Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Things don't just stand still.

photo was taken at the Luther Burbank Gardens in Santa Rosa.

I have decided to put my XJ6 front and center. I plan on driving it locally as a daily, while I try to find a way forward. It's currently sitting at 160,400 miles. How long will it take me to reach 161,000?

As everyone knows, Life gets busy, things change. 

I just ran my '96 Mustang through the car wash, I'm going to cover it up while it sits outside. I just bought a new car cover for it.

It will be going into the garage soon, my Daughter will be receiving her car once I deliver it up to the Sacramento area. That will be one less car in front of the house.

My Wife has assured me that all storage boxes will be taken out of the garage and placed in my Daughter's now empty room. 

Then there will be room for another car in the garage, I intend to put the '96 Mustang inside.

The XJ6 runs well. The a/c works great and all the accessories work. It still looks fantastic.

While the CEL came back on, shortly after it passed the smog test, the car seems to run fine. 

The problem is that the left front tire will wear out the inside tread in a couple of thousand miles. 

It seems to steer well enough and it tracks straight okay. It doesn't pull to the side or dart to the side on braking. 

So maybe it's not necessary to rebuild the whole suspension. I need to take a look at it and try to isolate the problem if possible. 

I also need to see f I can deal with the CEL,

Circumstances changed when it passed smog, I got the rest of this year, and all of the next before I go back for testing. I imagine that I will be able to clear up the problems in that time.

This is the most positive that I've been able to feel about this car in quite a while.

Today I re-seated the coolant level sensor in the coolant tank that I had accidentally knocked out of place while replacing the transmission cooler lines. The warning light on the dash indicated that I was really low on coolant, but the temp gauge never moved out of normal range, and the level was correct. I looked under the hood and saw the sensor hanging down, Today I re-seated it and the warning light went out.

I decided to check on how loose the front wheels were. I jacked up each wheel and found some bearing play in both sides, but it wasn't that much. The left front wheel didn't feel that bad. 

It bears looking into. 

I'd like ti talk cars over coffee with him.

I just started watching videos from Jay Leno's Garage again. I had always found the videos to be interesting. I liked the way that Jay displayed the car, discussed it's design, engineering and history, sometimes with the owner or a marque expert. During his pandemic series he was alone in the shop, after discussing the car he'd put it up on a lift and show off any interesting features of the chassis. Then he would take it out for a drive. 

I enjoy these internet shows much more than the televised version. In those, Jay would often have a special guest and there had to be "stunts" and stupid stuff like burn outs. 

I have watched the YouTube series in the past and I usually find that Jay projects  an "Everyman" persona. But of course he's not. He another rich guy who has a team of car repair and restoration specialists at his warehouse shop and complex. While it is evident that he is quite involved with his stable of vehicles, it's also clear that he doesn't have to get his hands dirty or fuss with a difficult repair. Which is fine and as it should be, because he is in a position to pay someone else to fix his cars, his time is probably more valuable than that. 

I do find it kind of funny when he describes a certain car as still being pretty affordable, "usually you can buy one for under 100,000 dollars." He will often catch himself after that statement, and explain that it's a lot of money, but a bargain compared to comparable models. But he has championed lower cost cars like '99 Corvettes and early Miatas. He has also praised owners that handle their own rebuilds and restorations. It's been a long time since he was a bucks down car enthusiast, his current reality is much different than most ordinary enthusiasts. 

Still. I appreciate his efforts to convey the essence of the car hobby to a wider audience. 

I find that revisiting his site and watching the series has made me appreciate my current stable of cars much more. I have a couple of cars that are pretty special, the XJS and the '51 Mark VII, and if I'm lucky I'll get to get these cars back on the road. Just owning them has been somewhat rewarding. I realize that there were many cars which have become quite valuable as of late, that were a couple of decades ago just considered to be worthless junk. 

I once wrote that the value of car magazines was to maintain the enthusiasm of the hobbyist, they helped provide the shot of energy and motivation to keep our projects moving. 

For that, I thank you Jay!