape 700 miles ago yet the brake wear indicator is now on. Have to get the TR cleaned up Friday night for the Reck Parade. I doubt I will win any of the prizes since the paint is not top notch. It will look good in the parade (from 7 feet away) but when they judge it up close it isn't going to win any awards. The Patrol is going to have to wait. The guy doesn't want to get rid of it that bad right now and doesn't want to lower the price right now. He did say to keep checking back with him though, maybe this spring.....

Later...

Thursday, October 11, 2007

It's Thursday....

Not much going on in the car world right now. I can't wash either car due to the watering ban here in north GA. Plan on taking the MINI to a self service wash place next week. Need to clean it up and get a few coats of wax on before the winter. I can probably get by on the TR by just wiping in down before the Wreck Parade next week.

Going Mountain driving on Sunday. Hope to check out some of my favorite less traveled roads in Western North Carolina. Going to hit the Dillard House for dinner on my way back. Looking forward to some nice fall weather and colors while up in the Mountains.

Still waiting on the Nissan guy to drop his price. Looking more like it may not happen but it can't hurt to keep bothering him about it. A good friend of mine in the neighborhood has a brother who has an old Land Rover and knows a place that sells a bunch of older ones. Told me about an old Series II 109 truck that a guy is selling with a whole bunch of extra stuff to fix it up. He was asking about 4k. Not too bad but just not in the cards right now. Maybe one day!

Bought the new Radiohead album this week. I chipped in for the Boxcase set which includes 3 music cds, 2 12 inch vinyls, 1 enhanced cd, and a whole bunch of artwork and the like. Whole set comes in a nice hard case. The purchase also included getting to download the new album (the other stuff doesn't ship until next month). Listened to it all yesterday and really like it. Sounds very close to OK Computer and has hints of some of their earlier work.

Well, that is about it for now. Have a tennis match Saturday, GT plays Miami later in the day and I might be heading back on the road next week to SC and NC. Hopefully I'll have some more stuff to write about in the next few weeks.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

On the road again....

Back out on the road this week. This trip takes me to Huntsville, AL and Chattanooga, TN with a few stops in between. Found a few more nice roads today. Something about 129 as a road number just seems to make it a great road and TN 129 is a great winding valley road that ends up in the perfect city, Lynchburg, TN. THE home of Jack Daniel's! I love the area around Lynchburg, terrain is perfect. Maybe I can buy a farm here someday......

Not much else. TR is going to be in the GT Wreck parade, guess I need to get it cleaned up a bit.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Kia Sportage Review and news

Just a quick review:

When I had the MINI in for its last service I got a Kia Sportage as a loaner. I was very impressed with this budget minded compact SUV. My model had the V6 that was pretty good. If I where looking for a small SUV I would give this one a look. Good price, has everything you need and plenty of space. I would write more but I only had the car for about 28 hours. Nothing bad stood out in that time.

Kelly and I did see a new Hyundai Veracruz last weekend. Pretty slick looking car, takes all of its design clues from the Lexus RX. I think Kel and I will have to look at this car when we decide to have kids. 7 seater, good warranty, good looks, great reviews and 15k cheaper than the Lexus? Hmmm.....

Going to try something new in every post now, just quick hits on what is bouncing around in my head... I'll call it

News and Ramblings:

Bumming about a 2nd straight loss for Georgia Tech. Excited about my upcoming trip to Vegas (still more than a month out). Still trying to wait the Nissan Patrol guy out, hoping he calls ands wants to sell cheap. Bummed that this is the only Patrol in the SE for sale. Intrigued by the Land Rover Series IIa if the Nissan gets sold or price doesn't come down (which I hope doesn't happen, I am kind of stuck on this car). Liking this morning boot camp Kelly and I are doing together, I guess I have to figure out some exercise to keep doing once it is over. Glad that we finally got our new fridge installed. Bummed that it took so long and required some "modifications" to the kitchen. Hoping that my Korea customer sends me a few new Purchase Orders this month. Excited and very happy for my sister-in-law, Emily, finally getting engaged to a guy I actually like hanging out with. Think that about covers it for now.....

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Electronics Fixed

I fixed the fuel and temperature gauge this weekend. Both gauges run off a voltage stabilizer that feeds a constant 10v. I knocked the power wire off of the stabilizer when I was painting the passenger footwell. Hooked the hot wire back in and everything was back to normal. That is until I took the TR for a nice long drive and the radio stopped working! Grrr, dang old cars. Anyway, that was an easy fix. The driver side footwell speaker had come a bit loose and grounded out on the body. I took the speaker out for a bit so that I can get it mounted better when I have some time.

Otherwise the TR is running great. I can tell that the carbs (or state of tune of the carbs) don't really like the colder weather. The engine really hums when the ambient temp is over 75 or so but when it is below that there is some performance drop off. If I ever get around to learning how to rebuild and really tune my carbs then I am sure that I can fix this by tuning the car every spring and fall.

That is about it for now. Kel and I have started a morning boot camp workout thing, hope to see if I can drop a few lbs and finally put some work into getting my knee restrengthened. Waiting on the Nissan Patrol guy still as well. Have to kick around prices a bit more. It is a tough call because it is such a rare truck but the price is just a tad to high at the moment. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Lucas strikes back



Well, as it is said about old cars, there is always something.

I got the seats back in and the brake rub fixed on Tuesday. After getting that done, I decided to give the TR its first wash (yes I've had it a year and had not washed it yet). So I took extra care to be careful where I was spraying water and made sure to get it dried off as soon as possible. Once done I stood back and admired how good the car actually looks, even with a 20 year old paint job that has seen much better days. Decided to fire her up and take her for a nice spin. Start her up and don't you know it, the temp gauge and fuel gauge have stopped reading. I figured it could be a bit of moisture shorting something out so I drive a around and bit and decide to check on the gauges the next day. Well they still where not working on Wednesday. The thing I discovered about those two gauges in particular is that they are both hooked to a Voltage stabilizer that delivers a steady 10v to the gauge loop so that they will read. I am guessing I must have done something to this between painting or washing. I will check it out this weekend and hopefully get the gauges back reading normal.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Update

Not much going on in the world of motoring right now. I am home sick with a wicked head cold/flu type thing. I did finish cleaning up the floorboards on the TR. They look much nicer now with no rust and a fresh coat of paint. From getting into them, it looks like the passenger floorboard is original to the car while the drivers side has been replaced at some point. Engine is running great, just waiting for some cooler weather to really get some more good driving in. I do need to pull the front left wheel off and check some rubbing issues.

Took the MINI in for its last service today. Get an oil change and the rear brakes replaced. I have a Kia Sportage as a rental. Thought I would give it a whirl and see how it drives. So far it is pretty nice. A full review will come later this week.

On the Nissan Patrol front, I offered the seller what I thought the car was worth. He said he had a few more people that wanted to look at it and would let me know in a few weeks. I really don't want to pay more that I offered for the car so if I get it, great. If he wants more than I offered? Too bad for me.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Ford Fusion Review Pt. II

Ok, here are my final thoughts on the Ford Fusion.

Interior:

Seats where nice and supportive even for a base level car. Never had a problem being uncomfortable even after 3+ hours. The cloth that the seats where covered in was a step up from the material that I have seen used in American cars in recent years. Maybe Ford got the memo that you can make a cheap car feel a lot nicer if you spend a few extra bucks on the interior. All of the controls where very well laid out. I still can't get used to the one stalk configuration of most new American cars. I guess I am just used to having the lights and turn signals on the left and wipers on the right. One interesting layout feature that a took as very strange at first but actually makes tons of sense once I got used to it was the position of the turn indicator stalk. Most seem to stick out to the left at about 9:30 while the Ford stalk stuck out at around 10:30. It seemed very high at first but then I realized that it was much closer to where my hand usually is on the steering wheel and required much less movement to engage. In fact, when I got back in my MINI I wiffed on the first attempt to use a turn signal because I had gotten used to the stalk being much higher. A very nice touch that I think shows at least someone is thinking about ways to improve car interiors. Only real beef with the interior was lack of steering wheel audio controls, otherwise the stereo was passable for this level trim car and it was nice that there was an Aux Input for mp3 players. Visibility was also nice all around except for some sight problems over the rear deck and 3rd brake light that really are only noticeable at night when some cars can "disappear" if close enough behind you.

