The page of member Kent T.
Hujambo! I am Art Thompson's dad and take responsibility for "infecting" him with old car grease and oil in his blood! I could wish he was into Volvo's, but I guess Triumphs are ok, too. As with so many old cars, mine are "in production" most of the time. I try to use the Amazon as a daily driver, with the blue 1800S as a back-up.
I spend a fair amount of time in Tanzania, East Africa, so being able to get some old car grease on my hands is great. Next time I am back in Africa, a buddy and I will be tackling a 1968 Ford Cortina! I plan on taking some decent tools with me though.
July 17th
Quick update. I finally pulled the Lockheed brake booster off the blue 1800. No More Binding Brakes!! The engine runs better too, so there was obviously a vacuum leak. It takes a bit more leg to stop the ol' girl, but she's getting driven. The Amazon is now up on four jack stands, waiting for suspension bushings. She was sounding like a clunker at both ends, so it is time. While she is up in the air I will do a bit more fiddling with the timing and mixture, plus install an electric fan for cooling. I also have a five blade fan for the other side. Cool car!!
I wish I had the 1800 out there so I could kick Art's butt on the SCCA course...
July 22nd
The saga continues - when I attempted to bleed the rear brakes on the 1800 - nothing happened!!! I am now waiting for the right brake line fitting to loosen from the brake line so I can flush the rear lines with alcohol. WHAT NEXT!!
Aug 3rd
I discovered that the rubber hose connecting the hard line to the junction on the axle was completely blocked, gummy, trashed! I happened to have a spare so I installed it and flushed the rears with alcohol and air. Last night I flushed the front calipers and lines, so hopefully tomorrow, I will be able to add DOT 5, bleed and have good brakes for the first time since owning the car!!
Aug 8th
Amazon update - So I pull the a-arms off the front end and what do I find? NEW BUSHINGS! I looked at the rears and found the same thing. Now from where is that clunk coming?
Blue 1800S update - Brakes are great, albeit a bit spongy yet. A little more bleeding and we are there!!
Sept 27
I am suffering from severe withdrawal from old grease and lack-of-wrenchitis!!! I have been in Africa for the past three weeks with three more to go and no old Volvos or Fords on which to bleed!!!! A buddy and I were supposed to be getting a 1968 Ford Cortina, but that has not yet happened. He is a pilot and has been very busy with tourist season. Things are slowing down so maybe soon...
November 5
O.K. I need to do a 12 Step Program for my car addiction. Just threw some bids on a '67 TR4A and won!! I will be picking it this weekend from Two Rivers, WI. More later...
January 26
This entry does not have much to do with my cars, but I want to set the record straight just in case Art (my son) tries to take credit for getting his differential back into his GT6. After spending several weeks trying to install a different diff, he finally had to call on is poor old dad to come all the way from eastern South Dakota to do the job for him. While he was off tending to his business, his poor old dad had to lay on the dusty, dirty floor under the greasy old GT6 and finess the back end of the diff into place. When Art finally showed up to help out, his ignorant grey-haired mzee (Kiswahili for respected elder) had to convince him to loosen the front plate on the diff so that we could swing it up and into place. I suspect that the rest of you with children understand my trials and tribulations!!! But the diff is IN!!! and now he can get the rest of the rear suspension sorted so he can start driving that beast again.
I can't wait to drive my TR4A out there and kick his butt on the motorcross....
Headed back to Tanzania and hopefully that Ford Cortina. My buddy Jacek hasn't let me know if we own it yet, but I am taking tools with me...
January 16, 2014
A year later - Well, The Cortina did not work out, but I did spot a 1958 (or so) Peugot 203 that is so ugly it is cool. Maybe next time I go back I will figure something out with that.
