A Mostly British Obsession
This is my “new” “cheap” ($2,000) “winter car.” I looked at all sorts of interesting older machinery, but in the end I showed a bit of sense and avoided several cars which needed work (lots of work, generally) to be decent transportation. This machine is a 1990 Mazda Miata with about 145,000 miles and all of the assorted dings accumulated in 20 years. Runs well, overall it’s in OK condition, and everything seems to work.
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The first coat of high-build primer went on the GT today. Jim did most of the prep and spraying–I did a bit, enough to show I definitely can use some practice. My goal is to get the fenders, bonnet and doors ready for primer by the end of next week, in addition to getting the initial blocking and fill done on this car.
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What a fantastic wagon. For just under $10,000, why would you consider anything else? (Maybe Mrs. Rusty Heaps would like to trade in her Outback for this. Lots of room for dogs in the back, and the diesel gets over 30 MPG, that’s 1/3rd better than the Subaru.)
Find it here on eBay, unless my lobbying efforts succeed.
I’m looking around for a cheap car ($2500 or so) to share the driving duties with the F250 this winter–and I’m enjoying the search. The car will have to be just a little odd, of course, but I’m open to all sorts of machines. Here’s some cars I’ve been considering–I’ve been trying to be a bit more open than I normally am to non-British weirdness.
I rebuilt the carb on the F250 a couple of weeks ago, and on Tuesday, that little bit of maintenance came back to bite me in the behind as the truck spluttered to a halt halfway up the hill a mile from home. I was able to coast all the way back into the carport, so Goldie was at least halfway decent about the whole thing.
This led me to replace the fuel pump (misdiagnosis on my part, but, hey, new fuel pump) and the coil–which was arcing everywhere, as it turns out. The distributor cap oddly enough had one completely corroded wire terminal–I mean, there was nothing left. So it’s had kind of a mini-tune-up and will be running on at least one more cylinder than it was recently.
But the problem appears to have been the new float needle valve seat coming loose, which would lead to constant flooding, I would guess. I put the carb back together and on the truck tonight, and it appears to be running well again. C’est la vie.
I took an hour or two and cleaned the inner fender on the right side of the engine bay. A bit of touch up and some wax, and it will be fine for this non-show car. The paint is 42 years old, after all. It’s a shame that the cotton cover on the wiring loom dissolved when it was touched, because mechanically the loom is in good condition. I will probably (for the short term) wrap it in cotton tape, which won’t be “right” but keeps me from forking out $450 for a new loom–and the repair will look better than what’s there.
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Visited Mark at Britsport today, and got a chance to see my E-Type again. Not much has changed (we’re waiting to paint it until I have a shop to reassemble the car), but by coincidence, a later car painted the same color that mine was (and will be again) was parked next to it, and I grabbed a snap.
Used “aircraft stripper” on the door jambs today, and it worked pretty well. You can tell it’s pretty potent because it stinks all to heck, like carb cleaner on steroids.
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Only the wheel arch lips and the door jambs remain to be stripped of their old paint…feels like progress. I’m going to try doing the jambs with chemical stripper, which should be an adventure. Chemical strippers (in my experience) seem like they should work great but are almost always as tedious as mechanical stripping, with the bonus of noxious, messy goop to contend with.
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Progress is proceeding at a glacial pace on the 1967 GT. My friend Jim has welded in the repair panels for the few rusty spots, and I am slowly working my way around the car, taking off the cruddy red paint job and getting rid of crud in the normally hidden areas.
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