Performance:

Not much but not too bad either. Engine struggled at times with 4 people plus baggage in the car. Engine noise was rather loud and raspy at higher revs when down shifting to pass. Corner stability was good and steering response was surprisingly good for this type of car. I think this car and engine could do more with a different transmission. The gear shift only showed Drive and Low options and the transmission only felt like it had 3 gears even though the Ford website lists it as having a 5 speed transmission. Put an automatic with sport shift options in this car might sport up the base 160hp 4 cylinder a bit.

Exterior:

Not a bad looking car. I think the tail lights could use some work but other than that you know it is a Ford.

Overall:

A nice car. I don't know if it can compete with the Accords, Camrys, Mazda6 and Pontiac G6 that are in its class. If I had to compare it with the Mazda and Pontiac there are some things that set it apart. The interior is much nicer than the Pontiac and about on par with the Mazda. The Pontiac is the sportiest while the Mazda and Ford share a wimpy engine that is just a little over matched in cars this heavy. If I had to chose one of the 3 that I have driven it would still be the Pontiac based on the fact that it can be fun to drive. But, if I was looking for something that had plenty of space, got good mileage and was comfortable to drive? The Ford would get a good long look.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ford Fusion Review Pt. I

Enterprise gave me a Ford Fusion for my trip here in Chicago. I have been very impressed by the car so far. Rides smooth, all the controls are in the right spot, good interior space, nice trunk, and it doesn't look to shabby either. This one is the base model, 4 cylinder engine and cloth interior. The cloth is actually a big step up from what I have seen from American cars in the past few years. Base stereo has some nice features, CD player with mp3 play back and a aux input located in the center console along with a 2nd power plug. Only real beef so far is the height of the rear deck, it is hard to see cars that get behind you especially at night.

I'll post some more thoughts on the car later this weekend.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Back from the Beach

We got back from a much needed week at the beach on Saturday. Had a great time and wish I was still there. Digging out at work today and tomorrow trying to get caught back up.

On the car front; I have everything that I need to clean up the floorboards in the TR. If I have enough paint and primer left I am going to hit a few spots under the hood (battery box and area underneath the master-cylinder). Going to try to take the TR out for a spin tonight since I head back out of town tomorrow and won't be back until Labor Day.

I looked at the Nissan Patrol in person today and I am mulling it over. Such a sweet truck but it needs a good amount of work. One of the brake cylinders needs to be replaced right off the bat and I would need to find some way to get the thing home. I would have to start from the bottom up. Clean up the frame first then clean up the tub second and fix the hardtop last (actually the piece that I think is going to take the most work). So we'll see. I hate to pass on this extremely rare truck but I don't know if I have the room/time/skills to keep the TR running and do a body off restoration on the Patrol. I think I would have to find somewhere to store the TR while working on the Nissan in the garage. It would give me something to work on every night during tax season though.

I'll update the Patrol situation while on the road this week.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Vacation Time

Posts will be lite for the next two weeks. Heading to the beach next week, hoping that Hurricane Dennis stays away from the Florida panhandle. I will only be firing the computer up a couple of times, mainly to check on work e-mails and hand-hold my Korea account as usual. After the Beach it is up to the Windy City for some customer visits with Exelon Nuclear and a small football game on September 1st (GT vs. ND). That is the rest of my month. Things will pick up with football season starting up, tennis season starting again and hopefully work will pick up with a few of my plants heading into outages.

I did not get a chance to look at the Patrol today, hoping to go see it tomorrow. The guy selling it seems pretty nice, says that he started it up today and it runs with no problem. Hope it is in the same shape as the pictures.

Thats all for now folks.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Quick Thoughts

Not much going on this week.

I taught BMW Street Survival School on Saturday and had a blast. A very cool driving school aimed at new teen drivers. Teaching things that you don't get to experience in everyday driving. What it feels like to brake and have the ABS kick in, what the car feels like when it under-steers and over-steers and how to correct each, plus a few other set ups and a class room session. All of the students left looking like they had a great time even if it was 102 degrees out! You can check out more infomtion about the program here.

Looking forward to a week of vacation next week. Our annual treck to Destin for a week at the beach. Do a whole lot of nothing but read and sit on the beach. Then it is back in town for a day or two and off to Chicago for 5 days.

I am waiting on an order of some rust prevention/convertor to get in this week. Once I have it in hand I will go buy a few wire wheels for my drill and go to work on the surface rust on the TR floorboards. Figure it is better to catch all of it now than wait and have to replace everthing. If the floor boards are not too tricky the I think I will hit the few surface rust spots on the body and the battery box. I am hoping that I can find a place to paint the TR this winter or next spring.

Thats all for now.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Nissan Patrol


Well I may have found a substitution for the CJ2a jeep I have been wanting. I stumbled across this one on the net while hunting for old Land Rovers. It is a 1969 Nissan Patrol. Yes, they did import Nissan's into the state in the '60s. In fact the Patrol was imported into the states from 62-69, selling a robust 2616 trucks. This one has a 4.9 liter straight 6, 145hp and 253lbft of torque. I am going to check it out in person in the next week or so. Current owner says that it runs and drives well but needs body work, it currently has no floorboards! So, I'll have to wait and see what it looks like in person and if it is a project that I want to tackle.

If it looks worth it then I think my obtainable dream garage of cars is pretty much done. The idea of picking up a Datsun Sports 2000 has kind of faded. Doesn't make much sense to have two clone cars (TR4a and the 2000) when the TR is worth more and plus it is English.

Update on the TR: This week I am taking out the seats and trying to re-grease the slider rails so that I can actually move the seats forward and aft. While the seats are out I am going to give the inside of the car a good cleaning, inspect all the floorboards and clean up and paint any spots that are looking rough. After that it will be on to checking out the rear brakes, double checking the fronts again and then to replace the rear differential seal.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Triumph of the Mountains

I finally got the chance to take the TR on a long road trip this weekend. I made a trek to the N. GA mountains to do a shake down run on the brakes and see how the TR handles some curves. Well, it did quite well. Dare I say that the TR can take corners as fast as my MINI. The brakes did well except for one annoying design fault. In corners, the outside front brake rotor has a habit of pushing the outboard piston back into the caliper, so your first press on the brake after a hard turn tends to head very far to the floor. I was expecting this so I didn't have any pucker moments. IN the turns the car has almost no body roll and the engine pulls great in 2nd gear on exit. The engine did struggle on some of the steeper climbs but I think it did quite well for a 40 year old 105hp lump. Tires held very well though made plenty of noise. The handling was very neutral. Front in turned in lighting fast and the back stayed in line though it would hope and step out a bit when exiting a corner under acceleration, though not enough to warrant any counter steer. I wish the MINI handled this well. I know no why these cars (TR3, 4, and 250) where so popular in the SCCA race scene 40 years ago. Add a little umph under the hood and these things where hard to beat. The TR held up great, better than I did on a day when the air temps where in the high 90's. It even made it through a brief rain storm on the way home. I am just happy that it made it through the trip without a single hicup. Water temp never got near 1/2 on the gauge (thanks to water wetter and a 160 degree t-stat), oil pressure never wavered and the engine just kept humming along. This little trip under very harsh conditions have me very confident that the TR can make nice weekend drives to the mountains when the temps become a bit more bearable to the pilot.

One interesting note, I pulled up behind a sweet looking 1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk. Wow, a very beautiful car done up in glossy black paint and nice shiny chrome. My car was getting waves and gawks for most of the trip but when I pulled behind the Sky Hawk my car disappeared, and for good measure.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder Review

After putting almost 1200 miles on one of these cars in 4 days I will share some of my thoughts.