Some of you know that I bought the 220 from a fellow in Billings. It originally had a B18 in it that was throwing oil like crazy. I happened to have an extra B20 hanging around so I did a rebuild on the B20, using a B20e head (that is a high compression fuel injected head for you non-Volvo folks). I also swapped the M40 for an M41 (4 speed with OD). One of the other upgrades was a Pertronix unit to give me good hot spark to help burn ethanol. At any rate, I spent months trying to get the darned thing to run correctly. It just never seemed to run as smoothly as my other B20's. About 3 weeks ago while trying to time it AGAIN, I noticed that the spark was intermittent. When I checked it was intermittent across all cylinders but not evenly. I also had a spare Bosch distributor so I did a rebuild on that, but without the Pertronix. Without just a bit of timing tweaking, the engine now runs like a champ!!. I had to retard just a bit to get the highway pinking quiet but that is about it.
Next project was putting insulation on the all of the floors. Long ago, I bought some foil covered stuff (cheap) for my eldest son (not Art) to use in his '68 Mustang. I bought enough for all of our cars because it was so cheap. He loved it, so I figured it was good enough for the Amazon. Great Stuff!! Cuts easily, forms fairly easy, held down with 3m spray stuff.
Next up is patching the hole in the floor left when the front vent leaked water all of the place (probably for years). I removed the heater, cleaned all the junk out of the drains and replaced one, so now no more water on the floor. POR15 everywhere for now and the patch job when the weather clears a little. Welding in an attached garage is not high on my wife's list of things to do. Oh, yeah, my insurance agent also assured me that if the place burned down - no payment!!
A shout out to Mark for the great deal on his Kwiklift!!! that is going to be such a great addition to the garage/shop!!!
Kent
February 3, 2014
Looks like I might have already lost my "new" Kwiklift!! Art took it home and put it in his shop with the Spitfire soon to be loaded on it for an exhaust job. Thanks again, Mark for the great deal. I am feeling lots better having Art under the lift instead of jackstands.
The insulation went into the Amazon very nicely! I did not however, patch that hole in the floor - a job for warmer weather. My wife and I are in the process of making new panels for the side walls in the rear of the car. Check out the picture! We re-upholstered a 1955 Ford about 37 years ago and it was great seeing Sal, my wife, just jump into the project again. Once we get the panels done, we will start on the front seats. We are doing a set of 164 front seats in leather so that will be a great look, I hope.
The big a'venture this week is going to Fayetteville, Ga to pick a 1955 Thunderbird!! or at least most of one. Yes, I know, the TBird is not a foreign sports car, or really not a sports car at all. But I have love them since I saw my first one in 1954 at the tender age of 7. This one will be a project, but then that is what owning old cars is all about!! I hope to drive one of the TBirds out to one or the meetings, maybe this summer??
May 7, 2014
Well, that trip to Fayetteville was great!! The TBird ended up being in even better shape than I thought. We had a bit of truck trouble within the first 25 miles and had to turn around to get my old '97 Dodge Ram. But the old girl made it all the way there and back!!
So, within just a couple of weeks, Art and I found a 1958 Peerless in Vero Beach, FL, just 7 hours south of Fayetteville!! Nothing like commuting to the deep South every other week!! I will let Art tell you all of the adventures connected to picking the Peerless, but it was a fantastic father/son road trip. We got to thinking about the time he and I found and retrieved his Spitfire, so when I got home I started going through pictures - hundreds of pictures!!! But, I found the ones of that trip which Art now has - make him show them at a meeting...
I got the TR4A out last night -YUCK!! It is running on 3 cylinders!! Tonight we do something about that!
Kent
Last updated: 2014-05-07 01:54:25
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| 1966, Volvo, 1800S (Blue) |
| 1968, Volvo, P220 |
| 1966, Volvo, 1800S (Blue) |
| 1968, Volvo, P220 |
| A familiar sight!! |
| 1967, Triumph, TR4A I am back in Triumph mode. |
| 1967, Triumph, TR4A |
| 1968, Volvo, P220 Driver's side rear panel. Looking good!! |
| Art in his new dream car... |
| The tape was to hold doors, bonnet, etc. in place for the 1800 mile jaunt to Howard, SD. |