Taking the Month off

I'm taking the month of July off from any car restoration (unless it's neccesary or in credibly cheap). Our lease is up and we are expecting to move(hopefully to a place with a garage!), so my car restoration will resume in August.

last week

So on Sunday after the show, I thought “wouldn’t it be nice to listen to music on the way home?" so, I attempted to have the radio installed at a Circuit City in LA somewhere near El Segundo. They wanted to charge me $120 in labor (what happened to FREE Install?!) because I wanted it in the glove box. What a rip-off. The guy working there seemed kind of shady too so I skipped it. I'm at the point where I think I will just do the install myself. I just have to figure out where to buy a bezel (or maybe I can make one).

Also, on the ride down my car started to not start after I shut it off. I had it jumped twice before I discovered through the help of a couple other people that my battery cable was the problem. So I got a battery terminal cleaner (most awesome invention ever!) and cleaned and tightened the cable almost every time I wanted to start the car. On Sunday, the car over heated and spewed coolant all over the engine compartment, but mostly all over the battery. I sopped up all the coolant, and cleaned the battery terminals and after it was all dry it would start again. Though not very well. The last time I started it, it sparked a little, and I noticed the plate that holds the cables down was not tightened enough, the whole set up is kind of janky. I think I will go get a new battery cable as soon as I can.

GN was AWSOME!

I'm so tired... but the Grand National was a lot of fun. I should have taken another day off.

There were so many really nice Cadillacs. There were 5 Eldorado Birritz's (which are pretty rare).

I also went on a tour to the nethercutt museum that was really neat, but I lost most of my photos from the trip, because I lost my camera. That sucked. I tried to go with out one, but I couldn't, so I broke down and bought another one(luckily there was a BestBuy across the street.

I met one of the guys who designed the '67 Eldorado who later became GM's VP of design, who basically told me he didn't like the color of my car.

No radio yet, but running better

I tried to have my radio insatlled on Saturday, but the radio I had didn't have an ipod connection, and they didn't have the stereo I wanted that did have the ipod connection. So I had to skip the install.

On Sunday I was able to fiddle with the carberator and get it running smoothly(well much smoother... Of course, in the process the bit of the ratcheting screwdriver I was using fell off, and through a gap in the intake manifold to a place I could not get to it from. I had to go to the local hardware store to get one of those magnetic tool retriever things. I found one that was really perfect, it bends to whatever shape you need it to. I don't know how long it will last, but hopefully I won't have to use it much.

still to do:

1) get stereo installed (Sat. morning)
2) stop squeek (Sunday)
3) polish chrome and wax paint (Sunday)
4) replace muffler (Monday?)
5) get tires that match (may have to skip)
6) try to fix doors to headlights (may have to skip)

Opulence

So I've had this car for how long now, and a friend of mine just pointed this out to me... the doors on my eldorado have TWO door handles on the inside! one for the front seat passenger, and one for the rear seat passenger. How awesome is that?

Calling Cards

I made some calling cards for the show with photos of my cars and contact info, I made them mostly as a test to see if this printer would be good for another project I am working on. I picked them up today, and they came out frickin' awesome! I used the orange photo by the water from about 5 posts back, and then put small images of my other cadillacs on the back.

Compliments

Getting copliments on cars is always awesome, but when you get them from people you know are into cars, it's even better!

Duh... and Vette Racing

So, it appears as though I didn't need the radiator. One of the hoses on the back side of the radiator was not clamped tight enough and was dripping down, making it look as though it was leaking from the bottom of the radiator, if I had looked close enough, I would have noticed this. I think I'm just in a rush to get this car finished, and I'm not really paying attention.

My brother made a makeshift overflow tank (since I did not have one) for me out of a water bottle. It doesn't look too bad; it's hidden away in the battery compartment.

The guy on Ebay claims he's going to send me my parts (the bezel and whatnot) so I get them before my show...we'll see.

On a side note, I went to 'Vette Magic (yearly corvette-only drags) yesterday with my brother and dad, and did pretty well. I raced the '73 'vette and got to the semi-finals for my bracket before the tranny fluid started leaking out and I got disqualified. I think I got fourth place, but since I was disqualified, I don't know if I actually get fourth place (we didn't stick around to find out). Unfortunately, my brother did not get to race because the car was disqualified. Dad raced his 99 vette, and was eliminated the first round. Since the car is new I don't think he knows it well enough to pick a time.

Ordered Radiator

...Ordered it from Radiators.com which has a warehouse in Sac, they are delivering it to my parents house today. While I was on hold, they had as their hold music the comedians from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Gives you a little insight into the company. It cost $181 after tax with a lifetime warranty.

I also called d'Bears (cadillaville.com) about a dash board, bezel, and stereo, but they did not want to send me the stereo, and it would take two or three weeks to get the dash and bezel. I decided to skip it and wait until after the Grand National to order these parts, who knows, maybe I'll find some of them at the show.

New Carb in

Jim and I put the new carb in last night. Right on the side of the street, because we have no garage. It seems to work OK, starts right up! Though I'll have to adjust the idle a little, it's running a little fast.

Two problems we ran into, were the part that connects to the throttle linkage did not line up properly, (see the image above)so we had to swap that part off the old carb. It could have been bent, or maybe that's what's different on the deville version?

the other problem was while taking the old carb off, I sent the clip that holds the throttle linkage on flying and it (of course) fell between the radiators in the front. As I looked down to see if I could get it, I saw a big puddle of green staring up at me. It was pretty obvious that the radiator was leaking. So, that goes on the top of the "to fix" list.

Oh- yes Jim fished the clip out with a magnet off the refrigerator (thank you Affluent Travel!) and some string.