First, the car I had was an Silver 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. It was the base model car with the 4-cylinder engine, automatic transmission, Rockford Fosgate CD/MP3 stereo, and a cloth interior.

Exterior:
I liked it, both with the top up and the top down. It is a pretty good looking car, one that gets attention at stop lights. Nothing glaringly wrong with the shape, has a nice semi-mean looking front end and lights, handles, tail pipes, and badging all work well with the shape. So, overall the exterior is one that is not too aggressive for my tastes but does look the part of a neat little import convertible. One warning, when ever you pull up to a stoplight in this car every 16 year old with a ricer will want to race you.

Interior:
First things first, the front seat are amazing! They are a pretty aggressive racing type seat that a lot of people will not like but I love 'em. I want these seats in my MINI. Great for holding you in when you are tossing the car around but very comfortable after 5 hours of interstate driving through Iowa. I felt great after sitting in them for a long time. That is my biggest complaint about my MINI is that the seats really start to bug me at around the 3 hour mark. I hope this type of seat makes its way into the Evolution X. The rear seats looked nice but not all the usable for adults. A child or very small adult could have fit behind my seat but not very well. Kids would work in the seats but I think they are there more for decoration than anything. All the controls where reachable and in good spots. Radio was easy to work with the steering wheel controls. I used a borrowed FM modulator to play my iPod but I could have used the aux input if I had the correct cable. Stereo sounded pretty good except for the buzzing speakers, something that would have had the car back at the dealer pronto if I owned it. It was hard to see out of the car with the top up (what convertible isn't?) but after driving it a little I figured out how to tilt my head to see out the back when reversing. The only complaint that I had with the interior was the window shut-off button. You can't tell which position it is in and it is a hard button to find from the drivers seat. It is next to the window button but you can't see it when sitting in the car. The strangest thing about the button is that it only turns the passenger window on and off. If my wife's car the button disables all the windows, including the drivers. Why have a button that only turns the passenger window on and off I don't know. This feature lead to a half a day to me not being able to get the passenger window to roll up because I 1. Didn't see the window shut-off button and 2. Was used to a window shut-off feature that disabled all the windows. It also lead to me checking every single fuse in the car but that is another story.

Driving:
This is a nice riding car. It tracks well, soaks up bumps, and isn't all that loud inside with the top up or down. I was surprised with the lack of wind and noise with the top down. It was nice to be able to drive at highway speeds with the top down and not feel like I was getting beat up. When driven hard the car does under steer quite a bit and unfortunately the car feels very large when driving aggressively. The steering feel is ok, gets pretty vague when you are in the middle of a corner and doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the driver. Brakes do feel good, not to touchy. Acceleration for the base model I had was acceptable and the auto-stick feature was a nice option, especially when needing to pass someone. I would rate this car as more of a cruiser than a true sports car. It would be nice to put the GT through its paces to see how the bigger engine, different tires and reworked suspension change the car.

So, if you are looking for a nice convertible then it can't hurt to look at the Eclipse Spyder. I priced up what my renter would have cost and it came out to around $28k. This puts it in a tight group with the MINI Cooper and Cooper S Convertibles and the VW Eos hardtop convertible to name a few. But, if you like the import tuner looks, the pretty good warranty that Mitsu offers now then this might just be the convertible for you.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Mercury Grand Marquis Review

This was the first car that Avis tried to give me last week during my trip to the mid-west. The lady at the counter in the terminal said that I could either wait about an hour for a PT Cruiser or take the Merc. I had already waited 45 minutes for my bags and was just ready to get out of St. Louis. The minute the Avis van pulled up to the car I knew I had made a mistake.

If you haven't sat in a Grand Marquis in the last 10 years you aren't missing much. Remember the old family sedan your folks drove in the early 80's? The one with the couch for a front seat? Yep, that is what the front seat of the Merc was like. You pretty much sank down into it. As a whole, the interior looked like it had not been updated since the 80's, which was about the last time they updated the car as a whole and the last time someone under the age of 60 bought one of these things. It was just poorly laid out. The split arm rest didn't fold all the way back level with the seat, the steering wheel was strange..... I don't remember much else, my mind has chosen to block most of this car from my memory. I don know that the trunk was huge. You could fit 5 or 6 friends in there. Although, the strange deep well in the middle of the trunk looks like it would make loading a few golf bags a little akward. Anyway, after 5 minutes of grumbling, I dragged my luggage up to the on-site customer service counter and demanded a new car. I lucked out and Avis was able to put me in a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder for less than the Merc cost.

So in review, I would much rather drive pretty much any car over the Mercury Grand Marquis/Lincoln Town Car/Ford Crown Victoria. They are just awful.

Monday, July 30, 2007

On the Road: Moline, IL to Atlanta, GA

I got back to Atlanta in one piece. I am still trying to catch back up on work and sleep from the trip (I had a 5:30am flight back to Atlanta). All in all it was a good trip, lots of new business contacts. Thursday night I decided to do something different from baseball and went to an Arena Football2 game. I didn't even know that the Quad Cities area had a team until I heard about it on the radio. Picked up a 2nd row seat on the 20 yard line and had a blast. If you like football and have never been to an Arena Football game, give it a shot. It is like watching a pro version of the backyard football games you played while growing up, very little running plays, no zone defense and high scoring. I also visited another one of the Quad Cities fine Brew Pubs (there are 5 or so locally owned Brew Pubs in the area, which is 5 more good brew pubs than we have here in Atlanta). Bent River Brewing Company was the name. Good beer, good food, nice folks. They had about 17 locally brewed beers on tap, every type you can think of. I started off with the daily special (a Black Lager, a very nice beer) and moved on to my current favorite style, a Dry Hopped Pale Ale. The pale ale was excellent. For my last beer of the evening I asked my very friendly Bar Keep (Eric was his name) to surprise me. He then did something that I had never really thought of, he mixed the Pale Ale with a Red Ale (Ok, yes I have heard of a black and tan and a half and half but those are layered pours and not really mixed. They MIX the beers at Bent River). I was really good, added something a little different to the taste. Eric told me they mix many of their beers and most of the regulars have at least one or two mixes that they will order. So, try mixing your beers. That is it for now, Eclipse Spyder review, Merc Grand Marquis Review, College Football preview, and TR/MINI update will follow this week.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

On the Road: Fulton, Mo to Moline, IL

First I want to admit that I am stealing the first part of the title of these blog entries from Charles Kuralt. If you are un-familiar with him, he did a traveling TV segment called "On the Road" for years. He also ended up writing several books about the TV series, highlighting some of the things he covered along the way. I don't remember who turned me on to these books but I think it was my Dad. Reading the books had a big impact on me, showing me that there is more out there in the country than just the stuff off the interstates. The books have to be one of the causes of my wanderlust and love of just driving to new places. My love of just grabbing my road map and heading off to somewhere I have never been. It has been one of the greatest things about this new job, being able to drive places that I would never have thought to go and see different parts of the country (I've been to 34 states + DC, ones I have not been too: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Mass., Vermont, New Mexico, N & S Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, Delaware, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Washington and Wyoming. Driving new roads in new places is what makes a 4 1/2 hour drive (like the one from Omaha to Moline) seem short because everything is new (it is also this that makes a 3 1/2 hour drive from Atlanta to Savannah seem to take forever because I have only driven it about 100 times?). Anyway, on to my trip journal for the last two days

I took the looooong scenic route from Fulton, MO to Wolf Creek Nuclear in Kansas. Drove across Lake of the Ozarks and Lake Truman. You wouldn't think that there would be many twisty roads in southern Missouri but I can tell you I found some. Not much to say about Kansas other than "Look, Corn....". Stayed in downtown Kansas City and went to a Royals game. Kauffman Stadium is a great place to see a ballgame. The Yankees where in town and the game was sold out. Apparently it was the 24th anniversary of the George Brett "Pine Tar game. Yankees won the game but it is a great stadium and a cheap ticket is you are ever in town.

