Archive for August, 2010
Labor Day is almost here…
Posted by: | CommentsIt has become clear we are not going to make our Labor Day target date for roll out. It has been a long hot summer with one issue after another raising their ugly heads. On the business front staffing issues have caused chaos with scheduling taking up way more of my time than expected and it is expected to continue throughout the Fall season. Parts issues are holding us back as well, ah well, you can’t rush perfection.
Gary at Cadillac International finally delivered the rear fender moulding almost 2 Months after it was ordered. In fairness, the piece looks like NOS and is beautiful, but it was a long wait. When ordered, I explained I wanted a piece with no dents or dings and it seems he decided to send it out to be refurbished though he told me it was in stock, so he was at the mercy of the re-finishing company. I feel kind of bad because he probably spent close to what he sold it to me for to get it done and he and I had some heated discussions before he told me the real story. He tried to do the right thing and all would have been well had he told me what he was doing from the beginning. Would I do business with him again, yes, but I would be sure to negotiate a firm delivery date.
The new American Classic radials arrived from Coker Tire yesterday, more than 2 weeks later than I expected and will be put on this week. The dash is still apart while we wait for a new vibrator tube for the radio, it was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago and we are not sure whether it is the actual culprit or not, so I don’t want to close everything up and then have to pull it apart again if the radio needs to come back out.
My biggest issue has now been resolved, the car has been running rougher and rougher with a very bad dead spot on the throttle and then started stalling when the brakes were applied. It was getting worse and no amount of tweaking the carb was improving it. I was convinced that it was a carb issue, so pulled it off and sent it back to the re-builder only to find no issues. Further investigation revealed that when we converted the generator to a one wire system alternator we wired the generator light into the circuit and it somehow was backfeeding power into the harness with the key off. This caused the coil to be energized 24/7 and apparently damaged it. I remedied the power backfeed by cutting out the gen light, installed a new coil, re-installed the carb, cranked her about 45 seconds to prime the fuel system and boom off she went. She idles perfect, seems to need nothing more than minor carb adjustments and we are ready to go.
I started assembling the front bumper and brackets and soon hope to roll her out to get an inspection though interior work still needs to be done. All inspection issues are OK, lights, directionals, horn, but the wipers are needing a little help and I will work on those soon.….……
back soon.…
Buster Miller — This Ones For You
Posted by: | CommentsOK Buster, finally got them. The way I did it was to go from the fuel pump, across the front, under the generator using clips to hold it to the bracket, then out from there. Not sure if this is the correct configuration but it look like everything fits without to much modification. 
Then it transitions to a rubber line that connects to the line coming up from the tank. I cut the fittings off to put the rubber insert in because I was worried about stress from engine movement, much as I had done to my boats in the past. The picture does not show that I put a final clip to one of the lower bolts holding the inner fender, using a rubber insert to insulate it from any chafing and secure everything. Hope it helps.….……
One final note, I have replaced the generator with a Delco 10SI 63 Amp alternater, but used the same bracket so it should not really make a difference.
Catching Up
Posted by: | Comments
It sure has been a while since I was able to sit down and catch up on our progress. Things are moving ahead although somewhat slowly. The last piece of body trim went on the car this past week, so we are celebrating, the moulding on the top of the driver’s side fender was the worst and took many hours of fabrication to custom make all of the clips to secure it. The driver’s side rear fender trim ordered from Cadillac International is still missing in action after 6 weeks but will be easy to install if and when it ever arrives here. The glass is in on the passenger side of the car but we are having a great amount of trouble getting it all to line up properly. After days of aggravating me I’ve finally moved on and it is still somewhat crooked but I’ll come back to it later.
The dashboard area has been painted, all chrome polished and put back together and it sure is pretty. The inner fender on the passenger side has been installed and the driver side will go in next week. We have had some issues with getting her to run properly and it has been days worth of head scratching trying to figure it out. 
She starts fine, idles great but has a dead spot on the throttle when accelerating. We have tried adjusting the carb six ways from Sunday to no avail, now I am suspecting a possible internal problem with the carb and so we have left it alone and when she rolls out will have to go to the shop that rebuilt it and we will just let them figure it out.
Finally, we ordered my Baby some new shoes.… A new set of American Classic 3 1/4″ whitewall radials is on its way from Coker Tire to replace the 35+ year old bias ply tires currently on the car. They should be in late in the week and when they arrive we will pull the wheels, send them over to the machine shop to be baked in the oven, media blasted, magnafluxed to check them for cracks and if all is well they will then be painted before having the new rubber installed.
Our target of rolling her out on Labor Day is still within reason, but we still have a lot to do before then.
Till next time.….…..
