With no questions to answer this month, I thought I would share an interesting story.
Have you ever been putting off a big job, expecting it to be difficult, only to be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is? I have had this happen to me. I have also had what should be very simple job turn out to be a nightmare. I recently had what should have been a simple job turn out to be a much bigger job.
In August I lost the clutch in one of my Saab 900s. This car was from Southern California. It has never seen salt, and rarely saw rain. It is a fun car to work on. Nothing is rusted or frozen.
Now, on a Saab 900 the engine is bolted on top of the transmission, and the whole assembly is mounted backwards in the car. The clutch is on the back of the engine, which is up front by the radiator. I have done a complete clutch job in about an hour. It is a relatively quick and simple job.
I realized the problem with the Saab clutch was the master cylinder. I ordered a new one and attempted to install it. It is a traditional master cylinder attached to the firewall with two studs. I was just finishing the installation when one of the studs broke off. I was just tightening the nuts on the studs when the wrench came loose. I had just begun to snug the nut, I hadn’t even begun to apply much tightening force. I removed the part to find that the ear, the stud was threaded into, actually broke off. It was a defective casting. Ok. No big deal. I obtained a replacement and installed it.
When I drove the car to work the next day I noticed the cruise control no longer worked. Somehow while working under the dash I broke the cruise control. On the way hone, I lost the clutch again. A quick inspection revealed the hydraulic hose between the master and the slave burst. Ok, not a big deal. I replaced the hose. As I was bleeding the clutch, the slave cylinder blew. To replace the slave cylinder the entire clutch assembly needs to be removed. When I removed the clutch assembly, I noticed the rear main seal on the engine, and the pilot shaft seal on the transmission were leaking, the clutch had oil on it, and the pilot bearing was seized. I ordered a complete clutch kit, and new seals. I resurfaced the flywheel while it was apart, and installed the new seals and the new pilot bushing.
I had a bear of a time installing the new clutch, it just did not fit. I couldn’t align the pressure plate quite right to install the bolts, and the pilot shaft just would not fit in the clutch disk. After wrestling with it for over two hours, and cutting my hands several times, I realized I had the wrong parts. They were boxed wrong. I had ordered the right parts, but the parts supplier gave me the wrong parts. After a conversation with the parts supplier I received the correct parts, and again attempted to install the clutch. I had it almost installed, when I realized one of the dowel pins fell out of the flywheel. I had to take the assembly apart to get the pin out of the bell housing. After reassembly I was installing the slave cylinder bolts when one of them stripped. I could not understand how it stripped, as I never snugged the bolt. Again, the whole assembly had to come apart to fix the stripped threads. I realized someone had installed the wrong bolts at some point, these bolts were too short, and one was cross threaded.
The project is almost done. Hopefully I just have to bleed the clutch and finish putting it back together. Should be done this weekend, almost four months later…
Let me first briefly explain the history of automotive paints. The early autos were painted with the same paint people had been painting carriages with for years. There was no “automotive” paint. Not paint in the traditional sense we think of when we talk about paint today. Early paint was basically linseed oil and a binder, with pigment, or crude shellac. This paint was applied with a brush and took a long time to dry. These paints were not very durable, often literally falling off the metal in a year or two. These finishes offered very little U/V protection and broke down quickly.
Enamel paints used enamel resins. This type of paint takes much longer to dry than lacquer and actually dries in two steps. First, the enamel reducer evaporates and the paint becomes solid. Next, the resin oxidizes when it reacts to the air. This is why the new finish cannot be waxed for 30 days after application. The enamel paints dry to a hard, glossy finish and do not need the rubbing out as lacquer needs. The drying of enamel paints could be accelerated by the use of a baking oven.
So, what is an old car person to do? 
My interest in Corvettes probably started back in 1954 when some friends and I attended the General Motors Motorama Show in Boston where the highlight of the show, for me, was the fairly new Chevrolet Corvette display. However, it would be 21 years later that I would become the owner, of one of these cars.
Since the very beginning the engine ran smoothly, but smoked moderately, however, eventually I detected a slight noise in the lower end. Before things got worse, I pulled the engine and transmission. It took a year to complete engine and transmission overhaul. A new radiator and rebuilding the wiper/washer, the carburetor, the distributor and the fuel pump was also done at this time.
One thing that always bothered me about this car was that the electric clock never worked. So one day I took it apart and found the manufacturer’s name. To my surprise, I was able to purchase parts (at a car show). I had the face silk-screened and reinstalled it. This was great, but it made the rest of the dash look terrible. You guessed it, out came the main dash, matter of fact, out came the whole interior, seats, carpet, belts… every-thing. This was the point where we decided that we could not reinstall a new interior unless we had the body repaired and painted. Since I didn’t really have a place to do the work or the paint and my own body was now needing some restoration of it’s own, we had no choice but to have this done by an outside source. While this was being done I totally restored the seats and recovered them. In 1966 some of the options available were seat headrests and shoulder belts. These were available through Corvette restoration parts suppliers so I added these two features.
Wheel Tracks had the great opportunity of having these two motorcycles in one place, on a sunny afternoon and wanted to pass a little about them, on to our VAE members. On the left is a 1910 Harley Davidson motorcycle. This is not a racer, but a beautiful road bike. It is a perfect replica of the original owned by Fred Gonet.