In the past 2 days I have driven through Mexico, Mexico City, Nevada, Nashville, Savannah, Oregon (This is in western Missouri and I am guessing some lazy wagon train folks on the way to Oregon state quit early and said, "Heck, I'm not sitting in this thing for 3 more months. Let's stop here and build a town names Oregon"), plus a few other interestingly named cities.

I drove from Kansas City to Omaha, making one stop between and one north of Omaha. If you ever find your self in Blair, NE I suggest getting a Malt or Shake at Goodrich's in downtown. Nice deli with a great old ice cream counter. Apparently, they have been open in Blair since the '30s. I then drove clear across the great state of Iowa. If I thought Kansas had a lot of corn, boy was I wrong. Corn as far as the eye could see. I also passed the largest truck stop in the world, Iowa 80. Not much else exciting about the drive, it did have some neat views and not much traffic.

No more long drives for the rest of the trip. I am going to take customer out to the Swing of Quad City Minor League Baseball game tomorrow. Should be a good time, as most single A games are. I am really digging the Eclipse, only a few complaints. It is a car I could own. Best thing are the seats, they are fabulous. I wonder if I could mount a pair in my MINI? Anyway, a full review of the Spyder and the Merc will be coming when I get to it, maybe tomorrow afternoon.

Monday, July 23, 2007

On the Road: St. Louis and Fulton, MO

I fly into St. Louis today to start my swing through the Mid-west Nuke Plants (Callaway, Wolf Creek, Cooper, Calhoun, Duane Arnold and Quad Cities). All in all the first day has been a bit strange. Let's start from the beginning.

This is the first time that I have flown into the St. Louis airport and I already don't like it. All the signs are hard to read and there aren't enough of them. The signage around baggage claim was particularly terrible. And while they where at it, lets just put two bathrooms in the baggage claim area, have them as far away as possible from anything and hide them around a few corners with some signs pointing you in the general direction. It took 45 minutes to get my bag, I don't know if this was an Airtran problem or a St. Louis Airport thing but by the looks of some of the other flights that landed when we did I am going to go with an Airport thing. Next, I go to rent a car. Lady at the counter tells me all they have is a PT Cruiser (which will take a while to get) or a Mercury Grand Marquis (!). So I am in a hurry (to get to the Budweiser Brewery before it closes, more on that in a minute) and go with the Merc. Next I have to catch a bus (!) to get to the rental car lot (Nice idea, lets put all rental car and airport parking off-site and across a busy interstate from the Airport. This is the Atlanta equivalent of if they put all the parking across 285 from the airport). Once I get dropped off at my car I know I made a mistake (Review of my 5 minute experience with the Merc will come later). So I walk back to the on-site office, on the way one of the wheels on my bag comes off (day is just getting better and better). When I talk to the lady at the counter to see if there is anything else I can drive (give me anything, I'll even drive a Chrysler 300 again) she finds me a nice Mitsubishi Eclipse Convertible that I can take 1-way because it is an Illinois car anyway (Sweet! Review coming). Things start to look up, I get the car (pretty nice) and head off to the Budweiser Brewery.

Brewery tour was quite nice. I suggest it if you are in the St. Louis area and have an hour or so to kill. So far from my experiences in St. Louis this is the only thing I have liked. I am just not a big fan of St. Louis. Bad airport, strange road system plus a lot of other things, but back to the beer. Picked up a nice glass set at the store at a very reasonable $20 (2 glasses, a rubber bar mat, bottle opener plus some other swag). In fact, everything in the store was priced pretty good. Best thing about the tour is you get 2 free 10oz beers at the end. Guide explained that they give you 20oz free because the typical human can have 24oz of beer in 20 mins and still be under the legal BAC limit (thus the 20oz to keep Bud clear of any legal problems). I tried Bud Select and Beach Bum Blonde Ale. Both very good and will be bought again by myself (if I can ever find the Beach Bum stuff).

After the tour I made the 1 1/2 drive out to scenic Fulton, MO. Staying at a hotel near town. I checked my e-mails (I have 13 news one from my customer in South Korea, joy), grabbed so food and then headed out to find Callaway plant so I know how to get there in the morning. Driving through Fulton I see the speed limit change to 30 so I slow down to 30. I then see a 20mph sign with a yellow "School" marking above it. Thinking this must apply only during school hours I stay at 30 mph. After pulling away from a stop sign what (to my delight) comes on in my rear view? Cop Lights! Yeah! The cop comes out and asks why I think he stopped me, I answer that I have no idea and he tells me the speed limit is 20 and he clocked me doing 31 (great). Asks for my license and where in Illinois I am from (Quick side bar, I am in a convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse with the top down, out of state plates and the radio up. In other words a nice target to add some money to the local repaving fund). I tell him it is a rental and that I am from GA and in town to do some work at the Nuke plant. This catches his attention and looks at my license and tells me he is going to check my insurance. At this point I am praying for a warning. Thinking of ways I can argue out of this ect. Officer comes back, hands me my license and tells me to watch the speed limit, it changes quite a bit around town, explains that the school signs are all the time since I just drove through the local college (oh....) and to have a safe trip to the plant tomorrow. Sweet! No ticket, I would like to thank the officer for cutting an out of town southern boy a break. I then pull out into traffic and up to a stop light. Another car pulls along side me with the officer behind him. Light turns green, I turn left, the car next to me goes straight, and the officer follow and turns his lights on to pull the guy over. What for, I have no idea but apparently you had better have everything in order before driving through Fulton, MO (Later on in the night I saw police have 3 other people pulled over!)

So that was my day. Up and down. I am really digging the Eclipse. Plan on using the drop top mode a good bit tomorrow on my trek across the whole state of Missouri. I will post reviews of the Eclipse and the Merc sometime the week. Nite.....

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Rebuilding the TRs brake calipers

Ok, I spent Saturday afternoon tackling the job of rebuilding the front brake on my TR4A. I used a rebuild kit from Victoria British, it included new pads, anti-squeal shims, rotors, flex hoses, new retainer pins, all new gaskets, and some new mounting hardware for the rotor/hub assembly.

All in all the job was pretty easy and straight forward. A few things to note below.

First off, the rotor assembly on the TR4A is unique. The wheel hub mounts outboard to the brake rotor. So, in order to remove the brake rotors you have to take the hub completely off of the stub axle. Pretty easy job, only really tricky thing is getting the grease cap off the end. After that it is very easy to take the whole assembly off and then detach the rotor from the hub and replace with the new one. This allowed me to examine the wheel bearings and to add a little more grease to them. The picture below shows the stub axle after I have removed the hub assembly.



Here is a picture of the new and old brake rotors. The old rotors are quite glazed and have a lot of rust on them. Hoping the replacements help the braking a bit.



Here is one of the brake calipers after I got it off the car. You can see it is in rough shape. I ended up having to split both of them down to two halves. This allowed me a little more room to clean them up and some clearance to get the brake pistons out to replace the gaskets.



This is where it got tricky. When I tried to remove the old brake pistons only one of them would move freely. Guess this is why my braking performance has been a bit sub-par. The three that where stuck took some persuading with my handy pair of vice grips and a BFH. You can see below just what kind of shape they where in. One of the little nuances about this car is that the OEM brake pistons where made out of chrome-molly, just the kind of stuff that brake fluid loves to eat over time. So, this is what ends up happening to them. I am going to order a new set of Stainless Steel brake pistons this week. Hopefully I can get them in and on the car by next weekend.



So the TR has it's wheels back on but no front brakes on it. As soon as I can get the new pistons in it should only take a few hours to install them in the calipers, get the calipers back on the car and then bleed the whole system. Next thing on the list is to go after the rear brakes and hope they are in better shape than the fronts.

I did find out some interesting info regarding the brakes on the TR. Apparently I can swap on the front brake from an early 80's Toyota Truck to upgrade the system from a 2 piston set up to a 4 piston system. The only modifications that you have to do to the system is buy new mounting bolts and fab up a custom flex line (metric threads on one end and SAE threads on the other). The write up I read about doing this had a test that showed a 30 or so foot improvement in stopping distance from 40mph. So that has been added to the end of the to do list of the TR.

