Very carefully......:biggrin5: But seriously, a lot of people have asked me that, and I don't know the true answer.....lazy cops? clueless cops? maybe they think I'm just visiting from across the pond since its a right drive car? I've had a sheriff right behind me for several miles on a club run one day - paid me no attention whatsoever. The car is registered, plated, inspected, insured and taxed in Kansas since the day after I got home with it, and I always carry the Ks plate in the car with me just in case. But hey, unless they force me to mount it I'm just gonna leave it the way it is!
I ordered a new heater core for Buzz about a week ago from Mini Sport in England and it showed up today in the Royal Mail - that's about how long it takes our postal service or UPS to get me parts from California! The old core had started to leak, and while I did find an online substitute that was exactly the right dimensions and even had the offset inlet and outlet like the old one, (for a late 70's Toyota pickup!) the cost was higher than an OEM part from England - plus no one seemed to have one in stock, so...... Here's the old core...... I didn't see this damage a few weeks ago when I had the core out to fix the horrible rattle in the box, as it was covered in foam padding - the rattle was caused by a loose fit of the nipples thru the metal heater case, which I fixed with some grommets. When I put it back in the car it was still warm out so I didn't try it, the first time I did I immediately smelled coolant. Here's the new core for comparison. The first thing I noticed on taking it out of the box is that it weighs half what the old one did - which is easy to figure when you look at them...the old one has metal end caps soldered on vs. plastic crimped on caps on the new one, and the old one has 11 tubes where the new one has 7. Looks like it will take a bit more foam padding to keep this one from moving around in the case. I don't really care tho, as long as it doesn't leak and makes heat.....I'll put it in this afternoon, then I can button Buzz up and see what good if any my latest mods have done for him. I removed the yellow plastic radiator fan completely as I could not get the engine up to temps on colder days (I still have the electric fan mounted), and I've tried a trick on the tires to get them in balance, If this doesn't work I'll take them up to the shop Don has do his and concede defeat.....our balancer at school just isn't sized for these tiny tires.
This is the rear swaybar on my buddy's P'up, I'd like to do something similar.. They tell me this is a Miata front bar, but I don't know how they did the dip in the middle.....if you heat the bar red enough to bend it like this, doesn't that take all the spring out of it, or at least change it? He's since replaced the entire exhaust system. I built him a custom set of SS headers and he took it to a muffle shop and had them replace the cherry bomb and rear silencer - since it's a Vtec it still sounds like a Honda to me tho
So, the last few days I've been building a tow bar for Buzz, so I can take him and my wife to some of the further away events, like Mini 56 in April in North Carolina. She's not up for the "adventure" of driving a classic all across the states in the summer with no A/C! I did some careful measuring and came up with a design to make a mount for the car side, and bought the tow bar itself from Harbor Freight (with a 20% off coupon it came to $60 tax included). I decided to go with 1/2" hardware rather than the 3/8" that's on the car, so I drilled out the front subframe mounts for the larger bolts. I also needed to get some thick wall tubing to use to support the bar, McMaster Carr is the answer here - order it one day by 4 pm and you have it the next. I bought some 1"OD X 1/2" ID tubing and used my buddy's chop saw to cut them to length. Drilled a piece of 2X2 angle iron and bolted everything together, it fit's perfectly! Here's the detail on the ends that the tow bar mounts to.... And here is the mount bar mounted to the car - from the top like this you barely see it... Next I'll need some safety chains from the tow bar to Buzz, and another set from the tow bar to the tow vehicle, but I've already figured out how and where to mount them. After that I'll need to build a set of trailer lights, so it can also be used on other cars if someone has a breakdown on one of our events. I'm just going to buy an inexpensive set of LED trailer lights and mount them to something that will let me keep them inside the back of the car - shining thru the back window. That way they'll be out of the weather and less theft prone, and can be used in another car if needed. While we are having unusually warm weather here in Kansas (70° tomorrow!) I'll blow it apart and paint everything. I will have to make some small modifications for it to work on a round nose car and I'll want to do that before I paint it.
You know, I saw an article just the other days where some guys did exactly that......they were building from scratch, and they just bent ii in a 20 ton Harbor Freight press, easy peasy. I can see the first bend (in the middle) being easy enough, but then straightening the ends after the bend might be interesting.....
A few more pics to show the whole thing..... One of the cool things about this build is that it folds up compactly so it's no effort to haul it along, unlike a trailer or dolly. Also, install and removal only takes two bolts. I'll probably shorten these bracket mounting bolts they don't need to be that long..... Another classic owner pointed out that they won't work on his car, as the overriders get in the way. I guess worst case, we could just pull his bumper. A friend has this one that he made 20 years ago and says has done over 8K miles pulling a classic, but it doesn't fold up so it would take up a fair bit of room in a car. But......it might work fine on that red car.....
