Escape From the Prison Planet

[DRIVEN]

Sorry, bad has-been mechanic habit.

[DRIVEN]

Well, looks like I'm snowed in till spring thaw.

[DRIVEN]

Recap on the last couple weeks...
My brother came over for Thanksgiving and towed the Mustang home. He and my nephew took it for a short drive first.

It's home in his garage now. I told him I'd buy them the proper carb and a kit for Christmas.

Now he can get back on his VW bus engine swap.

We all did the trip into town to see lights while they were here. This goes for several blocks along the river.






Many months ago I bought some missing pieces for my 70 year old table saw off Ebay. Finally got around to putting it all together. My homemade fence worked okay but the correct one works great. I love old tools.

I had some scrap particle board around so I made a couple more risers to go on the closet shelves.


My wife has twice the shelf space she started with and it's still not enough.


And at the other end of the closet...



While I was down in the basement working, I got close to the south wall to grab something out of my tool cabinet and felt a pretty stiff draft. Started feeling around and felt cold wind coming through the wall all along the foundation and even between some of the doubled studs. I pumped 2 1/2 tubes of caulking along all the seams, and wouldn't you know it, the basement isn't quite so chilly now.


It's been pretty windy here for the last couple weeks. I really need to get some burning done but can't seem to catch a still day. At least it's cleared the sky up some.

[DRIVEN]

Took it pretty easy today. The sun kept trying to come out so I took the opportunity to go ride for a couple hours. I headed NW and decided I'd just take some side roads to see where they went. Most turned to gravel or dead ended at someone's driveway.


There's still some snow here and there. I zipped the liner in my jacket and wore the full-face Lego man helmet. Still a little chilly though.



Leaving the last intersection before turning into my driveway I got a hard hesitation between gears followed by a couple mean backfires. Not sure what that was all about. Carb icing maybe? I'd felt a couple surges earlier in the ride. Shrug. I'll figure it out in the spring. This was probably my last ride for a while.

[DRIVEN]

Community college nerds document the Prison Planet.


It's winter and I got bored.

[DRIVEN]

Teaser...

[wayno]

This makes me think you have something like this coming.
I always thought that having a 1950 version of one of these would be cool as my work truck, but that one didn't look as good as the truck.

[Taterhead]

Something tells me that’s dad’s next build

[DRIVEN]

It's not the blue one but I've seen the pics. It has a lot of formerly trendy touches to undo. 1988 threw up all over the poor thing. It'll be a major project but a good place to start. He said it's 99% done deal and he'll pick it up late January. Buying it from the guy he sold that blue '36 pickup to a few years ago.

[wayno]

That version you posted a photo of looks way better than the 47-53 version.

[DRIVEN]

How I spent my Sunday...
Got up at 3am and headed over to my dad's. We jumped in a borrowed Silverado and headed for the California coast. Got to the guy's house about 4pm where he had already picked up the Uhaul trailer. The delivery was inside his shop and from 40 feet away looked about how I expected. As I walked closer it rapidly looked worse.
My dad had a few photos of it and was told by the seller that it had C4 Corvette suspension, front and rear, a nice solid body with no cancer, and had been parked in a garage for 30 years. This is what I was expecting...




As we all know, cars are rarely accurately represented. So, based on those photos and the description, I expected nothing more than a decent canvas. My dad was planning an LS swap and cosmetic revamp -- it was his project, not mine.

What we actually found was torch-cut C3 suspension clips crudely bridged by 2x4 rectangular steel rails. The fenders were probably more filler than steel held together with embedded round stock. The rockers and floor were fiberglass. The roof insert was from some unknown donor and featured a hand crank sunroof that didn't even pretend to be water tight. The rear door fit pretty horribly and the body had some rust pushing up under lots of filler. The grille was rust pitted and bent up but disguised under black BBQ paint. It would not have been possible to attach a front bumper because of the steering layout. We didn't even ask him to start the 231.

We politely passed on the deal, returned the Uhaul trailer, and headed home to start the search over again. 1350 miles in 26 hours stopping only for fuel and food. The borrowed HD2500 got 11-12 mpg. I got to bed about 6:30 this morning.

Know when to walk away, know when to run.

[wayno]

Well that sucks, maybe ask for more photos next time.

[DRIVEN]

Coulda shoulda woulda, I guess. There were a lot of factors at play. You really can't know until you've been able to physically inspect a car.

[jtinluvr]

Walking away can be hard after investing a bunch of time to get a car you think is good, but it sounds like you made the right call.

[wayno]

I know what you mean about investing time, I drove to the southern Oregon coast one time(6hrs driving each way) to drag home a 521 with a title only to find that it was not a safe roller like the guy said it was and I asked specifically him just that question, it didn't even have tension rods, I considered trying to drag it home but if it fell apart I would be screwed at the very least, so I gritted my teeth and left without it, this was back when I was collecting parts to make my 521 kingcab, I found what I needed locally, but 12 hours of driving seemed like a major waste of time, I learned a couple lessons that day, people exaggerate, and it is not always going to work out the way I planned.

[Taterhead]

Hell the passenger rear wheel arch isn’t uniform.

I’d say good call on y’all’s part, Kenny.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, there were plenty of things we could see in the photos that, on their own, wouldn't gave been disqualifiers. At least he didn't buy it sight unseen and have it shipped like an ebay car.

Oh well. On to the next one.

[DRIVEN]

I'm looking into building a shop. Talk me out of it.

[wayno]

Sorry, I want a shop myself but don't have the room, I would rather have a shop than a house, I can live in a shop, I can't park the cars in the house.

[jtinluvr]

I'm looking into building a shop. Talk me out of it.

I wouldn't be that guy. I'll egg you on!