That's all for now. I am in the Mid-west this week (MO, KS, NE, IO, fun fun fun...) so I should have another car review depending on what Avis gives me this time.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Future Plans

Figured I would let on to what some of my future car plans are. I would love to add a few more classic cars to my collection some time in the future (distant future if my wife has her say). The 2 main cars I would like to pick up are a Willys CJ2A and a Datsun 2000 Sports. I know where I can get the Jeep, Kel's uncle has a '47 sitting in his front yard that needs restoration. Sooner or later I am going to badger him enough that he will let me buy it from him. The Datsun will take some looking around but there are always a few for sale and they are not to expensive to pick up. Pictures of both are below.




You may be saying, "Where is he going to store all of these cars?". Well, Kelly and I have discussed adding on to the house some time in the future and add a detached garage on the back corner of our property. It would be a pretty simple metal building, just electricity (no water), with one roll up door on the front. After doing some research on these types of buildings, I am pretty sure that I have the tools and skill to put the thing up. I would just need to get someone to grade the area off and pore a concrete pad. I want the garage to be big enough to squeeze 3 small cars in (I would have to pull 1 or 2 of the 3 out in order to have space to work on a car). This would let me put the TR, the Jeep and the Datsun out back and then be able to keep the MINI in the garage on the house.

Anyway, that is all just a pipe dream right now. Maybe someday. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Back in town

Got back in town Friday and slept most of the day. Didn't end up working on the TR's brakes this weekend because the brake fluid that I ordered has not come in yet. Hoping to get that done this coming weekend before I head out of town again.

Glad to be back driving the MINI after a week being stuck in the 300. Picked up a used rear bumper for the MINI. I just need to find a paint shop so that I can replace the dinged up current bumper on the car.

Not much else going on. Long term car plans: Brake work on the TR, work on the seat rails in the TR, replace rear differential seal on TR, find someone to do TR body work.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Chrysler 300 Take III

Ok, final update on my rental. I am really digging the satellite radio. It may be the only thing that is keeping me sane while driving this car. Plenty of good music to choose from but I find myself ending up back on the comedy channels.

As for the car, I'm done with it. I've said everything I can say about it. It just is a mediocre car made worse by terrible controls layout. If you get in a car and can't reach anything, can't figure out how to work the windshield wipers without turning on the high beams (and once you get that figured out the high beams keep turning on whenever you use the turn signals?), takes 10 minutes to figure out the cruise control, and can't figure out how to set either clock then the car probably isn't that good.

Off the subject of crappy rentals, I am going to rebuild the brake calipers of the TR tomorrow. Replace all the seals, the flex hoses, pins, pads, and about everything that can be replaced. After getting all that done I plan on changing out the discs as well. Hoping it will only take a few hours.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Chrysler 300 Take II

Ok, after 6 1/2 hours of seat time today I think I can add a bit more to my rant of yesterday (good and bad).

The car does look good from the outside. The guards at Indian Point told me nice car and tried to get me to leave with them so they could "wash" it. It does soak up the bumps on the highway pretty nicely and doesn't beat you up. I tried out the manual shift option today on some twisties and it wasn't half bad after you figured out how it worked. Engine sounds good when revved up to 6k and the car actually handles a lot better than I thought it would (when the road is wide enough to drive the thing comfortably). I discovered this car has satellite radio (Sirius). A HUGE plus for the drive across the Empire State today. Ended up listening to mainly the 80's station and the comedy stations most of the way.

I can see why this is a nice car to RIDE in. Heck I said it in the last review. My companies agent in Chicago has a 300 with the Hemi, a slick looking ride. Great car to be a passenger in but I still can't get over how poorly laid out the interior is from the drivers perspective. I know this is a big cruising car, not my style at all, and that may have to do a lot with why I don't like this thing. Still, a lot of what they did on the inside just makes me think why? I also can't come up with an answer as to what car this thing is supposed to compete with? I guess the Full Size cruiser sedan market is an American only thing. It isn't a Luxury car and it isn't a sports sedan or even an economical family car. If it where any of those it would comepete with BMW, Lexus, Benz, Infinity, Acura ect at the top end and Toyota and Honda at the other. I dunno, maybe some folks just like big cars that drive like boats (Lincoln Town Car, Ford Taurus, Chevy Malibu). I sure don't.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Utter Crap (Chrysler 300 1st thoughts)

Ok. I'm in and around New York state this week. I flew into White Plains today in route to the nuclear plant outside of New London, CT (Millstone Plant). I go check in at the Avis counter and I am told, "We have a Chrysler 300, would that be ok?" I say sure, get the keys and my bags and head to get the car. I have ridden in the 300s several times and they always seemed to be comfortable cars. Well once I got in the drivers seat I realized just how wrong I was. These are just my first impressions from spending about 2 hours of windshield time in the car while dealing with NY traffic (Yes, they drive worse here than the folks in Atlanta).

Trunk, it has a big trunk.

What ever models Chrysler used to layout the interior obviously had arms that where 5 inches longer than mine.

Do you really need an analog clock right above a radio that has a digital clock?

What the hell is that buzzing noise coming from the front speaker? What the hell is that noise coming from under my seat?

Baby is this leather? Cause, um, it's sticking to my leg.....

At least the brakes work. Kind of.

Hey, it has an ashtray.

Nice touch with the Black on white instruments, who designed these things? 8 point letters and small black dots on a white background, because when you look down to check you speed you want to have to spend 10 seconds trying to figure it out....

Another nice instrument panel feature: a shiny black surface that surrounds the white faced instruments and at the right angle can blind you due to glare.

Can a car have twitchy steering and numb steering at the same time?

Why do I get seasick looking at the fisheye passenger sideview mirror? Oh, so I can see the Semi hidden behind the c-pillar.

Where did that MINI go that just passed me? Oh, it's hidden behind the A pillar.

Parallel Parking? Right....um no.

Did I mention the big trunk?

I am driving an 80's turbo diesel? I swear I floored the thing a second a go in order to pass... oh, ok the thing finally shifted.

Why do I keep speeding up or slowing down when I signal to change lanes? Oh, that because the damn cruise control stalk (?) is right above the turn signal stalk, which is located a lot lower and farther away from the steering wheel than any other car that I have ever driven.

How the hell do I get the wipers to come on? Do you really need to put 4 functions of one stalk? (Turn signals, high-low beams, wipers, washers, fog lights, trunk release, ignition, self destruct button......)

Ok, so far this thing sucks, bad. The only thing it does ok is go 75 in a straight line on a level road. From a comfortable driving position I can't reach anything. I can barley read my GPS since it is roughly 8 feet from me stuck to the windshield. The seats are crap, the steering wheel is real crap, the rear view out of the thing is a joke, you could hide a whole ro-ro carrier of cars in the blind spots. I can't see the road when going over the top of step hills. I just have no clue, this car really is that bad. It feels a whole hell of a lot bigger than my in-laws '77 Chevy truck (which is easier to drive). Heck it feels harder to drive around than the 40 foot u-haul I rented to move with. I had to 3 point a 2 1/2 lane u-turn!! I'm done for now, I am sure I'll have some more thoughts on this utter piece of garbage tomorrow. (Kind of wish they would have given me a Taurus instead, or maybe the Lincoln towncar that was next to this thing, or maybe the Minivan that was parked behind it.....)

Thursday, July 05, 2007

General Exclaim UHP Review Part II

I've had these tires on the MINI for 6 months so I figure I would give everyone a follow up on my thoughts.

I like them a lot better than my previous set of Dunlops (Direzza DZ101s). The Generals ride better day to day and look to be wearing a bit more evenly than the Dunlops did. I got these tires from Tire Rack and I chose them from the very positive reviews that they had gotten. I have to agree with everything on Tire Rack. These things stick very well in the dry and track great in the wet. They gave great feedback on my run up to US129 (Tail of the Dragon). Even when they where good and hot they didn't get greasy and didn't lose any grip. For such a tall tire (205/50-15s) the sidewall is very stiff on turn in so there is no "lag", for lack of a better word (If you have driven a "tall" tire with a mushy sidewall very aggressively you know what I mean, the Dunlops had a very flexible sidewall).

They have aged very well, I can't even tell that much difference between the fronts and the rears in terms of wear (I plan on rotating them in the next week or two). So, all in all I have been very impressed by these tires and I am guessing that I will stick with them for my next set.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Front Brakes are here

Ordered the front brake rebuild kit from Victoria British last week. It showed up today, guess that gives me something to do this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing how the car stops with all new hardware up front. Figure I will take the rear drums apart to inspect them while I am working on the fronts. This should give me a better idea of when I will need to learn how to work on drum brakes.

Still no oil dripped from the oil pan with the new gasket in place! (Yes there is oil in the car). Since the new gasket has helped so much I am rethinking replacing the gasket on the rear differential. I can drain the oil I just put in it to reuse and then replace the gasket and stop the seeping and dripping.

I also cleaned up the top a bit last night. I drove the TR to work today because the high temp is going to stay at 80 or below. I had never cleaned the rear window and I alway thought it was just fogged up real bad as plastic windows do. I got to cleaning it and it has cleared up very nicely. If it wasn't for the few rips in the top it wouldn't need replacing. As it is I am hoping that I can squeeze maybe another year or so out of the top and replace it when (or if) I get the car painted.

That is it for now. I am sure I'll have a new car review next week while in New York, guess it depends on what Avis gives me.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Part in my Oil Pan....

Ok, here is the whole story behind the part that I posted a few days ago.

My plan for the weekend was to drop the oil pan on the TR and replace the gasket. I drained the oil then went about removing the oil pan. Not that hard just took a while (I think there where 17-18 bolts holding the pan on) and a few light taps with a dead blow to get the pan off the car. After I got the pan off the car I took it over to my workbench to clean it up. I start taking the remnants of the old gasket off and I notice something in the bottom of the oil pan, uh-oh. Start fishing metal pieces out, at this point I'm in a bit of a panic. Thinking to myself, I'm going to have to tow the car to Decatur, pay a bunch to rebuild the engine ect. The picture shows what I fished out of the oil.

I get back under the car to examine the bottom end of the engine, trying to see where this part may have come from. Crank looks good, counter weights look fine, piston rods intact, bottom of the pistons look good, no groves or scoring in the piston liners....hmmmmm. I dilute the rest of the oil left in the oil pan and filter it through a coffee filter. No small metal shavings, odd. Look through my workshop manuals and parts catalogs, can't find a part that looks like this thing. Decide to call in some help, I e-mail the pictures to a guy I know who races Spitfires and has owned 20+ Triumphs (4, 4a, 6, 250, a few GT6s and Spitfires) and has worked at a Triumph shop up in NC on and off for a while. He calls me back and says this....

"First thing, that isn't from the engine so no harm done. I don't know how in the world it got there but what you have appears to be an old spark plug gapping tool!"

So there you have it, my TR was hiding a spark plug gapping tool in its oil pan. Very odd, at least it didn't say Lucas on it...... ::)

So an hour job turned into a whole day thing with just a hint of anxiety thrown in for good measure.

Monday, June 25, 2007

What the heck is that?


I'll post the story behind this part in a day or so. Until then, can anyone guess what it is/was?

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Exxon Valdez in my drive way...

I was changing the oil in the MINI last night, using a new drain pan. Well when I dropped the drain plug onto the drain pan and walked away I thought all was ok. Nope! When I came back out about 10 minutes later there was about a 4 quart oil slick growing out from under my car. Seems the drain plug fell and perfectly blocked the hole in the top of the pan so all the oil overflowed and ended up on the drive way! So I left for a quick trip to the grocery store to get cat litter and laundry detergent. Spread all of that on the spill and I will clean it up in a few days. Hopefully the cat litter will absorb most of the oil out of the driveway.

TR has been running great. Cleaned out the air filters last weekend. Plan on doing the oil and getting the wheels balanced this weekend. I also need to check the rear dif oil level. Right after I changed the oil in the rear dif it leaked alot, I am not sure if I over filled it or if the seal is starting to go bad (Hopefully it is the former). Also hoping the replacing the oil pan gasket will stop some of the oil drip that the car has (who am I kidding, anyone know a 40 year old British car that doesn't mark its territory?). I'll get back with some updates to the work this coming weekend.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

New Look New Plans....

Ok, changed the color and layout a bit. Picked the color because both my British cars are the correct color that British cars should be, British Racing Green. Anyway, just trying something new don't know if it will stick or not.

As for the cars themselves, not much happening. I think I am going to go in a different direction with the MINI and Autocorssing. I am going to sell the Hoosiers that I have (225/45/15s if interested let me know!) and go back to running Falkens. I have not been able to adjust my driving style to the slicks and plus I like not having to change tires back and forth at the events. So, the Hoosiers will be sold, my racing wheels will become my street wheels and my street wheels will stick around to become my racing/to lazy to change tires street wheels as well.

The TR is doing well. The warm weather is agreeing with its state of tune. The engine is running much smoother. I do need to change the oil and oil pan gasket, I'll do that in a few weeks. Also want to get the brake stuff on order, replace the tachometer cable and hunt down a place to quote me on redoing the exterior.

July should be a big month for car reviews. I will be traveling to New York and the mid west. Lots of driving and probably a few different cars. I am also going to try to go to a few baseball games while on the road. Figure to hit the Royals and as many minor league parks as I can.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Chevy Malibu Max Review

Took the MINI in for service this week and was given the choice of a Focus or a Malibu Max. Figured I have driven a Focus, why not try out the Chevy...

Ok, the car I was given has the V6. For a larger car the engine is pretty punchy down low. Has an interesting tiptronic mod to manual shift the auto box your self. Quick off the line, good for passing on the interstate but as soon as you get past about 3000 rpm the pull dies off.

Interior is pretty good for a base end model. Plastic trim is much nicer than the other base cars I have driven in the past. It doesn't really look like plastic. Heck, I think the interior trim in the Malibu Max is nicer than the Corvette I sat at the auto show a few months back. Seat is supportive. There are two neat sunlights over the back seat. Not really sure the functionality but still neat to look at. Driving position is pretty good though the car feels a lot bigger to drive than it really is. One complaint about the driving position yet again is the dead peddle area. Nowhere to really put you left foot. If you put it against the bulkhead then it is too close to your seat, if you move it over towards the middle it ends up behind the brake peddle, not good.

Audio is good and the controls are well laid out and simple to figure out. Same goes for the AC, easy to get the temperature just right. The vent controls are unique and actually work quite well. They use a wheel to direct the flow to the left or right and a neat louver design to direct up or down. Hard to explain in words, you'll just have to go look in a Malibu and see for your self.

Not a bad car. Wish I could give a bit better review but I have only had the car just over 24 hours.

I'll be in Clearwater Florida this week for a conference. I'm sure I'll figure out something to write about while listening to speakers talk about Nuclear Parts Obsolescence....

Friday, May 25, 2007

The Lost Review

Ok, so I wrote a review last week of the Mazda 6 that I rented while in Virginia. Through out the whole review I compared the Mazda to a Pontiac G6 that I had driven and reviewed. Well, I got to looking through my posts and realized that I never posted the entry about the G6 and my trip to the beautiful states of Iowa and Illinois. Why you may ask? Well I wrote the entry at the airport without any internet access and just never uploaded it. So, below you will find my somewhat delayed review of the Pontiac G6...

The below trip took place 4/2/07-4/6/07

Well, I am in the great states of Illinois and Iowa this week. Thought I would post a a car review and some food reviews.

On a side note, this is the 4th straight trip that I have been snowed on, kind of funny. I like snow but not the 26 degree temps with 50mph winds....that is why I live in Atlanta.

Road:

Pontiac G6

This is the 2nd time that I have rented a G6 while on a work trip. Both times I have gotten the V6 version. Not a bad little car. Has nice pick up when you step on it, had good back seat space, a pretty good stereo, and nice clear cut controls.