Final design iteration for my tow bar..... I had to raise the lic plate a bit to make it easier to get the tow bracket on and off. I also need to make some brackets for the tow chains to land to on Buzz, then I need to get some longer chains to the tow car. I also need to finalize my lighting arrangements. I bought some regular LED trailer lights, planning to build a bracket so they can stay inside the car, but couldn't find a good place to land the ends of the bar, so I'm rethinking using some of the magnetic ones.
Chuck has it figured out, Chuck..... Those chains in the pic are just parked there, they'll go back to hook on Buzz, then there'll be another set that will go from the forward u-bolts to the tow car.
Here are the chain brackets made, and the chains shortened so they won't drag but long enough to allow articulation of the tow bar over angles like driveways and such..... Does this make more sense, Metalman?
More Buzz work, next up - electrical stuff that needs fixing, in some cases - again. I thought I had all this sorted when I redid the engine and front suspension and changed the fuse boxes and such but on the last drive I noted the following...... 1) No heater fan - it was working, I'm hoping it's something simple like I just didn't hook the ground wire up last time I had it down. 2) Brakes lights not working - they did. I don't know what's up with this.... 3) Dash lights out - same thing, they used to work fine. 4) Turn signals - work but don't self cancel. I may have to make the cam if it's missing - I understand they were made from plastic and are no longer available. 5) Fuel gauge - wildly inaccurate. Fill the tank and it takes 75 miles to come down to F, in 75 more it's empty. I hope it's just a matter of bending the float arm. 6) Aim the headlights properly, they're close but need a bit more tweaking. 7) Move the fuel pump. Right now it's on the firewall, I'd prefer it's in the back near the tank. 8 ) Once the fuel pump is relocated, I can install the windshield washer reservoir and pump. 9) Install the Pertronix I bought months ago. I also need to tidy up some of the wiring I did under the dash, and I'm contemplating swapping the spots in the dash for the temp gauge and tiny tachometer. I have a complete mix-match of gauges as it is, so it won't look any different to the uninitiated with a casual glance at the dash. More as it happens....
Still down with the flu, but I decided to tackle one of the items on my Buzz list - why don't the turn signals self cancel? Once I got the steering wheel off, I found the screw for the clamp for the T/S switch and pulled it off the column - with the switch off I saw the reason for yet another rattle - in this pic you can see a white plastic bushing between the column and the steering shaft - it's turned and not in the right place, that notch in the side is where the turn signal switch is supposed to locate. I have a new bushing so I'll put it in before I re-assemble the column. I can't say anything nice about the last guy who worked on this car, so I guess I just won't say anything.....but the large retaining nut that holds the steering wheel on was finger tight. Once I had the switch off and studied it a bit, it became apparent why the self cancel didn't work. I didn't get the "before" pic, but this next pic shows a yellow part - that's supposed to be where it is now - before it was sitting on top of the switch. The yellow part has a nubbin that engages the works in the switch and it wasn't where it needed to be to make it work. Now how to fix it. When I took that gold plate of the switch all the little bitzas went flying, of course, so it took a few minutes to find them again and then a few more minutes of study to figure out where they all went, then it took about 3 extra hands to hold everything in place while I put the yellow cam back in, oriented it correctly and screwed the cover plate back. It still didn't work the first time, so back apart again. I made some helpers out of bits of wire and what have you to hold things in relation, then carefully worked the plate back on again.......success! It now cancels. But that brought up the next problem.....my steering wheel is non-OEM, so it had no engaging lugs to fit into the slots on the cam to turn it with the wheel. I could have welded something fancy up with a couple of lugs and a flat plate to attach to the wheel's hub, but I went simple, and tapped a couple of 6-32 holes and locktited in some screws - there's very little force on this part to make it work so I think this will do, but if it doesn't it's right on top and I can get out the welder and fab something better up. So, that's several mysteries solved all at once.....while I had the column out I replaced the upper bushing and lower felt bushing with new ones I already had, once everything was in the correct place the column tightened up like it was brandy new. Once I get it all re-assembled the signals will self cancel too. While I have the column out I'm going to re-install that blue hose - it feeds fresh air to the heater core and with it loose like it is it brings huge amounts of cold air right on my feet, not what you need on 30° or colder days like we've been having. Before I do any of THAT tho, I need to get my head up under the dash and see if the brake switch wires are undone, if that's not what's keeping my brake lights from working, I'll want to dig deeper before putting everything back together again. Oh, and see why the heater fan stopped working too..... At least I made progress......
That's a pretty big "persuader" sitting on the floor mat. Always enjoy the photos and updates here. Thanks for the update.
Good job Minidave! I had the same problem 30 years ago with an aftermarket wheel. I had to drill the boss on the back of the wheel & install 2 roll pins as nubbin substitutes. Had I remembered this I could have told you, but alas I don't remember as much as I used to.
Yes, I thought I was going to need that to get the wheel off the shaft, turns out the big retaining nut that holds the steering wheel on was only finger tight, so the wheel came right off! I've found a LOT of stuff like this thru out the car as I've worked on it, man if you're not going to do it right, why do it at all? :confused5: