[DeTomaso] RE: My cars

[John Bentley (jab)]

Mike,

You have everything upside-down again.  The Scirocco of doom has another
100,000 miles left in her!

The Pantera should be first! ;)

JB

 

-----Original Message-----
From: MikeLDrew at aol.com [mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com] 
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 7:06 PM
To: John Bentley (jab); detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: My cars


In a message dated 1/6/07 18:55:42, jab at cisco.com writes:

<< Say Mike, How's that yellow..... car doing? :)  Do you have it
running
yet?!?

I think 2007 is YOUR year.  Let's get in on the road...... >>

>>>Indeed, that is the plan.  I have concluded that work has been
interfering 
too much with my car activities, and to that end I have chosen to stop
doing 
it, except to the absolute minimum extent necessary, i.e. 2-3 days a
week 
tops.  The rest of the time will be dedicated to cranking out Profiles,
and 
working on cars and motorcycles.

My garage has looked like Jonestown for far too long.

My most pressing concern is an R&R of the intake manifold on the 427
Cobra, 
which has a leaking gasket that is causing oil to be sucked from the
lifter 
valley into the #3 cylinder.  Chris Difani has volunteered to come down
here and 
help me with that project on Monday (the 427 intake manifold, even in 
aluminum, is very heavy and awkward--the original was 110 pounds!)

With that out of the way, I have some daily driver chores that need to
be 
attended to.  Scirocco #1 is a long-term project, parked in a field
about a half 
mile from my house,  awaiting an engine transplant.  The engine (taken
from 
the #3 car, and needing new valve stem seals but otherwise perfect) has
been 
sealed in trash bags, but stored outside for the past 3-4 years (also in
the 
field).  The new clutch/radiator/etc/etc/ bits are all in the back of
the car.  
That's a spring/summer project.

Scirocco #2 needs new lower A-arm bushings, new steering rack, and a
wheel 
alignment.  The ignition switch also has conked out so the car only
starts with 
the key 90% of the time; the remaining 10% requires the use of a
doorbell 
starter to the starter solonoid (I've become remarkably adept at that,
although it 
does raise a few eyebrows at the gas station).  I have new electric
'guts' 
for the ignition switch (apparently it's a common problem, and the new
guts were 
readily and cheaply available at the VW dealer) and I may tackle that on

Monday also.

Scirocco #3 (the daily driver) has a hard-starting problem, which may be

simply down to a leaking fuel pressure accumulator.  I plucked another
one out of 
the junkyard recently (as in, about 8-10 months ago) and it's been
rattling 
around in the back of the car ever since.  I need to install that and
see if it 
makes the problem go away; if not, then the problem is probably due to a

faulty $150 temp sensor, and after testing (with the help of somebody
with more 
electrical smarts than I have, which is to say, just about anybody),
I'll order 
the sensor, swap it out and hopefully be good-to-go.  Oh yeah, it also
needs a 
new driveshaft on one side; the new driveshaft was ordered recently (as
in, 
8-10 months ago), and it's been rattling around in the back of the car
ever 
since (periodically bumping into the fuel pressure accumulator, no
doubt).

With all that sorted, I can then focus 100% of my attention on the
Pantera.  
I am really rather itching to get to work on it again.

Stay tuned...:>)

Mike