My biggest issues with it: The interior looks really cheap, loads of terrible black plastic, cheap feeling switches and control surfaces. Steering wheel is really big (it does tilt and telescope which is a plus) and just doesn't feel right for some reason. Seats, where do I start? Side bolsters are a bit too rigid and are at a strange angle. After 30mins the seat puts my left leg to sleep and starts pinching the sides of my back. The side mirrors are a strange shape and tend to cut off things towards the very outside of the viewing area.

Would I buy this car? No. Do I mind renting one? No. It is kind of fun to drive but I am glad that both times I have rented one that I haven't had more than an 1 1/2 drive to make in it without being able to stop for sometime.


Food:

Tuesday Lunch
Ate at a neat place in Albany, IL Tuesday for lunch. I think it was called the Albany Mississippi River Cafe. Local spot, pretty small. Good food and great prices. I ordered the meatloaf, a side salad and had mashed potatoes as a side item. All of it was good. Meal also came with a desert, I got a chocolate and peanut butter pudding. It was 6.95 for the whole thing. Good spot if you are ever in Albany, IL.

Tuesday Dinner
Ended up at the Blue Cat Brew Pub in downtown Rock Island, IL. Found an add for it in the hotel information book. Decided to give it a shot. Nice looking joint when you walk in, it is right across the street from the Rock Island Casino but looked to have only locals eating there. Order up a River Bend Pale Ale to start. All in all a very good IPA, not the best I have had, but for a Local Mircobrew very good. For dinner I had a half rack of their ribs at the suggestion of my friendly bar keep. How where they? Well the first indication that they where going to be good was when I went to eat the first rib and all the meat fell off right onto my plate. They were amazing. Best ribs I have had in quite a while. 2nd beer I ordered, the Blue Cat Anniversary Ale was much better than the first, it was a little darker and had a better taste to it. It was a good spot and somewhere that I plan to return to next time I am in the area.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone has a nice 3 day weekend coming up. I know with the temperatures going to be in the upper 80's all weekend hear in Atlanta I'll be spending some time by the pool.

Installed an emergency bonnet release on the TR yesterday. TR bonnet release cables have a bad habit of breaking when you least expect it. When that happens you have a heck of a time getting the hood open. It usually involves drilling a hole in the passenger footwell or using a broom stick from underneath the car. The emergency release installed nicely and will keep me from getting in this mess.

Next few projects in line on the car:
1. I need to get a new tachometer cable, tach needle bounces around, doesn't read and does some other crazy stuff. I already have a replacement tach but also want to get a new cable.
2. Need to change the oil and when I do that I plan on changing the oil pan gasket. Hopefully this will stop a few of the bottom end leaks on the engine.
3. I am going to pull the seats and try to free up the seat sliders. Drivers seat will only move forward a bit and the passenger seat is frozen in place. With the seats in the car, I can't get enough leverage to get them to move and I don't want to soak the sliders in WD-40 while in the car. Pretty easy to remove, I think there are only 4 bolts per seat.
4. Brakes, I hope to order all the stuff to do the front brakes in the next month or so.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Triumph Returns

I got the TR fixed last night and was able to take advantage of some nice weather and drive it to work today. Repaired the broken radiator hose, hit all the lube points with the grease gun, changed the rear differential oil and gave everything a good once over. Car is running great! Last few things I need to do before doing the brakes this summer; I need to change the transmission oil (but I have to figure out a way to get new fluid in the fill hole that is on the side of the transmission case), change the fuel filter and change the oil and oil pan gasket. After that it will be on to replacing the brakes.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Mazda 6 Review

Ok, I was in Virginia and Maryland this week and had the opportunity to drive a Mazda 6 around for a week. Ending up putting about 600-700 miles on it. Figure I would continue my series of reviewing my rental cars. If you missed any I have taken a shot at giving my thoughts on a Ford Focus, Pontiac G6 and a Pontiac Vibe....

The Mazda 6 looks good (very much like the G6, in fact I have a hard time telling which is which sometimes). I had a base model I guess, cloth interior, single CD sound system, manual climate control ect. First impression was that it was a pretty nice car on the inside as well. Seats are better than the G6 but the viewing angle of the instruments was funny. Took me quite a while to adjust the steering wheel (tilt and telescope! a nice feature) to where I could read all of the gages. The gages are hard to read, especially the speedometer. It only has every 20mph listed (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120) and the tick marks in between all look the same with almost no difference in size. This makes figuring out your speed at a glance very tricky and almost impossible to figure out at night without a prolonged stare. Other interior controls are straight forward. Nice layout of cruise and radio controls on the steering wheel. Climate controls are easy to read and operate. The only minus to the center stack is in the digital readout. It is red on black, making it hard to read in some light conditions. With polarized sunglasses, I could not always make out what radio station I was on (with polarized sunglasses getting more popular you would think car makers would maybe test the displays in their cars) and when I could read them the display was cluttered and had information I didn't need on it. All in all a nice interior but needs some big improvement on the gage and readout end.

Performance: Not bad for a 4 cylinder. Not sure on the hp but the G6 I drove seemed faster. This Mazda 6 did have the manual shift option. It would let me hold a gear and not change even if I hit the rev limiter (pretty neat) but shifts did take a while and I was not impressed on how the car lagged coming out of corners. Felt almost like I was driving an 80's Benz turbo diesel. Drive through corner, downshift right after braking (to avoid being thrown into the seat belt when down shifting because the tranny doesn't match revs), stomp the loud peddle and weight. Engine starts to make more noise, no real speed yet, revs pass 4500rpm, still waiting, revs get to 5000 and the car starts to get going. So this car had no torque. This is where the G6 did much better. Seemed to have a lot more torque down low and you could feel the car accelerate (the Vibe did this well also, even the Focus seemed to have some life when reved hard). With this Mazda 6 it just felt lifeless. Big minus in the Zoom Zoom category.

Ok, so I didn't like the gages and I didn't like the performance. But this was the base Mazda 6. I will admit that I almost bought a Mazda 6 Wagon with the V6 about 2 years ago. Very much enjoyed that car (with the V6 it has some punch) and if it had not been for employee pricing on a Saab 92x I would have bought one. Did I like the Mazda or the G6 better? I don't know. I would have to drive them back to back to give a real good review but both where comfortable on long trips, had good base stereos, and plenty of space in the cabin and the boot. I think I would have to lean towards the G6 just because its engine seemed to have a little life and made off the line starts a lot more fun than the Mazda.


TRIUMPH UPDATE!!!!
Last you may have read the radiator hose had let go. I ordered a replacement that never made it too my house. Called up Victoria British and they shipped me out another free of charge and it arrived today. Figure I will get it on this week as well as spending sometime lubing the chassis and topping of fluids to get the TR back on the road by this weekend.

Monday, May 07, 2007

MOTD 5

Got back from MOTD 5 as well as some business related traveling early last week. Kel and I had a great time. Wish that the weather up in NC had been better on Saturday but you can't have everything be perfect. Got a good number of clean runs on the Dragon through out the weekend. Kel and I did a bit of hiking in Joyce Kilmer and plan on doing a bit longer hike next year. All in all a very relaxing week. Much needed considering that I am in a stretch of only being home for 3 out of 16 days. But, if I am not traveling I'm not making money.

Plan on getting a bunch of work done on the cars this weekend (Triumph, Lexus, and the MINI). The idea is to finish the brake work on Kelly's Lexus, rotate the tires on the MINI (fronts are a bit used from the last weekend), and to finish the repairs (radiator hose) to the TR and do some other work (grease whole chassis, wash the car, change the transmission fluid, and change the rear dif fluid. I bought a suction pump to drain the rear dif.)

