Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Are you still working on Cars?

photo source:Vintage Images
Yes.

I had a conversation with my brother on my birthday a couple of weeks ago. He posed that question to me. He has told me that he has read the entire library of my blog. The question is innocuous enough, though the inflection of the voice can give it a different meaning

Reading and hearing it without inflection, it is just a straight question.

Are you still working on cars? Just asking for a little information.

Are you STILL working on cars? That is asking a different question. It's pretty judgmental about how I wish to invest my time.

Are you still working on CARS? This sounds like the speaker is incredulous of my activities. Don't I have anything better to do?

You can read a lot of subtext into a simple question, if you want to. 

I think that my brother has read a lot of my opinion pieces lately.  More of the memories and ramblings. Maybe he missed the post where I changed the radiator on my XJ6?

I'm still working on my cars. My challenge has been to get the XJ through smog. I've had the car four years now. It was originally smogged for sale. I was able to get it to pass with only minor fiddling two years ago.

This time I was checking out the air injection system and discovered a disconnected vacuum line. I reconnected it, cleared the codes and started driving the car. I was piling up the miles and was quite hopeful. Especially when it went past 100 miles. I thought that it might be a good idea to get an oil change first, before taking it to the smog tester. I thought I'd better obtain a filter first as they are not the most common item in stock at a garage.  The fuel gauge stuck in the empty position as I filled the tank, I knew that it needed to be at least 3/4 ths. full for certain evaporate fuel  system checks to be made.

Even my favorite auto parts store had to special order the filter. The day before, I had gone to the garage that had done a lot of work for me over the years. Unfortunately it was now held under new ownership. I asked the mechanic Andy, if I could the get the oil changed now, or did I need an appointment. He told me I could be next in line. I asked if he had the filter in stock and it turned out that he needed to order it also. I made am appointment for 11:00 the next day. As I merged on the freeway to return home. I glanced down at the fuel gauge. Still stuck. Right then the CEL lit up. Damn! 240 miles had rolled by on the odometer before that happened.

I had just washed the car after the first rain and it was looking pretty fine. There is just something about this car that really grabs me. It's a real rich guy's car! Well it was when it was new. Now maybe not so much.

Sure, I was disappointed, but I thought that I'd swing by Wheels and Deals and see if they have anything on the lot that could catch my eye. No such luck. I'm either getting too fussy or too broke, guess which one!

The next day I scanned the codes, they had come back, except the one for the air injection. I also saw one that related to fuel level. That gas gauge sometimes will go back to normal after a fill up. I've got the replacement sending unit but I've been waiting until I was ready to also replace the fuel pump. I'm pretty sure that I can replace the sender without removing the tank, but I've got to get the fuel level nearer to empty. That's going to take awhile since I almost filled it up completely. Darn.

It's also time to get my '96 Mustang smogged. It seemed to be running fine except on a long pull in high gear the engine would stumble a beat. This would only happen on a steady light load. My '94 Cadillac Seville did that also. It took several trips to the dealer before they decided to replace some of the coil packs. My Mustang only has two coils so I ordered them and a new air filter from Rock Auto. Hopefully that will cure it. I probably should have ordered a replacement temp sensor also.

The coils seemed to help but there was still some hesitation on full throttle acceleration. I was looking through the shop manual's trouble shooting section and it stated that a clogged fuel filter could cause that symptom. So I dropped by the auto parts store and picked a new filter and a fresh set of spark plugs. The manual recommends filter replacement at 40,000 miles or four years. It's been a bit longer than that! I haven't replaced the plugs much either. I guess I'm used to the 90,000 mile replacement period of my GM cars. 

I'll have to get to those jobs soon. The Mustang needed to be smogged last month. I've paid the fees, just like I did for the XJ6. I wasn't going to get burned by penalties again. I've got to get it done. If for some reason they won't pass then I'm going to be in a real jam. I know that it's a constant refrain from me but it's a constant concern.

Thanks, Mike. 
Keep smiling.

I've been watching these Youtube videos by Mike Frankovich. He started a Facebook group; Californians for classic car smog exemptions, `that is trying to place smog exemptions for vintage cars on a twenty five year standard. Currently in California only vehicles that are model year 1975 or older are exempt. That means the car has to be at least forty five years old! A lot of cars get junked either because they don't pass, the owner can't afford to fix whats wrong, or the owner gets sick and tired of dealing with it and gives up. 

I've asked that question myself.

 

Mike has made a series of videos entitled, "What the F... is that doing in a junkyard?"  He goes into various wrecking yards and records the cars that he thinks should be unlikely to be found junked. The cars are in too good shape, or are somewhat desirable models.  They are cars that could have been saved. A lot of those cars come directly from donation sites. The cars are donated to contribute funds to a certain charity or cause.  Some are donated for tax deductions, some because it's less hassle than trying to sell them on your own, some because they have no value as a trade in.  And some, just to get rid of them. 

I can't blame anyone that doesn't want to sell their car through Craigslist. It is a hassle dealing with flakes, low ballers, and sometimes even criminals. We've all heard the stories. I'm not going to get killed over a 500.00 car. No way.

As enthusiasts we hate to see any savable, somewhat desirable car go to the wrecker. But we have to be realistic.

Let's face it, a lot of cars that we quirky enthusiasts are interested in have almost no value, and almost no  interest from the general public. A '32 Ford or '57 Chevy is recognized by almost anyone as a valuable  collectible car. A somewhat worn '73 Plymouth sedan? Probably not so much. But there might be someone out there who might want it. 

I remember reading an editorial in Street Rodder magzine back in the 1970s. In it the editor wrote that there was a "Clean up America" ad campaign that featured a derelict '58 Buick lying on it's side in a ditch. The ad referred to the car as an eyesore. The ad was meant to raise the public's demands to local governments to clean up the junk. Someone had contacted the editor of the magazine and complained that the ad would contribute to the negative feelings that the public might have about old cars. The editor could understand the concern, but the ad didn't depict a Street Rod or a restored old car. Not even a fairly well preserved and used old car. Instead it depicted a derelict car that had been dumped down some country back road. It was an eyesore. If a reader has an interest in '58 Buicks or any old car for that matter, and wants to save all of them, well how about just saving one? Pick the car you like and fix it up, make it something that you and the hobby can be proud of. Get it now, while you can still find one.

That was reasonable advice.

I imagine that if the smog exemption cut off date is changed, it will probably be for cars which are titled as historical vehicles.  They will have the usage and mileage restrictions in place. That would make sense to me. The idea is not to allow people to drive cars that are possibly not smog compliant as daily transportation. It's to make it possible to preserve a larger number of cars that currently have, or will have, historical interest in the future.  

We'd be lucky to see that happen. California just passed that law that will prohibit gasoline powered car s from being sold in the state in 2035! 

I've even been trying to keep up with my newer cars.

The '07 Mustang has been pretty neglected. I wasn't driving it for the last several months. It's been sitting under a big tree through the last couple of rain storms and was quite filthy. There are these terrible little seed/leaves that fall off the tree and find there way into everything. When I sweep the front of my house I'll often fill 1/3 of a trash can with just those seeds. My first task was to clean the car thoroughly, then to actually start driving it. It 's hard to be familiar with the condition of a car if you never drive it.

photo source:123rf.com
Not finished yet.