First, the bad news.
Someone stole my digital camera. At least I think that's what happened. I had it
at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, then I went to a coffee shop, then home. By the
time I got home it was gone. It was sticking out of a top pouch of my backpack,
and I'm assuming someone just reached over and "yoink!"
That stings. It was a nice one. And they got my
three SD cards, one of which was sent to me by a reader.
I may be a little light on pictures here for
awhile, but it's mostly about the words anyway. Things come and things go.
Now the fun news. Reiley bought her first car, and it is
SO cool. She's such and interesting person. She's very pretty, but also a little
geeky. You know, in the good way. Likes Lord of the Rings and all that. Anyway,
she decided that she wanted a classic car. We looked all around, and finally
found a guy who lives near us and works on old cars. His name is Richard, and he has turned out to be an
absolute mensch. I'm trying to learn to work on old cars, and he's sort of
adopted me.
And he provided Reiley with her first car. The
exterior needs paint, but the interior is excellent. And it runs well....for
now. $2800. Not bad, huh?
1962 Oldsmobile F85 - Reiley and I are in love
with her.
When I was a young man, I had no interest in
how cars worked. My brother and father knew quite a bit about cars and used to
fix our cars themselves. So when I told them that my plan is to slowly restore
this car with Reiley, doing most of the work myself, they were polite, but I'm
sure they laughed the minute they hung up the phone.
Well, yesterday I was baptized by fire. The F85
needed a new starter, or more likely a new solenoid, which (I was told) is
attached to the starter. I bought the solenoid for about $30, jacked up the car,
crawled underneath, and got to work. The plan was simple in theory: Take the
starter off the car. Take the solenoid off the starter. Install new solenoid.
Reinstall starter. All done.
Um, no. It was much harder than that. First,
the starter and solenoid weigh about 20 pounds. So squeezing under the car and
reaching up into the darkness and getting that baby off is no picnic. And the
bolts had been on it since the late 70s. Second, the starter itself hangs over
the top of the bolts, so you can't use a socket. Had to do it old school, with a
box wrench. I was cursing the demons who designed this thing. Sheesh. How hard
is it to make two bolts easily accessible? That's half the reason I was
excited about this old car. You're supposed to be able to reach everything.
But I was determined. And before long I
triumphantly emerged from beneath the car with the starter. Do you know how
satisfying it is to go under your car, clang around, reach out for tools, cuss a
bit, and then appear from beneath dragging a huge, blackened piece of machinery
with you?
Grrrrrrrrrr. Manly. Felt good.
There she is. The solenoid is the canister
attached to it.
By some miracle, I got the new solenoid
attached and the whole thing back together. And...wait for it....she started
right up!
Yeah!
Okay, there is some bad news. Replacing the
solenoid did not fix the problem, which is that the starter only engages about
half the time when you turn the key. This was one of those, "replace the cheap
part and see if it works" things. I'm getting some advice, but I might be
pulling that starter off again and replacing IT this time. We'll see.
Well, that's the news from here. I'm still
trying to get my hands clean.
rlp
Oh, and look for more pictures
and adventures as this project moves forward. The experiment: Can a bookish
writer-type guy actually fix up an old car with his daughter? Stay tuned!