I'll out up an update after the weekend and may have a new car review depending on what I get on my trip to Virginia

Friday, April 27, 2007

MOTD 5 Time and weekly news

MINIs on the Dragon (MOTD) starts next week. This will be the 3rd year that Kel and I have spent the first weekend in May up in the Mountains with a few hundred other folks who own MINIs. We are looking forwarded to getting sometime off and relaxing. I plan on reading a few Anthony Bourdain books and checking out the new Classic Motorsports mag. We both plan on spending a lot of time sitting outside in the sun and doing nothing. I am sure I will work a few runs on the Dragon in. I am guessing that I will get most of my runs in Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. After that, I will probably only make tow more runs. The AtlantaMINIs reverse dragon parade and the Midnight run. I'll have an update when we get back.

News from this week:

Still waiting on the replacement parts for the TR. I'm missing some good drop top weather right now and hope the parts are waiting for me when I get back in town.

Replaced the brakes and rotors on Kelly's Lexus this week. Took me 3 times as long as it should have because no one prints a Lexus repair manual and the dealer wanted $300 for one. Next time I have to do the brakes it will only take maybe 45mins to do all 4.

Monday, April 23, 2007

What's that smell?

Drove the TR out this weekend to watch my Tennis team play. After the matches, I was getting ready to head home and I decided to check under the hood (no real reason) and I noticed some fluid all over the engine bay. Ran my finger through it, turns out it was coolant. The top hose from the radiator to the Tstat housing had sprung a leak. I was able to get the car home without incident. I must have stressed the old house a bit when I was changing the tstat so it finally decided to give up the ghost. I have a new one on order from Victoria British. Pretty easy fix, just glad I decided to pop the hood!

I also have a new steering wheel cover and an emergency bonnet release on order that I will put in when they show up.

That's all for now.....

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Why does this happen every year?

I have decided that from now on I just need to stay inside a concrete bunker somewhere for the 2nd week of April. 3 years ago, the car dealer wrecked my 1st MINI. 2 years ago I hurt my knee playing tennis. Last year, well I got lucky and nothing happened. This year? I hurt my knee again, playing tennis, on the same exact day I hurt it last time. Grrrrrr. Anyway, my Knee Dr. is going to take a look at it tomorrow. Probably going to get an MRI and maybe have him scope it. This is a re-occurring problem from when I first hurt the thing playing soccer in college.

How does this all fit into cars? Well both the MINI and the Triumph have stick shifts so having a bum left knee makes it a bit difficult to drive. I can get by driving the MINI as long as I don't sit in much traffic. Haven't even tried to get in the TR yet since it is so low to the ground.

I guess I do have some car news. 1st Autocross of the year was this past weekend. It was rainy and my first time running Hoosiers with adjustable camber bits. Had a good time and thought I did pretty good for my first event in a year. Never could get the rear end of the car to stay in line, the MINI was wicked loose and I know I left several seconds out on the track by not being able to attack several of the turns without fear of spinning the car. Looking forward to a dry event and being able to dial the car in.

That's it for now.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

My TR4a's History

Ok, so I was bored sitting around after work and I was flipping through the new Moss Motors catalogue that showed up in the mail. A though popped in my head that I needed to add my recent receipts to the folder that I got when I bought the Triumph that contained all of the receipts for work done to the car over the years. I had flipped through all of these when I bought the car but had never sat down and looked at dates, names, items ect. So here is what I found out...

I know the names of the previous 3 owners.
Car underwent a complete restoration, engine rebuild starting in May 1989.
I know the name of who rebuilt the engine.
I have receipts (must be over 100 items) for everything that was ordered from The Roadster Factory for the rebuild/resto.
Oil pump went bad sometime in the mid 90's and was replaced along with the valves being reworked and some other engine work (biggest bill I found)
Car was repainted sometime around '90-91 as well as having some other body work completed.
Since '95 the car has had very few problems. Only two breakdowns both coming from issues in the distributor.

So the car was restored about 20 years into its life and now I have it 20 years after the rebuild. I would love to get in contact with the guy that restored it, maybe even meet him and show him how his work has held up (I'm guessing it is in better shape today than it was before the restoration was started!). Also would like to find out what he knows about the cars history before 1989 (oldest receipt I have is dated 5/89 along with a fax letter to The Roadster Factory dated the same month).

I'm going to take this on as kind of a car genealogy. I'll put together a timeline of all the work, owners, where the car lived, get the British Heritage Motoring Cert (Build date, color, when and where it was sold, find if all the #'s match) and put it up on the site when I get done. I hope that I am lucky enough to have the car for the next 20 years!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

General Exclaim UHP Review

Quick review of the tires that I ordered from TireRack.com to go on the MINI. I use 205/50/15s for the MINI for better weight savings (around 150lbs less than the stock 17s). After one good mountain run up to the Tail of the Dragon (US 129 in NC/TN, look it up if you have never heard of it. 318 turns in 11 miles.) I love these tires. They ride smoother than the old Dunlops, track well on the highway and did great on the twisty stuff.

The first run up the Dragon they didn't feel all that good. They felt vague and really didn't grip all that well. Now, the temperature was a nippy 40-45 degrees and the tires only had around 200 miles on them. After a short break we headed back down the Dragon. On this run the tires where completely different. They had great grip and feel. I had to get used to a tire that turned in right away, the old Dunlops had a good amount of flex to them (even when aired up pretty high) so you had to anticipate your turn in a bit and let the car and tires settle before the car would bit in. Not so with the Generals. No bad sidewall flex that I could feel (39psi). These tires do let you know when they are near the limit, talking quite loudly before ultimate grip has been reached. When they do let go it is gradual and not snappy so it is pretty easy to recover from any opposite lock moments.

All in all these are great tires for the money. Sure you can buy tires with more grip but for $61 per tire I'm really happy. Now I just have to wait and see how they age once they have a few more miles on them.

Friday, March 30, 2007

TR Radiator Flush

Finally got around to flushing the radiator on the triumph yesterday. I also replaced the globe badge on the hood and installed a 160 degree T-stat. I am glad that I had bought a can of Loktite Instant Gasket and had it on hand. When I removed the tstat housing the gaskets where toast. I thought I was going to be stuck until I remeber the Loktite I had bought to do the rear differential. Cleaned off all the mating surfaces, bench installed the tstat and two halves of the housing using the instant gasket then mounted it all up to the top of the water pump. The instant gasket worked great. I did have to adjust the mounting of the hose from the radiator to the water pump a few times to stop a slow leak. I also added some Red Line Water Wetter, this stuff is supposed to help the car run cooler by doing something with the coolant? It was just an add on purchase when I bought all the Red Line gear oil and transmission fluid.

Car runs a lot cooler now, guessing this is mostly due to the new 160 degree tstat and clean coolant. The stuff I drained out was pretty nasty. Next two projects are to change the transmission fluid, replace the oil pan gasket and do the brakes. I'll get to the transmission fluid in the next month, do the oil pan next time I change the oil and hopefully get to the brakes next month as well.

If you work on cars I highly suggest keeping some sort of liquid gasket stuff around. I know I will from now on, it saved me the hassel of ordering and waiting for new gaskets to finish the radiator flush.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Car Show prep

I am taking the TR down to the Georgia Tech Car show next weekend. Bought a few things from Victoria British to clean it up a bit. A new hood emblem should really look nice. Plan on trying to clean the engine bay up a bit with some engine cleaner. I know it won't win any awards but it will be nice to show it off a bit. Also ordered a new oil pan gasket and drain plug. Going to change these out next time I change the oil. Next two things that have to get done to the car are the brakes and flush of the radiator (I know, yes I still have not gotten to this). Once I get those two things done then I am going to try to get a few other cosmetic things taken care of. Window seals, new top and tonneau cover, get one of the plate lights working and install a line filter on the radio.

Been digging the new tires and alignment on the MINI the last few days. I had forgotten what it was like to drive a car that didn't have a wicked wheel shake past 50mph. I think the new tires (General Exclain UHP) have really helped out the ride. They seem much smoother over everyday driving than the Dunlops where. Haven't pushed them yet, first chance will be a MINI club mountain drive next month. Looking forward to that to see how they handle some serious curves.

That's it for now. More after the weekend.......